Nerdy Girl's Guide to Ice Skating

I have never been ice skating before. I grew up in the rural South. We didn't ice skate.

I went roller-skating once in my life at a rink an hour away from my house. Skating isn't something I'm familiar with.

When a friend wanted to get a group together, I decided it was time to try ice skating.

I was pretty hesitant given how accident prone I am. Skating is dangerous.

But Athens had a skating rink for a few years now and it was time.

I bundled up—I wore wool socks, my warmest leggings, a full half zip from Lululemon, a neck warmer and a cute hat from the Gap. (I hate being cold.) And I think I dressed right. I wasn't too hot or too cold.

My husband bought tickets and we headed down to the rink. They give you orange skates in your size and you go to nearby chairs and put them on. They had a plastic adjustable buckle—one on the foot one of the ankle. And it wasn't easy to adjust and put the skates on. And you want them to be snug.

Standing on the ice skates wasn't hard. I felt taller.

Then I walked out on the ice.

Well, first there was a traffic jam to get on the ice—with people not wanting to get on the ice and people taking pictures and just being in the way.

I got on the ice—and sure enough it was cold and slick. I decided to walk slowly around the rink—hand on the wall while I got used to it. About 1/4 of the way around, I got over confident and thought I could skate. I took my hand off the wall—and fell hard. I bruised my hand and thought for about two seconds that I broke my wrist. I got up. Shook it off and kept skating. I knew I was going to fall so that much was over with. The problem was I fell on my butt—but tried to catch myself with my hands and ended up bruising my palm pretty bad. That was my worst fall of the night.

If you look closely, my palm is bruised under my thumb. Not a shadow.
The lower left of my hand was bruised. Better in a week. 

I did a few more laps, still sticking to the wall but trying to not use it as much.

I felt like I'd gotten the hang of it—when my friend (was he an Olympic skater? he's awesome) came and told me to push out (the side not forward backward) and to keep my nose, toes and knees in a line. I tried it and promptly fell a second time. Not as badly. I laughed.

I was getting the hang of skating—the problem was the rink was very crowded. And crowded full of people who couldn't skate, so everyone was hugging the walls. And it was hard to pass people hanging on the wall and going to slow—or people too terrified to move.

Another downside: teenage girls. They were stopping to chat. They were skating in Red Rover chains five wide and impossible to pass. They were the ones generally causing the problems as they jammed traffic for a selfie or skated snail speed because they didn't want to be there in the first place.

I ended up falling three times and felt like I mostly got it by the time we left. I was still scared of going to fast and falling. And I haven't figured out how to stop. I'll do that next time.

For now my method of stopping is grabbing on to the wall. I went to say hi to a friend and then realized I could stop—so I almost ran into her. But the catcher from flying trapeze stopped me. Twice that night. This is why you skate with flying trapeze friends.

All in all—I had fun skating. I'd go back. (When my hand bruise heals. Though next time I might wear my climbing gloves to protect my hands.)

Matt was a pro. He saw the camera of course and got thrown off ;) 

My husband was awesome at it. He used to rollerblade. He could skate backwards. But I know this would happen. He's good at everything :)

If you go

• Go with friends. Maybe someone who show you how to skate or help you take your skates on or off.

Wear warm clothes. Maybe a hat and gloves. Don't wear jeans.

Be prepared to fall. And you want to skate with your nose, knees and toes in line. Almost a squat with your butt slightly out, because if you fall, you want to fall on your butt. And not your hands and definitely not your head.

Take breaks when you need them. I got off the ice several times to catch my breath, because I was tired etc.