Casey, you might ask around your rink & see if anyone can recommend a good cobbler in the area. There's one near me that people take their skates to for all sorts of fixes. You might very well be able to get the heel stabilized so you can still skate on it while you're waiting to get your new boots.

I wonder if a cobbler could go in from the inside of the boot with a screw or something to secure the heel. Or a combination of glue and something else.

I've seen people have that done with blades (pay a cobbler or someone to secure the blades to the boot from the inside).

It would probably be a lot quicker and cheaper than sending them back to the manufacturer.

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American Waltz... Once, Twice, ???? ...

Q: How many coaches does it take to fix Jen's Dance Intro-3 Problems
A: 5 and counting...

Thanks for the advice, Phoenix and Jenylon60,

I thought of this option, and my fitter also said that he could do the repair work himself too. If I was really ambitious I could drill some holes and put some screws in myself with plenty of epoxy too, but I think I would go the cobbler route.

But I want new boots anyways, and feel like making Graf fix their own mistake, and it won't cost me anything to do that either. I think I'm just going to forget about skating for a while, work like a madman for the next two weeks saving up for boots, and then for the 2 weeks or so before the boots arrive, work more like a madman to save up for blades and whatever else. I think the best thing for me is to just bite the bullet and take these up to the fitter at the earliest convenience and have them shipped back.

We'll see though, the cobbler option IS mighty tempting...

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Casey Allen Shobe | http://casey.shobe.info
"What matters is not experience per se but 'effortful study'."
"At first, dreams seem impossible, then improbable, and eventually inevitable" ~ Christopher Reeve

Flowers: Went skating today and finally met Pat! Hi Pat!!
Had the whole family with me (plus one). It was really humid there, but after about 30 minutes of public skate, I didn't seem to mind. Spins were still on vacation; worked with husband on his adult moves to see where he was. Not so bad, he should not have a problem dropping in to the adult class when they pick up in the fall.
Met another adult skater, he was really nice, I didn't get his name though....
Worked on my waltz jumps and, from talking with one of my young friend skaters, learned that pushing off the ice, not the toepick, gives you height. Well, I did it and it works!!! Can't tell how much height I got because I'm still holding back, but it was much better!!! It was also noticed that I'm entering them faster (my back crossovers are faster and I'm not stopping or slowing down when I turn to forward). Yeah!!

Weeds: I was working on some power 3's right after the ice was zamboni'd and caught my blades together and did a good imitation of the zamboni! Wet slide about 8'! Now I've got a nice bruise on my right elbow and knee.....My whole side was wet...Oh, well. There are worse things that could have happened-at least I kept my chin up and didn't get the wind knocked out of me!

After working with my husband for about 45 minutes, he says to me "why am I doing this?" I told him it was his idea to skate with me.... I don't know how this will turn out..... (yes, there are issues here)

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

Care to explain that one? I always just thought of it as pushing off the ice with your toepick - what's the difference?

Good luck sorting things out with your husband - I think skating with a romantic partner is extra-challenging because of the additional stress! Hopefully you'll manage, though

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Casey Allen Shobe | http://casey.shobe.info
"What matters is not experience per se but 'effortful study'."
"At first, dreams seem impossible, then improbable, and eventually inevitable" ~ Christopher Reeve

Flowers: Got a very good solid hour in today. Finally did all my bracket exercises without tapping my free toe down, and without a huge pause in between turns. Still a little scarey, but they felt pretty controlled & I'm not hopping over the turns anymore. Also finally started doing semi-decent double three exercises (coach wants them different than the Moves way of doing it, so I had to undo that habit to even begin to do them right.....not that they were ever very strong even when I did them for moves!) Now I just need to keep working on speed, speed, speed!

Weeds: choctaw exercise is still very weak, if I get the right edge I sit there on it & get stuck for a moment before I can switch feet again. And the one choctaw I can do reasonably comfortably, back outside edge to forward inside, I step way too wide as I change feet. But I think they'll eventually improve. I hope.

Yah, the one time I asked my coach why he didn't skate with his wife (they were both high level competitive dancers) he said, "Are you kidding?! We'd kill each other!"

Weeds:

• Bronze Moves does feel as stable at the beginning of the session. I think it's mainly b/c I'm afraid of moving fast b/c I don't feel I have control when I move fast and I don't want to crash into the kids. I'm still recovering from the LAST one!!!
• Can't land loop and flip on one foot w/o toe tapping the landing. As for the lutz... I'm still about a 1/8 rotation short, but I'm close...
• Camel spins sucked for the most part.

Flowers:

• Bronze Moves got much better towards the end. I was more relaxed and I was able to concentrate more on what I should be doing and not who I will be crashing into.
• My artistic program is slower than what the secondary coach wants but it's coming along better than last month. I think she's happier that things are moving along, but she sees other problems. (Quote her: "We're gonna work in the ballet room next week! We're gonna make you more artsy-fartsy!!!") Yeah, right! Me, artsy-fartsy!?!?!? Smooth skater maybe, but NOT artsy-fartsy!!! Good luck, lady!!!
• The attitude spin is on and off, but I can get it to spin towards the end of the session.
• Sit spins and scratch spins are fine after I warmed up. And I had ONE GOOD camel too!!!
• A couple of small kids stopped me long enough to ask if I was a "star" when I was in the middle of practicing my program. Awwwww!!!!

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Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

Ouch, Casey! I hope your ankle feels better soon. I can't understand why Graf would need 2 months to replace heels. When I ordered my SP-Teris, they didn't have any in stock in my model and size, so they had to make one from scratch (still a stock boot) and it only took 6 weeks, including shipping time. If an entire pair of boots can be made in 6 weeks, it shouldn't take any longer to replace one part. At the very least, Graf and/or your pro shop should provide suitable skates for you to use in the meantime. The cobbler solution might work better, especially if you're not going to be using the skates for much longer.

Flowers:
Went to a day-long "Adult Camp" at a nearby rink today. It was great - a very positive and supportive atmosphere and great coaches. I got some good pointers on my backspin - I may actually get that spin one of these days! What was really amazing was that I did a good camel spin with the position held for 2 revs! I haven't practiced that spin in over 3 months. After a few attempts, the coach called us over to go over the technique, and then sent us off to practice again. The very first one I did turned out to be the best one I may have ever done - I thought it felt better than what I had been used to, and when I came out of it, the coach skated in my direction and told me it looked good, and I asked her if my free leg was actually at hip level and she said it was. Unfortunately, that was the only good camel I did - the next ones were the usual falling-over-to-the-inside bit. I think I may have just gotten lucky with the first spin and had my weight on the right spot. But hey, at least I know I can do it.


Weeds:
Still can't land that dratted flip jump on 1 foot. Oh well, I haven't been practicing it much, so I guess I have no reason to complain. And my spins still travel - although I got a nice tracing on one of my scratch spins.

After spending most of the day in skates, my feet hurt!

FLOWERS!!!!!: LANDED AXELS ALL BY MYSELF

~very happy cutie

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Skating is suppose to be fun , no PRESSURE at all

~*Courage*~*Confidence*~*Consistance*~

As it was explained to me, you push with your whole leg (like jumping) the last thing to leave the ice will (of course) be the toepick.....I felt like a dummy when my friend explained this, but the little lightbulb lit up over my head and I finally got it! I don't know what I was doing, except maybe trying to roll my foot and propel off the toepick...which won't work (expecially for me). So, I did a few waltz jumps by pushing with my leg and 'felt air' and it was good!

I was further pumped up by the fact that I didn't pitch forward on landing it! I didn't think I had to really arch my back, unless I did it unconsciously....

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

Yeah, I don't know if this will work out for several reasons:
1-I'm a better skater than him (really!)
2-We'd kill each other
3-We'd kill each other

One time we worked on a home-improvement project, and we nearly ended up divorced! We had to call a friend in to help intervene in order to get the project done....we swore that we'd rather hire out than work together...sad, isn't it?

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

Flowers and Flowers
Just back from the Pairs camp, and it was wonderful. Two days of pair skating. I've been to quite a few other camps, but this is the only one that I would return to next year. I really learned quite a bit and had a great time. Our instructors were Olympic champion Oleg Vasiliev and world champions Tatiana Totmianina and Maksim Marinin. They were wonderful teachers, and very approachable with all questions. The camp was limited to 10 pairs, and so we all got lots of help and attention. Manley woman was also there as our official photographer!

My partner (we call it our "blind skate" partner, as we first met when he picked me up at the airport) was great. Despite level differences we skated well together, trying everything. This was his first time doing many of the elements and he really caught on fast! We were quite happy that we managed a platter, press and even the begining of a platter-star. The throws felt very natural and we had a great time with the death spirals. I have to say that the highlight was doing a full out forward inside death spiral with Oleg. Worth the price of admission!

On the other hand, what happens on the ice does tend to stay there, I find! And you argue on the ice, and it diffuses off-ice tensions, too.....

We had a recreational match last night - we had to dance the Dutch Waltz, but had an unlucky draw (again); I think we actually skated rather well, for us. Rest of the evening rather dull - some dancing, but an awful lot of hanging about, and then the buffet turned out not to have been very worth waiting for.... Plus I discovered that the dress I like to wear is getting rather too big - do I put a pleased smilie here, or a sad one? - and was uncomfortable without a cardigan on, so ended up changing back into practice-skirt and T-shirt (luckily I'd put the very pretty sweater I'm now wearing at this time of year into my bag, as it got a bit cold).

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

Flowers: Day after tomorrow my granddaughter and I have our last lesson together in the morning and we leave in the afternoon for Anaheim to compete together in ISI Worlds!!!! She is so excited, and so am I.
My daughter's whole family is going. Mommy, Daddy and siblings are all looking forward to my Granddaughter's first competiton! Plus we are combining this with a trip to Disneyland. Woo Hoo

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If you keep your eyes on God, you can walk on water.