Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/02/13/the-sound-of-skating-on-thin-i.html
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As someone whose fallen through the ice on multiple occasions,
“Not for all the cheese in the world.”
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Yea I was just thinking, why doesn’t he find a thin spot and go right in the drink?
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He must be quite the skinny lad. Or the water very shallow. Or both. I’m sure he’s gone through a few times, and that’s the function of the stick, to stop him waist deep if he goes through.
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I believe this other video has been posted here in BB in the past:
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What a beautiful freeze. It has to get really cold, in a dead calm. And no snow! Dream conditions.
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I’ve skated on some canals and lakes and it is a wonderful experience. When doing so at night, though, there is nothing like the sound of pressure cracks shooting off into the darkness from under your feet to make you rethink some recent choices!
Also, watch the flex in that ice at the 2:32 mark. Yipes!
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You can see the whole ice sheet warp in a wave as he passes at 2:30 in. 
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Literally skating on thin ice. I’m getting nervous just reading the headline, never mind the video itself.
You can see the cracked ice he leaves in his wake when the camera follows him. Yeesh.
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Did he died?
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I love to skate but I’ve only ever done so on a rink.
Does anyone know how to judge when ice is safe to skate? Once every several years, the pond across from me will freeze down here in Atlanta, but I never know if it’s a safe thickness to go out on it. Is there a foolproof measurement I can take like this guy does with his calipers, or is it like @WasitabatisaW indicates–different weather conditions affect the quality of the freeze? The edge of the narrower-width bit of the pond feels stronger, when tapping it from shore. If the sides are thick enough, can I presume the center is the same thickness? I remember checking some forums years ago but found no hard answers.
Bottom line: can an overnight freeze, or one that only lasts a few days, ever be strong enough? If so, is there a way to check positively that I’m not going to go through? I only weigh 150 lbs/68 kgs.
I wouldn’t trust a pond in Atlanta to ever have thick enough ice to support an adult standing on 1/8" of steel.
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yeah, it seems like most people online measure the safety over how many days it’s been frozen rather than measuring the thickness.
But it would be so sweet to just walk across the street to skate.
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They flooded an area of the park that’s across the street from our house one year. Still fell through the ice. They didn’t do a good job, and I ended up with a huge bruise on my knee a week before a hockey tournament. In theory, yeah, it was sweet to walk across the street to skate, but reality has a great way of sucking the wind out of our hopeful sails. ::sadtrombone::
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You might find this interesting (if you don’t already know about it) – especially the section about “2012 - the race that did not happen”:
Here’s a nice gallery of photos and info too:
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awesome!
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In a strange coincidence, if you put those ice skating sounds into google translate, it comes out as, “Just a little farther, that’s it, the water is fine…”
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At least four inches of good ice seems to be one rule of thumb, but having grown up impatiently waiting to play hockey on the pond each winter, I can tell you we pushed lower limits than that. Of course, we were skating on . . . nevermind.
The sounds in this video bring back memories of looking at each other with wide eyes and (usually) waiting for a couple more cold nights.
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This might be useful:
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