In which country/city does everyone skate?

[sampaguita]

Or at least, where does the vast majority know how to skate? Canada is on the top of my list, being a hockey country -- any comments? Other answers?

[Loops]

My guess is skating would be pretty ubiquitous in the Nordic countries and perhaps Estonia.

[tstop4me]

How about speed skating in the Netherlands?

[AgnesNitt]

Minnesota.

A long time ago Minnesota had a program to build a rink in every city (don't know the minimum minimum size) in Minnesota.

I have a book on the history of figure skating in Minnesota, and it's fascinating. All the US ice shows trace their origins there.

[Query]

Knowing how (to skate) is a relative thing. Some Canadian and Russian skaters are among the best in the world. But some of them aren't. What I see when they come here is that most of them have skated often before, but many haven't taken any lessons. Those are reasonably fast and comfortable on the ice, but they might not have good edges, go backwards, or be able to do crossovers and turns, etc. The same is true of some of the Russians that come here, even those that lived in the colder parts of Russia.

It's like walking or running. Most of us have walked and run for many years, and are reasonably comfortable doing it, but most of us don't use good efficient technique, or know what good technique is.

[cittiecat]

Anecdotal information to add on:

I'm from NJ and now I live is SC. The rink is where I find a lot of transplants. We have some native to SC but a lot of others or their parents came from other places where there were more skating opportunities.


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[icedancer]

I agree with Query that it seems in Canada everyone skates but they are not "figure skaters" necessarily but they seem to have more comfort on the ice than general recreational skaters - at least in my area.

When I lived in Boston it seemed like there were at least 40 rinks in the area - here in a moderate-sized city of Portland, OR there are 4 rinks and one is very small oval mall rink (which used to be bigger and not oval but still not full NHL-size).

[sampaguita]

Of course we don't expect everyone to do triple jumps, but just going around the rink takes practice and a little bit of talent. I was wondering where you can randomly pick out someone and ask him or her to skate, and he or she wouldn't fall on the ice.

[amy1984]

I would say that in Canada it's probably 60/40.  Like if you were to randomly ask people if they could skate - meaning can put on skates and skate around the ice.  The number would be higher if you asked who'd ever skated and could get on the ice and shuffle around.

The amount of times I've suggested skating for a date and been told 'I can't skate' is staggering