We have cold but no snow, so... skate wild ice!

That's what I've been doing...

Our local wild ice is either bumpy or too close of quarters and so was
terrible on my speed skates, so I used hockey skates tonight and had a
blast.

I finally bought some $45 Bauer Supremes at Dick's today. My first
hockey skates! They were good fun. I was happy how easy I could skate
in bad conditions with them -- like around a swamp covered with 1" of
snow with occasional surprise bumps and crust snow patches. It as easy
to catch myself without falling.

What's also GREAT is that our daughter and her pals like to come along
every time. They also like going to the rink sometime so I finally
took the leap and got hockey skates for all that close-quarters
action. Maybe I'll even learn to do some swoopy skating, backward
crossover and such!

I'm also looking into the sale that Jamie at http://nordicskater.com
is having on the Original Nordic Skate blades (wooden base) for $29.
Anyone have input on what those are like? They seem to mount with more
skate sticking out the rear than newer blades. Also their entry ramp
seems more abrupt -- I'd think a long curve would be best for wild ice
bumps. ?

One big good thing about Nordic skates is that you don't have to sit
out on a cold bucket in the wind and lace up skates with bare fingers!
Just wear your xc boots then tromp out to the ice and click in! Dang!

Whatever I get you know I'll post about em at OYB!

--JP
outyourbackdoor.com

On Fri, 29 Jan 2010, jeff potter wrote:

I'm also looking into the sale that Jamie at http://nordicskater.com
is having on the Original Nordic Skate blades (wooden base) for $29.
Anyone have input on what those are like? They seem to mount with more
skate sticking out the rear than newer blades. Also their entry ramp
seems more abrupt -- I'd think a long curve would be best for wild ice
bumps. ?

The wood base skates were made by Zandstra in the early 1990s. I bought a
pair via mail order from an Ottawa store in 1997:
http://www.dermott.ca/ski/zandstra.jpg

My second skates (from Jamie) are the Almgrens (now called Lundhags):
http://www.dermott.ca/ski/almgrens.jpg

I later bought an extra pair of the woods from Jamie for loaning to friends.
The wood bases are not drilled- mine had markings for suggested placement
of drill holes for NNN bindings, but you can mount the binding where you want.
There is some debate about where the optimum binding position is.
The top of the line blades (eg Skyllermarks "Blue") allow for
fine-tuning of the binding position (forward-back, side-to-side and angle)

The boot height above the ice is about the same as on the Almgrens,
but the base is thicker, so it drags more in snow. The blunt tip
probably doesn't ride over bumps as well.

Several years ago, I experimented on slightly bumpy ice with no snow. I
put the wood skate on one foot and the Almgrens on the other. I
could not feel any difference.

I tried out some fixed-heel (the Multiskates with hiking boots)
skates for the first time a few days ago. They require a very different
technique! Push off with with the heel rather than the ball of the foot
and remember to raise the toe! I much prefer the free heel bindings. But
thousands of people have learned to skate long distances with fixed-heel
skates.

Any long blade skate should ride over bumps much better than hockey
skates.

PS
We had a very short window for skating on Thursday, after rain on
Tuesday. I skated 30 km around the perimeter of a local lake
Photos at :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/david_dermott/4312008023/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/david_dermott/4312735032/

It snowed all day Friday with gale force winds.

PS2
The Vermont skaters have created quite a good network of
skate condition reports and other info at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/VTNordicSkating/

A similar group for Mid-west skating has just been set up:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/midwest_ice/

--

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