The old Riedell 55/355 (Silver Star) is an excellent boot for lightweight skaters. I mean the one that has a gray lining and gel that warms to the foot as the boot is worn. I'm not even sure you can find that boot anymore, but if you do, it's wonderful.

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I have Silver Stars! I love them, but they are too heavy for me now with the re-excision in my calf. I don't think I've even broken them in, LOL!

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blades, gary, Lucy, Emily, take care of Aiden and Sami. Sami is my sweetest heart, and always will be, forever. RIP Cubby Boy, my hero dog.

You can swap blades on leather soled boots easily - just make sure the pro shop plugs the holes and drills new ones. If they get lazy and try to reuse holes, it can cause a blade to warp. It's a PITA to spin or do three turns on poorly mounted blades, so find a good fitter.

I recently found out that many of the higher-end blades have sole plate holes that are drilled by eye, so the fitter has to be careful even when they're replacing an old blade with the same model and size new blade. I never knew that before.

Some people have said replacing blades on PVC-bottom boots is doable, but I can't think of a single figure skating expert who would agree to do it. I think plugging and redrilling the holes is an obstacle.

MK Double Star blades are inexpensive and have a good rocker for spins, according to my DDs. I just moved them up to JW Coronation Ace blades and they love them! One of my daughters has been landing full revolution jumps with ease since the upgrade.

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"Some people" would include me. I think the reason my fitter was able to change out the blades on my DD's Mystiques might be that the holes from the rec blade on those boots bore no correlation to the holes on the plates of the new blades he fitted, so he was screwing into virgin PVC?

I have added info on plugging holes to mount new blades or remount old ones to http://mgrunes.com/boots/BootBlade.html

Hope that helps.

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Mitch Grunes ModifyingBoots FallingGently HomePage

That makes sense. I did ask a few people in the business and found that it really isn't standard practice on PVC soles.

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A PVC sole usually (always) means factory mounted blades. We've had issues with factory mounts being crooked/misaligned, or the bottom of the heel not being perfectly flat. On good quality skates too (Riedell for example).

You then have 3 choices: 1) return them; 2) fix them or 3) skate on them and have problems. Returning isn't always practical, and you may get another bad mount anyways.

Our fitter was able to take off the blades, shave down the PVC, and then remount the blade properly aligned. He's one of the best in the industry, and is used by the highest level skaters in Canada (and elsewhere), and thus is amazingly good at what he does.

I will add the caveat: this is for a tiny skater. I would hesitate to puncture PVC in multiple places for a heavier skater landing jumps; I could see the heel fracturing along the holes.

whats a good blade for a collegiate synchronized skating team? practicing 4-7 times a week

Shoe Goo says it sticks to PVC, so I think it would work. I've used it to fill holes on leather and rubber sole skates.

No reason not to try.

A good coach or fitter would know if the blades are too short for the new skates and feet.

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Mitch Grunes ModifyingBoots FallingGently HomePage

Aren't most at this level into synchro blades? Many companies make them, and I would imagine at that point it's a matter of preference. (Kind of like Gold Seal vs. Pattern 99. A skater has to decide which they like better, neither is suited better towards elite skating)

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-Jessi
What I need is a montage...
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