Ever looked *inside* your skates?

[Rick 0]

That kind of stuff can happen if your not carefull with your gear. I stored my gear in a plastic tub with a lid when I moved. Opened it this winter and my helmet and shin guards had mold in them. I threw the stuff away and ordered new. I also have a buddy that lives out of town and we used to meet at Fishers Forum near Indianapolis on Sunday evenings to play pick up ice hockey. One Sunday we were in the locker room getting ready to play and he opened up his hockey bag and a dead mouse fell out of one of his gloves. It had eaten a hole through one of his gloves and chewed one of his skates. The smell was incredible. He always had energy bars and snack bars in his bag and the wrappers had been eaten through on those also.

Rick Henry

[O-zone 0]

You know, that is another pretty good way of checking the sizing of your skates. If you can fit your foot in with a dead mouse in the toe, I would say that skate is 1 to 1.5 sizes too big for you.

For a gerbil, add another half-size.

Note: all rodents in the above procedure are assumed to be full-grown.

[Gummer12 134]

And You must Chop it down.. with a Herring!!!

Anyway... One night I was closin up the rink, and we have Cpt Caveman for a goalie, always the last one out, cuz he don't shower with everyone else. Feel kinda bad for the guy, might be the only shower he ever gets. Anyway, he was as always, last one out, I noticed something fall out of his bag going out the door, looked like a leaf when I went by to lock the door, when I came back to pick it up, it was a Frog, dead and all dried up like a mummy. Needless to say I got the dustpan and broom to dispose of that. I'm sure it won't be the last time something like that falls out of his bag. I'm sure I saw a bird once in his beard. ^_^

[pisani34 10]

wow some of these stories are just really disgusting. Equipment is basically like your clothes when your playing hockey, but i don't see people putting on moldy t-shirts or jeans onto their bodies everyday...i dont' see why they would let their hockey equipment end up that way....gross

[trevor13478 1]

my younger sister tried on a pair of my old gloves that had been in the garage for a while, i heard a scream so i went out there to see what happened, we flipped the glove, mouse terd and d-con fell out.

[trox_355 0]

right now my gear is sitting on my floor with a fan blowing on it to dry it out... I'm freezing because it's cold and the fans on high but I'd rather be cold and have non-smelly gear then have anything like you guys have described. I don't know how people can do that to such expensive gear... not to mention putting that nasty gear on their body!

Same here with the fans. For the first few months after getting my skates, I just left them to air dry with the insoles out. Now, I use a hacked hair dryer that only blows cold air to force dry the skates and gloves. All my other gear goes over a fan for a couple of hours.

I'm in an apartment with roommates, so I can't afford to smoke out the others in the house with the smells I've encountered at the rink.

...At least I don't have any garages and mice to worry about ;)

[flyguy1697 0]

A couple kids that sit in stalls next to me in our locker room are bare footers. I watch them take their feet out after a game or practice and they have brown/black goopy gross shit inbetween their toe's and on their feet it makes me want to puke.

[Edge 0]

That mouse thing is just unreal!

We had a mom bring her son's skates in for sharpening and she set them on the counter and 2 scorpions came scurrying out....they were hostile ones too :/

I actually take really good care of my skates. I air them out upside down, in an extra room in the house, and take the insoles out so mine are pretty sanitary.

[SirJW 207]

Once had a teammate step back from his bag as if a spider or something was in it. I thought to myself c'mon dude it’s just a spider he says, “um there’s a possum in my bagâ€. Well like a bunch of little girls the whole team runs up to the bag and we start screaming in hysteria at it. Needless to say it freaks out and goes one and two in his helmet. After a bit he takes the bag outside to let the bugger out and he just ran away. When he got back into the room he looks at the helmet and wonders what to do, one guy tells him to wash it out in the shower, needless to say he just flicked it into the trash and went to lost and found to borrow a lid for the game. I don’t think he leaves his bag open in the garage anymore…

[kosydar 0]

Not a skate story but, I know of a bantam kid who got a small cut from a plastic panel on his shoulder pads. He spent 3 days in the hospital with a major staph infection. I guess it could have killed him if it hadn't been treated. Kinda scary huh?

That happened to a Leaf player a couple years ago...the Leaf fans could tell you more...but I think it was Renberg. Their gear is dried and taken pretty good care of, and it can happen.

Thornton had staph on his face I believe back when he was in Boston. Came from a cut he got from his helmet if I remember it right. I also think Renberg's came from him cutting his finger tying his skates.

[Sven 1]

I actually take really good care of my skates. I air them out upside down, in an extra room in the house, and take the insoles out so mine are pretty sanitary.

Thats what i do as well, i just need to drill about 2-3 holes for perfection.

But, i noticed that this hydrowhatever liner smells faster than the other ones.

[dix0r 0]

Once had a teammate step back from his bag as if a spider or something was in it. I thought to myself c'mon dude it’s just a spider he says, “um there’s a possum in my bagâ€. Well like a bunch of little girls the whole team runs up to the bag and we start screaming in hysteria at it. Needless to say it freaks out and goes one and two in his helmet. After a bit he takes the bag outside to let the bugger out and he just ran away. When he got back into the room he looks at the helmet and wonders what to do, one guy tells him to wash it out in the shower, needless to say he just flicked it into the trash and went to lost and found to borrow a lid for the game. I don’t think he leaves his bag open in the garage anymore…

wonder how the rink employees took care of that one...

[AnthonyJTa 0]

my brother and I were actually talking about this last night at hockey...

he was about 14, and playing Summer Youth Hockey. He used to leave his stuff outside to dry, hanging his jerseys on the railing of our patio. That night he packed his bag up, threw it in our closet (we shared a room).. next morning, we get to his game... I used to help the coaches.... he pulls his jersey out, and a damn fruitbat starts fluttering around the locker room. EVERY SINGLE kid, parent, coach and myself all run out of the locker room, causing a giant commotion. Kids are hobbling because they only have one skate on, etc... it was hilarious. My brother was petrified when the bat flew in his face.

[hockeyfreak16 0]

smell and the paint ( like sayin drycore) worn off

[hockey315 0]

That mouse thing is just unreal!

We had a mom bring her son's skates in for sharpening and she set them on the counter and 2 scorpions came scurrying out....they were hostile ones too :/

I actually take really good care of my skates. I air them out upside down, in an extra room in the house, and take the insoles out so mine are pretty sanitary.

Where do you live???

[JR Boucicaut 3801]

AZ

[cause4alarm 7]

I was walking around the mall when I decided to shake something out of my shoe that had been bothering me. It was a 4 inch long cicada or winged beetle-like thing.

Here's a good one. Had a HS kid bring in his skates for new rivets. He hadn't worn them all summer and just took them out of his bag which was in his garage.

Before he gives them to me for repair he says "let me make sure they still fit" and proceeds to slip his foot in. They fit and I tell him to come back in a little while.

One of the guys starts to work on them and shouts out "that's F^%$ing disgusting"!! I look in the boot and there's a dead mouse. Now I'm not talking a cute furry little thing that just passed on, this thing was all rotten and mushy.

The kid didn't even feel it when he stuck his foot in there!!!

You didn't remove the mouse, did you? Cuz maybe that's how he likes it. He did say it fit alright after all, didn't he? I tell ya, people can have some pretty weird personal preferences when it comes to their hockey skates!

[powerball 0]

Speaking of the dead mouse, I was checking under the hood of my car today, and guess what I found? Yup, a pulverized mouse lying between a few wires, I think I must have sizzled it from the heat of the engine.

But yeah, there are folks who actually *like* putting their bare feet into skates that haven't dried in a week. . . and then take it to a sharpener right afterwards!

[t1tan 19]

.

[DamnLocust 0]

Speaking of the dead mouse, I was checking under the hood of my car today, and guess what I found? Yup, a pulverized mouse lying between a few wires, I think I must have sizzled it from the heat of the engine.

But yeah, there are folks who actually *like* putting their bare feet into skates that haven't dried in a week. . . and then take it to a sharpener right afterwards!

A mouse actually got into a friend's engine bay and got caught up in the accessory drive belt. needless to say, the result wasn't pretty.

[hockeyshmockey10 0]

i honestly say that i haven't seen a mouse yet at work or at the rink...

but about three times now i have been in the locker room with different guys at the start of summer hockey that had a cat piss and crap inside the bag.

happened to me once, but i was lucky...only got on some of my stuff!

then obviously going to the LHS and dropping $1,000 or more on new gear!

[D-Wo 0]

Not a skate story, but I hadn't played in a year or so, and I don't believe I aired out my gear the last time I did, which normally I do. When I played again I took out my jersey, which was white, and I noticed some brown discoloration, I just thought it was stained.

Well, a couple of days later I start to get an itch and there is a red spot on my stomach by my belly button. Didn't think much of it, a few more days go by, get a red itchy spot on my arm and another one on my stomach. They all had sort of a raised border. I'm like what the hell!

What do you think it was? It was Ringworm (which is a fungus for those that don't know). The brown coloring on my jersey was actually fungus! I didn't really put the two together until I washed my jersey and it came out sparkling white.

[kosydar 0]

I haven't played since last June, and I keep my equipment in my bag in the refs room at the rink (bad idea I know). I opened it up last night and I see a little a little mouse running around. I flip out and dump my bag out all over the room. Turns out there is four little bastards in there, two parents and two kids. I got a hold of one of the little ones and beat the hell out of it with my stick. Didn't get the other three, but I think they learned their lesson not to nest in my shit.

[Johan Santana 0]

I keep my gear in my room where I live, and since I have a cat, no mouse or any critters will get into my gear. I been using my gear for a few month now and the only thing that remotely smells is my gloves...and they dont even smell like sweat. My skate actually smells like febrezee because of my socks being dried with febrezee dryer sheets. I would be horrified if there was a dead mouse in my skate, that is just NASTY.

[theelite 1]

argh this is got to be the most sickening thread on msh ;)