Skating for Furries
Introduction
Timberwoof Skates
I've gone skating on and off all my life. In 1993 I got a pair of roller blades; in 1994 I started playing roller hockey; and in 1996 I started playing ice hockey. My position is goalie, which means I need to be able to skate very maneuverably in about forty pounds of bulky goalie gear. When I go to hockey practice sessions, I always to the skating drills along with everybody else. I also coach other hockey players to help them refine their skating skills.
Timberwoof is Furry
I am working on my very own fursuit which I hope to display at BayCon, possibly ConJose, and definitely the next Further Confusion.
Skating Basics
There are some things that every beginning skater should know. The rest come with practice. I would not recommend going skating for the first tie in years in your fursuit. Go to one or two sessions in your human-suit first until you're comfortable skating.
Ice Skates
The blade of an ice skate is not a razor-sharp edge; it's actually 3 or 4 mm wide. Longways, the blade can have any of various shapes depending on what the skate is for. For fursuits I'd recommend hockey goalie skates, though hockey player skates will work. Goalie skates are stable and a little lower than hockey skates. Neither type of hockey skate has those horrid sharp pointy toe picks that figure skates have. If you should fall down and go boom, you do not want to gouge someone, so I recommend hockey skates. If you can afford them, try a pair of goalie skates. That's what S. J. Sharkie wears when he's skating on ice.
Get skates that are numerically one or two sizes smaller than your street shoes. You should be able to wiggle your toes freely, just feathering the inside of the boot. Lace them looseish over the instep and tighter at the ankles. For beginners, I recommend hockey skates. Take all that extra lace and wrap it once around, then tie off. That makes the skates good and snug, helping you keep them vertical to the ice.
Rental skates suck. They are dull and provide no ankle support. If you want to try ice skating with rental skates, get there early and ask the skate guy if you can have a pair sharpened up. If your ankles are all bent and you're having a tough time keeping the blade vertical, then try a pair of hockey skates instead.
In-Line Skates
Whether to get lace-up (hockey) skates or speed-laces is your choice. I prefer lace-up hockey skates because their fit can be customized better.
Movement
Skating is very different from walking or running. When you walk or run, you pick up your foot, move it forward, plonk it down usually heel first, and push back with your big toe. You could do that all day long on ice skates and not get anywhere. The key is to point your toe outwards and push your leg back and out to the side while gliding on the other skate. Then you bring your extended foot back in and glide on it as you push out with the other foot. It takes a little while to learn to skate properly, but the more you do it, the better you get.
Stretching
You should stretch out before you go skating. This will help get the blood flowing to your muscles to warm them up. It also helps loosen the muscles a bit and reduce the likelihood of a strained muscle. Drink plenty of water: You'll need it to support the sweat you'll generate. (When I play hockey, I like a 50/50 mix of sport drink and water.)
Fursuit for Skating
Skates
I plan to build a sort of foam rubber cowling over my skates to go with my fursuit. I'll post details and pictures here as I build them.
Head
When you practice skating, it's probably a good idea to wear a helmet. If you're wearing your fursuit, your suit's head should provide the padding you need. If you want to build a special head for going ice skating in, I'd suggest using a hockey helmet as the base. (Duuh, right?) It seems to me that a foam-rubber head would be much more protective and durable than a wire-frame one based on a hard-hat.
Vision out of a fursuit head can be very limited, but when yougo ice skating, you really need to be able to see well. Design your fursuithead with vision as a design priority.
Padding
It's okay to fall down while ice skating. In fact, it's somewhat likely to happen the first few times you go skating in your fursuit. So I suggest using a hockey girdle inside the fursuit, as well as knee and elbow pads, which can go inside the fursuit. The girdle will protect your hips and tailbone, and the joint pads will protect your joints. Personally, I'd wear a cup, too: I can just imagine some rug-rat skating right into my dangly bits. Owww.
Skating on pavement has the potential for far more damage to your fursuit than skating on ice. Pavement is naturally very rough and will chew up your fursuit very quickly. Of course, it makes sense to provide a good example for the kids, so you might as well strap on some knee and elbow pads like you're supposed to. I would also recommend good wrist braces under the paws. Be prepared to do some repairs after a fall.
Even an ice rink gets chewed up toward the end of a skating session, but it's still less abrasive than pavement.
Tail
We've all heard that the tail must be reinforced, right? This probably holds especially true when you go ice skating. Undoubtedly some kid will grab onto it and try to get a free ride. So you need two strategies to deal with this. First, the tail itself must be anchored strongly enough so it won't come off. Second, your balance must be good enough so you won't fall down. It would be cool to be a strong enough skater that you could drag the kid along, but that would probably invite a whole conga line. It would probably be good for you and your spotter to practice dealing with tail-pullers at an adults-only skating session.
