Okay on the advice of the forum I have bought some soakers and some skate guards, I also bought a lace tighter thingymo.

But during a session I will get off the ice several times to tighten my laces, eat food and drink and take a rest. Is it really worth putting on the guards everytime and having to take them off again?

Also, are there nay other things I should buy? I had a look at various stones and stuff but I don't know if its worth buying. Has anyone seen the sweetstick? The website is confusinf on how and when to use it, what confusion!

Oh my gawd i was going to buy it but its £20.. noway

http://www.sweetstick.co.uk/

How about skatemate, are these thigns necessary?

http://www.skatemate.com/addressuk.html

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starting at 28

I think it's worth putting on the blade guards every time I leave the ice. First, it's easy to miss something small, like a paperclip, which can do visible harm, but even the stuff you can't see at all does wear the blades some. Second, if I don't wear them every time, then I end up forgetting to take them off before getting back on the ice. If I put them on absolutely every time, I don't forget to take them off because there is a solid habit in place.

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Judging from the picture of your blade that you posted, YES. The hard guards protect your blade from nicks. Things as small as a few grains of sand can do a number on your blades, requiring you to sharpen them more often. And nicks in the blade will affect the ability to glide properly on the ice, affecting YOUR performance. Rough blades are just harder to skate on. Why take the chance?

The hard guards are easy to use, you just slide the tail of the blade in, and pop it over the pick. Two seconds, no worries. It's very worth it! (And remember, with the hard guards, you don't have to dry your blades off--you just wear them. What you *don't* do is store your blades in the hard guards--that causes rust.)


If you really, really don't want to pop the guards on for some reason, you should walk on your toepicks to avoid nicking up the blade. The guards are much easier, in my opinion!



I hadn't seen a SweetStick before---after looking at the website, I'd be wary of using it on a figure blade---I don't like that it 'sharpens' by rolling the outside edges in. It's probably fine for an often-used hockey blade, because you need to sharpen those sooooo often.

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"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg."
--Thomas Jefferson

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Yes if you want to save your blades and can get yourself into the habit that dbny describes its a good idea.

Problem is if you have a memory like mine and no amount of habit will correct it then don't do it, I had a lovely black eye the last time I wore those things, I was late for a lesson and in my haste I forgot about the guards, I landed head first, I sported a lovely black eye for at least a couple of weeks plus a visit to casualty with concussion.

I just make sure I dont step into anything, preferably stepping on toe picks as described by flippet since the last incident I have a ritual of stepping slowly onto the ice and sliding both blades slowly to double check there is nothing on them including any damage to the blade.

The only time I wear them now is when competing at rinks such as Sheffield where it is impossible to walk anywhere without them, then I have my coach or a friend with me to remind me to take them off.

I wear them pretty much all teh time when I walk. When I don't, I try to walk on the toepicks, but it's not very comfortable. You paid a lot of money for these things, why ruin them?

While we're on the topic of hard guards, I just noticed something about mine. They're the 2 piece guards, and one end (the part that comes up when it wraps around) is longer than the other. Honestly, I never paid attention before, is the longer end supposed to go around the toe pick? I think that's how I've been wearing them, but I'm not entirely sure if htere is a right way.

The longer end goes on the tail and the shorter on the toe pick; however, I know one skater who wears them the other way around. I think they are easier to handle with the long end in back.

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That's exactly right. Normally, the shorter stubby thing at the front, and the longer stub at the back.... like this...

http://www.skateconnectionproshop.co...s//t_16197.jpg

And if you prefer a long stub for both front and back, I think it is possible to order mix and match sets that has long stubs in the front as well as in the back (eg from Guardog)....just depends on preferences. I think I've even seen (in the past) olympic figure skaters have the long stub on the front end. It probably doesn't matter, as long as the thing feels absolutely secure and won't fall or pop off by accident, especially if you're walking on concrete or tiles.

Whatever fits. On my old skates the larger end had to be in the back, else it would rub the front of the sole.

The sweet stick is an awful idea and should never be used on figure skates. You do not want to change the profile of the sides of the blade...probably it's not the best idea for any skates...there's a reason they leave the sides alone when you get your skates sharpened...

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Casey Allen Shobe | http://casey.shobe.info
"What matters is not experience per se but 'effortful study'."
"At first, dreams seem impossible, then improbable, and eventually inevitable" ~ Christopher Reeve

The only reason I uses mine with short in front is because ...

If the long ones are at front, it tend to leave a deep "iron on pressing" at the leather part above the toe pick. That irritated me ... so I have set my habit on short front, long at back for easy handle to put on & remove guard off blades too.

* Remember to leave a "gap" on these double sided guards to allow water to drain off ... or rustiness will catch on really fast!*

The guards I have have got a black rubber bit on them which you use to connect the plastic guard to the blade, which occassionally sticks to the floor and feels pully when you walk, like they are going to come off. Is there anything that I can do to stop this, or is it just that they are new, or I am fixing them incorrectly?

On the subject of rust, one of the girls in my class stores her skates in hard guards, or did until she casually mentioned her blades were rusting and didn't know why. I asked if she stored them in the guards, and suprise suprise did! She left last week with the aim to get soakers, although she was annoyed as she said she never uses the guards to walk on, she just walks on the blades! It occured to me the first week I got them, normal shoes walk on them bringing in all sorts of rubbish, and I vowed to never to do, even if the rest of the class do.

My first pair of skates have a small line of rust because I stored in hard guards. Thankfully they were $70 skates that came with blades, and honestly I don't think the rust affected my blades at all because it was on the sides not the bottom- but I thought I was being diligent storing them in guards! No one told me I shouldn't do that.

A lot of the young girls at my rink walk around in soakers. That just seems like a weird idea.

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These days a lot of soakers have a rubber strip on the bottom. I don't like it either, though.

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Most rink staff I know will give you holy hell for walking around withOUT guards on if you're anywhere but on the rubber matting. Just makes sense to wear guards -- to protect your blades AND the floor!

On Friday, one of the adult regulars got on the ice with just one guard, and promptly went splat! He was OK, but left us all wondering how he had managed to leave one guard on. The older I get, the more I rely on force of habit .

Speaking of wearing guards, has anyone seen Kurt Browning's program in which he begins with his guards on? You can catch it on YouTube.

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Kevlar, actually. I need to get a set of those.

What I wear now for walking around is regular soakers with a kevlar mesh thingy that velcroes around the blade to stay on. I don't really like it and it's a lot more pain to take on and off than a single piece kevlar-lined soaker would be, but wearing around in just soakers causes them to get cut through terribly fast.

You can't wear hard guards with gold blades because the gold surface is soft in comparison to chrome and you'll get lines from the guards rubbing. Ahh, vanity. But I even have lines in the chrome on my old blades...so walking around in soakers simply keeps them newer-looking (doesn't affect skating though).

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Casey Allen Shobe | http://casey.shobe.info
"What matters is not experience per se but 'effortful study'."
"At first, dreams seem impossible, then improbable, and eventually inevitable" ~ Christopher Reeve

[The guards I have have got a black rubber bit on them which you use to connect the plastic guard to the blade, which occassionally sticks to the floor and feels pully when you walk, like they are going to come off. Is there anything that I can do to stop this, or is it just that they are new, or I am fixing them incorrectly?]

So you have the type of guard with the sling on the back right? Anything like this? http://www.guardog.ca/figure8.html

I don't think that part should be contacting the floor though. Maybe you can try a different kind of guard, such as http://www.guardog.ca/universal1.html (or similar made by a different company).

Anyway, I think that the currently available skate guards on the market are useful and great when they work properly for your skates. But in my opinion, the design is not always 100 percent good for every blade/skate, because for some skates, the guards have a tendency to pop off. This is really an issue with the designers of the skate guards. Like, if the guard was custom made or custom moulded so the end bits fitted perfectly to each end of the blades, and if the curvature of the guard matched the rocker curvature, then everything would be great. But unfortunately they don't customise them.

So the best bet is probably try a different kind if you still have the same problem and can't fix it. Or you can also try to put your blade guards in the hottest tap water you can get for say 5 minutes. The plastic material of the guards will become much more pliable. And after that, put your skate guards on your skate blades, and try to hold the guard so that the guard is forced to conform to the curvature of the blade rocker. Then, hold it there until the guards cool down and the plastic gets harder again. Once it's all cooled, chances are that you've heat molded your guards to your rocker pattern. That is, instead of the guard being completely straight along the length, it will be curved. And this might reduce the chance of the guards wanting to pop off, since they're not straight anymore...but now conforms to the rocker shape.

Well yesterday I went off the ice 12 times, that would be a lot of on-offing of skate guards.

I left the soakers on my blade on the journey home to soak excess water, to find the ends of the blades have made holes in the soakers. ArgH!

I'm gonna get them sharpened tomorrow and then start using the guards

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starting at 28

How hard did you yank the soakers onto the blades???? Or did you walk in the soakers? Because you shouldn't have holes in the soakers already, unless you're abusing them somehow.

Remember to use the hard guards for walking, then take your skates off, then take the hard guards off, then dry the blades with a towel or chamois, then put the soakers on. You have more control if the skates are off--pulling soakers onto the blade while you're wearing them can stress them too much, I'd guess.

The soakers have a harder time preventing rust if you put slushy blades directly into them. The key is to get them dry first---soakers are there basically to 'soak up' any condensation that occurs from a cold blade entering a warmer environment, not to soak up moisture directly from the ice.

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"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg."
--Thomas Jefferson

www.signingtime.com ~sign language fun for all!

While we're advising, I use my skate hook to LOOSEN my laces. I don't need it for tightening, but my cold hands always hurt when I try to pry my very-tight laces apart to get my foot out of the skate. Five seconds using the skate hook to pull up the laces and voila! I'm out of the skates, didn't break my nails or hurt my hands. I keep mine on a "www.Zamboni.com" lanyard attached to my skate bag.

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I have holes in the ends of my soakers, but it took a long time to develop. Now I put the damaged ends on the tails of the blades and when the other ends get holes in them, I'm going to do some repairs. I've got extra thick, furry blue animal print soakers that I love, but were a tad too tight to start with, hence the holes. I've never seen another pair I liked so much, so I'll have to keep them going.

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i think it came from putting them in my bag, the blades are on the bottom and it must've put holes through them.

neways, my skates will be sharpened tomorrow!

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starting at 28

Oh, soaker abuse!!!!

Actually, the holes do happen, usually over time. It helps if you don't put them on really hard (i.e. tug them over the heel) but gently put them on...

I wish they would reinforce the ends so they don't tear up.

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

Sounds like a case of dodgy soakers. If you put them on the blades while the blades are not on your feet, then they shouldn't break like that - even if they're in your skate bag. Or maybe they're too short and you need soakers with more length?

or sappy codgers
Lyle

Ahh soakers. Don't you just love it when, after an exhausting skate, you are absent-mindedly putting on your soakers, you hook one end over the blades and are stretching them to hook over the heel end, and you accidentally let go, pinging the soaker all the way across the room.

I have done this so many times. My daughter thinks I'm doing it on purpose.

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Karen

I skate - therefore I am