New Blades

I had a new set of Phantom blades mounted to my current boots yesterday. I was hoping to wait until after Nationals in April, and then get new boots and blades at the same time. However, my old blades had run out of rocker. There was no way I could get another sharpening out of them, and I would need 2-3 more before Nationals. So, I got new blades now.

I skated on them for the first time today. It was really freaky because I didn't feel a difference unless I had been inadvertantly going up on my toepicks when I shouldn't be. (aka. perimeter xover stroking patterns) I now have to literally make a conscious effort to hit my toepicks on anything. Good news for turns, bad news for jumps and spins.

Spins are all still there, although I can feel myself rocking around and trying to find the new sweet spot. Forward scratch and back camels were particularly sucky. Flying camels were better than ever though. Go figure. I thought that I'd die for sure when I tried my first flying camel since I couldn't get a good snap on the back camel. I was wrong though, and got a beautiful snap on the flying camel.

Jumps were actually far far better than I expected. I went to run though my footwork sequence, and promptly freaked out and stopped because it starts with a waltz jump. I had to walk through it a couple of times to convince myself that I wouldn't miss my toe on the landing and fall on my face. I discovered that waltz jumps suddenly had amazing pop on the take-off. Neat. Moved on to salchows and proceeded to eat ice. I guess that I try to lean back instead of pushing through the toe on the take-off. Doesn't work when you have blades that actually have a rocker. Worked through that and landed what felt like a very big double sal. I tried to get in some double toe work before the end of the session, and managed some singles with tons of pop and height, but didn't land any doubles. The take-offs are all happening much quicker, and I'm going to need to adjust a bit.

I'm very proud that I skated so well with the new blades. When I first switched to Phantoms (last time I got new skates), it took me 6 months to stop pitching forward on my landings. I guess I've really built up my core strength.