Tour skating is recreational ice skating on natural ice, allowing you to go long distances and enjoy the nature in a whole new way.
It involves using tour skates, which have longer blades than normal ice skates, and following safety instructions for skating on natural ice. An elementary tour skating course gives you a broad introduction to this sport.
Tour skates are available with different bindings. There are two main types of tour skates: skates with fixed heels, and skates with heels that can move freely. Skating with the latter is a little bit more difficult. On the one hand, you can skate faster with them, but on the other, skating is more difficult if the ice is uneven or the conditions are otherwise bad. Bindings used with free heel skates are ski bindings, those of skate skiing or back country skiing. With fixed heel skates, you use “universal” bindings and stiff hiking boots. Tour skating happens usually on a frozen lake or sea, often in big groups for safety reasons.
Characteristics of a good tour skate
• The blade has been attached to the platform by stamping or glueing, Skating with skates made like this is easy also when there is snow on ice.
• The blade needs to be of high quality, since only high-quality blade material stays sharp and can be sharpened.
• The manufacturer has profiled the blade. This can be tested by placing the blades against each other - there should be a slit of a few millimetres in the front and the back part of the blade.
• Skates with no profile are "directionally too stable" and unpleasant to use.
• Bindings keep the boot at its place, and they can be adjusted horizontally.
Choosing right blade length:
• It's better that blades are too long than too short.
• The shorter the blades are, the more agile it is to skate with them.
• The longer the blades are, the easier it is to skate on uneven ice.