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Ice Slalom

Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2007 2:13 am
by Adam Daniels
A year or so more ago, i remember seeing a picture of a slalom board with ice skates on each wheel so the rider could pump around on ice. does anyone have any information on these custom pieces? i have many ponds in the woods around me and i would really love to slalom this time of year.

or.......does anyone have the ability to make such devices?

Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2007 2:26 am
by Kevin Dunne
Kenny Mollica just posted a picture of one on his NCDSA forum...I'm sure he can tell you where to get one...

Blades

Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2007 5:16 pm
by Andy Bittner
I have a vintage set of 4, I bought sometime back in the late 70's. Unfortunately, the brutally heavy, but very smoth surfaced, ice storm we'd had the winter before, the one that actually coated the hills in our neighborhood with an ice rink-quality surface (on which we downhill raced regular figure skates) and inclined me to want the blades in the first place, has yet to repeat itself. On flat, the blades turned out to be mostly unusable (or, at least, not very fun), and I learned an esoteric little lesson (for those who don't ice skate) about skate blades. An ice skate blade actually has two edges, one on each corner of the width of the blade, with a little concave (side-to-side) pocket between them, running the length of the blade. An ice skating blade that comes to just one point does nothing but gouge progressively deeper into the ice. Unfortunately, the person who created and marketed the ones I have didn't know that. They are single-edged. So, foot pushing was pointless. There was no way to push hard enough to get even enough momentum for the board to keep moving while you put your second foot back on the board. It was... push, push, push and then try not to fall on your nose as the board ground to a halt. The only way to get them going a little was to run across the ice and do a skateboard long jump-style jump onto the board, and then start pumping, hard. Once going, it would pump for a little bit, and, fortunately for me, I was raised playing the shoe-wearing ice sport, curling, and am very comfortable running on ice. Then, after all of that, I could pump the board maybe 50' before it was just taking waaaay to much effort and dug in. So, if you buy blades for your skateboard, make sure you get ones that have a blade like a real ice skate blade.

Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2007 10:35 pm
by Adam Daniels
thanks for that info. last night really fast i made 2 crude prototype out of some aluminum i had in the basement and just drilled an 8mm hole in the middle and made the edge like a knife blade.......now i know why it didn't work. it was way to slow!

Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2007 11:59 pm
by Dave Gale
I too had a set of the blades from the 70's Bittner speaks of. The only way I ever got enjoyment from them was on windy ass days, with a mast and sail on a deck I borrowed from Rick Wertz. I think it was an old Bahne with a plastic pivot that the mast set in!

Posted: Fri Feb 23, 2007 7:32 pm
by Noah Heinle
This dude was HAULIN' the other day. ...like 40+ Pretty cool...

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Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2007 8:04 pm
by Robert Sydia
WOW - that has to be the nicest ice I have seen on a lake.

All the best,

Rob

Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2007 9:25 pm
by Joe Iacovelli
What trucks are those?

Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2007 10:01 pm
by Jonathan Harms
Looks like Indy 215s to me.

Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2007 3:25 am
by Noah Heinle
Interestingly, it's salt water (brackish.) This river dumps into the Atlantic about 3 miles away.

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Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2007 12:10 am
by Pierre Gravel
My Speedboarding Teammates from the kebbek Team, Ian Comishin and The Rookie are riding today in Québec City in the Red Bull Crashed Ice, an ice skating boardercross style race down an iced track made for the event:

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They will be riding kebbek Flushcuts with blades, can't wait to see the videos!

For more info on this crazy event:
http://www.redbullcrashedice.ca/

I'll post here when i get skateboarding photos of the boys doing their demo.

Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2007 2:51 pm
by Pierre Gravel
I did not find any photo of the skatebording demo but the crowds were estimated at 75 000
last nite.

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The is a slalom race planned in Québec this summer, on Grande Allée, maybe we will get as much spectators.