I wanted to write sh*t in the title but thought it was aggressive .

Anyhow I live in a land of (currently) frozen lakes . I am 34 and cannot ice skate . Should I learn? How do I learn? Will I shatter my teeth or end up as one of those frozen bodies that floats under the ice? Will I die (of embarrassment)

Ice fighting (hockey) – good
Ice dancing – bad
Ice racing – also good

Learn. It’s fun.

Until the sequins appear.

8 year olds will swoosh past and slice off your splayed fingers

Ha ha yes learn, yes you will be embarrassed by kids of 5, yes you will fall over and hurt yourself but seeing people skating on frozen lakes on long skates was very cool.

A girl I know called Jenni would skate 50km no problem.

Do it – bloody good for cardio, balance, leg strength, etc.
Also good for kudos with the kids when Dad can tow them really fast and then launch them off down the rink.
Skid stops, reverse turns, etc are all great to do.

No. It’s awesome to be able to move faster more efficiently and more gracefully than you can run, without a contraption such as a bike. Takes some mastering, but when you are finally shifting, backwards whilst crossing over, you’ll love it

Learn, it’s all good, free skating, dancing, hockey, incredible fun and good exercise, wish we had frozen lakes, the nearest Ice rink is miles away and always rammed so the ice condition sucks.

I think you have the perfect attitude for learning something new.

Please come back in a few days,weeks,months,years and tell us how it has changed your life,and that you wish you had started years ago

Frozen lake skating is amazing. Easy to learn. DO IT!!!

I think it’s pretty cool, although the professional outfits are not entirely to my taste. (I also wish I could sing nicely, dance properly and do gymnastics though, all the things that were not cool at school. If only one could have had the not giving a shit what other people think mindset you get when you’re middle aged when still at school 🙁 )

You might end up being really good at it.

Finbar
Don’t show the OP that advanced stuff,let him come to it slowly.

Teacake
Ace film ,don’t know if I would be brave enough to be so far out from shore though.

We go skating with our kids (well I watch as I have lost the ability to do it and I have thrown my toys out of the pram regarding this).

Anyway, it’s at a small family theme park just outside Wetherby – the focus of the park is entirely around kids yet I often see old men with their own skates whizzing around by themselves.

I find this very creepy.

Billingham ice rink, 1970’s.
So cool it’s where the hard lads went to fight, kicking each other with hockey skates.

Yes learn to do it, it’s graceful and fun together, & you can go so fast on open ice.

That lake skating looks great. I’ve never thought of skates as a mode of transport before!

I find this very creepy

I think that says more about you really.

Used to go to the skating when I was 11/12/13/14, was bloody great, speed you could get up to was superb. Can be sore when you fall though, so 2 or 3 jumpers are required if you are horsing it round.

saying that, I doubt I could skate these days, but about 25 years since I used to go!

it seems to me that every time i’ve been ice skating, someone has ended up in hospital.

broken wrist
smashed face
broken coccyx

and yes, (almost) severed fingers.

Shit?!? No way. I draw your attention to this thread from a month ago, and the sorts of things you can experience when skating on a lake.

Be sure to watch the video embedded in the article referred to in the thread. It’s lovely.

yes way.

Oddly, always been fascinated by ice-skate racing (short and long track).

When i was a kid i thought Wilf O’Reilly was the 2nd coolest person ever (after Daley Thompson), and a few years ago i even did some work for Nicky Gooch, which was nice.

The OP might end up lame, ice skating, however, isn’t.

I would if I lived somewhere with frozen lakes. It can be painful though, especially the fall where your legs go straight out in front of you and you land full force on your coccyx…

I’d love to try long-track speed skating – played around with inline speed skating for a few years, but you really need to travel abroad for decent races. On long-track skates you can exceed 40kph which is skinny bits of steel is flamin’ quick!

when you’ve finished skating in the winter you can go roller blading 🙂

Get lessons. Don’t lean backwards. Wear gloves.

Some genuine LOLs at these replies, i partucularly like Pooks and growinglads bahaha.

I think thats part of my problem, i associate it with sequins and binlining. Plus ‘that guy’ at the rink who skates backwards showing off. Which of course i would love to do

Also lake skating looks great but where are the walls to grip onto? I will just end up sliding uncontrollably to the other side of it. Vänern in teacakes link it very near me and is big!

I was at a Crashed Ice event a couple of weeks ago. It most certainly isn’t lame!

not lame at all, both my wife and i played hockey when we were kids, been round most of the rinks in scotland.
also we have been on the largest skating rink in the world, the rideau canal in ottawa, canada, and it was awesome.
its almost 5 miles long and runs right through the centre of ottawa.

EDIT: blades of glory is pretty funny, also has cameos from a fair number of actual skating stars.

also we have been on the largest skating rink in the world, the rideau canal in ottawa, canada, and it was awesome.

Largest, perhaps, but apparently no longer the longest. My old hometown has surpassed the Rideau by a smidgeon.

These things are important, you know!

Varnern is indeed huge. How close to Kristinehamn are you?

It’s a perfect sport for STWer, endless discussions about whether hiking shoe based or XC ski skate shoes are the correct ones (both look down on ice hockey skate users) plus endless fussing about the ice thickness and snow. Additionally some ethics discussion and different user groups which do not get along too well.

Vienna ice opens on 21st Jan.
They build a rink outside city hall the size of Wales (that might not be true but its massive).

Apparently there’s a new rink being built in Leeds & I’ll be having a skate around on my old Bauer 90’s which must be 30 yr old. Last time I skated was on the rink in Edmonton Mall 16 years ago!

They closed down my local rink 🙁