Here I go again.... no... not skating, but struggling with the boots :(
I picked up my old boots that were rebuilt. The seam where the lace goes, just bellow the grommets, was opened, and leather put in to make them stiffer. I was asked to try them on and they felt like my old boots but stiffer! So far so good.
The shoe repair lady, asked if I wanted the holes in the soles plugged but I declined. I had 2 different blades so I wanted the bootfitter to see which wholes were from my newest blades so he can plug and reuse the same spot, as I liked the blade alignment. In order to do them on the spot, he decided to plug in only the holes for the permanent screws, hoping that the temporary screws will hold until I check the alignment.
The first hiccup as I stepped on ice, was ankle bone pain to the inside part of the feet. I skated just once around and I had to give up... I had to go back to have them punched.
Back on ice I immediately realized that the punching changed the balancing point and I was immediately alarmed by the prospect of having to have the blades aligned again. if you remember, I pronate, and my boots are collapsed towards inside, this wasn't fixed by having them rebuilt. How I dealt with that imbalance in the past, is with wedges under the blade plate. I got quite good in getting aware of my weight and on how to adjust the blade and the wedges. I didn't have much time to worry about that, because the blade from my left foot came lose. Yeap, the temporary screw didn't hold into the old hole.
I went back to the bootfitter asking to plug those holes too and after they dried, re mount on the temporary holes. The temporary mount allows you to move the blade a little to left and right in order to figure out the alignment without drilling hole after hole. I also asked that before removing the blade to make signs with a marker of the current alignment.
When I picked them up he said he found a thicker screw, hopefully it will hold. I went skating... nope it didn't... I'm trying to stay positive here... I was lucky I didn't break anything... right? Also the rink refunded my money for each of these unsuccessful skating sessions. This is e new rink I go to, it seems nice.
I went back to the shoe repair shoe lady and had them plug EVERYTHING. As they removed the blade it became clear that the holes for temporary mounting weren't plugged in. She also said that what the bootfitter did to the other holes wasn't proper either (not plugged deep enough) I'll make a parenthesis here and remind you that I had a fallout with my previous bootfitter last year when I bough new boots, because he was lying to me. I though very hard about the current bootfitter and my gut feeling was that it was a missunderatnding.
When I went back to the bootfitter he did clear the air, he said and as he starting working to attached the blade it was confirmed, that it is very difficult to drill and aligned into those hard plugs. The drill bit was slipping. I asked him to mount the blade sightly more to inside than the previous alignment to compensate for the weight shift I felt.
I went skating, and finally I was able to actually skate... The boots hurt, they are stiff, I was expecting that I will need a break in period. For the blade alignment, the left boot felt quite fine. the right not... I took it off and I saw that the left blade was mounted a little towards inside, as requested, the right one not... and I remembered that that was the point where the drill head slipped.
The only solution I saw was plugging that hole AGAIN, and re mount AGAIN. Well I'm not up to it... I don't have the emotional energy anymore. Also, all this is a financial black hole, each trip to the bootfitter was $20, for a total of $100, the rebuilt was $160, the pluging of the holes $55, to be added to previous the tongue reinforcement of $90.
I just don't know what to do!
