Nordic skates...

Hi everyone,

Has anyone had much experience with "clip-on" nordic skates in a rink
situation? Pondering the merits of buying some to fit my Salomon Pilot
boots to use at the local rink.

Kind regards,
Chris

Chris,

I've used mine just once at a rink and wasn't too pleased with the
performance, perhaps because the rink ice was very hard, and/or my
blades were not sharp enough. For me they work better on a lake or
pond.
-Jim
Chris Cole wrote:
Hi everyone,

Has anyone had much experience with "clip-on" nordic skates in a rink
situation? Pondering the merits of buying some to fit my Salomon Pilot
boots to use at the local rink.

Kind regards,
Chris

Chris Cole wrote:
Hi everyone,

Has anyone had much experience with "clip-on" nordic skates in a rink
situation? Pondering the merits of buying some to fit my Salomon Pilot
boots to use at the local rink.

Kind regards,
Chris

I toyed with the idea of Nordic skates for years. Then I realized that
what I really wanted were hockey skates. (There's very little natural
ice in San Jose, CA) Santa brought me a pair of Grafs last year and I
love'em.

Bob

I should add that I really LOVE my Nordic Blades. The ability to
drive, walk, and/or ski to the ice with your boots on and then just
clip into the blades is awsome!

I've been thinking of getting the inline version (i.e. a very short
roller ski) also for rail/foot commuting in Boston.

Jim

Chris Cole wrote:
Hi everyone,

Has anyone had much experience with "clip-on" nordic skates in a rink
situation? Pondering the merits of buying some to fit my Salomon Pilot
boots to use at the local rink.

Kind regards,
Chris

On Tue, 3 Jul 2007, Chris Cole wrote:

Hi everyone,

Has anyone had much experience with "clip-on" nordic skates in a rink
situation? Pondering the merits of buying some to fit my Salomon Pilot boots
to use at the local rink.

Kind regards,
Chris

For several years, in late fall, I would use my nordic skates
at the local hockey rink. They sort of work .. but it's
like paddling a canoe in a small swimming pool.

But the last 2 winters I haven't used them in a rink
and my skating technique on "real" ice seems to have
improved! Maybe, in the rink, I was trying to copy the technique
of hockey skaters, which is quite different.

Hmm, now I'm thinking about next ice season! This past week
I saw 2 new lakes that I must "get done" on skates.

--

David Dermott , Wolfville Ridge, Nova Scotia, Canada
Nordic skating: http://www.dermott.ca/ski/skating.html

On Jul 3, 3:18 am, Chris Cole wrote:
Hi everyone,

Has anyone had much experience with "clip-on" nordic skates in a rink
situation? Pondering the merits of buying some to fit my Salomon Pilot
boots to use at the local rink.

Kind regards,
Chris

Work nicely, but you need a lot of ice to get a good stride going.
Also, they are so fast it's like trying to roller siski with inline
skates: not very specific, Be careful "crossing over". I tripped the
first time because they're so much longer than hockey skates. Good
balance work.

Randy

On Tue, 3 Jul 2007, Chris Cole wrote:

Hi everyone,

Has anyone had much experience with "clip-on" nordic skates in a rink
situation? Pondering the merits of buying some to fit my Salomon Pilot boots
to use at the local rink.

A few more thoughts. It should be possible (with practice) to
skate fast with nordic skates in a rink. After all, short-track
speed skaters go pretty fast and can do "cross-overs" with long
blades. Their blades are a bit shorter and often off-set to
favour turning to the left- (races are done counter-clockwise)

So it would best to get the shortest blades possible ~40 cm
and with a blunt tip.

I can't do "cross-overs" on any type of skates, anywhere.

On another note, here are some pictures of Australians
on nordic skates (but not in a rink!) and skis:

http://www.icetrek.com/index.php?id=688
(Wade and Fred's Antarctic adventure)

Some of Wade and Fred's photos also on the Nordic Skating site:
http://www.nordicskating.org/antarctica/index.html

--

David Dermott , Wolfville Ridge, Nova Scotia, Canada
email:
WWW pages: http://www.dermott.ca/index.html

Chris Cole wrote:
Has anyone had much experience with "clip-on" nordic skates in a rink
situation? Pondering the merits of buying some to fit my Salomon Pilot
boots to use at the local rink.

It works but is not ideal. Especially, if the local rink management
forbids using poles. Furthermore, rink ice is usually even and hard,
while long-distance skates are best for natural, uneven and often
softer ice cover.

For some more generic information on long-distance skating you might
take a look at the page on the last line of my signature.

All the best, Timo

--
Prof. Timo Salmi ftp & http://garbo.uwasa.fi/ archives 193.166.120.5
Department of Accounting and Business Finance ; University of Vaasa
http://www.uwasa.fi/~ts/ ; FIN-65101, Finland
Longdistance skating page http://www.uwasa.fi/~ts/info/timonice.html