Finally got my new boots!

[skatesnrides]

Finally, after about 20 weeks (can you believe it?!) I received my beautiful custom Harlicks. They are so comfortable. I decided to brave a blade switch and went from freestyle MK Select Classics to MK Dance. Wow! What a difference. I love the dance blades. The toe picks & long heels on freestyle blades were bothering me so much while trying to skate the dance patterns. I haven't completely tested how far back on the heel I feel comfortable yet, because the boots are still a bit stiff, but overall I can't believe the glide I get on these blades. The only problem with the boots is that my heels are not as secure in the heel of the boot as they should be so I'm trying to resolve that locally (so I don't have to send them back to CA). But I'm amazed at how much more flexible my ankles are than in my SP Teri's. Custom options are the way to go if you have specific problems! For so long I've blamed, in part, my slow progression on my boots/blades so I'm hoping these boots will not be an impediment to future progress (crossing fingers behing back).

[Elsy2]

That's great! Hope you love your new boots. Those custom Harlick's are so nicely padded. If you do need to have Harlick rework the heel hugger area, it won't take that long to get them back. They rebuild boots in a day or so as I recall and may give your boots priority since they are new customs. You can always call and ask. We had our last pair of Harlick's shipped next day air which cost a little more, but we wanted them ASAP.

[skatesnrides]

Thanks Elsy2! I think I really didn't put forth in my post that my past boot problems were really a trauma for me. When I was fitted for my first pair of "real" boots, I didn't know anyone at that point to ask advice, & I really didn't know what to ask the fitter. I put all of my trust in him and assumed he would fit me with the proper boot. But as limited as my knowledge was on boot fitting at that time, as soon as I got my boots and started wearing them, I knew there was going to be a problem. I mean the pain in my ankles was overwhelming! And the lack of arch support just contributed to the problem. I had the ankle areas punched out 3 times and even then, I had to wear bunga pads all the time in the left boot. Thanks to those boots I now have protruding arch (navicular, I think) bones. They were just plain old too stiff for me & really didn't fit my feet as well as they should have. Unfortunately, I suffered with them for about 2 1/2 years trying to get them to break in. In the meantime, my confidence suffered on the ice, and only seemed to get worse. That's when I decided to bite the bullet & get customs. I'm glad to know that Harlick will fix problems in a timely manner. My coach suggested trying to fix the problem on our own because he was worried I wouldn't see them again for a while, but I think I'll give them a call. Thanks for listening to my boot ramble!

[TashaKat]

[quote:7dca3c062e="skatesnrides"]Finally, after about 20 weeks (can you believe it?!) I received my beautiful custom Harlicks. They are so comfortable. I decided to brave a blade switch and went from freestyle MK Select Classics to MK Dance. Wow! What a difference. I love the dance blades. The toe picks & long heels on freestyle blades were bothering me so much while trying to skate the dance patterns. I haven't completely tested how far back on the heel I feel comfortable yet, because the boots are still a bit stiff, but overall I can't believe the glide I get on these blades.[/quote:7dca3c062e]

Yes, I can believe it!! I've been waiting for mine since the beginning of February and was beginning to get concerned until I read your post! Especially as my last ones took about 8 weeks in all to arrive ..... and that's to the UK :roll: Glad you like them, I love Harlicks, I only wish that I'd been introduced to them sooner ..... much sooner, like before my feet were wrecked!

I like the MK Dance too, I actually find that I can 'feel' the heel better than on my Free Blades (Gold Seals) .... I know that it sounds strange, I thought that with a shorter heel it would be more precarious, but maybe it's just me ..... always was a bit strange ;) I also LOVE the way that I can turn in the Dance blades, it was a revelation, I CAN (sort of) do 3turns :D

Good luck with your boots ..... hopefully I'll be able to post here in the VERY NEAR future that I've got mine!

L x