Superior balance on the blades - isn't that skill, or sign of skill?
And I was not talking of the skill of skating on dull blades, just great skating skills that make it possible.

he is an Olympian! (or I guess I should say "was", back in 70s).

completely agreed, but it is his skating skills that keep him upright and gliding on the said neglected blades.

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--renatele

Must be a former elite skater thing. I asked one of the (young, former international competitor- though not the Olympian level) coaches at our rink who sharpens his blades. He admitted he hasn't had them done in a year and a half. And he doesn't just teach- I've seen him do double axels recently. And he demonstrates spins beautifully- no slipping in entrances.

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-Jessi
What I need is a montage...
Visit my skating journal or my Youtube videos (updated with 2 new videos Sept 26, 2009)

Let me guess, they did figures, right? Nothing like practically flat figure blades to develop perfect edge control and technique!

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"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." - Dara Torres, 41, after her 2nd medal at the 2008 Olympics

OMG that is so true!

And I am not an Olympian or even close, but back when I did some freestyle, the only time I ever noticed my blades being dull is if I kind of skidded through a spin. Otherwise, I never understood why people needed their blades sharpened so often... must be just a thing I guess.

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Is Portland the only city with it's own ice-dance website? http://www.pdxicedance.net/

Although I'm sure he played with them a bit (because at some point, doesn't everyone?), the person I was talking about is too young to have done figures as a requirement.

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-Jessi
What I need is a montage...
Visit my skating journal or my Youtube videos (updated with 2 new videos Sept 26, 2009)

I'm glad someone agrees with me about something!

Don't dismiss Sid Broadbent completely - he is an engineer, and he once received a grant from USFSA to study skate physics. He designs and sells sharpening machines too.

I think snow is large ice crystals with a lot of air around them, but don't assume my thoughts are correct. (I think when you crush snow into a snowball, you are squishing out the air to make more solid ice.) It may even be a different phase of ice, since ice has many phases. Snow often forms when water freezes in the air, as well as when you shave a layer from the ice. Either explanation could apply, to both skate tracings and Zamboni circles - or some other explanation altogether.

When you turn a Zamboni, it must be pushing sideways against the ice (sheer force) to make the turn possible. It's like driving a car or bike so fast around a turn that it skids. It's easy to see how you could affect something as fragile as an ice surface. Also, Zambonis are often set to cut (shave) off the top ice layer. Though the detailed physics might require study.

I confess the explanation for the slipperiness of ice cited by the Wikipedia articles makes some sense. After all, ice is slippery with surfaces like shoes even when you don't put much pressure on it, and don't try to sheer off anything. But I think the grooves (tracings) left by skates implies that sheer plays a role too, not just the surface water layers.

If you want to study these in depth, you might get a PhD in solid state physics, and convince someone to give you a few million dollars for research into these topics. Governments fund research that is important to their national security - i.e.,, that keeps incumbents in office. Companies fund research in hopes of huge future profits. I know this is hard to believe, but the proposed research may be a bit of a hard sell.

When merely inquiring minds like ours want to know, without a solid background in existing knowledge and expensive research to back it up, there is no real way for us to test that our speculations are correct. Let's just go skate.

Have fun.

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