So in the space of 1 year I think that I personally bought and tried on 6 pairs of skates from various models of Grafs, CCM, old-school Nike's and the MLX fully customizable skate brought to you by Mario Lemieux & David Cruikshankl (former US 4x olympic speed skater)
The problems I was having on the ice was rather taxing both on the body and on the mind as I had been skating for over 10 years with no problem and at a relatively decent speed. All of a sudden my skating went down and I could not for the life of me figure out what the problem was, as I was sure it wasn't my skates, them being Bauer One95 (top of the range in 2008/9).
This over-night problem lead me to purchase various skates as mentioned in the opening paragraph and was seriously time consuming and extremely painful on my wallet. Luckily I am only left with 1 pair of skates but still lost a good couple thousand Rand in the process.
If only I had known months ago that the solution to my problem was a piece of 3mm plastic, it could have saved alot of time, effort and money.
The problems that I faced on the ice was being very flat-footed and struggled to get into a forward lean position to accelerate on command, also turning became troublesome with slower and wider turns in order not to lose an edge and finally cross-overs were hazardous and every step required way too much attention on the foot-skate-edge ensuring that I dont "eat ice".
This problem on the ice as you can imagine was very frustrating but I was determined to find a solution. I began with trying to re-create a forward lean that I was so use to in my Graf 709's by building up a raised heel with wet-suit material, this did give me a forward lean but it also lifted my foot out of the skate and therefore my foot and ankle was not properly supported and stability was lost.
With two options left, the latter being buying yet another pair of skates (and taking a $600 risk) I took my skates to "Jan Brand Vigus" in Goodwood and instructed them to place a 3mm durable plastic plate on the heel of the skates between the TUUK and the boot which would then be secured by the skates rivets.
Although the job was only done last week and I have been on the ice for 2 hours, I felt an immediate difference with power-strides, edging and cross overs.... Welcome back to hassle free skating, Iv missed you :)
In my adventures of skate troubleshooting I have come across many various solutions to possible problems, so if you are struggling with your skates or skating, leave your comment below I am sure I could assist.
