Back on ice after 25 yrs- can someone educate me re: boot design?

[Elsa]

Good luck with your fitting - can you call ahead and set an appointment with their best person? If you explain the situation in a way that makes it sound complicated, they'll probably be quite happy to tell you when their "expert" is around, just so they won't have to deal with you themselves.

[Loops]

Haha, that's a great suggestion.  I think all I'd have to do is stumble through with my French and they'd try to brush me off.  I called them this morning- it's school holidays here, and we didn't want to go all the way to find a closed store.  I did mention that I might need split widths (which I still don't know how to say in French), and they said after some himming and hawing that "they can order what needs to be ordered", so....

But the club Pres gave me a specific name, I think it's just the contact for the discount, but he's on my list for tomorrow.  I'll follow through on your suggestion then.  Thanks!

[Loops]

Hi everyone-

I went to the shop last week (finagled a nice family trip to Paris!), and did the deal.  It was not the experience I was expecting- didn't care about my old skates, didn't concern themselves with fit, didn't bring in half the boots I asked to see- and limited me to their dance selections  .  As a result I never did get to try the synchro boots that I had specifically asked for.  I'm disappointed, because had they fit, that's probably the route I would have gone.  Thankfully they did have a few Freestyle models in that shop, so I was able to salvage a little.  The Premieres were just as high in the back as my old comps, but didn't fit- they only had C width in the store, had NEVER heard of split width (the guy sat there consulting the catalogue).  C fits nicely in the front, but would be blisterville in the heel- too much sliding.  The Elites were too much boot, so I didn't even try them on.  The Elite dance was like a ROCK!  The Graf dance were pretty hard too- based on what people here had said, I was expecting them to be softer.  It's a moot point since it's pretty certain I do not have a Graf foot.

I did request and get their "best fitter" but he didn't offer much council besides "your club is dance, so get a dance boot and blade".  So I felt very much on my own with this- so the info you guys provided went to very good use!  Apparently here coaches tell their students exactly what to get: "get the Edea concerto with a professional blade", so these guys don't actually need to know much.  Poor kids!  What if they don't have an Edea foot?!  I suffered as a kid since I didn't have a Riedell one......

It was fun trying on skates- except that I'm reminded of why I hate nylon laces (there was blood!).  Had the Premiere's fit, I could have liked those- the higher heel would have been interesting though.  Edeas are really wide, being an Italian boot, that surprised me.

So I went with a dance model- the Risport.  We'll see how it goes!  Of course they didn't have any blades in stock, and of course Friday was a French holiday, so a week later and I still don't know when the blades will come in.  I'm aiming for the Vision Synchro, seems like a good blade at a nice price point.  But I haven't skated in these low boots yet.  They're pretty stiff- much stiffer than the Finesse- those fit OK, but I was worried I'd crease 'em up just bending my knees!

So thanks heaps for your help and insights!