Entries Tagged 'Skating' ↓

OK, the last post was only a partial success for publishing to my FaceBook timeline, so now I will have two posts in a matter of minutes where previously I have not posted on this blog for months….go figure.

Anyway, here is another YouTube favorite showing the top bloopers from the 2011-12 NHL season. Rather fitting given the 2012-13 season is in lock-out and I foresee little chance of getting it back. I, for your information, am on the players’ side of that negotiation.

I would love to try and skate a Red Bull Crashed Ice course, but my skills on ice are lacking

Check out the latest installment in full (1.5hrs) from the 2012 season that took place in St Paul, Minnesota. There are more videos, including highlights, on various Red Bull YouTube accounts from other Crashed Ice seasons and races, just search YouTube. Also check out the Red Bull Crashed Ice website.

Back in the early days of inline skating, that is the late 80′s into the early 90′s, it was easy for skate companies to decide on what size wheels came on each skate in their product range. In general entry level skates came with 4 x 72mm wheels, mid range skates came with 4 x 76mm wheels and high end skates came with 4 x 80mm wheels. Then there were the specialty skates for competitive disciplines. In that arena is was basically hockey skates with 4 x 76mm wheels and speed skates with 5 x 80mm wheels. Continue reading →

With the post Winter Olympic buzz still in the air and the recent opening of Icehouse in Melbourne’s Docklands, I got together with a couple of friends at works for a skate on tight a$$ Tuesday last week. I also backed this up with another skate there on Sunday with the family.

The first time out on the rink was ‘Tight A$$ Tuesday’ which is half price entry (but not half price skate hire). I hired ‘premium’ hockey skates and hit the ice with a Canadian (ice in the blood?!) and another work friend who used to play ice and inline hockey. Just a note on the Tuesday night session…it is BUSY. I asked on my return visit on Sunday how many they put through the doors Tuesday night and they said 700 skaters…HUGE. Previous weeks had been between 250 to 400 skaters. Continue reading →

This time Patrick Roy of the Avs comes back for more against a different Redwings goalie, Chris Osgood.

Ice hockey goalie fight are the best! Patrick Roy (Avalanche) goes at it against Mike Vernon (Redwings).

I found a bunch of old inline skating wheel stickers from the early to mid 90′s when I was going through some boxes. Some classics in here…

I first came across this video a few years ago on cskroller.com (which appears to now be defunct). It is a great guide by skater Luc ‘Bitum Walker’ Bourdin on how to initiate a slide. You start with a good tight turn whilst getting over on the fat part of your wheels. From this, you start tightening up the turn until it essentially become a quarter flick turn that you slide with.

The only thing this video doesn’t show is how to make it a quick stop like a hockey stop. To do this, you need to transition to stopping more towards the pointy top part of your wheels rather than on the flatter sides. You can start out by transitioning from the flat side to the point in the stop to get an understanding for the dynamic of a faster stop.

Doing a Cess Slide/Hockey Stop on inline skates is truly for the advanced skater, especially outdoors. This technique for stopping on inline skates is very hard on your wheels, and I use it sparingly (or sometimes for something fun to do!). I will use it as an emergency stop, but more out of habit from my days of playing inline hockey.

Note that the term ‘Cess Slide’ is used more in reference to a trick done on inline skates that is similar, but is still valid when talking about stopping.

The powerslide stopping technique for inline skating is hard on your wheels. It relies entirely on the friction from your wheels to stop you, and that equals wheel wear. You will also need solid one foot balance and the ability to turn from skating forwards to backwards to do a powerslide.