Fee on Ice

Until a couple of weeks ago, I had never even been to an ice rink, let alone been out on one.

I finally had my first ice skating experience the other week with a few girls from my uni flat. It was a terrifying ordeal to say the least. Of course, as it came to leaving time, I was starting to gain confidence and had finally started to creep away from the edge. 

I was eager to get back to the ice to practise but the holidays were upon us before we could organise anything. However I have recently managed to get back on the ice but for something a bit different...

Quite a few years ago my sister used to go to a local ice rink and go curling with her sixth form. In the years since she has returned with varying people, and for her birthday this year she was heading back with a few friends and I managed to pick up an invite.

Off we went. After lots of tiny and windy country roads we found ourself at a farm, with a barn, with an ice rink in. It's quite wonderful really. Imagine having that conversation: 'you know what, darling? I think we need an ice rink in the barn.'

After a brief video we put on any extra layers, changed our shoes and stepped into the room with the rink in. Later I was told that the shoes had been changed last year: they used to have a bit called a kipper that you could take off so you had one slippy foot and one grippy foot. Now they were just grippy. My sister and a couple of others had previously used the other shoes but I was very grateful for the change, ice is not my best friend.

Our instructor lady talked us through the pushing off and sweeping technique. Being very uncoordinated, it took me a lot longer than everyone else. That said, all but two others had been at least one before and they were all at least 6 years older than I was!

 You're in a team of four for curling, and everyone gets two stones each. You're supposed to rotate as well, so everyone has a part to play and can get involved. Most of my stones just soared past everything and went out of play, I prefered the sweeping but it didn't half wear you out!

After a few tries just using the hack (the starting block looking things) to push off with our grippy shoes we were then introduced to the sliding technique..

There was a sort of paper/plastic sheet in an oval that acted as the kipper and was really rather slippy. You placed that under your foot that you lunged off with and the idea is that you slide your way across the ice with the stone until the thick red line, where you need to let go.

It's really blooming hard and I definitely fell flat on my bum on my first attempt. Thankfully however, I was not the only one. After people had practised for a little bit we started a new game and everyone but me adopted the new technique (sod that). By the end of it, most of them were able to slide relatively gracefully to the line and deliver a nice stone. I, however, still sucked. But also still enjoyed sweeping.

We had two hours on the ice in the end, and it was great fun. Although we won our first two games easily, we lost the next three. Not the best way to end but it was still a good trip out! I really hope I can go again some time and maybe practise with the kipper a bit more (but maybe not, I'm really not looking forward to seeing the bruise on my bum!).

I definitely recommend trying it out if you have the chance, it's such an underrated sport and is a great laugh - much better when you're all rubbish in my opinion (and that's only because I'm rubbish)!

For those in Kent or East Sussex the link to the website for this particular ice rink is here