Yesterday's visit to the skate tech and random observations

[MCsAngel2]

Went to get my skates sharpened and to ask if he had any ideas or recommendations to help me get a one foot glide (with the thinking it's my pronation).

He thinks it's probably just me (poor technique, etc), given that I have superfeet and wedges in the boots already. He confirmed that my boots and blades are level and correct. He did give me the name of the fancy podiatrist in town that all the skaters and NHL players go to, to talk about orthotics, but also to figure out how much shorter my right leg is than my left. The right skate makes a scraping sound and then sort of feels like it's not on the ice any more, when I push off it. With that info, he can insert what he called a lift, between the entire blade and boot, to make everything level. This is something I can clearly tell is needed. I'm skeptical that super expensive orthotics will magically fix my one foot glide problem, but it can't hurt to find out if there's any minute issues I can't see.

And I also found out that he does not shim skates, for anyone, under any circumstances. He does wedges and will move the blade, but no shims. He feels it makes the foot unstable and puts you at risk for a broken ankle the first time you try to get on your outside edge. So....there's that.

Random observations: Bill's recent experimentation with blades has made me curious about the difference in beginner blades. I'm on a Ultima Mark IV (suitable for Basic 1-6). The shop had a MK Galaxy (suitable for Basic 7-8, early freestyle) out and I put the two facing each other. There was QUITE a noticable difference. The Ultima is slightly higher. The upward curve of the Ultima is all in front, the back is flat, and the toe pick (straight) is sort of high up. The MK upward curve is all in the back, the front is flat, and the toe pick (crosscut) is quite low to the ground. I can't imagine how different that would feel to change to.

I also looked at some boots...I'm in a Jackson Debut Fusion, with a Jackson rating of 45. Of course, I know every brand has it's own rating (this should be standardized if you ask me), but I figured, with what I've read, the next Jackson up, a Premiere (Jackson rating 65) is probably close to a Riedell Bronze Star (Riedell rating 80). Well, he had a Jackson Fusion (50) and Riedell Bronze Star (80) and Silver Star (90) out, and I was shocked by how soft the Bronze Star was. The Silver Star (90) was much closer to the same stiffness of the Fusion (50). I can't believe how different they are. Unless there's something about the contstructions that I don't understand that make the Riedells more supportive than they appear, it would be very difficult to switch from Jackson to Riedell (which is something I'm planning to do if/when I get my issues resolved, at which point I'll probably get full custom boots).