Jackson Debut Fusion Standard Update

[Sibelius]

For anyone interested,

My 9 year old just moved from the Jackson Elle to the brand new Jackson Debut Fusion Standard.

For skater context, she takes an edges class, an Axel class, a stroking class and a power class, along with a freestyle 5/6 class, and three private lessons a week.  She also practices about 6 hours a week. 

The boots were ordered and arrived in about a week and a half to the fitter.  We went on Friday for the initial fitting and heat molding.  She said they feel much more padded than her previous Elle's.  After the initial fitting the blades (Eclipse Mist, an MK Pro and CA near clone) were temp. mounted and she got on the ice in them after her Saturday group classes.   Initial on ice adjustments were made to the blade by the fitter and she took off.  We went to a rare for her Sunday freestyle session where she tied and untied and retied to figure out what worked.  There was no pain or discomfort, so far she says no punching or additional adjustments are needed.

She had her first lesson with her moves coach in them today and went through her Preliminary MITF elements and her coach said she did really well in them, well enough to give the thumbs up to wearing them on Wednesday for her test.  She has her first lesson with her jumping coach tomorrow.  All her jumps and spins were done as well (or ill) as they were in her Elle's.  I guess it comes down to Jackson's fit her feet just about perfectly.  This is her fourth pair (Glacier-Artiste-Elle-Debut) and she's had almost no adjustment or break in issues in any of them.

As far as the boots themselves, they are noticeably stiffer than her Elle's and have much more padding, especially in the tongue.  The sole is a nylon material that in the stock gray is actually better looking than in the photos.  They also can be made with black or brown Fusion soles, or Jackson's LCL and LCF soles for an additional $85 and a 6-8 week wait.  She wanted the black or LCF, but curled toes couldn't wait.  The upper is a microfiber material that is supposed to resist cuts.  They do feel lighter than her Elle's, but not much.  The crystals are a nice little bit of bling, not over the top, just a little dazzle.  There is another model, the Debut Fusion Firm which increases the stiffness from 40 to 50.  The Debut Fusion also comes in a low cut model (we considered these, but I didn't want to risk too drastic a change).

We expect these to get her through her Axel and maybe first doubles.  Her fitter and coaches do not believe in the standard X stiffness for Y skills, but take weight and size into consideration, so far they haven't been wrong with my teeny skater.  All in all I think this was a great choice for her, and is a fabulous looking boot.  Anyone looking for a boot only option should take a look, if Jackson's fit you that is.  It was nice to be able to move her to an intermediate blade on her Elle's and then right into the same blade on a boot only skate, I think it was helpful to not have to adjust to both a new boot and blade at the same time.

[skategeek]

Thanks, that's very helpful info!  Glad it's working well for her.  I'm currently in Elles and probably will be for a while; they fit me perfectly with nearly no break-in period so I'm glad to hear that the transition from Elle to Debut was pretty seamless.

[Sibelius]

Those Elle's are really good skates for learning the basics and intro jumps.  Compared to the Artiste, Mystique and Classique skates in Jackson's line, they only cost a little more and they are so much more comfortable and well built.  Whenever I go to the fitter and see someone hemming and hawing over the choice I ALWAYS say something.  Whether I should or not I don't know.  I think I've helped sell those to at least 5 skaters in the shop.  I should get a commission!

First session today with her jumping and spinning coach and it went great.  If your foot fits the Jackson boots it's a nice move up, just need to get the blade separately.  I think it was a wise decision to have the intermediate blade mounted on her Elle's before she changed boots.  As an adult you can get the blade and have it mounted on the Elle's, then move it to your next boot without paying for another blade size!  The only uncertainty we had was the recommendation from Jackson was an 8 3/4 blade, which would have been end to end.  We chose the 8 1/2 for the more traditional gap on the heel.  Make sure your fitter takes that into consideration when you get to the point of changing blades.

[skategeek]

Yeah, I started in Classiques that were a full size and width too big for me (8C, I'm now in 7B Elles).  I think these are going to last me a while because I'm progressing very slowly (no jumps or proper spins yet) and I'm not very hard on them, but I've already started thinking about moving up a blade at some point.  Coach says I'm not ready yet, though.