Skating in the Rain and Wet

Very relevant for today!

Skating in wet conditions can be hazardous and cause damage to your bearings, if you don’t take care to dry them out properly afterwards, but it can be achieved safely with the right equipment. However if you don’t have a set of Water Wheels - you have only 2 options.

1. Take off your skate and walk
2. Adjust your skating technique to skate in the wet

Here’s some technique tips for skating in the rain.

• Try to keep on the top or centre edge of your skates, they have maximum grip when they are as upright as possible. You have considerably more grip upright than on an edge.
• Make short and even pushes when skating, keeping the skates under you. If you make long sudden pushes your skates will slip.
• Avoid wet, or even damp, leaves as these can be extremely slippery. Moss, leaves etc. are like ice!
• Learn a good wet weather stopping technique. Heel braking is good, T-stopping is a lot worse. If you can, try to learn the Forward T-stop / Soul Slide as it is highly effectively.
• Turning in the wet can be the most dangerous thing you will do: a parallel turn requires you to lean your skates onto corresponding edges and this, in turn, makes them open for sliding. If you can, reduce your speed considerably and try to make more gradual turns.
• If your wheels are brand new and still have the shine on them, do not skate. Take your skates off and walk. The shiny surface on new wheels makes them extremely slippery in the wet and you’re much much more likely to end up hurting yourself.

We’ll be talking a bit about how to clean your bearings in a later article but, for now, one of the best things you can do when you get out of the wet is to remove your wheels from the frames and wipe the outside of the bearings with a dry cloth or tissue paper. It’s likely that your bearings won’t spin as well after being used in the wet, sometimes even getting a little “crunchy”, but if you skate on them they should start to loosen up.

And, on the positive side of skating in the wet: it is easier to start learning some slides than if it was dry. For example, learning the Forward T-Stop / Soul Slide is much easier as the friction between your wheels and the ground is considerably reduced. However, be careful for exactly the same reason: you are going to slide, and you are likely to fall over. Wear safety gear to protect yourself as much as possible.

(original article from our colleagues in Skateinstructor.com)

This entry was posted on 26/05/2008 at 08:45 am and is filed under Lessons and Courses. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.