Stolen guards?

[Mint27]

I'm new - and paranoid.

I know it is common practice for skaters to lay their guards out on the rink boards before stepping onto the ice, but has anyone gotten their guards stolen?   

[TropicalSk8ter]

I have more than once and it always happens in public session.


Ripping the ice all day!

[sarahspins]

It happens, sometimes intentionally, sometimes on accident - my daughter had a pair of pink swirly guards, and so did about a dozen other little girls at our rink, and her guards disappeared quite a few times.  Sometimes they'd end up in lost and found a few days later, but usually we just never saw them again.

I left my rockerz at the rink one day and went back for them the next, and I only found one of them - curiously there was also another "single" rocker in lost and found, so I'm currently "borrowing" that one - if someone approaches me claiming it's theirs I'll gladly give it back.

[Meli]

Had a pair of purple glitter ones disappear during a public.  Too pretty to resist, I suppose.

[littlerain]

Lost mine last week because I left them on the boards after class

[lutefisk]

A member of the light fingered gentry made off with a pair of mine last winter.  I took a sharpie pen and wrote my name all over the replacement pair.  So far they've been fine.  I NEVER leave anything of great value unattended in my skate bag.  Lock up your valuables in the trunk or glove box of the car.

[AgnesNitt]

Don't leave them next to the gate during public.
Skate with them in your hand across the rink, reach over the boards at the hockey boxes and put the guards on the shelf beneath
Leaving them on the boards next to the gate is just asking for it during public.

[Loops]

I agree, that if it's going to happen it's most likely to be at a public.  Both sets of my guards are very old- they date to the late 80's AND have my name and old precision team/club written in black sharpie all over them.  I don't think they're a hot item.  I still hide them when I'm at a public though. Agnes has a great suggestion, if you don't have the plexi blocking you (we do)....  At my rink, the doors stay open during publics, so tuck mine into the board supports behind a lesser used door near the kiddie section.  So far, so good.....

[kr1981]

I'm probably jinxing myself, but in 5 years of skating, I've never had guards stolen when leaving them by the door--even during busy publics. I do have my name written on them in black sharpie, though. That's a really good idea to store them in the hockey boxes... You just have to remember they're in there when you go to leave!

But like lutefisk said, leave anything valuable (wallet, purse, phone, etc.) locked in your car. I've been very lucky so far, but it only takes a second for something to go missing!

[karne]

We have netting rather than plexi, so I hang mine up on the netting...and as someone who's pretty tall, I hang up them up pretty high.

Once I busted some little teenage brat trying to make off with someone else's...he just put them on his rentals and was clumping off when I snapped at him that those weren't his. His rather lame answer was that he thought they were "everyone's". 

[davincisop]

I either don't wear mine onto the public session and just tiptoe from the benches to the ice, OR I bring them on the ice with me and put them on the wall. During freestyle I bring my K&C tote onto the boards and stick them in their. I have my initials on them.

After some random kids tried taking them during public (where I keep a sharp eye on them in case they get knocked off the boards or whatever) I haven't brought them out for public.*


*The kids were old enough to know better than to take something that did not belong to them and were trying to fit them onto their hockey skates. I skated over and asked if those were theirs and they said "No we found them" and I said "Well, those actually belong to me, you did not find them, and you are old enough to know better than to take something that does not belong to you. Please take them off your skates and give them to me." One kid had one on his skate and thought it was for walking on the ice....

[davincisop]

When I worked at the rink though, there would be guards that would be lost all the time. We kept them in a box and kept track of how long they'd been in there. If it was more than a month, the employees would usually take them to use for themselves since they would just get thrown out. I ended up with a cute pair of blue sparkly ones for a while.

[icedancer]

I have lost DOZENS of guards over the years!!!!  I don't use them anymore although I have a pair in my skate bag that I use for emergencies like if I have to run out to the parking lot during a session or something.

Putting your name on them may help but not always.

Now if I need a pair of guards I find some in the lost and found.  At some rinks they put the lost and found guards out occassionally if they have been there for a long time and we can take them before they throw them away.

Don't be paranoid.  It happens.

[Query]

Like others have said, leaving anything on the boards is a mistake, especially in a public.

Remember, newbies are always hanging onto the boards. So, if nothing else, someone will knock them to the ice accidentally. Then, thinking it is for safety, someone will pick them up and dispose of them one way or the other.

[icedancer]

I have also seen public session skaters just take the guards that were left in the little guard boxes next to the rink - they thought they were for anyone to use!!

[nicklaszlo]

Funny thing; I could not find my guards after today's practice.  But I found a similar looking pair abandoned in the same place, which someone told me belonged to a coach.  I left them at the desk for the coach.  I wonder if he knows where my guards are?

[rd350]

Yup!  Brand new nice and expensive ones.  Now I use the $8 ones.  So annoying!

[Loops]

I left an, ahem, "vintage" pair in the locker room last week. These are scrawled all over with my name, former skating club and precision (yup, that old ) team name, but in good shape. They were nowhere to be found, and I was ticked. Similar, but more modern and kinda gross pairs were pulled out of lost and found. Then I happened to glance in the trash. Yup. Someone, either a skater, freestyler or cleaning personnel tossed them.  Guess my "no one will steal these old things" hypothesis is close to truth. Glad I found them though!

[Casey]

Never had them stolen, but a new yellow set disappeared ok me day.com a freestyle session. Whoever took them obviously made a mistake, since a pre used yellow pair was still there. I took that pair and actually like it better, because it's more broken in and goes on to my skates easier, and also because it is made of two sets using only the shorter-height pieces from each, so no front vs. Back difference to worry about. If I see my originals show back up one day, I'll swap back to them though.

[sarahspins]

My daughter has had multiple pairs stolen - it's very frustrating.  On the last pair I went out of my way to make sure her name was very visible on them in about 10 places per guard, and they only lasted about a month before they vanished - and I'm not buying her more guards.  I've told her if she really needs some for some reason to just go grab some out of lost and found that fit and then return them there when she is done.

I've not fully lost a pair of my own guards in some time, however I have had my rockers swapped out with another skater's rockers in lost and found every time I've accidentally left them behind.  So I still have "a pair" of guards, but they're not my original ones - however when there are only 2 rockers guards in lost and found and one is mine, and there's another the same size but in another color, it's not hard to guess that someone swapped theirs out.

[FigureSpins]

I've seen newbies at public skating think that the guards are available for anyone and then the ninnies put them on and try to walk on the ice with them.  Belly Flop Anyone?

I use the one-piece guards and take them on the ice with me along with my shoulder bag.  I always close the doors to the penalty/scorers boxes because of the jump harness, electrical cords, cables, computer, music player, and scoreboard controls are all accessible.  I put my bag and guards in the closed-off boxes.  IMO, the two big team boxes are enough for the public skaters to use if they're tired or need to tighten skates.  (People taller than I hook their guards over the top of the hockey glass inside the rink/nets, but I cannot reach that high, lol.)

The only time someone messed with my guards was during a Friday Night-Teen Madness-Beware public session.  The little twerps opened the box doors to make out/hang out.  One of the quartet members decided to pull the rubber loops off my guards.  When I went to get my stuff to leave, I had to reassemble the loops, which were tossed on the floor.  Could have been worse: they could have set them on fire (which one skater said happened to her) or broken/trashed the loops.  At least they didn't rifle through my bag or damage/steal anything.

OP: use a permanent marker to put your name on the guards.  Put them behind the open rink door, on a lower ledge or wedge them behind an upright post if you can't take them on the ice.  Out of sight, out of mind.  A lot of guards get knocked down off the top of the wall because people don't see them, or they lose their balance and grab the wall for support or because people are mean.  Rave: Our current hockey director resolved the problem of the waiting hockey players spitefully making noise, knocking down guards and intruding on the ice with sticks and skates during the end of the freestyle session while they were waiting for the clock to tick over.  It's a complete turnaround - the hockey kids are friendly and well-behaved while they wait. 

I was watching a skater remove her Rockerz guards this morning and it looked difficult!  She almost fell over and she's not a rookie skater.  I was surprised - maybe she went up a size in blades and these are too tight.  I'll stick with the cheapo one-piece guards.  (That reminds me: I need new guards.  Mine are wearing out.  Santa Baby...)

[Christy]

I just got Rockerz guards because my old ones wouldn't fit over the chassis of the matrix blades, and I do find them a very snug fit - takes about 2 seconds to put them on then 2 minutes to get them off    I'm hoping they'll get a bit easier as they're worn.
I've also just put my name on them in the hope they don't go walkies, because I'm not sure we even have a lost / found at the rink.

[FigureSpins]

The front desk has a L&F bucket that has everything from gym bags to swimsuits to goggles to library books to skate guards, lol.  Most people turn things in at the front desk.  Periodically, it gets sorted out into a few buckets behind the skate rental counter, which also accepts items left behind inside the rink or the rink locker rooms.  Once or twice a year, the rink sorts through and donates the lost items to charity, but no charity wants skate guards, so our skating director keeps a "long lost guards" bucket in her office rather than letting them be tossed out as trash. 

When one of my skaters loses his/her guards, we go for a walkabout, checking the Front Desk L&F, the skate rental buckets and then the skating director's secret stash.  Most of the time, we find the skater's original guards.  If not, the Director usually lets the skater pick a pair from her bucket, since those guards are unlikely to be claimed.

I was at a rink last December where a skater had somehow attached jingle bells to her skate guards.  (I heard and saw them, but didn't see how they were attached.)  It was cute: she jingled when she walked.  I would think that would keep a lot of people from walking away with the wrong guards.

[Gabby on Ice]

I had my guards stolen a few months ago. I got off the ice to find they were gone, so I checked the lost and found, and they weren't there either. So I bought new ones and made sure to put my name on them.

[rd350]

@FigureSpins I am definitely going to figure out how to make my guards jingle!  Brilliant!  Then I can re-buy the guards I really like.