I've been skating for a little over a year and I noticed that most advanced skaters in my rink (jumping doubles and triples) have really scuffed up skates (enough that patches of grey foam(?) show through the white outer layer of their skates). personally, I always skate with boot covers (that are velvety and reasonably thick) on to protect my skates. is there a reason to not wear booth covers other than aesthetic reasons? is there a downside to boot covers I'm not aware of?
Why don't advanced skaters wear boot covers during practice?
- Thread starter jiyooi
- Start date
I'm not the most expert person to answer you.
First off, what the thin covers protect is cosmetic, rather than functional.
Towards the top end of the sport, the total lifetime cost of equipment, coach time, ice time, driving, transportation, club fees, entry fees, off-ice conditioning, related medical issues, private home schooling and tutoring (to save time), possibly taxi, chauffeur and babysitting costs, etc., could be in the hundreds of thousands of $ (USD), or more. Replacing boots may be seen by some people who can afford that as economically paramount. Some get new boots made for competitions or shows, painted to match program themes. (But they generally break them in first.)
For people doing reasonably high level jumps, I wonder if a scratched up front of the boot might be a badge of honor, demonstrating that they are working on high rotation jumps that require the blade to be brought very close to the boot.
You see the same thing with blades. Some skaters routinely walk off ice (on the rubber mats) without blade covers. Or they leave them in non-breathable covers, so they rust. And they don't oil or grease their blades, even when they won't be skating for days. Most pay someone to sharpen their blades, when they could probably do it themselves better, if they put the time and research in, and maybe make the blades last a few times longer.
With boots, there are other things you can do to make them last longer. E.g., don't store the boots (or the blades) in a closed container. Keep them indoors in a temperature & humidity controlled environment as much as possible. Dry them both out after every skate. Possibly leather protectants. Fill in any low pressure spots where a breakdown crease could otherwise develop. Waterproof the outsoles. Pull the laces straight through the holes, not at an angle. Etc.
Boots and blades are not the only things that people who can afford it, don't always take optimal care of.
I hope that answers your question.
First off, what the thin covers protect is cosmetic, rather than functional.
Towards the top end of the sport, the total lifetime cost of equipment, coach time, ice time, driving, transportation, club fees, entry fees, off-ice conditioning, related medical issues, private home schooling and tutoring (to save time), possibly taxi, chauffeur and babysitting costs, etc., could be in the hundreds of thousands of $ (USD), or more. Replacing boots may be seen by some people who can afford that as economically paramount. Some get new boots made for competitions or shows, painted to match program themes. (But they generally break them in first.)
For people doing reasonably high level jumps, I wonder if a scratched up front of the boot might be a badge of honor, demonstrating that they are working on high rotation jumps that require the blade to be brought very close to the boot.
You see the same thing with blades. Some skaters routinely walk off ice (on the rubber mats) without blade covers. Or they leave them in non-breathable covers, so they rust. And they don't oil or grease their blades, even when they won't be skating for days. Most pay someone to sharpen their blades, when they could probably do it themselves better, if they put the time and research in, and maybe make the blades last a few times longer.
With boots, there are other things you can do to make them last longer. E.g., don't store the boots (or the blades) in a closed container. Keep them indoors in a temperature & humidity controlled environment as much as possible. Dry them both out after every skate. Possibly leather protectants. Fill in any low pressure spots where a breakdown crease could otherwise develop. Waterproof the outsoles. Pull the laces straight through the holes, not at an angle. Etc.
Boots and blades are not the only things that people who can afford it, don't always take optimal care of.
I hope that answers your question.
- Joined
- Oct 22, 2022
If I'm wearing tights that cover the boots, then I do pull the foot part down because otherwise they bunch up around my ankles, but otherwise I've only worn lycra boot covers when I needed to match my costume for a competition or show. With the footed tights, there's a chance of tearing one foot's cover with the picks of the other blade, though, (or more likely my partner's picks, since I'm a pairs skater) and they're not cheap to replace. It's less expensive to just clean smudges off the boots themselves. If someone is a pairs skater or dancer, there are going to be black streaks on the woman's boots from her partner's, and the occasional scratch when feet collide. I would guess, though, that those skaters you see with very scuffed up boots are not replacing them often enough. It sounds as if their boots are breaking down, and are causing falls during which blade collisions cause cuts and scratches?
Or else they're just not treating their boots with any care. I remember boy skaters when I was in my teens who had badly battered skates because they'd just wipe off the blades and then toss the skates loosely into a duffel bag or straight into the trunk of their car until next day. I always wipe off my boots as well as blades, and wrap each skate in a "blankie" made by cutting off the sleeves of old sweatshirts and wrapping each skate in a separate sleeve. They go in my bag like that, and then when I get home I take them out of the bag and let them lie on a soft bed or couch until they're thoroughly dry. (I've never, by the way, oiled the blades, something that wasn't done in my competitive era. Just thoroughly dried each time with a chamois cloth. Never had rust on them.)
well im working on doubles and ive asked my coach before and he said its not a big deal and shows that your a hard worker
I can't speak to what advanced skaters do.
At my lower skill level, I would not have wanted to wear boot covers or over-the-boot tights for practice because I usually felt the need to adjust the tightness of my laces at least once or twice during a practice. They were never tight enough at the beginning until I'd done some warmup stroking and the boots themselves softened up a bit.
At my lower skill level, I would not have wanted to wear boot covers or over-the-boot tights for practice because I usually felt the need to adjust the tightness of my laces at least once or twice during a practice. They were never tight enough at the beginning until I'd done some warmup stroking and the boots themselves softened up a bit.
Yes - but the type of inexpensive (e.g., thin lycra) boot cover I used to use (before my boots broke down so much I really don't care anymore) can be pulled out of the way in a second or to, and put back in place almost as fast. I also found that they helped prevent laces from untying.
The slick boot cover did make it a little easier to glide on lunges... Plus, I had an ice dance instructor who insisted I get low enough and on deep enough edges that the top of my boot on the underpushing foot would brush the ice during crossovers and progressives. So I could glide a little better on those moves with the cover in place. (That was very hard on the boots for a different reason - deep edges, and the little amount of sideways ankle bend I needed to do that put a lot of stress on the boots. No boot cover could fix that.) Anyway, I'm no longer strong enough to stay that low.
For a while, when I skated in a very cold rink, using low level thin boots, I used thicker urethane boot covers that provided thermal insulation. I had to be careful not to trip over the covers; They limited how "neat" (i.e., close) my feet could come.
But like I said, boot covers are basically cosmetic. Little scratches and scuffs don't really matter to skating. And I doubt that in most cases they significantly affect the lifetime of the boots. The other stresses on the boot likely cause breakdown before the surface scratches and scuffs could develop into something structurally important.
Some people, if they want to hide scratches, cover their boots in tape (neatly wrapped), or repolish their boots (a bit complicated, because many boots have a clear coat layer on top that polish may not adhere to).
But if you like boot covers, and they make you happy, go for it! The weight is insignificant, and they aren't very expensive. Unless you have reason to think a skating judge would mark you down for wearing them.
If you do like the idea of painting your boots for a costume, it would be easier to get rid of the paint job when you are done if you instead paint a cheap disposable cover...
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