I drove seven minutes down the road to Anaheim to the Hockey Giant superstore, ready to buy my first pair of skates. Only been on the ice once so far, but the instructor advised getting them as soon as possible rather than learn bad habits overcoming rental skates. Who am I to argue?
Nine-year-old me spent every visit to Wal-Mart in the sporting goods section admiring the quarter-aisle of hockey equipment. He probably would have fainted at going to an entire large warehouse store devoted perfectly to hockey. The six-year-old kidlet really enjoyed it.
After lots of reading and research online, I had targeted the $200 price range. The bottom end of skates (~$75) are meant for very light recreational skating and only last about a year. Next up is a tiny bit hardier, but the blades are not replaceable and that's the first part to wear out. $150 and you start getting into skates designed to last long-term for rec players, and the $200 versions tend to be a bit sturdier and thus better for a guy weighing 200 pounds. More expensive skates are for better athletes who want to shave tiny amounts of weight, get protection from harder shots, and have boots that can withstand their ripply athlete leg muscles pushing on them.
It took about 20 minutes to get a salesman's attention, but that was understandable because there were several other people buying skates at the same time. Once we did, I was quite impressed. He measured my foot, and told me we should look at size 6.5 skates. I wear 9.5 shoes, so conventional wisdom said I would wear a 7.5 to 8 skate, so now I'm doubly glad I didn't buy online.
I had two that I wanted to try on just because I liked the looks of them. He said he would pull those, but also recommended a third that he thought would fit best because I apparently have slightly wide, flat feet. Not enough to push me from regular width to special wider boots, but this brand is slightly wider than the ones I had looked at and he thought the fit would be better.
I tried on my two choices first, and they seemed nice enough. Then I tried his suggestion and I knew immediately it was right. I had read online about how skates should feel, and it's hard to know until you actually try them on, but these checked all the boxes. Firm grip on my ankle, toes brushing the front of the boot when I sat, solid but not painful pressure all around my foot.
So I made my choice: Bauer 160 Supreme
He took them back to "bake" them, a process by which skates are heated to make the inner plastic softer, then put on so that they mold to your feet while they cool, providing a perfect fit. I knew this was something they did, but I wasn't prepared for how dang hot they really were. I was sweating profusely, and later I was able to take my socks off and confirm: I had small burn marks in several spots on my feet. My first ice hockey injury is a burn. Who saw that coming?
I wandered around the store a bit while they were sharpened. Tried on some of the equipment just to see how it felt and laughed at the prices. I will definitely be buying most of the rest of my equipment, which I won't need for awhile, used. Not that the store was overpriced, that's the going rate for new equipment.
I did end up picking up a pair of blue canvas skate guards with foam bottoms. I wonder if the guards would make it acceptable to practice my footwork on carpet, or should I just wear them sparingly at the rink to preserve the blades? I'll look around online. I have already added footwork practice to my daily exercise routine, and keep watching the Youtube videos on stopping and crossover starts to really try to watch how they do it.
All in all, I really want to give Hockey Giant a glowing review. The salesperson was knowledgeable, friendly and helpful, and knew exactly how to get me into a skate I was very happy with.
No comments:
Post a Comment