New skates!!!
This is the Riedell Torch package, except not really. It's the new 495 boot but instead of the Revenge plate, I got Reactors. And I put on my Juke 97s with Bones Swiss bearings, and my Snyder toestops.
I love them! Let me count the ways.
Boots
If I had gotten new skates last year, I would have gotten Sirens and I'm glad I didn't. The 1065s, and also the 965s, have a toe box that I think would have given me problems. The 495 laces all the way down the toe, like the 265, and which I need because of my hella wide feet. As it was, Steve still had to put the right boot in the oven to mold out the hard counter on that side; and it felt so much better he did the left boot, too. And this is my first D/B width boot, it is amazing. It doesn't feel like I'm wearing a boot, I played better the second I put them on. I think in my old boots, there was always this pre-step when my foot would shift in my boot and then I would go. Now I step and I'm there.
Unlike the 265, the 495 doesn't have a heel. I always suspected that heel pitched me forward a little bit, good riddance.
Plates
I was sticking to nylon plates until I could afford Reactors, so that's what I got.
Cushions
I had been on the orange middleweight magic cushions, but Steve put on the red featherweights. And I'm not a featherweight, I'm getting to 150 pounds. They're fine, though!
A lot of times when girls get new plates, they have to relearn their agility and I don't know if it's the plates or the cushions or some combination thereof. It only took two or three practices to get my plow stop back, and I'd say I'm eighty percent back to my hockey stop.
Bearings
My good old Bones Swiss bearings, still spinning.
Wheels
Juke 97s, actually these are a new set with alloy hubs that fell into my lap. I don't feel a lot of difference between the nylon and alloy hubs, which is more like an alloy hubcap and nylon inside? On my own dime, nylon is fine.
Toestops
2" Snyder toe stops.
