Skating safety supremely important

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Published on Friday, December 22, 2017

By Miranda Leybourne

Neepawa Banner & Press

Despite a mild start to the season, it seems winter temperatures are starting to set in for Neepawa and the surrounding area. That means that many people are eager to start skating -- at the indoor rink at the Yellowhead Centre, outside at the Flats, or on frozen waterways like lakes, ponds, rivers and streams.

Staying safe on your skates is pretty simple if you use common sense and take precautions. The Manitoba Coalition for Active and Safe Kids (MCASK) is a partnership between sports, recreation and injury prevention organizations whose aim it is to increase the use of protective equipment and to raise awareness on how to prevent injury. 

The organization says that between 50 to 65 per cent of children and youth between the ages of five and 17-years-old take part in ice skating every year. Their statistics show that injuries sustained while ice skating were the third leading cause of sport and recreation-based injury in a large Canadian centre in past years, and that most of the injuries were fractures and open wounds. Twenty-eight per cent of injuries affected the victim’s head and neck. 

To help combat these accidents and injuries, MCASK strongly recommends mandatory helmet use at indoor rinks, and the use of wrist guards. It also shares some helpful suggestions to families, including wearing a helmet each time a person skates, checking for proper helmet fit, skating together, checking gear and checking the ice.

But MCASK says it’s not just families who can watch out for skating safety -- communities can get involved, too. The group notes that the best way to do this is to promote helmet use at local indoor and outdoor areas, to educate people on how to ensure their helmets are fitting properly,  to recommend the use of other protective gear such as gloves, wrist guards, knee and elbow pads, to reward positive safe behaviour through the implementation of incentive programs, and to coordinate community-based helmet promotion and education campaigns. More strategies for communities include organizing low-cost helmet and equipment loan programs, requiring close supervision of children, public skating lessons, and educations on thickness of ice on outdoor waterways so that the public understands which ones are safe for skating. 

When it comes to helmets, ones with full face masks are recommended. Skate Canada says that ice skaters should wear helmets that are CSA approved hockey helmets.Helmets should be one to two finger widths above your eyebrows, and the helmet should not move when the person wearing it shakes their head. The chin strap should fit tightly enough so that only one finger fits between the strap and the chin. 

As far as skating on frozen waterways is concerned, an adult should be the one to check that the thickness of the ice is at least 15 cm thick for skating alone or 20 cm thick for skating in a group. No one should skate near ice with open water.

Nicole Synchyshyn, Director of Recreational Services with the Town of Neepawa, says that the skating rink down at the Flats is open, but the boards won’t be up until sometime during the week of Dec. 18. She wants to remind everybody using the rink to be safety conscious and courteous to other skaters.

“We recommend helmets...for safety,” she explains. “We have had some people kind of just bring it to our attention that [skaters need to] make sure that if there are little ones out there just learning how to skate, that people are being respectful...to make it a safe environment for everybody.”