Hello all!
I'm new to the forum and new-ish to skating. Apologies for the long intro but I feel like the context is important
I skated a little bit for about 2 months as a child, had a massive break and now decided to get back to it at 26 years old. Not thinking much about it I purchased some recreational skates (Rio) and went to the ice rink four times. I'm not doing any lessons at the moment so not exactly sure what level this is but I can somewhat confidently do front and back crossovers and last week I sort of managed outside 3 turns from standstill. I would like to progress further and see where it takes me so I will be doing private lessons twice per month (I can't do group due to my partner's shift work affecting my access to the car
)
My recreational skates get really uncomfortable after approximately 1 hour of skating to the point where I am unable to do crossovers that I was doing 40 minutes ago so I decided to purchase a more appropriate boot. Now, I don't want to spend a lot of money as I still don't know if I'll stick to it so I bought a pair of lightly used Risport RF4- the plan is to skate in them until I quit soon or decide to continue progressing and then I'll make a trip to a pro shop (I'm in Birmingham and I don't think there are any nearby...).
The RF4 came today and they seem to fit well length-wise: I've measured my feet and the right one (which is longer) is 270mm- the boots are size 270. Left boot seems to fit well but in the right boot there is some pressure on my pinky and fourth toe. The heels fit perfectly as I have quite narrow but long feet, however, my toes are not naturally squished together. I can still wiggle my toes just a little bit but I wouldn't be able to put a finger behind my heel and I can definitely feel both the front and the back of the boot. I took out the insole and stepped on it- my feet just fit within the insole, noting is sticking out but also there's no extra space whatsoever.
On top of being new to skating, I'm also a massive baby when it comes to shoes in general and I tend to avoid any tight shoes or high heels opting for sneakers as often as I possibly can get away with- I'm just not sure how tight the boots should fit...
Do you think that the boots are too short? Or do you think that I could try stretching the right boot? Is it even possible to stretch the RF4s? And could I do it home? If so do you have any tips on doing that?
Any help would be massively appreciated!!