For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been learning to skate on my snavelschaatsen (long-toed skates modeled after Hieronymus Bosch skates).
They are very slick and work best on soft ice. It was hard to get them to stay in place, but using two laces—one to keep them attached and the other to keep them from sliding forwards and backwards—works pretty well.
Compared with my other reconstructed skates, these give me more power and let me take longer strokes. I took them out for a public skating session on terrible ice (half slushy and half snowy with lots of gouges) and they did great. They glided smoothly over the cracks and after a couple of laps, I was skating faster and more stably than many of the people on rental skates!