A friend has a cabin on a lake two hours from me, he said that he was there on the weekend and the entire lake had over 1 foot of ice on it, and people were on it with quads and the odd sled. Almost zero snowfall has made the ice pretty solid. SO this got me thinking that the closer lakes should be about the same. Has anyone tried to use a hockey skate to kite???? I figure that speed style ones would be more ideal, but it should be about the same idea no?????? It would be super super crazy to cruise an entire lake like that. I don't think that the snow is gonna fall enough any time soon, so ya gotta improvise right????? And I don't think the ATB would do so well in -15c temps.

Sounds like a blast! I think any skates would do just fine. I know touring skates are more for natural ice.. idk the reasons. And i know short track race skates can edge a whole lot more, but i'd imagine any skates would be sufficient to keep a good edge! Let us know how it goes!

I used hockey skates the first year or two with the kitewing and once with a kite when I started kiting. After a few high speed bails and to save the ankles, I bought nordic skates from Nordic skater in VT.
The hockey skates worked OK at lower speed and on smooth ice. When you really get going they are real twitchy and scary over cracks and on boiler plate/bumpy ice. Knees and ankles might pay the price.
Hockey skates are really rockered and they don't hold an edge nearly as well as a much longer speed or nordic skates which have very little rocker. Only advantage is they turn on a dime and you can "hockey stop" easier. The Nordic skates are alot more stable at speed and glide smoother. Stopping or sudden change of direction is the tradeoff.
My size 10.5 hockey skates have a 12" blade and the contact patch is 3-4". The Nordic skates have a 21" blade and the contact patch is 12-13"
Also hockey skate blades are hollow ground cut (sharpened) and nordic/touring blades are flat ground. Flat will glide best. A shallower cut will glide easier and faster on the ice than a deep cut on hockey skates. You can sharpen nordic skates yourself with a jig and stones. For hockey skates you need to take them to the shop, or a buddy with a machine
I sure wish we had ice here Keep your skates SHARP and get out and have fun.

Find some old little kids skis, they'll get you over cracks and rough stuff , whole lot of fun little or no cost. Pick up a cheap ski edge file tool or shorten up a fine file , you'll need to keep a sharp edge for best results.

Alpine skis work just as well, the hockey skates get a little squirrelly over 30mph. Put on some hockey pants, knee pads, elbo pads, helmet and you will be ok. If you wipe out you will get drug across the lake.

zeeshan's been reported as spammer, no real person comments nonsense in a 3 year old thread

What the other guys said I had a blast doing it with hockey skates because when you edge, you can edge HARD. I wore my hockey knee pads, elbow pads, breezers and of course my boardercross helmet. I just made damn sure to keep my kite low and do my best to never get lofted I think I maxed out around 30MPH and the only time I felt unstable was when I would hit small snow areas bonded to the ice. However, as you will see later in the video, I took a spill but it is actually fun because you just slide and then pop back up.

https://vimeo.com/60329075

cool video.

Thanks, but I wish the lens was in the right direction in the first place For anyone else browsing this here are a few things I learned from it.

-You need an ice screw. Here was my method of launching. I first put in the ice screw with the carabiner attached to the handle. I would then take the bag with the kite in it and skate directly downwind the length of the lines. I then take the kite out of the bag but leave the strap wrapped around the kite so it won't catch any wind. I start unwinding the lines from the bar as I skate backwards and be very careful not to skate over the lines. Once they are all out I attach the chicken loop and brake line (I have a line between the brakes). Then I skate back down to the kite, take the strap off and open up the kite leading edge UP. I find that the kite is more stable leading edge UP when the brakes are pulled. You can leave it leading edge down with NO BRAKES if it is more stable. Whatever floats your boat. Now I can easily look at the lines and see how they look and then skate back to the bar. Then I hook in while holding the brake line and take out the ice screw, because I don't like to leave things in the ice where I can lose them, trip someone, etc.. Now I can launch!