Ice, Ice Skating

Continuing on with our hobbyathon we recently hit our local Ice Arena in search of some good old fashioned skating fun.

But first how about some interesting and completely useless facts about ice skating.

Like for instance did you know that an old Dutch word for skate is "schenkel" which means "leg bone". And that the oldest pair of ice skates found date back to about 3000 B.C. They were discovered at the bottom of a lake in Switzerland and were made from the leg bones of large animals. Hence the Dutch term “schenkel”.

Ice skating has long been a means to get around in countries with long, cold winters, such as Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, and especially Holland. By the 18th century skating was not only a means of travel but also a well established sport. European colonists introduced it early into America and Canada.

In 1865, Jackson Haines, a famous American skater, developed the two plate all metal blade. The blade was attached directly to Haines' boots. The skater became famous for his new dance moves, jumps and spins.

The first artificial ice rink was built in 1876, at Chelsea, London, England and was named, wait for it, The Glaciarium!

How awesome would it be to say I'm off to The Glaciarium! Well for us sadly the Cockburn (pronounced Co-burn, I know ridiculous and amusingly funny in this situation) Ice Arena would have to do.

Ok so we arrived for our late afternoon session raring to go. As we donned our furry jackets and walked past the teenagers loitering in the carpark we could already hear the DJ's tunes, pumping out Skrillex.

After paying for our session and skate hire (of which we got a huge $5.00 discount from our shopper dockets on, yes we are savvy like that) we walked through the double doors and bam! COLD, COLD, COLD! It was frozenly freezing. Oh thank the lord we had worn multiple layer and had our furry coats.

Following my (Kat) skate fitting dilemma, in which I tried the 38, then changed to the 39 then proceeded to change back to the 38, we emu-walked it out onto the ice. Ice skates are very awkward to walk in.

We were a bit shaky at the start but found our form fairly quickly. Around and around we went to the DJ's mix which was very ummm, interesting. Cindy Lauper, The Eagles, Eminem and Good Charlotte to name a few. At one point we were even trying to skate backwards which we found is quite difficult.

Then we got a little too confident and decided we would try a move in which we cross arms and hold each others wrists and catapult each other around in a circle. A move which I'm sure has a very technical name like a few others I came across such as a "choctaw", "swizzle", "spread eagle" and a "death spiral". Well anyway it didn't go according to plan and we went arse over on the ice laughing. Which was quite painful and wet.

We skated for about an hour and a half, which actually felt like plenty of time. By this stage my feet felt like I'd been wearing my highest of heels out on the town all night. In hind sight I should have gone for the 39.

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