Stepping into the Black Boots

One of the hockey skaters (that's a guy in hockey skates who doesn't play as far as I know) told me he wanted to skate in figure skates. There were things he wanted to do on the ice he couldn't do in hockey skates.
"You have skates," I said. "I gave you  a pair when my guy friend quit. skating Do they fit?"

"Yeah, they fit, but they don't have blades on them."

Dude, spend the $80 to get some beginner blades.

 Moving on.

After some further discussion, he reveals his fear is that he will trip over the toepicks.

He says he skates on the forward part of the blade (shrug/some hockey thing/whatever) and is afraid that he won't be able to transition to new blades.

"You have knee pads?" I ask.

"Yes."

"Wrist guards?"

"Yes."

"Then what's your problem?"

As near as I can make out, apparently he thinks tripping on toepicks will be like this:

Or this:

When in reality, five year olds trip on their toepicks and get up from it.  I'm 20 years older than he is, maybe 25, and I get up from falling. And I can't remember the last time I fell from a toepick.

I've written about this before. That movie The Cutting Edge has a lot to answer for.

I suppose it was cruel of me not to tell him the real danger of figure skating isn't falling forward, but falling backwards. Hockey players are never afraid of that!