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When a Ball of Spray is not possible, we seek sheets of ice


Fatroll
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As far back as I can remember, that's a once in a decade thing in MN. And this year was one of them. And there I was with no skates and actually in MN in the frign winter.

 

Yrs back my brother in-law, a collage hockey player from Cali, had never been on natural ice. As soon as his skates hit the ice he was GONE. He'd never been on ice that fast. He was a speck in the distance. We weren't sure when he'd come back.

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@wish. That happens fairly often around us, just depends on when it snows again.

 

@mattp. Most certainly there is; bad ice is white and flakey, good ice is clear, black or blue. You can skate safely on 4" of good ice. Snowmobile on 6-8" and drive a small truck on a foot. I'll be out tearing around on my sled this weekend, love riding the ice when I can't ski on it :)

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The variable weather in northeast Ohio makes it tough to have consistent ice. We went from -10 to 50 in 3 days last week. Although, we tend to get 1-2 perfect days like this every year. Most of the time, there is a ton of shoveling. This was very good ice, very fast. It snowed on it last night so there will be a prework shovel workout tomorrow morning for our Saturday afternoon skate. Great way to embrace winter.
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@xrated we flood my lake. We cut a hole in the ice and drop a sump pump in and run an extension cord up to my house.

 

Our ice is mostly gone right now though. We had a couple of weeks of skating but we kept getting some snow which messed stuff up. We never got what @Fatroll had.

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We do that out at my parents lake place, but it involves first blowing the snow off the ice. there are small springs on their side of the lake so it overflows the ice from a couple spots and really keeps it smooth (but still thick enough)
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Living in the north, have to find things to do. Here is what has been occupying my time and benefitting my kids. First year that I have ever made a rink. Glad that I did it and sorry that I did not do it sooner. Priceless watching them skate and skating with them.
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In Sweden there are 10 000 of lakes.

Most are Frozen during winter.

Unfortunately the surface are often choppy or covered with to much snow.

During great days a lot of folks are skating on them.

 

I went out Saturday doing 22 km (typ 15 miles).

 

The Ice was thin.

4 cm is the bare limit (thickness Exp2) * 5 = dimension weight..

One test with an pike and learn how thick it is.

We had 8 cm down to 5 cm.

 

Saw a 'beaver-house' and an Eagle!

 

=0)

 

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@gsm_peter‌ - I hear of skates like that - normally from reading guides from shape sharpening machine companies discussing blade profiles.

 

Interesting to see them in use - is the stance a bit more upright/weight back on those than you'd use on cross country skis or hockey skates?

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@‌BraceMaker - Yes The position is quite stacked. The skates has a very long very flat edge. Hockey have typ 3" and these has type 12".

 

This is a bit hard to explain but I will try.

The best guys with very strong technique skate with S turns and put pressure on the outer side of the blade in the first part of the S. Then on the edge change body position move over and pressure are in the down course direction again.

A bit surprisingly is the the skate moves a slight bit into the center line the very first part of the S turn and the skater then generate down course energy here as well (for a short while).

 

The best guys can almost skate without lifting the skate from the ice.

 

On perfect ice and no wind cursing speed can be type 17 mph and top speed type 25....

Once I skated with a lot of tail wind and made 10 miles in 1/2 hour with out having to hardly skate at all =0)

 

Why do you not try it next winter?

 

 

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