Gliding
We went ice skating last night at Discovery Green. My friend Buttery and I realized that people are going to start taking off for the holiday in the next few days, and last night would be our last chance to do something as a group. So we rounded up the troops, got ourselves organized, and about 17 of us donned ice skates and went around in circles for an hour or so.
It's probably been twenty years or more so since I've been on skates. My mom grew up in a part of the country that had rivers freeze over on a regular basis, so she was a skater by origin. She used to take us every now and then to the Galleria ice rink when we were kids, and we got to be proficient, if not expert, skaters. Graham's skating history was relatively non-existent, save for some time logged on roller blades.
Hand and hand, we shoved off onto the ice. I was a little rusty at first; he, moreso. We both took advantage of the rails and each other's hands to get around the rink the first couple of times. But within fifteen minutes or so, we found our rhythms and we were more or less gliding without incident. I took a couple of tumbles when I got overly confident (or hit a rut in the ice), but otherwise, we did fairly well. Graham has ridiculously good balance and tends to excel at almost anything he tries athletically. He was gliding all over the place pretty quickly.
With so many of our friends around us, there was always someone around to chat with or skate around a few times with or run down. We sort of claimed a little section of wall in one of the corners to be a meeting place to pause and catch our breaths.
Our ten year old friend was a new skater, and we spent the last twenty minutes or of the night so in the middle of the ice teaching her how to skate. At first two of us held her hands and helped her around the ice a few times, but then Smash, no stranger to skating, held her hands and skated backwards while encouraging our friend to push forward. It seemed to work, and I think if we had a little more time, she would have been skating on her own. Her six year old brother was much more reluctant to get out there once he realized that the ice was very different than walking around on the skates. He wouldn't let go of the wall, unless someone was holding him upright. Part of his problem is that he has a major crush one of our friends, Drillbit. Every time she offered to hold his hand, he'd get all tongue tied and fled to his father.
I think we were there for about an hour and a half, which was a perfect amount of time to spend out there. There were lots of other people too, of all skating levels. Kids who bounced off the ice right back onto their skates; adults who'd never skated before; a woman who was doing turns and jumps in the middle of the ice; some college kids who looked like they'd played hockey at some point; people like us of no extraordinary ability or skill but able to get around the ice.
My friend Melissa commented when we were leaving that it was her first time skating outside before. Same here, but back in the 80s, when I was maybe ten, it froze for a few days at the ranch, and the pond froze over enough that I could walk on them. I remember that I was wearing cowboy boots and sliding along in the middle of a pond that probably had never frozen over before. Melissa, another lifetime Texan, remembered that year.
Afterwards, we retired to a pub for food and refreshment.
I think we'll probably hit the ice again at some point, if only because my mom will want to go. She digs ice.
It's probably been twenty years or more so since I've been on skates. My mom grew up in a part of the country that had rivers freeze over on a regular basis, so she was a skater by origin. She used to take us every now and then to the Galleria ice rink when we were kids, and we got to be proficient, if not expert, skaters. Graham's skating history was relatively non-existent, save for some time logged on roller blades.
Hand and hand, we shoved off onto the ice. I was a little rusty at first; he, moreso. We both took advantage of the rails and each other's hands to get around the rink the first couple of times. But within fifteen minutes or so, we found our rhythms and we were more or less gliding without incident. I took a couple of tumbles when I got overly confident (or hit a rut in the ice), but otherwise, we did fairly well. Graham has ridiculously good balance and tends to excel at almost anything he tries athletically. He was gliding all over the place pretty quickly.
With so many of our friends around us, there was always someone around to chat with or skate around a few times with or run down. We sort of claimed a little section of wall in one of the corners to be a meeting place to pause and catch our breaths.
Our ten year old friend was a new skater, and we spent the last twenty minutes or of the night so in the middle of the ice teaching her how to skate. At first two of us held her hands and helped her around the ice a few times, but then Smash, no stranger to skating, held her hands and skated backwards while encouraging our friend to push forward. It seemed to work, and I think if we had a little more time, she would have been skating on her own. Her six year old brother was much more reluctant to get out there once he realized that the ice was very different than walking around on the skates. He wouldn't let go of the wall, unless someone was holding him upright. Part of his problem is that he has a major crush one of our friends, Drillbit. Every time she offered to hold his hand, he'd get all tongue tied and fled to his father.
I think we were there for about an hour and a half, which was a perfect amount of time to spend out there. There were lots of other people too, of all skating levels. Kids who bounced off the ice right back onto their skates; adults who'd never skated before; a woman who was doing turns and jumps in the middle of the ice; some college kids who looked like they'd played hockey at some point; people like us of no extraordinary ability or skill but able to get around the ice.
My friend Melissa commented when we were leaving that it was her first time skating outside before. Same here, but back in the 80s, when I was maybe ten, it froze for a few days at the ranch, and the pond froze over enough that I could walk on them. I remember that I was wearing cowboy boots and sliding along in the middle of a pond that probably had never frozen over before. Melissa, another lifetime Texan, remembered that year.
Afterwards, we retired to a pub for food and refreshment.
I think we'll probably hit the ice again at some point, if only because my mom will want to go. She digs ice.