I'm usually at my local rink about 1-1/2 hours before my practice sessions on Monday nights. No reason to go home as I live too far to go up and back.

Since their are group learn-to-skate programs going on during this time, I try to help out the young skaters and their parents whenever possible. It might be running for an ice pack or putting my skates on to coax a shy beginner into the ice.

My coach (also skating director at the rink) uses me a lot to get properly sized rental skates on these kids. Most parents will ask for the same size as the shoes their kids wear. My coach always suggests at least one size smaller. Skates should fit like a glove.

Monday night, one young lad was flopping around the ice on the sides of his boots and my coach sent me to get him properly booted. His mother told me that at another rink, they told her she should get at least one size BIGGER because rental skates are sized based on girls feet.

Are they sized for girls feet? Is there a difference in guys vs girls sizes in skates? What criteria for sizes do you or your rink use?

Trust me, I barely know what size shoe I wear, so I know nothing about shoe sizes.

I always thought that is was one size smaller than your shoe size. At my rink, I think they have seperate skates for boy's sizes and girl's sizes.

When I worked at a roller rink, I seem to remember that the sizes weren't seperated until a 6 (if I remember right).

Good for you for helping out!!! I hope the recovery is continuing to go well!

Hugs!
Danielle

Dani's right. Childrens' sizes, at least at every rink I've ever been to, are the same for boys and girls. I think the rink where I used to work did different boys' and girls' sizes starting at a 5. Hockey skates, IIRC, were unisex up to a 5 or 6, and after that were mens' sizes. We used to always tell girls who wanted hockey skates that they definitely needed a size smaller. They actually should have had two sizes smaller, but people didn't usually want to hear that.

It's amazing the things you hear. I used to work at a rink, often doing rentals for Learn-to-Skate or public skate, and I've been teaching Learn-to-Skate for over three years now. Some parents look at you like you're crazy when you tell them that it's actually NOT a good idea to wear two pairs of winter socks, that even if three-year-old Johnny wants to play hockey he'll have an easier time learning to stand and march in figure skates, or that lessons in double runner skates are a total waste of time. And yes, I've heard more people than I care to remember insist that they KNOW skates should be a size bigger than your street shoe. Luckily, my rink has the brown Riedell rentals, so I explain that my first good skates were the same brand, and while I wore a seven street shoe when I got them (down to a 5.5 now- major weight loss), the skates were a five and a half and should actually have been a five. That usually does it.

I picked up one interesting skill working rentals, actually- show me a child's shoe and chances are I can tell you the size without checking. I can also guess pretty well based on age. Not real useful, but what can I say?

To the best of my knowledge, skates are sized the same for men and women. My own experience is with Riedell, so I could be wrong about other brands. The confusion is caused by the fact that men's and women's shoes are sized differently. I know the blue plastic rentals and the brown Riedells should be fitted about a size smaller than the shoe size.

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I can only speak for Harlick which offers a size chart on their site. Feet measuring the same length will be a whole size different between the ladies and the men's sizes. So a woman's size 8 will be a size 7 in men.
The same goes for SP-teri, as my hubby's size 9 skates are huge, and I wear a ladies 8 1/2. The Harlick chart starts with a girls size 1 which is a boys 13.

Gary, good for you trying to get the sizing right. A colleague of mine who doesn’t usually skate just asked me last week about sore/raw ankles she and her daughter (who is around 5) experienced after a first outing with what sounded like the tan Riedell rentals; it turned out that they had been given skates a size larger than street size. The person at the rink hadn’t made any effort to give them the right thing. She asked for a size smaller than street size on the next outing, and that and some protection over the sore spots seems to have alleviated the problem.

--wannask8

Elsy2...If you think your hubby's size 9 skates are huge...I wear a size 12....

They are large enough that I can use them as a camper to sleep in when I go to Lake Placid...............

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Keeping School Figures Alive!!

LOL Figureskates! "Frankenstein boots!"

My size is 11-1/2, so I always try to wear dark slacks when I skate. Otherwise, I too look like I'm wearing Frankenstein boots.
(I wonder how many cow hides that is? )

Thanks all for your input. I think most of the rinks around here use the brown Reidell's, so you've cleared up a lot of questions.

From now on it's: shoe size minus 1 or 2

My apologies for my poor grammer/sloppy typing in my initial post. The word should have been "there", not "their". I hate when I do that. Letting my fingers get ahead of my brain.

I am only aware of the women's sizes in rental skates at my main rink. I've always worn an 8, backwhen I wore rentals and I'm an 8 in my own skates too. People - my instructor and a couple others at the rink- say your skate size should be 1 size smaller than your regular shoe. I guess if a person is a 1/2 size in shoes, the should go at least a 1/2 smaller or a whole size smaller.

For most street shoes I wear an 8.5 , and my skates are 8 even. When I bought them the girl at the pro-shop didn't bother to fit me (how knowledgable of her ) but I tried on a 7 I think and they were too small (they made my toes hurt!) so I tried an 8 which is, as I said, what I have. Now every once in awhile my skates feel a tad roomy.... probably something to do with how I've laced them..... but most of the time they're fine and I can skate in them well.

My current instructor had a LOT of trouble finding her correct size when she started out, she thought she was a size 4 or 5 but she's actually only a 3 I think she said. I feel like my feet are humongous compared to hers.

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Andrea