This is Alpha, the first-born, when he was 2YO.
This is Beta, the second-born, when he was about 2YO.
This is Gamma, the third-born, when he was about 18MO.
Skate Expectations
Jul
12
2011
My Own Skates
My parents took us out for my birthday. We went to dinner and I picked out my present. Since Beta likes to ice skate, I’ve taken him a few times. He has his own skates, but I always had to rent mine.
Until now.
I have my own skates. I don’t need to wait in line at the rental counter. I no longer need to give them my shoes as collateral. And I won’t be worried that I get the rental skates with the one shoelace that’s too short. I am free!
Well, somewhat free. I still have to pay the admission fee.
Buying Ice Skates
I have a couple of tips for buying ice skates. We went to a place that sells both new and used sports equipment. My plan was to save money by getting a used pair of skates.
The store sales clerk guy was helpful, and he showed me some high-quality hockey skates that had some wear and tear but still had a lot of life. “These were about $300 new,” he told me, “and are great skates.” They were $90. I saw some other skates that were cheaper. I’m planning on just doing laps during the open skates, so my skates won’t really need to be high- or even medium-quality.
The section of new hockey skates had about the same price range as the used skates. My dilemma thus mirrored that of someone in the market for a car – do I buy a brand-new entry-level model or, for the same price, a decent used fancier model?
I then happened to sniff the skates in question.
Some of you may be asking yourselves: “Should I buy a used pair of skates?” That is the wrong question. The right question is this: “Do I have a nose?” Because if you have a sense of smell, then you should not buy a pair of used ice skates. Especially hockey skates.
That was tip #1: smell the skates before you buy them. Do they smell like something you’d want to put your feet in?
The odd thing about the used skates is that they all ran small. The used skates all had their sizes written on the backs of the skates. But there were none in my size. They went up to 9 or so and then stopped.
The new skates, on the other hand (or should it be foot in this case?), had the whole range of sizes. I asked the salesclerk guy if I could try this style in that size. He inquired a little more about my shoe size, and then my dad and I learned an interesting lesson. Apparently, hockey skates have their own sizing.
For that, we can blame Canada.
Since hockey is Canadian, hockey skate sizes follow Canadian sizing rules. At least the boxes had the conversion chart. Hockey size 10 is US shoe size 11.5, so the lesson here is skate size is not the same as shoe size. Just try on the skates before you buy them. The sizing is approximate anyway. And wear thick socks when you go to buy the skates.
You shall not have in your house differing measures, a large and a small.
Deuteronomy 25:14
This little article thingy was written by Some Guy sometime around 11:02 am and has been carefully placed in the Life category.
July 13th, 2011 at 6:57 am
Nice skates. Now you can become a hockey dad.
July 13th, 2011 at 11:56 pm
I hear those things are slippery.