Synthetic ice opinion...?

Question

1. Could anyone who has bought synthetic ice or skated on it give me their opinion on it?

2. Would it help me advance faster (I started a month ago and am on forward and backward crossovers.) I know it's not as good as real ice, but is it okay for someone at my level?

3. Do you know of any companies that have fairly cheap but good quality synthetic ice for outdoors?

Thank you so much!

Answer 1

i think you should buy the ones from by sources. the second one is one that oksana bauil skated on in the past. i think theres some photos of her on it on the website. im not sure if these are good but my family was considering it. but we changed our mind. godd luck

Answer 2

I bought a product called prospeed skating surface which is similar to synthetic ice. The company Puckmasters uses it in their hockey training centers and claim it's better then the synthetic ice that's on the market. It's worked great for me and my kids. It took about a week longer to get then I expected although after it was delivered it was and easy install and maintenance. I'd recommend the prospeed. If you go to the puckmasters website you can find it.

good luck, Bob

Answer 3

Skating on "glice" is very very different from skating on ice! I am a professional figure skater and did my first ice show on glice a few months ago and it takes a while to get used to.

Your balance points are different because of the friction and the fluidity that your blade looses when on plastic as compared to real ice. I really find (if this is the type of glice that you are using) that using a good amount of silicone on it helps. It lets your blade move more easily, rather than sticking.

The moves that you can actually perform on glice are limited in comparison however. You can't get the same edges that you can on real ice, and for a lack of a better way to describe it, you can't "cut into" glice.

You could always contact an ice show that uses glice and pick their brain on the best way to go about finding good quality glice for a decent price. They, of all people, should be able to give you good advice on it! :)

Good luck!!!

Answer 4

1) I know the DFS adverts use it and also some outdoo rinks, so it got to be good enough or people wouldnt use it.

2)Yes it would help you learn faster as you can go on it whenever you like :) and you will try thing you may not at the rink as no one ill be there to judge you.

3) It depends which country you live in as to if you are in dollers, euros or GBP. They wont be cheao and they wont be expensive. For a good make pay more, for a less good make pay less i guess. But have fun! Let me know how it goes.

Answer 5

I have done a little research about this myself, and here is what I have found:

Having a "home rink" provides the benefit of being able to skate on your own schedule, however there are a few drawbacks.

There is transition time any time you switch from the synthetic ice to the real ice (and vice versa). The real ice is a lot more, well, slippery... so it takes time to readjust. I think it would be more of an issue when you're working on jumps and spins since your technique would need to be adjusted depending on which surface you are on. However, synthetic would probably offer a great practice advantage for stroking exercises and crossovers (as well as help build muscle since it takes more work to keep going).

A minor drawback is your blades become dull quite a bit faster so you will be getting them sharpened more often. That may or may not be a big deal, depending on how much you currently spend, and how accessible someone is to sharpen your skates.

Overall it could be very beneficial, depending on your short and long term goals with skating. I do have experience skating on synthetic but it was a long time ago. When I did, I was very uncomfortable on  real ice because I didn't feel as "in control." It would be good if you could find a synthetic rink somewhere near where you live to give it a try before you purchase some for your home.