Ice Ramps

Addressing Concerns Volume 1

Posted by Robert on 2006- 12- 30

I took a look at our server logs today. That lead me to several sites that are talking about Ice Ramps. I want to address some concerns from the aggressive inline skating community.

Recently, we had some problems with our web server. This document is an earlier draft of a post I made that was not restored to our server. Being that it is a draft, it might be less polished in some areas than the final version. So, I apologize in advance.

1. You might get hurt / injured / set on fire / killed / sliced into little pieces and eaten by rabid ice weasels.

   I hear this concern more than any other and it perplexes me. Here we have a group of people that jump off of objects like warehouse roofs, parking structures, giant flights of steps, and other large gaps. They land on pavement. Pavement is hard. Sometimes they don't land on their feet. I've forgotten about more clips of inliners getting concussions, broken arms, broken legs, broken fingers, and stitches than I remember, and I remember a lot of them. I even know of a guy who severed his finger while inline skating. Yet, everyone still rollerblades.

   No one has gotten hurt while aggressive ice skating that I know of, and tons of people are scared of it. What gives? ;)

   I think the main problem is fear of the unknown and wussing out is just an easy and accepted way to say, I'm not sure I'm capable of doing that. It works for big tricks on skates. If I know I'm not good enough to land a trick, I say that I'd get hurt and everyone understands. However, no one has improved at any aggressive sport without a few bumps and bruises. If you are afraid of getting hurt, you should quit skating and hide under the covers. The world hurts. Get over it. If you are scared to ice skate because you don't know if you'd be good at it, just say that. We'll only make fun of you for a little while.

   The difference between inline skating injuries and ice skating injuries is that ice skaters get ice burn and inliners get road rash. At least with ice skating, you can ice your injuries on the spot to dull the pain.

2. Don't grab your tricks! You might lose a finger!

   Most grabs that I do on a regular basis while inlining don't involve grabbing my wheels or frame. For example, mute, safety, parallel, rocket, flying squirrel, flying fish, japan, lui kang, are all grabs to the boot (or can be and still count). For the other grabs that must use the blade, gloves, which are nice to be wearing when you're touching ice frequently, will protect you from any cuts from the blade. Further, Dale insists that slapping your hand on the blade won't cut it, much less take a finger off. I've never tried, though.

3. It's too cold.

   I've seen video of inliners grinding rails with snow all around them. Beside the fact that water and grit kills ball bearings, the potential for accidentally slipping on ice is huge. You are going to skate when it is cold. Why not go to an ice rink and do the same thing with the understanding that you will be on ice? Besides, one of the most often heard complaints at Ramp 'N' Speed was about it being hot. Here is a real air conditioned skate park.

4. It's not good for rollerblading.

   This is arguable, but I'll throw in my two cents. There is this marketing concept called the halo effect. The idea is that if a company has one really great product (like an iPod), it will lead to sales of the company's other products. Lets apply it to us.

   If we open the doors to a new way of ice skating (that is, aggressive ice skating) and carve a niche for the sport, people will do it, just like people started aggressive inlining. If we also introduce a frame that fits on inline boots (and, eventually, an aggressive ice skating boot that accepts inline frames), we've not only equipped inliners to go ice skate, we've equipped ice skaters to inline.

   Let's face it. I'm not going to stop rollerblading because of aggressive ice skating. I doubt any serious inliner would. Likewise, no serious ice skater is going to quit ice skating to only inline. However, I will do both, as rollerblading is really best in the summer and aggressive ice skating is really best in the winter (or on particularly hot summer days). The goal here is to merge the markets. If we show ice skaters how cool this aggressive thing is, they will eventually end up on rollerblades. If we can show aggressive inline skaters how cool this ice thing is, they will eventually end up in the rinks. More people are inlining and more people are ice skating. Halo effect. Everyone wins.

5. It won't catch on. It's too expensive.

   It's true. Ice ramps are expensive. They require expensive chiller units, expensive ice mat, expensive facilities to house them in... the list goes on. There is no way most people could ever own an ice ramp. That is the catch. We expect you to own an ice ramp as much as we expect you to own a river to go kayaking in.

   Ice rinks already have the facilities, the chillers, and access to ice mat. All they need is demand for them and someone to build them. The only cost you incur is paying admission to get in. This is no different than any other skate park, amusement park, movie theatre, airline, or ice rink in the nation.

   As for gear, it shouldn't be any more expensive than inline skating gear. One of our goals is to make it easy for inliners to jump in with minimal cost. In addition to the ice ramps frame (which will fit on your inline boot), we're working on things like entry-level blade blocks that would cost as much and replace inline skate wheels for someone who wants to try out aggressive ice skating.

6. How will you shape and maintain the ice? I don't think you can do it.

   We have a few ideas that we'll test out once we have a prototype built. Certainly, it will be difficult, but you don't need to worry about it. If you need hope that it is possible, know that bobsled runs are groomed, and those are much crazier than any ice ramp I can envision creating.

7. What's the market? Where is the demand?

   One thing I've learned since Ice Ramps started gaining popularity on various forums is that everyone has had this idea before but no one has really done anything about it. Sure there are some folks doing aggressive ice skating. We've found quite a few that thought they were the only ones doing it. The point is that there are people who want to do this. As with Chris Edwards and Arlo Eisenburg back in the 1990s, we are pioneering a sport and demand is small. Due to the social nature of ice rinks, once the ball starts rolling, it will take off fast. It's going to start with promoting aggressive ice skating with projects like the one we did on Black Friday. These preliminary, less than ideal proof-of-concept projects will catch people's eye and bring about a demand for ice ramps from rinks.

   The target audience, however, is very diverse. Obviously, building on what aggressive inline skating has brought us (since that is what most of the Ice Ramps team does) shows that we want aggressive inline skaters to try us out. The second audience is the all-around ice skater. These are people that play a little hockey or do a little figure skating, do a little recreation skating, and have been on rollerblades before. These people want an aggressive sport, but have never been offered anything in the format they like (i.e. ice skating). The third is other ice skaters. These might be kids that go to ice rinks on the weekend, or figure skaters who want to do something a little more raw while still doing some form of artistic expression. Finally, there are going to be people who just happen upon it and want to try something new. We want all these people to feel like they have a place in aggressive skating.

8. You guys look like you are bad skaters or are figure skaters. What gives?

   In my post about Black Friday, I said that inline skating skills transferred well to ice skating. I wasn't 100% clear. There is a learning curve and a couple of caveats.

   First, ice skates feel different than aggressive skates. Out of the team members in Black Friday, Dale is the only real ice skater. He's been doing it all his life. The rest of us come from aggressive inline back grounds. I've been aggressive inline skating for over 10 years. Moody has been for at least 5. Moody has been ice skating for less than a year. I had only been on ice skates a total of three times in my life when we filmed Black Friday.

   Skating on ice (especially jumping) takes some getting used to. The skates in Black Friday are hockey skates. Like almost all ice skates, the blades are curved. So, the skater is really on part of a hump of blade. This gives the skater tons more control over turning, but also forces him to pay more attention to weight distribution. You can simulate this by rockering a pair of inline skates so that the middle wheels stick out further than the outside wheels. You'll notice you can turn on a dime, but you lose the stability offered by flat rocker or antirocker. In a prototype frame that I designed that we'll be testing soon, I tried to get as close to flat rocker as possible. Likewise, Dale's prototype is pretty much flat rocker. None of us were riding those skates, though. So, a lot of attention was being paid to staying on our feet rather than tricking out.

   Second, when a sharpened metal blade contacts metal, it sticks. That means that grinds can only be done well if the blade is dragging behind the skate. Frontside based grinds are right out. Believe me, we found out the hard way. Moody stuck an acid soul by barely contacting his front skate to the rail. I stick to mizous because, frankly, it's my favorite grind and happened to be the best grind for the setup we were using.

   Thirdly, we were using plastic as a surface for the ramp. It was slow for us because we improvised on the lubricant. Imagine skating on concrete, then riding onto a ramp made of shag carpet. That's about what it was like. Most of the time I was worried, even after hauling ass, that I wouldn't make it to the end of the ramp. Next time, we are going to try to modify the surface of the ramp to make it faster and use official lubricant. Hopefully, that will help. This won't be an issue when we have a real, working Ice Ramp, however.

   Finally, to those that think the integration of figure skating moves, get over yourself. Skate boarders call inliners fruit booters. Critics of figure skating have no appreciation of inline skating. The critics have no appreciation for figure skating. Figure skating requires a great deal of skill, and figure skating tricks will play a major role in aggressive ice skating. I think if anyone bothered to try it, the adjective would change from gay to really hard.

9. What about XtremeIceSkating.com?

   Like I said before, we aren't the only people doing aggressive ice skating. Xtreme Ice Skating is an organization in New York that specializes in introducing people to aggressive ice skating. Coming from an ice skating back ground, they put emphasis on structured training to become a good skater. The Ice Ramps team, on the other hand, comes from a mostly aggressive inline skating frame of mind in that we think the school of hard knocks is the only school you really need for aggressive ice skating. In a burgeoning sport that flies in the face of tradition, it's still not decided whether the do-it-yourself method of learning is better than the traditional figure skating method of learning. In the end, it might be a case of what works best for the skater, which is fine by us.

   While our collective lingo in the early days of Ice Ramps was (mutually) a little ambiguous, I feel it's important to note that Ice Ramps is not affiliated Xtreme Ice Skating. Ice Ramps and Xtreme Ice Skating are both working to grow aggressive ice skating into a legitimized sport. However, Ice Ramps and Xtreme Ice Skating are working on entirely different problems. Xtreme Ice Skating is attempting to train aggressive ice skaters. Ice Ramps is working on product for aggressive ice skaters.

So, I hope that clears up a few of the concerns I've seen sprinkled about the Internet. We're really excited about the amount of attention and feedback we've gotten so far. We have big plans for 2007 and hope you guys are with us all the way. We're always around to answer questions. Feel free to contact us whenever.