European Skate Buying Advice

[inaformerlife]

I'm in Europe and need a new pair of dance skates. Risport is the most widely available brand here and have thermomolding. I have tried on the RF-3 (stiffness rating 45) , but the shop here does not have the dance skate (stiffness rating 40). Graf Edmonton seems to be popular in the US / CAN.They also have the thermomolding . Risports website claims many top skaters use their skates. Any personal testimonials or cautions regarding Risport and /or thermomolding skates would be greatly appreciated

[fsk8r]

I'm in Europe and need a new pair of dance skates. Risport is the most widely available brand here and have thermomolding. I have tried on the RF-3 (stiffness rating 45) , but the shop here does not have the dance skate (stiffness rating 40). Graf Edmonton seems to be popular in the US / CAN.They also have the thermomolding . Risports website claims many top skaters use their skates. Any personal testimonials or cautions regarding Risport and /or thermomolding skates would be greatly appreciated

My sister uses Graf Dance and loves the boots. I'm using Jackson synchro and like those. I did have to take the gamble and the shop ordered them in.
I did try on the Risport Dance boots but didn't like the flower design on the white boots. I prefer plain white boots.
My sister had no problems breaking the boots in after they had been heat molded. Mine took a little longer to break in as the boots are stiffer, but the heat molding really did make a big difference and I'd recommend getting it done if the boots can be.

[antmanb]

I'm in Europe and need a new pair of dance skates. Risport is the most widely available brand here and have thermomolding. I have tried on the RF-3 (stiffness rating 45) , but the shop here does not have the dance skate (stiffness rating 40). Graf Edmonton seems to be popular in the US / CAN.They also have the thermomolding . Risports website claims many top skaters use their skates. Any personal testimonials or cautions regarding Risport and /or thermomolding skates would be greatly appreciated

The only experience I have of Risport was that I thought I had wide feet and the boot I had (which was pre the RF-number categorisation and i forget what the boot was actually called now - not helpful i realise) felt quite narrow. It was my first pair of skates (i skate freestyle rather than dance by the way) and i thought that was just the way it was. I never really felt like i ever broke them in. I always skated with pain in my feet, some of it seemed to be because they were too narrow and some of it was simply that since i was learning i was breaking them in to a certain extent for a long time because i didn't learn to jump until i'd had the boots for several months and went from tiny hops to bigger jumps so i experienced pain in the landing ankle.

Anyway the thrust of the story is that when they broke down (and still hurt!) i decided to try a supplier of boots rather than the crappy rink pro shop and ended up in Reidell's. I was concerned about the width of the skates (because of previous experience) but was surprised to find that a standard Reidell was fine and i didn't need to get a wider part to any of the boot. The padding inside felt a hundred times better than the Risport, it was heat moldable, but i didn't need it. They felt so much more comfortable from than start than my previous Risports ever had been and after some intial weeks of lace bite, i have not experienced any pain in my feet from the boots at all.

I don't know if my feet just naturally suit Reidells far more than Risports, but i thought i'd share!

Ant

[SkatEn]

There are some info you've got to share before we can help you more... ;)

How long you've been skating
How heavy are you
How tall are you
The width (ball and heel) and shape of your foot (rectangular, triangular, duck, flat)
Current skates and your complaints
How many hours you skate a week

I had Risports RF4 (usually for beginners/lightweight skaters), then Klingbeil (not custom) S2 (wayyyyyyy too hard for me), and now I'm using Risport Supernova (previous collection, which equates to between RF3 and RF2).

I like Risports because they are comfy. I love the tongue because it follows the line of my feet. They don't slide either. I like the lacing system and how it looks. I don't like the heel because I have to kick it all the way back, and open up the sides and kick again to get into and stay in the heel counter (otherwise they slide). I think a C width should be the normal width. Normally a C means wide, but C fits me. Risport uses mondopoint in which 260 means 26.0cm across the sole of the skate :).

I tried my friend's Riedell Gold Star C width. It's my size, but BOY! My feet were ready to die. They were very cramped. So I think I'll have to go half size up and two widths up for something in Riedell. My feet just doesn't mesh with Riedell. My ankles got sore and red after wearing them for 10 minutes!

One thing to note is that my feet are not of equal size. If it's possible to take one skate that's half a size larger, I'd gladly do so. My right foot is larger and left, smaller. So at first, my right foot was a little squashed and left, just nice. now, my right foot feels just nice in the skates and left is swimming because skates stretch.

Please go try on people's skate to get a rough idea of what skates feel like and to get a touch of them!

Good luck!

[iSk8Dance]

You really need the specialist skating shop instead of the rink shop. There are a few to recommend in the UK.

It's not about the boot, how techie they are, nor the cost. It's about what suits you and your skating. You can pay a fortune for uncomfortable boots.