Sunday, October 24, 2021

Custom boots! There must be a skating god!

 So what do you know... The stars aligned and I traveled to Riedell factory in Red Wing, Minnesota and I've ordered custom boots!

You know I concluded a while ago that I needed custom boots. The Riedell was the most obvious choice as I was in Riedell before and happy. The new Riedell stock boots don't suit me anymore because the toe box was raised and it is too high for me. But custom should work...

The driving distance from my location to Riedell factory is 6 hours, and I would have to be there on a work day. To make the trip in one day would be a stretch. I've never drove by myself for more than 2 hours at a time and it would be inconvenient to drag somebody else along.

But! An opportunity presented in Minneapolis for Monday October 18, between 1 and 3pm that would help my career. More than that, the previous Sunday I had to travel one hour into that direction for an event. So I figured it was a sign! 

For the Sunday drive I caught a beautiful sunny day and the road was on the side of the Mississippi river. I got to the hotel just as it was getting dark.

I had appointment at Riedell for Monday between 9 and 10.30 am. I have made a list with all the problems I wanted covered. Measurements and pictures were taken. I tried a stock boot and notes were made on how to modify the last for myself compared with the stock last. The sole will be modified to help the pronation. The boots should be ready in 2 months but at that point the factory was out of white leather for 3 weeks. 

Then I drove an hour to get to the other event. And then I had a six hours drive back home. This was all on expressway and I was prepared to stop and sleep at a hotel if I needed, but it went surprisingly fast and event less.

Now the waiting begins...

No comments:

Post a Comment

Monthly skating review: progress and goals adjustment

Last month's skating was... hard. I guess the main reason is that my life is busy and it is hard to carve time for skating. It doesn'...