Ice skating information & advice

Practiced both as sport and as recreation, ice-skating provides an exhilarating feeling of literally gliding across ice. It is commonly done outside in cold countries, on frozen lakes or rivers, or in warmer countries in artificial ice rinks. Its origin are ancient from when people tied cattle bones to their feet to help them traverse across the icy wilderness of prehistoric Europe.

Nowadays, ice-skating boots consist of a sharp steel blade, which cuts into the ice to aid movement. Nearly everyone from countries where the winter temperature drops below zero can skate. In these countries it's common for lakes, rivers and canals to freeze over for months at a time. In the history of Europe, it was common for the aristocracy to skate so the sport of ice-skating has a very noble heritage indeed.

There are dangers when skating on ice, the chief one being falling over! Fortunately it is rare to pick up a serious injury from slipping on ice but it does happen and it's worth investing in protective padding to ensure your safety. If skating outside on frozen water, a more serious danger is of falling through the ice into freezing water, so it's strongly recommended that you only skate in areas that are deemed safe by the authorities.