Competing nationally in rental skates

[Casey]

So I was found this article about a skater who skates at the rink I have been going to lately - the airline lost her skates on her way to compete in the National Solo Ice Dance competition, so she ended up competing using rental skates and placing 5th - impressive!

http://figureskating.about.com/od/competitionsandtests/a/Airline-Loses-A-Figure-Skaters-Skates-She-Competes-Anyway-In-Rental-Skates.htm

[alejeather]

I remember Brent Bommentre talking about a time his skates didn't show up for an International assignment on the Manleywoman Skatecast. He didn't skate in rentals, but he did skate in brand new boots. I enjoyed hearing him talk about it on the podcast because he had such a good attitude about it.

article here:
http://web.icenetwork.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080317&content_id=45763&vkey=ice_news

podcast here:
http://www.manleywoman.com/episode-20-navarro-bommentre/

[twinskaters]

Wow, that's an amazing story! Both that she wore the rentals and that people scrambled to help her compete. I love hearing that.

[Query]

I was surprised to learn from a high end skate technician that a lot of competitive skaters travel with two pair, in different bags, or ship one of the pairs by mail.

[cbskater]

When I've flown,I put my skates in a small bag that will fit under the seat in front of me. There is no way that  I'll check them or take the chance of them getting " gate checked" because the overhead bins were full. Last year I had the TSA agent manning the X-ray machine stop at my skates & start asking the other agents if they were allowed on board. As I'm starting to freak, she finally found one that knew, YES, they are allowed.

[AgnesNitt]

Put a bookmark on your smart phone to here: http://www.tsa.gov/traveler-information/prohibited-items

Also, some packing tips: http://icedoesntcare.blogspot.com/2012/05/fying-with-skates.html for those who check their skates.

[Query]

Incidentally, Agnes's second link makes it clear that some countries other than the U.S. do NOT allow skates on airplanes.

There is a simple solution to all this: Charter a plane. I may be wrong, but AFAIK, for the most part, there are no TSA checks on small chartered planes. See this.

I said simple.  I didn't say cheap.

[Casey]

I prefer trains whenever possible.

[emitche]

Awesome story. She did a great job considering the rental skates. And the people who stepped up made that possible. Thanks for sharing.