How to maintain your boots and blades?

So you have a new pair of skates and blades and you want your investment to last. Here is the general care and maintenance recommended to keep them in shape.

Travel with soakers on to protect blades on bag.

1) Travel with your skaters inside your bag with soakers (some people call them soft guards) on your blades.

2) Arrive at the rink, take them out of your bag, remove the soakers and put on your “hard” guards. These hard guards should be inspected and cleaned if the insides are dirty. You don’t want dirt, grit, and small rocks inside them to grind against your nice sharpened blades.

Place hard guards on to walk to and from the ice.

3) Walk to the ice entrance, take off your hard guards and skate.

Inspect the inside of your guards to clean out any debris that may nick your blades.

4) Exit the ice and put your hard guards on to walk to wherever you will change into your shoes.

When finished, wipe your blades dry, put on your soakers, and place them back in your bag to travel home.

5) Once the boots are removed, take off the hard guards, dry your blades and soles with a towel, put on your soakers, and place them in your skate bag.

Let them air dry outside of a bag and remove the soakers. Add a deodorizer if needed.

6) This is the most important step and the one that is most forgotten. When you get home, take your skates out of the bag and REMOVE the soft soakers. You want to make sure there is no moisture on the blades while waiting to be used for the next time.

Leaving them out to air dry also helps with odor. There are many products you can purchase that you can put inside your skates to help absorb moisture and odor. Baking soda inside a container with small holes is an excellent option. Happy skating!