Since I had broken my leg twice in Riedells I felt like it was probably time to make a change. This is not to say I blame the break on the Riedells but I wanted to make a clean break (no pun intended, ha!) from the old and have absolutely no doubts about the boots.
In between my Riedell’s, I wore Jackson’s for about 6 years and liked them well enough. They gave me a little more height on my jumps since the heel was a little higher. However, I have a narrow foot so I was always told to go to Reidell’s first and that was why I went back. Now, however, I was looking for boots not only for narrow feet but also for flat, pronating feet. When I say pronating, I mean extreme pronation. This actually led me to Edea’s which I had an extreme aversion to in the past because I honestly thought they were the ugliest skates on the planet. I think this is because I would see some skaters on tv wearing them and all I could think of was concrete boots. I think this was because of the lighter colored heel which made them look a lot like hockey skates.
This is probably a good example of why at first I did not like these skates, for the smaller skaters, I feel like they can look almost too big and bulky. (This is Satoko Miyahara, a lovely skater from Japan)
That being said, I had heard they were extremely comfortable, good for narrow feet and allowed for more of a knee bend thereby decreasing the likelihood of injury. It seemed like a lot of adults were having a fair amount of luck in them so I decided I would give them a try. I also had heard that you could not overboot in Edea’s because of this.
Only a few skate shops in the area had the Edea’s and out of those only two shops had skates to actually try on and it was the lower model. I would have to special order the actual boot I wanted and then try that on once it came in to make a decision. I went, I tried and I was in heaven. I couldn’t even believe how comfy this boot was! It was crazy. Mike, the person who fitted me told me they made him try on a pair when they went through training and he said, they were so comfortable that they felt like hockey skates!
I’ve told my husband time and time again, if the boots aren’t at least a little uncomfortable and tight then they are probably not the right size or the right boot. It was insane how they almost felt like street shoes. This also freaked me out. What figure skate feels good the first time you wear it?? Usually breaking in skates results in some type of pain or uncomfortableness (blisters, sore spots etc) as you break in the leather. It was so easy to put them on that it threw me off. Could this be right? Could figure skates be comfy when you first purchase them? What a weird idea.
With Edea’s there is a whole methodology about tying your laces and the wearing of the boot. Instead of your boot creasing as you break them in at the ankle, the laces are the ones that actually stretch and flex with your foot/ankle/knee. Along with that, you should never tie your laces tight around the top of the boot, they should be almost loose to allow for your knee and ankle bend. This, as it turns out, was the most freaky part of these skates but I digress. The skates I ended up ordering to try were the Chorus.
I kept my old blades as they still had a lot of life. Plus, as I am already skating challenged these days ; ) I wanted to make the break in as easy as possible. At the shop, I initially tried on the Motivo to see if I would even be interested in ordering the Chorus to try on. The Motivo has a stiffness rating of 45 I believe so yes, I knew this was going to be a lot less boot compared to the Chorus. As I am 5’7″ and not light as a feather, a stiffness rating of 70 seemed to be a better fit. That and I’ve been skating for a good 15 years. While I have no double jumps to speak of, I am not in any way a tentative skater. This made the Chorus vs. the Overture (with a stiffness rating of 48) a good fit for me. Not too stiff and not too soft. I don’t want to break them in and then have to purchase new ones in a years time nor do I want to kill myself breaking them in (Piano’s & Ice Fly’s) with the injuries I’ve already had!
As it turns out when the boots came in, the Chorus felt just as amazing and I will not lie, they were gorgeous. I couldn’t believe how pretty these skates were. I mean these are figure skates, right? Gone were my thoughts of the ugly lighter colored heel and concrete block shoes that I’ve always remarked on when I saw other skaters wear them. These skates had a champagne heel with crystals on the boot. Say what??! My graphic designer mind went into overdrive. Who knew skates could be both practical and gorgeous? I’m a sucker for pretty colors and bling and yes, I fell in love. My husband thinks I’m insane but I admit to being completely obsessed when I saw them. They felt great, looked amazing and I purchased them. Holy $$. Yes, they were the most expensive skates I’ve ever bought in 15 years of skating but I’m hoping they are worth it.
My first few moments on the ice were quite a shock though. I’ve always tied my skates so tight and had little to no room between the leather and my ankle but these skates? I almost took a nose dive on my first few steps. The heels are higher like Jackson’s but there is so much more space at the top of the skate it felt like I had left my skates untied. There was room to bend and some space behind the back of my ankle (the heel was still secure). That took some getting use to and for the last few weeks that is exactly what I’ve been doing.
The actual skates on.
I was afraid to jump initially as I wanted to feel the comfort of leather around my ankle tied tightly but they do just fine, holding me on every jump. I find myself bending a lot more on back crossovers and reminding myself to bend more as I can feel that I have more room to do just that. The space behind my heel still freaks me out a little but I’m slowly adjusting. I only skate 2x a week so it is taking some time to get a feel for them. I decided to have custom orthotic inserts made to put in them so there will still be some adjusting to do in a few days. No blisters as of yet. The only thing I notice is that yes, they are very stiff and compared to my broken in skates that does feel very different and yes, they do feel a little bit more bulky when compared with regular skates such as Jackson or Riedell.
As of yet, no doubles, axels or miraculous skills have appeared with these skates. No surprise there, however, I can now land my toe loop again without a nasty jolt to the side of my leg. That alone may be worth it. Time will tell though. For now, I’m doing fist pumps every time I land a toe loop as it was impossible to do it before because of the pain from the older boots knocking the plate in my leg. This is exciting by itself!
I will update as I go along how the orthotics feel and how the boots adjust, for now, I’m just happy to be skating again! I hope this can help other adults choose the right skates as I couldn’t really find much info on these specific ones by looking at other blogs. If you are thinking about trying Edea’s I would definitely try them on first before purchasing because even though I like them very much they are quite a change from other skates.
Till next time!
Tags: Chorus Skates, Edea Skates, new skates
Dream to Skate 