Improving the fit of skates?

[kiwiskater]

Hi Guys

I have my brand new skates that need some tweaking, I tried on all kinds of sizes & brands in the shop & I came away with the best fit, only the best fit (like I find with shoes) is never 100% perfect as I fall somewhere between sizes.

My real issue is in the heal, I can slightly lift my heel when my coach holds the boot down - they don't cinch in around the heels like (ironically) the rentals do, so I need to take up the slack without changing the fit in any other way - any ideas?

[FigureSpins]

A loose heel is a pain, but your skates are still new.  As they break in, your heel might fit back further into the pocket, but as the padding compacts, the heel slippage might increase.  There's an old archive thread about that here: http://skatingforums.com/index.php?topic=184.0

When you put on your skates, force your heel all the way back in the skate.  You can lift your foot and bang the heel of the blade on the floor to help seat your heel.  Then lace up without letting the heel come out of position.

Most people swear by bunga heel pads to take up the excess space and seat the heel properly.  It's a pain to put them on every time you skate, but having that heel come up is more of a problem.  http://bungapads.com/index.php?dispatch=categories.view&category_id=264


For others' benefit:
A skater often orders the correct heel width and have the forefoot stretched to get a snug fit.
Jackson offers a split-width option for narrow heel and a wider forefoot width.  (Extra $$)

[kiwiskater]

Thanks I'm planning to venture out for a practice tonight before my first lesson in them on Wed. Sounds like Jackson has it sorted, what a shame we don't get them here...

[MimiG]

I've always had this problem when breaking in new skates (I have Risports and a super narrow heel) - I do the bang the heel back trick that FigureSpins mentioned above (always wear hard guards when doing this!) Once my skates are broken in, they fit fine, but I still do the heel bang before lacing up just to make sure they're in snug.

Good luck! I hope your skates break in to fit perfectly over your heel.

[kiwiskater]

I've always had this problem when breaking in new skates (I have Risports and a super narrow heel) - I do the bang the heel back trick that FigureSpins mentioned above (always wear hard guards when doing this!)

Darn my hard guards aren't ready yet, I have to chop them to size & I'm quite paranoid about cutting them wrong....

[MimiG]

The springs are pretty stretchy if they end up a little too short on either end, but if you're really nervous about cutting them, you can always trim them back a bit at a time... (assuming you mean the universal 2-piece kind)

[kiwiskater]

That's the type - I've seen the skaters landing vid so I kinda know what I'm supposed to do.

The guards came with a suggestion that for the size of your blade how many notches you should cut off (I'm assuming on 1 side), but no guidance on how far up in the multiple holes you should place your screws...

[aussieskater]

Kiwi - when I did mine, I cut them off short enough that there is about a 1cm gap between the halves when on the blades, and then aimed to set the spring screws so the spring would be just tensioned when the guard is off the skate.  The idea was that the guard wouldn't flop into 2 halves when not on the blade (which I thought would damage the springs over time).

From memory, the screw holes fell halfway between where I wanted the springs to be - isn't that always the way?? - so I set them on the tighter side, which made it somewhat more difficult to attach the springs. The first screw of each spring was OK (no tension on it), but the second screw was murder because the guard wanted to twist to release the tension on the spring!  In hindsight, I might have been better to have cut the guard a smidge shorter then attached the screws on the "looser" side of correct, but I'm not sure.

[kiwiskater]

A loose heel is a pain, but your skates are still new.  As they break in, your heel might fit back further into the pocket, but as the padding compacts, the heel slippage might increase.  There's an old archive thread about that here: http://skatingforums.com/index.php?topic=184.0

When you put on your skates, force your heel all the way back in the skate.  You can lift your foot and bang the heel of the blade on the floor to help seat your heel.  Then lace up without letting the heel come out of position.

Most people swear by bunga heel pads to take up the excess space and seat the heel properly.  It's a pain to put them on every time you skate, but having that heel come up is more of a problem.  http://bungapads.com/index.php?dispatch=categories.view&category_id=264

I took your advice, it seemed to work well, out on the ice the skates seemed to fit quite well - in fact over the side of the ball of my foot (around the little toe area) almost too well!

The head coach happened to be around at the end & asked how the new skates were going (she helped me pick them), she reckons I'll need to give them at least a good 3hrs to break in before taking them for stretching or heat moulding

[aussieskater]

The head coach happened to be around at the end & asked how the new skates were going (she helped me pick them), she reckons I'll need to give them at least a good 3hrs to break in before taking them for stretching of heat moulding

Different coach = different approach:  I was told that the first thing I should do is heat mould mine - I did, and it worked a treat.  Then after I skated in them for a couple of hours and had identified the tight spots, I started in on the punching out (still going with that one - takes a while to get all the ankle bones punched out!)

Hope yours get comfy for you - and welcome back to the ice!

[kiwiskater]

Thanks they were a little better last night