On Jan 29th, I figured I would lace up the skates and don full hockey equipment for the first time in probably about 3 years, and see if I could still out skate everybody on the ice in the Red Bull Crashed Ice Calgary Qualifiers.
I had skates but know equipment, so typical my style I decided to pick it up at 4pm on the day of. My buddy Ryan hooked me up with his gear, that had been hanging out in his storage area (see broken down VW Golf in his backyard) for about a year or so. All but the helmet and shin pads fit great, so it was off to Canadian Tire to take advantage of their "rental" program. So with all the required gear I headed to the Crowfoot Twin Area.
The course was fairly simple, drop to your stomach at the blue line, jump a hurdle at the next, skate around the bottom of the face off circle, then do a 360 between the red and blue line before skating through the finish line. Each guy had 2 runs, one on the left course then one on the right, 2 guys on course at the same time. When it was my turn I got under the start line and waited for the whistle, then took off! I suprised myself both times off the start, it was like I had my old speed and owned the guys I was racing down the first length of ice! After that I learned something, that if you don't skate for awhile you lose some technique, which is extra appearent in cornering. This is where I lost most of my speed, having a hard time crossing over and looking like a novice.
All in all it was super fun, and I'm going to train a little bit and kick ass next year. My time was 14.48 seconds.
No comments:
Post a Comment