Schaatsen/Ice skating in the countryside of Holland/The Netherlands

Saturday january 3 2009 Eilandspolder near Amsterdam
Skating on thin natural ice, dangerous but fun.
Filmed by skating VespaGijs.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Iceskating
• noren
• schaatsen
• natuurijs
• holland
• netherlands
• ice
• graftdijk
• driehuizen
• natural
• frozen
• lake
• skating

[tanodamorire]

Is that safe? Is anybody checking the ice conditions? Or people just stop that after the first person dies frozen in the water?

[VespaGijs]

It's not more dangerous than driving a car or riding a bike with all the traffic around you. Sometimes the ice conditions are checked, but mostly you have to check it by yourself. There are also artificial ice rinks in Holland, but these are crowded and accidents easily happen.

[tanodamorire]

Thank you! Netherlands is great! How do you check the ice by yourself??

[VespaGijs]

The best way to check the icecondition, is to look for white tracks of other people's skates. Otherwise you have to try the ice, look and listen, look for information on the Internet or check with friends, and be careful all the time because you can never really trust the ice. Often, when the ice becomes thicker and more secure, more people get on the ice so that the ice conditions become much worse.

[celticdady]

I was surprised very much. And it is enviable.

Is the skating possible every year in the river? Is it an institution made for skating?

The skating does not come at most in the river of the Japanese level ground.

[VespaGijs]

It is not a river that you see in the video but connected (public) canals. Sometimes you can skate on the Amstel river near Amsterdam, but the canals get frozen quicker. You are allowed to skate everywhere in Holland in winter. Unfortunately, due to global warming, you cannot skate anymore each year in Holland. Around 1700 there was a mini ice-age, see the old Dutch paintings of, e.g., Hendrick Avercamp

[weeardguy]

@TasLon7 Trust me that Dutch people are a bit crazy when it comes to ice-skating: every time when the temparatures drop for a longer period, many people gain hope the 'Eleven Cities tour' (Elfstedentocht in Dutch) will take place, which almost never happens (the last time was in 1997)

Ice-skating is so normal that many people pay a visit to relatives via a trip over the ice ;)

And, to call a day an ice-skating day, you'll have to finish it with 'Boerenkool met rookworst' ;)

[ekymalainen]

Yes Global warming has been made the winters here in Finland extremely cold, see our ice situation from my videos!

[carlphone]

@lotwyo Global warming is very real, but that does not mean cold winters are not possible.

[lotwyo]

Global warming is a hoax, is just a cyclical warmer period.

[uyl1]

ziek ik ga daar ook nog een keer schaatsen als dat kan

[TasLon7]

It is videos like this one why I love YouTube so much... Thanks to your video, I get to see something I have never and may never get to experience in my life. Thank you for filming and posting this incredible footage of canal skating... Wow!!! How amazing! That must have been so exciting and so much fun! Just wonderful... Thanks again!