When the rink reopens are you going to skate immediately?

[beerleaguecaptain 999]

The time has come!!!!  Just got  invited to a small private skate on Friday and I'm going. Only 10 guys. Invite only for guys who take the pandemic seriously and have been distancing and wearing masks. No locker rooms. No scrimmage. Just skill drills and shooting.  No locker room either.  This feels safe and I am going to take the dive and play!!!  Very psyched. It will also be the first time I am on the ice since my stents were put in so it'll be great to see how I feel on the ice now.

[MyBoxersSayJoe 133]

Just skated last night.  We had to get dressed and undressed outside.  No bags allowed inside.  You sign a contact tracing waiver, they take your temp, and you're assigned a seat where you can put your skates, helmet, and gloves on.  Have to wear a mask until you go on the ice.  Once we were on the ice, no problem or worries.  Managed to get beaned by a slapshot my first shift.  Had to go for an x-ray this morning, thankfully no fracture, but I have a huuuuuuuuge welt on my arm.  I was expecting to be more tired and out of shape.

[IPv6Freely 2092]

I've been invited to a pickup on sunday. It's definitely still not safe to be playing hockey in the US at this point, but I have a tournament Aug 8-9 and probably should get some reps in. I'm kind of shocked they haven't canceled it, really. I'm going to try to wear a mask on the ice (I've been told by other goalies that the Mission cooling gaiter, after you wet it, isn't too bad to breathe through) so we'll see how that goes. It arrived yesterday and I tried it at home and I think it may be doable.

[MyBoxersSayJoe 133]

So you wet the cloth and place it over your face? Waterboarding yourself?  Am I missing something?  I bought a Bauer Concept 3, pretty happy with it from the initial use.  I'll buy the attachment when Bauer releases hopefully in August.

[IPv6Freely 2092]

3 hours ago, MyBoxersSayJoe said:

So you wet the cloth and place it over your face? Waterboarding yourself?  Am I missing something?  I bought a Bauer Concept 3, pretty happy with it from the initial use.  I'll buy the attachment when Bauer releases hopefully in August.

That's... not what waterboarding is. You wet it, wring it out, and put it over your face. They're cooling towels, often worn either for their cooling properties (around the neck for example) or over the face when its dusty. It's great to breathe through, and the way it keeps you cool is a nice extra bonus. I wear one while backpacking too. Try doing that with a wash cloth. Wet it, wring it out, and then breathe through it. You can see how nice it actually is even compared to a typical cloth mask.

[start_today 770]

On 7/14/2020 at 9:39 PM, dkmiller3356 said:

Is that what you think is happening?  

Ha, sorry. I was probably way too glib. I meant it sucks that some people in power/authority positions are encouraging people not to wear masks, thereby furthering the spread of the virus. 

[IPv6Freely 2092]

Well, I ended up playing in a pickup last Sunday. I had a tournament Aug 8-9 (I found out afterwards has been pushed to October) and figured I'd better get some reps in. I don't feel entirely comfortable playing in the tournament so I'm glad it's been postponed, and really wasn't comfortable playing in a pickup either. But, the guy who invited me said it's an invite-only skate and people are taking it seriously so I agreed. 

As it turns out, they weren't so serious. Maybe 3 people had masks on in the dressing room (myself included). That said, it seemed... normal. Maybe that's not a good thing as I ended up not wearing a mask on the ice like I had planned. 

All that said, it was really nice to get back out there even if my legs were absolute jello less than half way in. 

[GreatestAmericanBeardo 258]

On 7/23/2020 at 5:24 PM, MyBoxersSayJoe said:

Just skated last night.  We had to get dressed and undressed outside.  No bags allowed inside.  You sign a contact tracing waiver, they take your temp, and you're assigned a seat where you can put your skates, helmet, and gloves on.  Have to wear a mask until you go on the ice.  Once we were on the ice, no problem or worries.  Managed to get beaned by a slapshot my first shift.  Had to go for an x-ray this morning, thankfully no fracture, but I have a huuuuuuuuge welt on my arm.  I was expecting to be more tired and out of shape.

guess you're playing at Floyd as well.   I think they've been handling it pretty well.   not a huge fan of dressing outside, but its a start.  

[Leif 161]

How have people found getting back on ice? I had a skating lesson yesterday, and after five months I have completely lost my edge control. A simple drill is to skate on one leg around the goal crease, and the next progression is to do a 3 turn around the goal crease. Previously I could do inside edge 3 turns on either leg, and I was working on outside edge 3 turns. Well I couldn't even skate on one leg, my heel kept sliding round. I could not even start a one foot slalom, and even the two foot slalom was a mess! On the plus side my forwards crossovers were pretty good (but scary due to the speed), and the backwards ones were okay. I have been skating on inlines for the past four months, and doing lots of stick handling practice. Could inlines have screwed my technique? When I started on inlines I recall that the weight distribution is totally different, being strongly on the heel or the toe depending on the move.

[BenBreeg 493]

It was rough at first but I am back to my normal mediocre self already!

On a side note, our main rink we go to has been very diligent about masks, hand sanitizers, cleaning, and limiting fans.  Found out this morning that one guy was banned unless he wears a mask, so while not foolproof, it is a good balance.

[chippa13 1844]

It was awkward for the first few strides out there and then everything was back to normal. It will definitely take a little time to get the inline out of your ice stride. For a while years ago I was playing both ice and inline. Doing the 2 together made me feel slow on the ice.

[beerleaguecaptain 999]

Played two weeks ago ands going again today.  Its a very small private rent out with just 10 people.  Only shooting, passing and drills.  Just getting rust off.  No scrimmage.  It was really hard when I got on the ice at first... couldn't feel an edge at all.  I blame the roller for that.  After about 5-10 minutes I was fine.  It was fun.  Felt fairly safe.  We will do it every other week.

Edited August 7, 2020 by dkmiller3356

[colins 246]

 

Been back to summer beer league hockey since the first week of July. Very few cases here in eastern Canada as part of the Atlantic bubble.

We have to get dressed in the stands, we're playing two line 10 vs 10 and not sharing any water bottles on the bench. Highlight of me week honestly. The rink has to have the previous group exit the building before we go in, so they are limiting things to the 20 players plus staff in the building but so far so good and we grab a beer in the stands or in the parking lot afterwards.

 

 

[215BroadStBullies610 435]

Canada sounds so good right about now haha.

Edited August 11, 2020 by 215BroadStBullies610

[chippa13 1844]

Ain't so bad up here in NH, either.

[the_game 452]

17 hours ago, chippa13 said:

Ain't so bad up here in NH, either.

I've heard from a few folks up that way that they've been skating the entire time.

Down here in Mass, I've been skating 2-3 times a week since July 4th. So far so good, its great to be back skating and seeing people in real life and not just on Zoom or Facetime calls. 

 

[chippa13 1844]

I've been since mid-June. I don't know of anyone who skated straight thru.

[MyBoxersSayJoe 133]

On 8/4/2020 at 12:33 PM, GreatestAmericanBeardo said:

guess you're playing at Floyd as well.   I think they've been handling it pretty well.   not a huge fan of dressing outside, but its a start.  

Yeah, I'm on a list for a Wednesday skate.

[stick9 890]

Beer league here in MA is still a no go. My league has even asked if teams want to play in NH. Most state run rinks are still closed.

I've been skating with a small private group the last few weeks. It's pretty fantastic. I was a little leery on playing mens league. Least with pickup I know each and every person who shows up and have so for years. I'm more comfortable with that than playing games against a bunch of random people each week.

 

Edited August 13, 2020 by stick9

[215BroadStBullies610 435]

In the Philadelphia area, men's league has been in session for over a month now. I've removed myself (unfortunately) till further notice. I do have to give kudos to the rinks for putting in the necessary protocols to be as save as possible. Hopefully those participating stay safe and by this time next year, I'll be back to playing hockey.

[marka 526]

Howdy,

15 hours ago, stick9 said:

Beer league here in MA is still a no go. My league has even asked if teams want to play in NH. Most state run rinks are still closed.

I've been skating with a small private group the last few weeks. It's pretty fantastic. I was a little leery on playing mens league. Least with pickup I know each and every person who shows up and have so for years. I'm more comfortable with that than playing games against a bunch of random people each week.

 

I have that same thing available here (Youngstown, OH area) with a couple different groups.  We also have mens league running now.  I've not been going because while I know them all, I don't have any realistic expectation that they're taking precautions as seriously as we are.  I don't think they're going to pandemic parties or anything, but still not as serious as we do...

I just dread the idea of starting playing, one of us getting the virus, having serious issues with it, and then thinking "boy, that was stupid".

Having said all that, my wife has been making noises that maybe I should go play hockey anyway.  It appears I've been more grumpy than usual... 🙂

Mark

[the_game 452]

16 hours ago, stick9 said:

Beer league here in MA is still a no go. My league has even asked if teams want to play in NH. Most state run rinks are still closed.

I've been skating with a small private group the last few weeks. It's pretty fantastic. I was a little leery on playing mens league. Least with pickup I know each and every person who shows up and have so for years. I'm more comfortable with that than playing games against a bunch of random people each week.

 

Heard MA is opening up hockey as of Monday with some interesting guidelines. Saw an email from Stinky Socks & another guy who runs a skate out of an FMC facility that as of Monday they were back.

[stick9 890]

1 hour ago, the_game said:

Heard MA is opening up hockey as of Monday with some interesting guidelines. Saw an email from Stinky Socks & another guy who runs a skate out of an FMC facility that as of Monday they were back.

Yeah, I heard there was amendment to Bakers phased reopening that takes affect on the 17th. We'll see.

Full list of guidelines was posted on the FMC site.

https://fmcicesports.com/uncategorized/updated-massachusetts-guidelines-ice-hockey-return-to-play/

 

Edited August 14, 2020 by stick9

[chippa13 1844]

It looks like there were a couple of non-sanctioned kids tournaments recently in Exeter, NH and down in CT and some kids and coaches have tested positive. These are the kind of things that can gum up the works for all of us.

[start_today 770]

Im in Boston....signed up for two pick up games this week, Monday and Wednesday. A little nervous, but also super excited. Mostly just going on faith that people will do the right things and behave appropriately? Making myself feel ok that if I don’t feel comfortable or if there’s some goon spitting everywhere I’ll just leave.

Im really looking forward to retaping my stick while watching a game on TV.