From: rebecca@cco.caltech.edu (Mark L. Fussell)
Subject: Re: figure skate recommendations/FAQ? (long)
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 1992 07:39:43 GMT

In article <1992Apr7.114101.4602@news.Hawaii.Edu> tony@mpg.phys.hawaii.edu  
(Antonio Querubin) writes:
> I'm considering buying my own skates because I'm getting tired of the 
> variability in rental skates.  Does anyone have any recommendations on what I
> should look for?  Is there an FAQ somewhere for ice skating?

I don't think there is a FAQ for ice yet, but I have been saving some relevant  
postings for a while (since I posted a similar question).  Since you didn't  
mention which type of ice skating you were interested in, I will repeat my  
question which concerned both:

-----------------------------------------------------------------
I'm considering buying ice-skates in the near future and was wondering if  
anyone had suggestions or comments about them. Actually my problem lies in  
several areas:

  1) Who to buy them from? I don't know of any independent ice-skate sellers in  
the LA area, so I would probably purchase them from a local rink (either  
Pasadena or Burbank). 

  2) What to look for, or brand to buy in:
     2a) Hockey skates?
     2b) Traditional skates?

  3) How to decide among the types of skates? My goal is to have skates that  
are good for: Freestyle, Dance, and (maybe) Hockey. I may simply have to commit  
to one type of skating for my first skates, but I'd rather have skates that are  
more general. Is this possible? Hockey blades seem great for turns, bad for  
gliding, bad for jumps (can they even handle jumps?). Among the traditional  
blades I would guess dance blades might be the most generally useful.

By the way, I already rollerskate (quads/dual-offsets/twin-lines...), so this  
isn't a "first skate" purchase, just my first ice skate purchase.  
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And a summary of responses to this:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Thank you all for your help in my purchasing decision. Here is a quick review  
of three books I found useful, then a summary of my buying decision, and  
finally a reposting of some of the News and Email on this topic.

Books:
    As George Robbins suggested, see your library (possibly the children's  
section). Three books of note:

    Robert Ogilvie
    Basic Ice Skating Skills
    Lippincott.

        This book covers beginners skating skills (up to simple jumps,  
beginning dance steps, and producing a figure eight). I don't know the most  
recent printing but I picked up a used 1968 printing for under $5.00. 
    
    
    John Misha Petkevich
    The Skater's Handbook
    Charles Scribner's Sons
    
        This has no technique information, but has good information on ice  
skating in general: equipment, training, organizations, and national rinks. The  
section on the rinks across the continent seems to take up an inordinate amount  
of the book, but may be handy for those with winged skates. 
        
[From a subsequent post by George Robbins:]
The other book by Ogilvie:
   Competitive Figure Skating
   A Parents Guide
   Robert S. Ogilvie
   Harper and Roe  1985
   ISBN 0-06-015357-1

This books is mainly oriented towards parents who want to get their children
started in figure skating, with potential for competitive level performance.
Quite a bit of attention is given to the role of parents in supporting the
young skater, but there is also a pretty good section on equipment selection
and skate sharpening.
    
    
My Decision:

    I decided to buy figure skates with a general purpose blade, specifically a  
size 7-Wide Riedell Gold Star with a MC single star blade. Purchased from  
Valley Skating Supplies in North Hollywood (818.980-0414). Cost $305 (with 8.5%  
sales tax).
    
Why not:
    Hockey skates: 
        1)  Hockey rentals are in much better condition as far as I've
            seen/felt, and two other people commented on that also.
        2)  Hockey clubs are very expensive, so where would I play?
            When I could afford the seasonal cost of hockey I could get
            another set of skates. 
        3)  I didn't care as much about hockey anyway, but I really 
            like some of its skating techniques, so I will practice 
            them anyway.
    
    Different boot maker:
        1)  The store owner likes Riedells.
        2)  My roller skates are Riedells, and I like them.
        3)  Several people from the Net also liked Riedells --
            specifically the Royal was mentioned several times.
        
    Different boot:
        1)  The price for wide Silver Stars were supposedly about the 
            same as for wide Gold Stars. 
            
    Alternate blades:
        Didn't need it (as multiple people suggested). I was wondering
        about a dance blade, but there is no reason to worry about it 
        now.
        
    Different store:
        The price was OK (about $300), a friend recommended it,
        and I liked the owner. It took only one business day to get
        several sizes of the boot to try, and four days to take home. 
        
            
Notes:

    I was really surprised at the shoe size (I am normally about a 10), even  
subtracting a size from my normal shoe size. After a while of acting perplexed  
I brought in my roller skates (which are a 10) to the store owner, who  
proceeded to take out the insole. Lo and behold the width was perfect, but I  
had about an inch and a half in front of my toes and a half an inch behind my  
heal. Quite convincing proof for going down to size 8 and below. Yes, the fit  
of the new boots convinces me also (or will after a small amount of breaking  
in), but this was before they arrived. 
    



The next two sections are repostings of some of the News and Mail I received on  
this topic.     
    

Reposting of hockey information (from George Robbins,  Thomas Sullivan):
-------

GR: I think you have a little bit of a problem [regards one skate for both  
hockey and figures].  No serious hockey program should let you play in skates  
with a toe pick (teeth!).  You can do utility skating with the hockey skates,  
but you'd be under considerable pressure to get more appropriate skates if you  
took any figure/dance instruction.

    BTW - Hockey skate are aimed toward manuverability, have lots of rock  
(small blade arc), narrow flexible blades, moderate ankle support.  Figure  
skates have much flatter blade, with well defined hollow, much more upper ankle  
support.


TS: The major hockey skate manufacturers are Bauer, Micron (made by Bauer),  
CCM, Easton, and Rydell (sp?).   When I was getting new skates, I found the  
Bauer boots to be more narrow than the CCM's.  The CCM's felt best to me, so  
that is what I got.   I do see that Bauer has a "wide" boot option, so maybe  
this is no longer an issue.  I don't know much about the Rydell's or Easton  
skates, though I've heard more about the Rydell's, and the people who have 'em,  
love 'em.   All of these skates have lines that run from under $100 up to about  
$250 a pair.  The differences are in blade material and boot construction  
mainly.   The more expensive skates will have harder steel (stainless, even  
titanium) blades, more form fitting inside the boot, etc.  I can talk more  
about specific models if you want.   The main thing is that your feet are  
comfortable in the skate.  It isn't a bargain if you buy a crappy boot to save  
money, you will regret it later.  Chances are you won't have to buy another  
pair of skates for a long time (if ever!) so get something that fits well!

    The thing I've found that I like more about hockey skates than figure  
skates (even for general skating) is that the boot really hugs my ankle.   I  
used to HATE having little ankle support, even when I got my first pair of  
skates (figure skates) so I didn't have to rent overly broken in skates at the  
rink anymore.  Of course this may be  more because I've been skating in hockey  
skates for most of my skating life at this point, but it really makes a  
difference for me.  The boot was a definite factor when buying my inlines too.


Reposting of figure information (from Tanja s. Rosteck, Sandra Loosemore):
-------

TR: All figure-skating shops have boots tailored for "beginners" to figure
skating - boots which have enough ankle support for simple jumps (ie.
one-rotation jumps) and spins, but not enough to hamper mobility. These
skates usually are not too expensive (under $200) and often come with an
all-purpose skating blade already attached. Good starter kits of these
type are Riedell (the Silver Star package), Don Jackson, and WIFA. Blades
usually run about $70 - $100 for all-purpose general use.


SL: If you want the other kinds of blades, you almost always have to buy them  
separately from the boots, and have them attached at your local skate shop.   
Dance blades are shorter in the heel (a beginning skater on these would do a  
lot of falling over backwards).  Figure blades have the toe rakes placed higher  
and are typically ground with less hollow.  Freestyle blades have great big toe  
rakes (beginners tend to trip over them).
-----------------------------------------------------------------


I don't have much more information on figure skates (anyone?, anyone?) than the  
above and my experiences with my own, but there was a bit more information on  
hockey skates if that is your goal, and I can send that to you (or anyone  
else).

By the way, recently I also bought a pair of Easton 610 hockey skates, which  
makes the moral: sooner or later you get everything you can afford (or maybe a  
little more than that)...  I enjoyed figure skating (from 9 to 15 hours a  
week), but decided that I wanted to try hockey skating for a while.  

Some remarks about boots.  I bought fairly heavy leather figure skates and they  
took MANY hours to fit to my foot: some of those hours were "unpleasant", but  
now they fit really well and feel like they will stay that way for a long time.   
A friend's significantly less expensive (but still "good" skates) took maybe 9  
hours to fit her.  My recent hockey skates took about three consecutive days  
for the gel to make a perfect fit.  

So, another moral: 
   1)  the more expensive a figure skate, 
          the longer it takes to fit you, and
          the better it will feel and last when it does.
   2)  the more expensive a hockey skate, 
          the shorter it takes to fit you, and
          the better it will feel and last (or so I assume).

Hope all that helps...

                                      -- Mark

Mark L. Fussell
rebecca@cco.caltech.edu		
Newsgroups: rec.skate