Carbon fiber custom figure skates

I have been busy with a custom boot making project this winter. My daughter, Maddie, is an accomplished short track speedskater, but before she ever took up the sport she was and still is a very accomplished figure skater. As a figure skater she has passed the senior freestyle test, all the gold level ice dances, and of course the senior moves in the field test. In figure skating speak she would be called a triple gold medalist. There is nothing equivalent to this testing system in speedskating. She has excellent equipment for figure skating and skates on custom Klingbeil boots. Klingbeil's are worn by many elite figure skaters including Olympic gold medalists such as Sarah Hughes. They are a leather product and a work of art, but why haven't figure skates evolved as much as speed and hockey boots have over the last 50 or even 100 years? It is hard to say. I don't really know why. If I had to guess I would say that figure skaters are not as bright as speedskaters. (That is a joke!) The Klingbeil boot is much heavier than a speed boot. My daughter's is 824 grams compared to 424 grams for the custom carbon fiber boot I made for her (both without blades attached). Even as a custom boot the Klingbeil doesn't fit as tight as a custom speed boot. By custom, all it really means is that Klingbeil takes several measurements of the feet, molds the footbed with a bio foam and then manufacuture a wooden last for your feet and build a tradition figure skating boot from leather with a steel shank around that last. The Klingbeil workmanship and materials are superior - but the initial fit is so-so and still requires a breakin period. The most amazing thing is that they do this in New York City for about $600. Amazingly cheap compared to custom speed boots most of which are at $1000 and up.

So I put my hand to making her custom figure skating boots with a carbon fiber base and a neoprene liner and padding. The results can be seen in the photo. They are not too bad if I say so myself. They look good and performed well. She took them out on a crowded public session, skated, spun, and eventually completed several double jumps and a couple of double-double combination jumps. Her jumps were high and she said that the boots were very light on her feet. I was pleased although there were a few concerns. First, she wants her boots to be tight and tight they were. But is this what most figure skaters will want? I think she wants them tight because her custom speed boots are tight and she does a lot more speedskating than figure skating these days. She wants them so tight that the feet go numb, and she pulled so hard on the boot hooks that one of them pulled out! So I now plan to modify them to use velcro staps around the cuff so that she can get them really tight!