So, for all of you doing figures -- I finally got a pair of figure blades -- I got them on ebay, a pair of MK Gold Test -- gently used. Had them mounted on my old skates and tried them yesterday.

Eeeeek. No toe-picks!! I found them very smooth and very sweet -- just did a few very sloppy outside and inside 8s, forward and backwards. I found the backwards 8s very easy and nice, especially compared to doing figures in my dance blades!

Turns I found harder, but I think I will get the hang of it!

I was really scared to come out of the corner and into the middle of the ice. We don't have much patch ice specifically, so I tried them during our adult-only "coffee club" session where there are usually only 2-3 people but yesterday there were a lot more people on the ice. I was aware that there was no way that I could "bail" if I had to get out of someone's way.

So I'm wondering how any of you guys survived the conversion from your regular blade to figure blades and how long it took before you got really comfortable on them? I can't wait to try again.

It felt really funny to go back into my stiff newish boots with dance blades after skating in those figure blades-- dance blades are so freakin' short!!!

Thanks for any and all advice on this.

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