Hootin Tootin Wednesday Night Skate

On Wednesday Night I made the usual summer trip to the Ice Arena for the 'Classic Hits' social skate session.  I went with Jess and Craig, neither of whom has been on the ice for a couple weeks.  I got a huge surprise on arrival when I went to grab my skates from the car and discovered that I'd brought my old Bauers (which I haven't worn since last year).  I'd picked them up unthinkingly at home from 'the usual spot', neglecting to recall that we moved all our stuff around a bit on Australia day to make room for the hungry throng at our BBQ.  No drama, I'd been wondering what they'd feel like for awhile. 

Entering the Arena the first thing I noticed was that there was more than the usual levening of hockey players amongst the Wednesday night crowd.  It was pretty cool to realise that on this occasion many of them were fellow C graders (there'll be an increasing number of senior grade players turning up randomly over the next few weeks as they approach the start of their (winter) season).  Equally as good, quite a few from the early Noarlunga Shinnies were there.  Made for a more social evening than usual.

Initially I thought that it was the Redwings on a training skate, but amongst them were Sharks, Predators (who were having a 9:30 training on the small ice later), Flyers and even another Knight.  As a pack they looked like a unit when moving around the ice.  Was good to see them.

I think Jess felt the reactivation of her skating muscles and appeared quite surprised at the experience.  Craig just motored himself around as quick and as long as he could.

As for me, I put myself through short periods of specific skating maneuvers, the new introduction for the night being a return to practicing my pivot as an alternate to a mohawk means of transitioning from forwards to backwards with minimal loss of momentum.

My old skates didn't feel as all-encompassing as my new ones do, but I was much more agile in them still.  It will take a while to get the new ones to that state, but they will be fantastic when they are.  I have since described my skating as 'mosquito like' on the evening, and I know I was making some difficult things look relatively natural.  Or so it felt.

Ice 8