Maybe Americans are more honest than Australians - we have a major theft problem at our rink, and always have. DH had his mobile stolen from inside his bag, and I've heard many regulars having lost small amounts of money from zipped inside pockets in skate bags (it would have been more but there wasn't any more in the bag!). For the past couple of years, we've hired a locker on an annual basis - we get the key and can choose what we put in it and how often it's opened. (Mind you, to get the locker, we just about had to wait for someone to die - the permanent lockers are highly sought-after. You need to put your name on the waiting list and ... just ... wait. It took almost a year before ours came up.) ETA - the locker is only small, so it fits my handbag, DH's wallet and keys, and not a lot else. Bags we leave on the benches next to the ice.

I usually take a small bag with my appt. book in it on the ice, so I tuck my keys in it and store it in the middle box. (Only at rinks where I'm teaching. When no one knows me, the guards get a little testy about me opening box doors.) I've rented a locker just for my valuables, but only when I can stick the quarters in myself. I'm not willing to wait on a line.

My bag is HUGE, so a locker won't help much. At rinks that seem a little unsecure, I'll actually put the entire bag in a box - that's hutzpah, right? Maybe a good design would be to have some kind of lock feature so you can use a bike cable or something to secure the bag to a bench or rink wall support. You CAN use a small luggage padlock to secure your keys in a compartment. My bag came with one that uses keys, but they have combination locks, too.

Not that either will guarantee theft-freedom, but it will slow down the amateurs and discourage the mischief-makers.

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We have laptop bags that I bought very cheap from Allders when they went bankrupt. And the only issue I have with them is that the main compartment doesn't open fully - the zip only goes round 3 sides. They're absolutely perfect for my needs, although if I want to take a full change of clothes to the rink, as sometimes happens, I need to take another bag as well. Sadly, Husband's bag is wearing out now - the shoulder strap has died, and his blades are beginning to poke out the corners.

Re security - we don't use the lockers, either. I seldom take more than just car keys, my phone and a purse (I usually write out my coach's cheque in advance and put it in my purse) in my jacket pockets. Husband once lost his credit cards at our rink, and we wouldn't leave stuff out during a public session, but on teaching ice you can spot a stranger wandering round! And it definitely isn't safe to leave stuff in the car - the car-park is very not secure and cars have been broken into.

Another friend once had her whole skate bag taken by an opportunist thief who had wandered in - she was wearing her skates at the time, but all the other stuff went, including her mobile phone which she'd put in her bag for safe-keeping.

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Mrs Redboots
~~~~~~~~
I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

Probably by mistake?

I had my guards taken from my usual spot beside the rink one week during a public session, but the following week when I went back, they reappeared in the same spot mid-session.

And one time I left some very old gloves with holes in them at a rink in Portland, and didn't particularly care, but my boot fitter spotted them and brought them to me the next time I saw her.

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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

Eh? I do that all the time.

Sometimes if it's a dodgy rink I don't trust or an especially crowded session, I'll run my bag out to the car after getting my skates on, and keep my keys in my pocket.

I even drove in my skates once, but only just down the street for a quick bite to eat from a drive-through.

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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

I was just thinking the same thing today actually...maybe the outer zipper handles could have holes on them that lined up so you could padlock it shut.

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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

Me too! I usually forget my teaching toys in the car and have to put on the guards and go get them. Once, I found the kids had left the side door of the van WIDE open in the pouring rain. Good thing no one looted everything!
Did you take the Zamboni? LOL
For the record, I tried driving my car while wearing skates when I was young and stupid, going from one rink to another to chase ice time. Too dangerous with a manual transmission.

Casey - I like your new siggy. I was just thinking about how we used to log swimming laps to "swim 10 miles" during the season. Now I've got a skating project for today.

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So do I, but the lady who had her bag stolen (and her shoes with it) didn't appreciate having to do so-- especially having to unlace, drive, and then lace up again to go into her house!

And I've had my guards stolen , and I'm convinced that I saw them a week later on a little hockey goon's skates (seriously, it looked so wrong-- powder blue "figure skating" guards on a pair of hockey skates!). I couldn't prove anything, but now my guards are a nice, bright bubblegum pink-- even though I can't stand pink myself!

I do like the idea of padlocking the bags and locking them down. *sigh* I dream of a pretty, roomy, but not too big skate bag with a giant LOCK!

Use a permanent marker to write your last name on the guards in big bold letters. My oldest DD had beautiful white rubber guards with an adorable cartoon bunny drawn on it. I put her name on the "tail" and she still has them to this day. (She can't use them since they're for a 7" blade and she now wears 10".)

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I don't even worry about whether my hard guards are going to disappear. They eventually do, even the beat-up ones. Probably most of the time by accident. And generally when they do, I find a pair close to the right size in the lost and found and get the pro shop to cut them down for me.

Hard guards seem to get lost or forgotten all the time. One year, cleaning out locker rooms and rink side after a competition, I found 4 pairs.

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American Waltz... Once, Twice, ???? ...

Q: How many coaches does it take to fix Jen's Dance Intro-3 Problems
A: 5 and counting...

And as for a skating bag, I used to use a black roll-aboard but it started suffering from old age, so I bought a Zuca bag. I kept the other one as a back-up, plus I have an old gym bag I used to use before the roll-aboard.

I like the Zuca bag for convenience, other than there are too many of them around rinks anymore. Luckily at each of the rinks I skate at, I've only seen one other skater with the same color bag as me (unlike the oodles of hot pink Zuca bags all over the place). I do admit I could probably put more junk in my old bag, but maybe it's a good thing that I can't put as much stuff in the Zuca bag. Although with all the pockets etc there's space for a lot of stuff.

What I usually have in my bag

-- Skates w/ soakers
-- notebook to record practices/lessons
-- spare tights
-- couple pairs of gloves
-- 4 or 5 CDs
-- Green dyna band
-- Kleenex
-- couple tubes of chapstick
-- Miscellaneous change
-- Hard guards

other miscellaneous clutter..

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American Waltz... Once, Twice, ???? ...

Q: How many coaches does it take to fix Jen's Dance Intro-3 Problems
A: 5 and counting...

My daughter's left her guards at the rink so many times, the rink staff now recognise them (the bladeguards - they've known my daughter by sight since she couldn't see over the barrier). One time they came back with "Please don't forget me" written down the side of each one

My weekend rink has been hit a couple of times by thieves last Fall. We suspected they're young teenage girls b/c of the stuff that they DID take (money, pink cell phone, MAKEUP BAG!!!) and where they left the rest of the bag! (In the one of the ladies' bathroom stalls.) I've always locked up my stuff during public sessions and leave valueables at home thankfully, so I wasn't hit by the thieves!!!

Sadly, a few of my weekend rink buddies DID get hit. They all lock up their stuff... except for one guy, who leaves nothing but cookies and Gatorade out! His message to the thieves was "They can take the cookies, but if you mess with my Gatorade.... " (He LOVES Gatorade!!!)

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Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

I have a zuca bag. I like it, and I can't over stuff it like some other bags. I also bought a great one at Walmart that opened on the top. Bright pink and not expensive.

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Recycle Love - Adopt a homeless pet

I've now learnt to check, after each and every competition, that the Husband has his blade guards, his water bottle and his warm-up jacket before we leave the arena. I think his last water bottle got left behind after Oxford Seniors.... and I know his fleece got left at Bracknell, because NickiT very kindly posted it back to us. But as for guards.... he's left at least four pairs behind at various rinks!

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Mrs Redboots
~~~~~~~~
I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

I love my Zuca bag! What color do you have? I have a light blue frame with the dark blue bag.

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- Ashley

Saras: Zuca does now have a pet bag that has more mesh. Perhaps you could get one of those inserts.
That's something I like about the bag. If you want another color - buy another insert.

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Recycle Love - Adopt a homeless pet

There's a guy who comes in and sets up some tables every now and again to peddle wares to the afternoon freestylers... Aside from dresses and the basic essentials, he carries Zuca bags. I'm not sure if that's why, but I noticed that everyone at the afternoon freestyle yesterday had a Zuca bag (there were literally about 15 or 20 of them scattered around. A friend of mine from another rink got one for Christmas so she was showing it off to me, and I got a good look at it. I must say, I really like them, and I think I'll end up getting one. They seem to be constructed and designed very well. The only downside is that I don't know how I'd carry it on a bike, but I guess I can get one of those racks that goes over the rear tire and strap it onto that...

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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

I was thinking today, wouldn't it be great to have a bag that has compartments for everything? A place for the skates, maybe a strap to hold the hard guards, a pocket big enough for a couple CD's, those little pen holders that some bookbags have, a place to put a notebook, maybe a ring to keep hair ties on, a small place for gloves, a compartment for clothes, etc. And it could be one of those fold open bags, kind of like those carry on garment bags, so everything would be easily accessible and be seen. This way, you could easily find what you're looking for and you won't have to dig throuhg tons of other stuff to get to what you need. Thoughts?

There's a tension between being big enough to hold all the things one wants and small enough to carry easily. Not everybody is able to go to the rink by car - a lot of our older young ones, who aren't old enough to drive but are too old to be accompanied to the rink all the time, use public transport and need to be able to carry their skates easily.

Certainly a garment-carrier with lots of pockets is ideal for competitions - especially overnight competitions, as you can put your nightie & so on in there, too, but even then, I tend to carry my skates separately.

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Mrs Redboots
~~~~~~~~
I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

Some luggage/travel stores sell things that you can stick into bags that act as pockets/compartments. There's a Passport Travel near me (not sure if that's a national chain or not) that has these for large purses/tote bags. They appear to be made with a flexible structure (possibly bendy plastic or cardboard) covered in neat fabric that is sewn up to make various pockets. You bend the structure to fit inside your bag, and instant interior pockets!

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Ask me about becoming a bone marrow donor.
http://www.marrow.org
http://www.nmdp.org

I'm a 17 year old girl from Sweden. I train 4 times a week 1 hour at time.
I have a pair of risport rf2 super with a pattern 99 blade.
(all skaters where I live own their own skates)
The most popular brands on boots here nowadays is risport and edea.

We have lockers to store ous skates at the rink when we're not using them.
I only use a bag when I'm going to competitions and so on.
Then i have a bag on wheels, which actually shoud be used for vacations and such things.

You need place for the skates, a towel to dry your blades with, your guards, your gloves and your skate-covers.
You should also have some kind of plasters and a screwdriver (in case the screws would get loose underneath)

I don't know if it's bad for the skates to be in a bag.
But off-course you should air them after every practise/lesson.

I use a hockey bag. Don't shoot me, my big skates don't fit into regular figure skating bags. It's a junior size hockey bag that is a stand up style with pull handle, it looks something like this:



I used to use just a junior hockey duffle but when it got to the point that I used to upend the bag on the dressing room floor to find something, I found the stand up styles.

There is a new bag on the market, I've tried a quick search, but it's also like the back pack stand up style and had little shelves in it, for gloves, hockey pants, etc and the skate compartments are inside. It's a senior size so pretty large, definitely for the minivan set but they've got the concept.