Addressing Concerns Volume 1
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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. -
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.
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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. -
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 fromgay
toreally hard.
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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.
Black Friday 2006
What We Did
Around noon on Friday, November 24th, 2006, Dale, Moody, and I met up to do a little Black Friday shopping of our own. Instead of hitting the malls, we went to Lowe's and bought wood, screws, coping, and teflon spray. We headed back to my house after picking up Harry, a local skater and extra set of hands. We set to work building a small kicker and eight foot rail box. Three hours later, we were putting a synthetic ice surface on the finished product.
In the mean time, Moody mounted ice hockey frames on several pair of aggressive inline skate boots.
We finished just in time to hoof it up to the Pelham Civic Complex in Pelham, Alabama. After paying rental fees, we set up the ramps. Over the next few hours, we learned the ropes of a sport few have actually tried. I had been on ice skates a total of two times, making my third time the first time I had used sharpened blades. Luckily, my inline skating background transferred pretty well. Except for Dale, who has been skating almost as long as he's been walking, the Ice Ramps team shared my sentiments.
Within the two hours, we attracted quite a crowd. The hand full of people we brought along to skate had doubled as onlookers joined the party. Everyone seemed to have fun and most of us fell nicely into the burgeoning sport.
What We Didn't Do
We didn't do Ice Ramps. We did aggressive ice skating. I'll explicate the differences. Aggressive ice skating is similar to aggressive inline skating. Grinding rails, hitting launch ramps, and doing spins with grabs on a pair of ice skates is aggressive ice skating. Anyone can do aggressive ice skating (and, indeed, they have). The only really unique thing we did was rivet some ice hockey blades to aggressive inline boots.
Ice Ramps is a niche of aggressive ice skating that uses a particular type of ramp — made of ice. To be clear, we didn't do Ice Ramps. Aggressive ice skating is the foundation. Ice Ramps is the structure on top of it.
Final Thoughts
The Black Friday experiment revealed a number of things.
- Aggressive ice skating is as fun as any other extreme / action sport. Skaters can test the limits of the medium while allowing an outlet for creativity.
- Aggressive ice skating is no more dangerous than any other extreme / action sport. Despite all the falls and lack of pads, no one got hurt. In fact, no one received any scratches, bruises, or ice burn (let alone road rash, which plagues newer inline skaters).
- Aggressive ice skating and Ice Ramps will work. Most of the nay-sayers harped on how landing would cause excessive damage to the ice, slow the skater down too much, or even cause a rip in the very fabric of space-time. Some of the skaters were five or six feet off the ground and landed with no problem. The ice was fine and the employees of the rink were happy to hear we were going to come back.
- The sport has a long way to go. Much like aggressive inline skating was in the early years, aggressive ice skating lacks the equipment needed to be viable (especially sturdy frames, as Moody demonstrated twice). The Ice Ramps frame seeks to solve this problem.
- Synthetic ice just isn't as good as the real thing. While fake ice got the job done, it is by no means a perfect solution. Ice Ramps ultimate goal is to bring ramps made of real ice to the general public. This will take aggressive ice skating to the next level, not slow, fickle synthetic ice.
Most importantly, Friday showed us that there is a market for aggressive ice skating. This is not some lame idea that will only appeal to the founders. This is something that is on the tip of the tongue of every disaffected ice skater. We are giving them a mouth to speak.
Updates
Just a couple of updates,
- My partner Charles Sinek is about to leave on his trip to China to find a quality business to manufacture our new skate.
- Our team has been joined by Mr. Duane Jonston a certified ice skating coach with the PSA and refrigeration tech that has installed systems in several rinks.
Look for video of our prototype ramp in spring of 2007.
Red Bull Crashed Ice Updates
Hello all. For those of that were following the Red Bull Crashed Ice Event, here they are.
Well, it was cancelled. The only information that was offered on their website and from e-mails I had received from their staff was that they had technical difficulties.
They were being kinda closed lipped about the particulars. I know spook
types that would give me more info than the Red Bull staff. My guess is the liquid chiller unit was down and they would have been cutting it close to get a replacement in time. They are not cheap either. It is one of the hurdles we face getting the prototype ice ramp built ($25k about).
Anyway they are supposed to have a another event in March of 2007 in Canada. Charles and I plan on skating that event since this one was canned. I did go to Boston anyway even though the Try-outs were cancelled, as the plane ticket I bought was non-refundable... well, at least without paying huge penalties. Regardless of the setback, Charles and I skated a couple of the ice rinks and had a great time. I can do this one move that is basically a sliding one footed hockey stop that has a extremely high snow spray (like 12-15 feet high) and the same in length depending on ice conditions and how sharp the blades are. If this sunrises you, it's true. I'll post video on the Ice Ramps website soon.
Anyway, I experienced some pain due to a glitch.
I was watching the traffic patterns in the public session and went to attempt this move. Just when I picked up max speed I started the move, this little girl came out of nowhere, crossing my path as she skated across the rink instead of with the flow. So, I had just started the initial slide on my left shin / knee and was about to place my right skate blade down to spray. I neither wanted to risk hitting her or covering her in ice. So, I hard planted my right blade down and came to a immediate halt! I was going from 35-40 mph to zero on a dime. It worked, but the speed of my forward movement drove the knee and thigh of the right leg into my chest... and hard. It knocked the wind out of me for a minute. While I continued to skate for another 30 minutes after this happened, I later realized this was much like a car accident. My neck and shoulder blades are really sore from whip-lash or something. That and getting old. ;)
Anyway, hopefully, there will not be any more issues with the next Red Bull event this coming Spring. I hope that those of you that went to A2A had a great time!
Red Bull Crashed Ice
OK This is my first posting as we have been trouble shooting the Blog feature. Charles and I will be attending and competing in Red Bulls Crashed Ice event in Boston this November 11th.
Why is important? The Crashed Ice event is proof we can build the ramps and obstacles we wish to build, as well as proof that they can be skated, too. Just visit their site.
Charles qualified at a Try-out on the 17th of September while I still have to attend the Boston try-out on the 30th of this month. I had hoped to arrange some type of alternate/proxy/video try-out to prevent having to purchase another plane ticket as I am across the country in Arizona at an Army school but they would not allow it. No issues since I will qualify regardless. So wish us luck and feel free to visit the try-outs or the event in Boston.
Welcome to Ice Ramps
Welcome to Ice Ramps, the radical new sport that brings an agressive face to ice skating. Created by 31 year skating vetran, Dale Campbell, ice ramps is sure to shake up the world of action sports by bringing patent pending technology to ice skating.
This site is the official place to find product updates. We've already begun to post photos of the project and release information. This site is constantly changing as the project progresses. Browse around, but remember to check back soon for continual updates!