Crazy things you have tried with equipment

[Casey]

Hopefully I'm not the only one who's tried some crazy ideas (I've seen some posts around here about cutting boots and duct tape!)...so here goes:

1.  I once screwed some figure skating blades to the bottom of regular canvas shoes that I didn't care much about.  I fancied this would help me build up my own ankle strength.  It was extremely awkward and very difficult to keep from tipping to the left or right.  Surprisingly, the blades stayed firmly attached to the shoes even though the screws were just going into plain rubber.  I think I ended up hurting my ankle, in any case I never tried that again!

2.  I tried skating with ankle weights, thinking this would help me increase my strength and make everything seem easier with them off.  Unfortunately the ankle weights were not light, and it made skating pretty difficult.  I still think it might be a decent idea but I didn't stick with it.

3.  When I got custom Klingbeils with brown leather soles, they just weren't smooth and shiny enough for me.  So straightaway, I took a bunch of sandpaper to my brand new skates and made them smoother myself, then applied new coats of Sno-Seal to them.  This was a great success and I wish I still had brown leather soles today.  I am a little bit tempted to try stripping off the black paint on my current soles, but haven't because of two reasons: A> I don't think brown leather soles would look good with the black Paramount blades I have now, and B> while I'm not worried about getting the black paint off the sides which could be sanded as needed, I am worried about getting it off the bottom which I would rather not sand.  I will order my next boots with raw brown leather soles, and sand and finish them myself.

4.  I once owned a set of speed skates (from eBay I think) which I would sometimes take to public sessions.  I currently own a pair of hockey skates (from a thrift store), which I despise after trying a couple times and just sit in storage.