I am glad you had a good experience
It sounds like you are already getting a good feel for what works for you and that can only improve and will stand you in good stead in the years to come
Even if you don’t find the perfect skate this time you will know how to make the best of what’s available
Secondhand RF4s in that size should come up fairly often though you may need to paint them black if you’re bothered about the colour as there are more young ladies than young men that figure skate

Thanks! Just a silly question, I don't particularly mind white but the Edea were actually ordered in black out of personal preference, but how did you pick up on that? I mean, maybe I mentionned it and forgot about it x) I didn't know you could paint skates, I'd be curious to see the result

Thanks to all who added to the discussion.

An update on my personal situation, and what I've learnt from travelling to the South coast and meeting with an Everglides person yesterday:
My Edea had been ill-fitted. After having tried a mondo size 255 of medium width in my local ice rink shop, and feeling like the lenght was relatively fitted, we had decided on ordering the same pair with a B width (the narrowest Edea does). I brought the boots to Everglides, who confirmed that they are both too long and large.

We tried on quite a few boots and came to the conclusion that:

-A UK 3.5, (mondo 240) seems to work better for me than my actualy feet lenght of roughly 39 centimeters.

-The Risport RF4 seem to match my feet reasonnably well as they are particularly narrow (production stopped due to unpopularity as too narrow for most people, the model is still abundant on second-hand selling platforms).

-Riedell's Motion is a potential match, my size was not available but we tried on a pair about 3 sizes above just to get a feel of the width. Ideally I'd love to find a Uk model that I can try on without buying but that's gonna be difficult. I also think the model we tried had a C (medium) width, but I realized afterwards that Riedell's width goes until AAAA: my absolute (unreachable) ideal would be to try on all of their A + AA + AAA + AAAA beginners skates in different mondo sizes from 240 to 250  :')

- Because the surface of my feet is very... "hollow", rather than "padded", I ultimately will feel some "empty spaces" even in a skate that's as snug as possible.

Overall I learnt a lot of fascinating things as the Everglides staff really has an extensive, experience-based knowledge of skate-fitting.

Well done VIOI, it’s nice when something comes together.

I’ve had a good week, following an awful few weeks. On Thursday’s scrimmage I got a positive reaction from someone who had in the past been a bit of a bully. I made some nice tackles, which he liked, and he gave me a pass which I turned into a goal. That was more goalie ineptitude than ability on my part, but a goal’s a goal. This morning’s scrimmage went well, I didn’t fall once and played a decent game. My coach was present and said I did well, which is nice as he’s critical.

I’ve been practicing FO three turns regularly for a couple of weeks, and who would have thought it, but they really have helped me be more stable in hockey. And they are great fun. Not sure a double salchow or triple lutz are on the cards. The one foot slalom is progressing at a snails pace, by which I mean a dead snail, nailed to the floor and encased in concrete. Slowly slowly catchee monkey. Not that I have any need of a monkey.

A nice piece of tittle tattle regarding the 50 year old male who attacked me during a hockey scrimmage, and who incidentally is married to a 20 year old woman. I heard today that he and his first wife used to be porn stars. And when I told someone today that I was attacked, that person guessed who it was immediately! Apparently he is a known bully.

I did the old Skate UK with 10 levels, as I was having private lessons with a coach when my rink switched to Skate Excellence. However, all my friends who started after me did Skate Excellence and honestly, it's not made a difference, we're all now working on either Star or the British Ice Skating tests. If there's no group lessons near you for Star then you'll need a coach, but no one will ask which course you did. I personally find that for some things, Skate Excellence has a better way of teaching because they break skills down, but for other skills I feel that's a bit pointless.

Oh, this weekend has been busy! 2 performances of our Christmas show yesterday, then a lesson tonight. Yesterday was fun, but no major achievements there really.


Tonight, however, was a different story.


Spirals are higher again, after getting back into my stretching routine.
Jumps are all improving, still don't like the salchow much but we're slowly making friends.
Spins. Ah, my nemesis. Tonight something CLICKED! 3 rotations on a 1 foot spin. Multiple times. Multiple times in lesson. WITH. A. COACH. WATCHING! Then a few more times outside of lesson. Been working towards that moment for a good year or so!


We've also set our big goals for 2020 - pass Gold, stretch every day, and work on my turns and edges eery session (I skip them a lot - jumping and spinning are too alluring!)