Figure skated competitively for 13 years, first free skate and then dance.. before i quit, i'd wear out a pair of boots in a year due to getting over on edge.. the inside and outside of the boot would wear against the ice. Boots were made of hard leather.. would go to the factory every year to get new boots fitted, punched, ground, blades mounted according to stance and balance, etc.. not much different than skiing. Always wanted to try speed skating.. never did.. but talk about inclination and angulation.. short track speed.. lay em over and hope you don't boot out! I'm lazy now that I've made good friends with gravity. Just get forward and hang on! I loved skating on dedicated figure skating rinks.. no boards.. get too much of a head of steam and you'd find yourself in the seats.
As for edge control and balance.. my BOF fore/aft balance was awesome.. and way to many hours doing figures (circles) where the whole idea was edge control and being able to skate perfect circles on the inside or outside edge of the blade.. sometimes with brackets } and sometimes with loops at the top and bottom of the figure 8. You'd be judged on a perfectly clean sheet of ice by 3 judges who'd get down on the ice and examine when edge change happened or if your blade scuffed.. Just way to many hours at the rink.. eventually i screwed my knees too much to skate ended up being able to torque (twist) my knee due to extreme edge angles all the time. Few years of physio and got back to a point where the pain dissipated.. however skiing was a relief as I could stay stacked over the knee and not torque it while turning.
Skills translated well to skiing.. started on a blue and once I learned to dance with gravity instead of fighting it, it was almost all the same skills.. not to mention i can ski-skate like no ones business.. LOL
Now I ski the same way i skated.. soft knees and sometimes with one foot, sometimes with both feet.. and sometimes what some would say is the wrong foot.. Skis have outside edges for some reason some refuse to acknowledge.. I paid for em.. I'm gonna use em. Screw you guys that say 100% on the outside foot. 100% on the inside foot.. get over it and bend that ski.. stop using the outside ski as a crutch! Stand hard on the outside and get on the inside before the apex and accelerate out of the turn..