Ok, I know we all have done it at least once - entering the ice with the guards still on. So I don't even feel so stupid anymore - I've seen friends, elite skaters, my coach... everyone ends up doing it at some point!

But last friday I really felt stupid...
I was finally back on the ice after a good two months' absence (my friends at the rink were quite incredulous when they saw me!), and was actually pretty pleased at how I was doing - I didn't feel so out of place, and my skills were more ore less where I left them. So at some point I was pausing, taking a sip of water and absentmindedly taking off some snow from my left blade... and I managed to get a nice bleeding cut on my right index finger! Ouch! (and for not wearing gloves. and for not paying attention. ) I must have done it some thousand times, nothing ever happened... and my blades aren't even particularly sharp by now, I had used them quite a bit since the last sharpening before my iceless interval... I skated the rest of the lesson holding an improvised tissue pseudo-bandage, feeling quite silly.

Now I look at my finger, and think "now I even gave blood for this sport" LOL...

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Alhrayth's Kiss&Cry

Trust me, you're not the only one to do that either! Last year I cut my finger at a competition taking my guards off . It didn't start bleeding right away, and by the time I noticed it there was no time to wash it off or anything- I had to compete with blood all over my hand. Managed to keep it off my dress, though!

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Shae-Lynn and Victor: We knew you were champions, and on 3/28/03 the whole WORLD found out! Thank you for twelve wonderful years!

i've actually done that several times. when i was doing a chinese spiral, i wound up cutting my hand trying to get a hold of the blade. it's hard to get the blade when you can't see behind you. but my blades also weren't incredibly sharp. i guess if you touch along the edge or something.

but i've done the taking off snow and start bleeding. i also once reopened a cut when i was tying my skates. i had a cut on my finger, sustained from a physics lab involving wires, and i was tying my skates, and i guess i somehow managed to irritate the cut that i thought was healed.

Husband has cut his finger taking snow off his blades - and I know several skaters who've cut themselves doing catch-foots. And others who have got ice-burn through falling while wearing a skimpy top.

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

Isn't it wonderful... how many different silly ways of getting minor injuries ice skaters have? LOL

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Alhrayth's Kiss&Cry

I've done the same.

I carry bandaids in my skate bag and my wallet for just such emergencies. I've doctored a number of skating cuts for others, often without leaving the ice.

So far (knock on wood) I've yet to step on the ice with my guards on. Close a couple of times.

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Many go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. - Henry David Thoreau

Oh yes, I've done the 'back pick up spiral' followed by 'blood pouring down my hand and arm' move It's amazing how such a small cut can hurt and bleed!

Oh Gary, will you never learn? You've only just gone and jinxed yourself I was stood with a friend when a coach (who we didn't like) did his usual flamboyant 'look at me' getting onto the ice in a leap but this time had his blade guards on. After we'd stop howling with laughter (he hadn't hurt anything more than his massive ego) I said "thank goodness I've never done that". What did I do less than 15 minutes later?

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The best whisper is a click

Well, he did knock on wood. Nevertheless, it's only a matter of time, Gary.

I cut my finger putting my guards on. I had seen some elite skater put them on front first, thought it was cool and gave it a try....once. Skating is risky enough without hurting yourself doing unnecessary, stupid things because they look "cool"

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i went to visit a med school recently, and they gave us these little plastic bandaid holders. you can put around 20 bandaids in this thing, and your bandaids stay nice and organized and dry. really, it was one of the best things they gave us out of all the things med schools give out. it runs a close second to the fleece sweatshirt that umich i believe gives out to it's accepted students.

My dad always carried bandaids in his wallet. That's where I got the idea. As a father of 3 boys and a Scout leader, I usually had to replenish my wallet weekly.

It's amazing how quickly a cut will feel better when there's a bandaid on it. Especially a decorated bandaid.

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Many go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. - Henry David Thoreau

Well I haven't cut myself on my blade - yet - and I do put them on front portion first.....Gosh, with everything else I carry in my skatebag, I never thought of bandaids! What a great idea! At our local annual summer fair the fire dept. booth was giving out those flat plastic bandaid containers. I still have it and now will put it in my bag - not for me (hopefully) but for anyone else who has a need. Perhaps because I always wear 2 pair of gloves has kept my fingers in tact.........

As for the skateguards - well this past September I did and sustained a nasty fractured patella.....but I am back happily skating now. That was only the 2nd time in 11 years, but it was a whopper.

After overlapping 2 or 3 bandaids when InsideAxel split his chin open one day, I now carry a decent first aid kit in my skatebag. It has gauze pads & medical tape, among other things

I carry several different sizes, plus gauze, tape, antiseptic, and alcohol wipes. I slip it all in a ziploc baggie.

Also, throw in a pair of surgical gloves.

Safety first.

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Many go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. - Henry David Thoreau

You are seriously prepared. I have bandaids, moleskin, and spyroflex.

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Did the guards on the ice trick on the Lussi Rink in Lake Placid.

Also I have bladed myself in the shin....twice.

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Keeping School Figures Alive!!

I never thought of carrying bandaids. Thats such a good idea.

And I can't even keep track of the amount of times i've gone on the ice with my guards. I actually consider myself to be quite an expert at it now.

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ice-princess

I've landed my double loop!!!!!YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now, if only it was the same with my double flip...

Only 16 more tests to go before the olympics!...or is that 22?....Where's my calculator?

This reminded me of something a previous coach said to me one day early on... "So, have you had your chin stitches yet?"

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Where are those knives when I need them?
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I need a detachable left foot!

I had 8 as a result of that little incident.

C'ya!

Kelton

Husband has. I, touching every sort of wood, haven't.

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

*Sigh, I wish I had ice guards.

But I have tied my shoelace over my blade. Knocked the wind right out of me (couldn't talk for about a minute)

You should get some - the shop at your rink will sell them, and they are not expensive. Even if you don't use them much at your home rink, you'll want them when you go visiting, since you never know where it's safe to walk in strange rinks.... Besides which, what if the fire alarm goes off? It does sometimes here, and everybody puts their guards on and goes and stands by the fire doors (not actually going out) while one of the teachers goes and finds out if we really need to evacuate, or if it's just a drill. But with guards, we could go out if we had to.

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

Cut finger on blade--got tetnus shot. Stepped on Lussi rink with guards on--skating partner caught it on tape. Duh. Broke a few bones but haven't had the chin stitches yet (knock on head, I mean wood)

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Careygram

January: Sure I'll compete, quick, send the application
April: I signed up to do WHAT??

Ah yes, the Lussi Rink with those low rails. At least it wasn't caught on tape but witnessed by a group of adult skaters and Barbara Colby....who kids me about it from time to time.

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Keeping School Figures Alive!!

I've cut my fingers inumerable times while wiping snow from my blades and have yet to kick the habit As for "skaters' chin," I sustained one a few year's ago while skating at a rink 2 hours from home and, IMO, "in the sticks." As I was unwilling to go to an unknown hospital for stitches, I asked a fellow skater, who is a veterinarian by profession, to patch me up with steri-strips that I carried in my skate bag for such an occasion (my daughter had already had 2 incidents). She "stitched" me up and I resumed practice. At one point, my partner looked at me in horror and, with almost no command of English (spoke Russian), he pointed at my chin . I felt it and it was bleeding again so I ran off and patched it over with a bandaid. Never went for stitches because the steri-strips were great. In fact, I now have a nearly invisible scar whereas my daughter, who had "real" stitches both times, has 2 discernible chin scars. Go figure....

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"The first rule of pair skating is that the two shall skate as one."

-Dick Button

I've had the near miss with the chin stitches several times. Fortunately (?) for me, I'm, um, large chested, which has provided me with my own personal set of air bags Though it is MUCH easier to explain "I hit my chin on the ice" than "I think I broke a boob"!