tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/skating-8807/articlesSkating – The Conversation2024-02-20T22:35:26Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2223292024-02-20T22:35:26Z2024-02-20T22:35:26ZHow global warming is reshaping winter life in Canada<p>As we begin to emerge out of yet another mild winter, Canadians are once again being reminded of just how acutely global warming has changed Canada’s winter climate. </p>
<p>The impacts of this mild winter were felt across the country and touched all aspects of winter culture. From <a href="https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/quebec-winter-carnival-closes-palais-de-bonhomme-due-to-warm-weather-1.6764453">melting ice castles at Québec’s winter carnival</a>, to a dismal lack of snow at <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/british-columbia/article-bc-ski-resorts-struggle-with-lack-of-snow-as-warm-weather-persists/">many Western Canada ski resorts</a>, seemingly no part of Canada was unaffected. But the change that will likely be felt most keenly by many Canadians is the <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/7/1/014028">loss of a reliable outdoor skating season</a>.</p>
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<p>For the second year running, <a href="https://ncc-ccn.gc.ca/places/rideau-canal-skateway">Ottawa’s Rideau Canal Skateway</a> was closed for what should be the peak of the skating season. In 2022-2023, the Skateway did not open at all for the first time ever. This winter, a portion of the Skateway opened briefly in January, but continuing mild temperatures forced a closure again after only four days of skating. In Montréal, <a href="https://www.patinermontreal.ca/f/paysagee/patin-libre/sports-dequipe">fewer than 40 per cent of the city’s outdoor rinks were open</a> in the middle of February.</p>
<p>There is no obvious upside to this story. Outdoor skating in Canada is fast becoming the latest casualty of our failure to confront the reality of the climate crisis.</p>
<h2>On thin ice</h2>
<p>More than a decade ago, our research group published <a href="https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/7/1/014028">our first analysis</a> of how outdoor skating was being affected by warming winter temperatures in Canada. We showed that even as of 2005, there was already evidence of later start dates, and shorter skating seasons across most of the country. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">A report on the management of the Rideau Canal Skateway in 2023, produced by the CBC.</span></figcaption>
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<p>These conclusions were echoed by <a href="https://www.rinkwatch.org">subsequent publications from the RinkWatch project</a>, which has reported <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cag.12878">consistent declines in skating season length and quality</a> in many Canadian cities.</p>
<p>Meanwhile in Ottawa, skating days on the <a href="https://rideaucanalskateway.com/">Rideau Canal Skateway</a> have been trending downwards over the last 20 years. In this time, the typical skating season has decreased by almost 40 per cent, a trend that is clearly correlated with increasing winter temperatures over the same period. </p>
<h2>Moving in the wrong direction</h2>
<p>Climate mitigation progress continues to be far too slow. </p>
<p>Global CO2 emissions reached their <a href="https://globalcarbonbudget.org/fossil-co2-emissions-at-record-high-in-2023/">highest level ever recorded in 2023</a>, and average global temperatures have now reached <a href="https://berkeleyearth.org">1.3 C above pre-industrial temperatures</a>. If these trends continue, we are on track to reach 1.5 C — the lower threshold of the Paris Agreement temperature target — in <a href="https://climateclock.net">less than seven years</a>.</p>
<p>In our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cag.12878">2012 paper</a>, we estimated that suitable rink flooding days could disappear across most of southern Canada by mid-century. In <a href="https://doi.org/10.1088/2515-7620/ab8ca8">a more recent analysis of Montréal’s outdoor rinks</a>, we estimated that the number of viable skating days in Montréal could decrease to zero by as early as 2070. </p>
<p>In hindsight, these and other similar projections may have been far too optimistic. In a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2465">study of Rideau canal skating days published in 2015</a>, the authors projected declining but sustained skating conditions throughout this century, even in a high future emissions scenario. The reality of the past two seasons shows that skating conditions have deteriorated far more quickly than predicted. </p>
<p>Global temperatures in 2023 were the highest ever recorded, as were winter temperatures in December 2023 and January 2024. Since 1950, winter temperatures in Canada have increased by more than 3 C, <a href="https://theconversation.com/2023-was-the-hottest-year-in-history-and-canada-is-warming-faster-than-anywhere-else-on-earth-220997">which is about three times the rate of global warming over this same period</a>. </p>
<p>Outdoor rinks require at least three consecutive very cold days to establish a foundation of ice, followed by enough cold days to maintain a good ice surface. Temperatures above freezing are poorly tolerated by outdoor rinks, and rain is often disastrous. </p>
<p>A few degrees of warming in January and February temperatures can be the difference between a rink that is skatable and one that is not. As winters continue to warm, the case for building and maintaining outdoor municipal rinks will become harder to justify.</p>
<h2>A stark and still changing new reality</h2>
<p>As years go by without any real progress on climate mitigation, it is becoming increasingly difficult to imagine a future in which outdoor rinks will be widely available without artificial refrigeration. Other winter activities will also be affected by changing snow conditions, but outdoor skating will likely be hit first in direct response to warming winter temperatures.</p>
<p>Wayne Gretzky famously <a href="https://gretzky.com/bio.php">learned to skate and play hockey in Branford, Ont. in the 1960s on an outdoor rink built by his father</a>. Reliable winter skating conditions in southern Ontario are already mostly a thing of the past, and are becoming more and more scarce as global warming progresses. It is increasingly unlikely that current and future generations will be able to follow Gretzky’s path. </p>
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<p>This reality is both a tragic injustice for many young Canadians and an existential threat to a core aspect of the Canadian winter identity.</p>
<p>Preserving what remains of Canada’s winter skating culture will require that we rapidly step up our efforts to drive down CO2 emissions and stabilize global temperatures. Otherwise, Joni Mitchell’s “<a href="https://genius.com/Joni-mitchell-river-lyrics">river I could skate away on</a>” will become an increasingly wishful dream that soon will exist only in the lyrics of old songs.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222329/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>H. Damon Matthews receives funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mitchell Dickau receives funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p>Global warming is melting away an iconic cornerstone of Canadian culture — outdoor skating.H. Damon Matthews, Professor and Climate Scientist, Department of Geography, Planning and Environment, Concordia UniversityMitchell Dickau, PhD Candidate, Geography, Planning, and Environment Department, Concordia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2006222023-03-16T19:57:32Z2023-03-16T19:57:32ZThe Rideau Canal Skateway: How can we promote resilience in the face of a changing climate?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515295/original/file-20230314-1765-t25qdd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=279%2C203%2C5363%2C3553&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Even if we achieve our global commitment to limit temperature increase to less than 2 C this century, climate change will continue to impact the culturally significant Rideau Canal Skateway.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://ncc-ccn.gc.ca/places/history-rideau-canal-skateway">Rideau Canal Skateway</a>, the 7.8 kilometre ice path winding through the Canadian capital city of Ottawa, is a <a href="https://www.pc.gc.ca/culture/spm-whs/sites-canada/sec02n">National Historic Site of Canada</a> and a <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1221">UNESCO World Heritage Site</a>. </p>
<p>This winter, for the first time, the Rideau Canal Skateway <a href="https://ncc-ccn.gc.ca/news/ncc-efforts-to-open-the-rideau-canal-skateway-come-to-an-end">did not open</a>.</p>
<p>Although transforming the Rideau Canal waterway into the winter skateway — which typically welcomes more than 21,000 visitors on average per day — requires considerable <a href="https://ncc-ccn.gc.ca/blog/rideau-canal-behind-the-ice">engineering and logistical effort</a>, the ice cover growth is ultimately governed by the ambient environmental conditions.</p>
<p>Even if we achieve our <a href="https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/paris-agreement">global commitment to limit temperature increase to less than 2 C this century</a>, climate change will continue to impact this culturally significant Canadian heritage site. <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/ar6-syr/">Global warming is known to impact</a> our ecosystems, biodiversity, food security and infrastructure. </p>
<p>Recent studies have observed decreases in the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.8068">seasonal duration</a> and area coverage of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0393-5">lake and river ice</a>, with long-term negative impacts projected for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2465">recreational facilities</a>.</p>
<p>And while the National Capital Commission (NCC) has been working towards advancing sustainable adaptation strategies that promote the resilience of such climate change-impacted areas, it needs to be supported with informed decision-making. Our research at Carleton University, in collaboration with the NCC, will establish an adaptive framework to support this strategy.</p>
<h2>Effects of the changing climate</h2>
<p>Since 1971, the average Rideau Canal Skateway season lasted 57 days. Over the past five seasons (2017-22) the average season length dropped down to 47 days. The longest season of 90 days took place in the winter of 1971-72, while the shortest season lasted 29 days in 2021-22. However, last winter, the full 7.8 kilometre stretch of the Skateway was accessible on opening day (Jan. 14, 2022) for the first time in over two decades.</p>
<p>This winter, the Rideau Canal Skateway <a href="https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/rideau-canal-skateway-won-t-open-for-1st-time-in-53-year-history-1.6287966">never opened</a>. This can be attributed to warmer temperatures and twice the typical snowfall when compared with the climate normal from <a href="https://climate.weather.gc.ca/climate_normals/index_e.html">1981-2010</a>. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, Ottawa-Gatineau’s Winterlude festival was delayed by one day due to <a href="https://www.pressreader.com/canada/ottawa-sun/20230205/281505050370569">extreme cold conditions</a> with a mean temperature of -26 C and average windchill of -34 C on Feb. 4, 2023. This was despite the region experiencing warmer than normal temperatures in 2022-23.</p>
<p>These erratic weather patterns, occurring due to climate change, may become a more significant factor affecting the season start and ice-building processes in the future.</p>
<h2>Sustainable development strategy</h2>
<p>The National Capital Commission, in collaboration with local municipalities and government agencies, established a <a href="https://ncc-ccn.gc.ca/our-plans/climate-change-adaptation#doc1">sustainable development strategy</a> to evaluate the risk of climate change effects on infrastructure and heritage buildings, natural resources and parks. </p>
<p>This adaptation strategy has three phases: 1) climate projections, 2) vulnerability and risk assessment and 3) adaptation strategy.</p>
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<img alt="Winter in Ottawa." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515301/original/file-20230314-6289-ldh9c8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515301/original/file-20230314-6289-ldh9c8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515301/original/file-20230314-6289-ldh9c8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515301/original/file-20230314-6289-ldh9c8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515301/original/file-20230314-6289-ldh9c8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515301/original/file-20230314-6289-ldh9c8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515301/original/file-20230314-6289-ldh9c8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">In a high emission scenario, winters in the Ottawa region have been estimated to be five weeks shorter by 2050.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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<p>One of the key findings of the first phase is that, in a high emission scenario, winters in the Ottawa region would be five weeks shorter by 2050 with 35 per cent fewer days below -10 C. The climate projections also estimated a decrease in annual snowfall by 20 per cent with an increase in freezing rain.</p>
<p>An outcome from the second phase was to address the climate hazards impacting infrastructure, heritage buildings, natural resources and parks, like the Rideau Canal Skateway, and advance possible adaptation strategies.</p>
<h2>Multi-disciplinary approach</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://ncc-ccn.gc.ca/blog/tackling-climate-change-on-the-rideau-canal-skateway">National Capital Commission</a> teamed up with <a href="https://newsroom.carleton.ca/story/rideau-canal-skating-changing-climate/">Carleton University</a> to develop an improved understanding of the climate-related hazards and find potential adaptation strategies to mitigate the effect of climate change and make the Rideau Canal Skateway more resilient.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://carleton.ca/geirg/about/climate-change-effects-rideau-canal-skateway/">multidisciplinary team</a> at Carleton has integrated researchers across the fields of physical geography, cryospheric science, civil and mechanical engineering and remote sensing. In collaboration with the NCC, we have begun a four-year research project with this goal in mind.</p>
<p>This project aims to:</p>
<p>1) improve our knowledge base on the physical environment of the Rideau Canal Skateway</p>
<p>2) use this data to simulate the effects of climate change projected forward over the next 10, 20 and 30 year periods</p>
<p>3) assess what makes the Skateway vulnerable to the effects of climate change</p>
<p>4) conduct pilot studies to evaluate possible adaptation strategies</p>
<p>5) refine and optimize the promising adaptation strategies that can help address the uncertain evolution of climate change in the future</p>
<p>We will explore what promotes ice growth at the beginning of the season when the environmental conditions are more favourable and the ice cover is too thin for supporting conventional equipment and techniques. </p>
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<p>The initial pilot studies will focus on the use of <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/ski-resorts-are-spending-big-on-snow-making-to-keep-ahead-of-climate-change-44e0931f">snow fans</a> or slush canons to promote ice growth (ice catching), reduced scale autonomous snow blowers (snow management) and heat exchangers, such as thermosyphons, that help cool the water below the ice (thermal management). </p>
<p>A dynamic pathway based on these studies will help the National Capital Commission to implement effective and sustainable adaptation strategies that maintain or improve the current levels of service for the next 30-year window.</p>
<h2>Broader view with global action</h2>
<p>The iconic significance of the Rideau Canal Skateway makes it an integral part of Ottawa’s cultural identity and our project aims to find climate change adaptation strategies to keep this intact.</p>
<p>Underpinning this research is the overarching need for a concerted <a href="https://www.un.org/en/climatechange">global community</a> response to the <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/services/environment/weather/climatechange/climate-plan/national-adaptation-strategy.html">challenges of climate change</a>. </p>
<p>Such challenges also present <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesfinancecouncil/2022/02/11/the-climate-fight-presents-massive-opportunity-for-businesses-investors/?sh=346331124055">opportunities</a> like economic growth and technology development in the energy transition market, which in turn has other benefits ranging from improved public health to job creation. Leveraging these benefits of <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/top-10-benefits-climate-action">climate action</a> can become the cornerstone of our climate change adaptation strategies.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200622/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>As part of the NSERC Alliance grant, which leveraged funding from the National Capital Commisssion, the Principal Investigator Shawn Kenny consults with the National Capital Commission on the project outcomes to facilitate knowledge transfer and translation. </span></em></p>Erratic weather patterns occurring due to climate change may become a more significant factor affecting the season start and ice-building processes in the future.Shawn Kenny, Associate Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Carleton UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1770402022-02-19T09:33:20Z2022-02-19T09:33:20ZHow climate change threatens the Winter Olympics’ future – even snowmaking has limits for saving the Games<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447369/original/file-20220218-41748-1vbdyob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=43%2C157%2C2682%2C1771&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Almost all of the snow at the 2022 Winter Olympics came from machines.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/BeijingOlympicsFreestyleSkiing/290957ac00914a42b130c25c877be53a/photo">AP Photo/Gregory Bull</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Winter Olympics is an adrenaline rush as athletes fly down snow-covered ski slopes, luge tracks and over the ice at breakneck speeds and with grace.</p>
<p>When the <a href="https://olympics.com/en/olympic-games/chamonix-1924">first Olympic Winter Games</a> were held in Chamonix, France, in 1924, all 16 events took place outdoors. The athletes relied on natural snow for ski runs and freezing temperatures for ice rinks.</p>
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<img alt="Two skaters on ice outside with mountains in the background. They are posing as if gliding together." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447356/original/file-20220218-43671-w7eafo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447356/original/file-20220218-43671-w7eafo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=770&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447356/original/file-20220218-43671-w7eafo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=770&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447356/original/file-20220218-43671-w7eafo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=770&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447356/original/file-20220218-43671-w7eafo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=968&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447356/original/file-20220218-43671-w7eafo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=968&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447356/original/file-20220218-43671-w7eafo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=968&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Sonja Henie, left, and Gilles Grafstrom at the Olympic Winter Games in Chamonix, France, in 1924.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/SonjaHenieandGillesGrafstrom/78bbbc3ba3e3da11af9f0014c2589dfb/photo">The Associated Press</a></span>
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<p>Nearly a century later, in 2022, the world watched skiers race down runs of 100% human-made snow near Beijing. Luge tracks and ski jumps have their own refrigeration, and four of the original events are now held indoors: Figure skaters, speed skaters, curlers and hockey teams all compete in climate-controlled buildings.</p>
<p>Innovation made the 2022 Winter Games possible in Beijing, but snowmaking can go only so far in a warming climate.</p>
<p>As global temperatures rise, what will the Winter Games look like in another century? Will they even be possible?</p>
<h2>Former host cities that would be too warm</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2018.1436161">average daytime temperature</a> of Winter Games host cities in February has increased steadily since those first events in Chamonix, rising from 33 degrees Fahrenheit (0.4 C) in the 1920s-1950s to 46 F (7.8 C) in the early 21st century.</p>
<p>In a recent study, scientists <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2018.1436161">looked at the venues of 19 past Winter Olympics</a> to see how each might hold up under future climate change.</p>
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<img alt="A cross-country skier falls in front of another during a race. The second skier has his mouth open as if shouting." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447358/original/file-20220218-42890-462i4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447358/original/file-20220218-42890-462i4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447358/original/file-20220218-42890-462i4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447358/original/file-20220218-42890-462i4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447358/original/file-20220218-42890-462i4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447358/original/file-20220218-42890-462i4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447358/original/file-20220218-42890-462i4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Human-made snow was used to augment trails at the Sochi Games in 2014. Some athletes complained that it made the trails icier and more dangerous.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/XXCClimateDangerousSnow/0b148fbbb5ac48c4ba6319f7f030c855/photo">AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky</a></span>
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<p>They found that by midcentury, four former host cities – Chamonix; Sochi, Russia; Grenoble, France; and Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany – would no longer have a reliable climate for hosting the Games, even under the United Nations’ best-case scenario for climate change, which assumes the world quickly cuts its greenhouse gas emissions. If the world continues burning fossil fuels at high rates, Squaw Valley, California, and Vancouver, British Columbia, would join that list.</p>
<p>By the 2080s, the scientists found, the climates in 11 of 21 former venues would be too unreliable to host the Winter Olympics’ outdoor events; among them were Turin, Italy; Nagano, Japan; and Innsbruck, Austria.</p>
<p>These venues would all be susceptible to problems associated with snowmaking. </p>
<p>Ideal snowmaking conditions today require a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2022/01/23/snowmaking-ski-resort-artificial-climate/">dewpoint temperature</a> – the combination of coldness and humidity – of around <a href="https://www.tusseymountain.com/snowmaking">28 F (-2 C) or less</a>. More moisture in the air melts snow and ice at <a href="https://iahs.info/uploads/dms/15547.14-65-70-360-01-Fassnacht_etal.pdf">colder temperatures</a>, which affects snow on ski slopes and ice on bobsled, skeleton and luge tracks.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Stark white lines etched on a swath of brown mountains delineate ski routes and bobsled course." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446960/original/file-20220217-34819-1kzj9c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446960/original/file-20220217-34819-1kzj9c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446960/original/file-20220217-34819-1kzj9c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446960/original/file-20220217-34819-1kzj9c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446960/original/file-20220217-34819-1kzj9c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446960/original/file-20220217-34819-1kzj9c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446960/original/file-20220217-34819-1kzj9c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A satellite view clearly shows the absence of natural snow during the 2022 Winter Olympics. Beijing’s bid to host the Winter Games had explained how extensively it would rely on snowmaking.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/149430/a-satellite-view-of-olympic-terrain">Joshua Stevens/NASA Earth Observatory</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A gondola passes by with dark ground below and white ski slopes behind it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447360/original/file-20220218-48814-g7qon0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447360/original/file-20220218-48814-g7qon0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447360/original/file-20220218-48814-g7qon0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447360/original/file-20220218-48814-g7qon0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447360/original/file-20220218-48814-g7qon0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447360/original/file-20220218-48814-g7qon0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447360/original/file-20220218-48814-g7qon0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The finish area of the Alpine ski venue at the 2022 Winter Olympics was white because of artificially made snow.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/BeijingOlympicsAlpineSkiing/5c9eec01890844a8a471bde42463e406/photo">AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=p4UqsX0AAAAJ&hl=en">Colorado snow</a> <a href="https://warnercnr.colostate.edu/person/?user=pIv7%2Bvwdy3%2BBo/yXa22Zpw==">and sustainability</a> scientists and avid skiers, we’ve been watching the developments and studying the climate impact on the mountains and winter sports we love. </p>
<h2>Conditions vary by location and year to year</h2>
<p>The Earth’s <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/">climate will be warmer</a> overall in the coming decades. Warmer air can mean <a href="https://theconversation.com/devastating-colorado-fires-cap-a-year-of-climate-disasters-in-2021-with-one-side-of-the-country-too-wet-the-other-dangerously-dry-173402">more precipitation</a> in some areas. It can also mean more winter rain, particularly at lower elevations. Over the globe, snow has been <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.150970">covering less area</a>. </p>
<p>However, local changes vary. For example, in northern Colorado, the amount of snow has <a href="https://doi.org/10.5194/piahs-371-131-2015">decreased since the 1970s</a>, but the decline has <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/w10050562">mostly been at higher elevations</a>.</p>
<p>A future climate may also be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1716789115">more humid</a>, which <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-couldn%E2%80%99t-have-the-beijing-olympics-without-snow-machines-how-do-they-work-and-whats-the-environmental-cost-176795">affects snowmaking</a> and could affect bobsled, luge and skeleton tracks.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Several barrels blow snow onto one ski run while skiers uses another." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447361/original/file-20220218-3064-1c25dsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447361/original/file-20220218-3064-1c25dsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447361/original/file-20220218-3064-1c25dsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447361/original/file-20220218-3064-1c25dsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447361/original/file-20220218-3064-1c25dsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447361/original/file-20220218-3064-1c25dsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447361/original/file-20220218-3064-1c25dsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Snowmaking machines spray artificially made snow on a ski slope during a test ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympics.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/ChinaSkiCrossWorldCup/6c55b1f1e56e44c19414337f056e744c/photo">AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Of the <a href="https://olympics.com/en/beijing-2022/sports/">15 Winter Games sports today</a>, seven are affected by temperature and snow: alpine skiing, biathlon, cross-country skiing, freestyle skiing, Nordic combined, ski jumping and snowboarding. And three are affected by temperature and humidity: bobsled, luge and skeleton.</p>
<h2>Technology also changes</h2>
<p>Developments in technology have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2014.887665">helped the Winter Games adapt</a> to some changes over the past century.</p>
<p>Hockey moved indoors, followed by skating. Luge and bobsled tracks were refrigerated <a href="https://www.ibsf.org/en/our-sports/skeleton-history">in the 1960s</a>. The <a href="https://olympics.com/en/olympic-games/lake-placid-1980">Lake Placid Winter Games in 1980</a> used snowmaking to augment natural snow on the ski slopes.</p>
<p>Today, initiatives are exploring ways to make skiing possible year-round with <a href="https://alpine-x.com/">indoor skiing facilities</a>. <a href="https://www.skidxb.com/">Ski Dubai</a>, open since 2005, has five ski runs on a hill the height of a 25-story building inside a resort attached to a shopping mall.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two workers pack snow on an indoor ski slope with a sloped ceiling overhead." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447364/original/file-20220218-44444-1se55e7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447364/original/file-20220218-44444-1se55e7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447364/original/file-20220218-44444-1se55e7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447364/original/file-20220218-44444-1se55e7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447364/original/file-20220218-44444-1se55e7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447364/original/file-20220218-44444-1se55e7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447364/original/file-20220218-44444-1se55e7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dubai has an indoor ski slope with multiple runs and a chairlift, all part of a shopping mall complex.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/VirusOutbreakEmirates/9defb929928a4f0f81d259f195007107/photo">AP Photo/Jon Gambrell</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But making snow and keeping it cold requires energy and water – and both become issues in a warming world. Water becomes more scarce in many areas. And energy, if it means more fossil fuel use, further <a href="https://ugc.berkeley.edu/background-content/burning-of-fossil-fuels/">contributes to climate change</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/news/the-ioc-and-the-olympic-games-addressing-climate-change">International Olympic Committee recognizes</a> that the future climate will have a big impact on the Olympics, both winter and summer. It also recognizes the importance of ensuring the adaptations <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/sustainability">are sustainable</a>.</p>
<p>The Winter Olympics could become limited to more northerly locations, <a href="https://olympics.com/en/olympic-games/calgary-1988">like Calgary, Alberta</a>, or be pushed to <a href="https://doi.org/10.25675/10217/222418">higher elevations</a>.</p>
<h2>Summer Games are feeling climate pressure, too</h2>
<p>The Summer Games also face challenges. <a href="https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/28075216">Hot temperatures and high humidity</a> can make competing in the summer difficult, but these sports have more flexibility than winter sports.</p>
<p>For example, changing the timing of typical summer events to another season can help alleviate excessive temperatures. The <a href="https://www.espn.com/soccer/fifa-world-cup/story/4345373/qatar-2022-how-will-football-squeeze-in-a-world-cup-in-november-december">2022 World Cup</a>, normally a summer event, is scheduled for November so Qatar can host it.</p>
<p>What makes adaptation more difficult for the Winter Games is the necessity of snow or ice for all of the events.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A snowboarder with 'USA' on her gloves puts her arms out for balance on a run." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447367/original/file-20220218-2552-ereikj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447367/original/file-20220218-2552-ereikj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447367/original/file-20220218-2552-ereikj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447367/original/file-20220218-2552-ereikj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447367/original/file-20220218-2552-ereikj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447367/original/file-20220218-2552-ereikj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447367/original/file-20220218-2552-ereikj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Climate change threatens the ideal environments for snowboarders, like U.S. Olympian Hailey Langland, competing here during the women’s snowboard big air final in Beijing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/BeijingOlympicsSnowboardBigAir/c8a95826680b4213a3f4ded228e04a77/photo">AP Photo/Jae C. Hong</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Future depends on responses to climate change</h2>
<p>In uncertain times, the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0266543042000192475">Olympics offer a way for the world to come together</a>.</p>
<p>People are thrilled by the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09523367.2020.1866474">athletic feats</a>, like Jean-Claude Killy winning all three Alpine skiing events in 1968, and stories of perseverance, like the 1988 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgulzUHbZik">Jamaican bobsled team</a> competing beyond all expectation.</p>
<p>The Winter Games’ outdoor sports may look very different in the future. How different will <a href="https://www.imperial.ac.uk/grantham/publications/climate-change-faqs/what-are-the-worlds-countries-doing-about-climate-change/">depend heavily on how countries respond</a> to climate change.</p>
<p>[<em>Understand new developments in science, health and technology, each week.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?nl=science&source=inline-science-understand">Subscribe to The Conversation’s science newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/177040/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Innovation made the 2022 Winter Games possible in Beijing, but snowmaking has limits in a warming climate.Steven R. Fassnacht, Professor of Snow Hydrology, Colorado State UniversitySunshine Swetnam, Assistant Professor of Natural Resources, Colorado State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1515302020-12-17T18:54:42Z2020-12-17T18:54:42ZHead to the local ice skating rink to meet and mingle this COVID-19 winter<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373690/original/file-20201208-23-1vrtrbg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=179%2C332%2C5811%2C3574&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A new study shows helping strangers is part of ice skating. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Sunyu Kim/Unsplash)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In large Canadian cities, public ice rinks are a common feature. Over half of Canada’s 25 largest cities run free outdoor ice-skating rinks. The rinks are hockey-free and often have user-friendly design features (sloped access points, warming rooms, public washrooms) and are located close to central public transport hubs. </p>
<p>Crucially, they are free to use. Just bring your skates. The pandemic, unfortunately, has put limits on skating. Some rinks require advance registration and limit the number of people on the ice at one time, and skate rentals may not be available. </p>
<p>While there is no doubting hockey’s iconic status in Canada, we feel these local skating rinks are often overlooked in our cultural dialogues. So, last winter, we got together with our <a href="https://www.sociablecities.uoguelph.ca/">Sociable Cities research team</a> to analyze two outdoor public ice rinks. </p>
<p>Based on 100 hours of “naturalistic and participant observation” (let’s call it watching and skating) we found that these rinks are a distinctive kind of public space, and not only because of the ice. They’re spaces for winter exercise and leisure, with all types of skill levels and configurations present: solo skaters, families and friends, beginning skaters, adapted skaters and skilled skaters. </p>
<p>These ice rinks are also places for <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.17645/up.v5i4.3430">sociability between strangers</a>, where people mingle, chat and assist each other with ease. Significantly, these rinks are diverse in many ways: race, ethnicity, gender, age, ability, religion, immigration status. An ethos of reciprocal respect, mutual support and sociability seems to rule on and around the ice. People trust strangers to watch personal belongings, help tie skates and offer a steadying hand. Someone may even watch your kids as you get a coffee or grab a bite. Public-spiritedness, openness to differences and winter fun are part of the everyday life of these rinks. </p>
<p>These findings are in contrast to research on hockey’s long history of exclusivity, with some evidence that hockey is increasingly becoming the <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/time-to-lead/the-great-offside-how-canadian-hockey-is-becoming-a-game-strictly-for-the-rich/article15349723">preserve of the wealthy</a>. Hockey also has an ongoing serious <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/where-are-the-minorities-1.835849">diversity problem</a>. Across recreational, amateur and professional levels, there are now regular reports of <a href="https://hockeyinsociety.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/policypaper_anti-racisminhockey_execsummary_final.pdf">racism</a> against <a href="https://www.therecord.com//sports/waterloo-region/2018/05/05/racism-at-the-rink.html">Black</a> and <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/quebec-city-hockey-racism-1.4685720">Indigenous</a> players, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl/carcillo-hazing-hockey-culture-ohl-abuse-1.4922623">toxic</a> <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/canadian-hockey-league-class-action-lawsuit-1.5834716">masculinity</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1123/ssj.2017-0133">homophobia</a>. While these problems plague the men’s game, <a href="https://blackgirlhockeyclub.org/2020/06/09/renee-hess-saroya-tinker-hockey-race/">female players</a> and <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/we-are-gathered-we-are-here-welcome-to-black-girl-hockey-club-1.5374068">fans</a> report similar issues. There have been some moves to <a href="https://www.nhl.com/community/hockey-is-for-everyone">address these problems</a>, with much <a href="http://www.cksn.ca/2020/10/ontario-hockey-federation-makes-ill-advised-decision-to-scrap-diversity-and-inclusion-program/">room to grow.</a> </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373691/original/file-20201208-23-vfpq3o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373691/original/file-20201208-23-vfpq3o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373691/original/file-20201208-23-vfpq3o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373691/original/file-20201208-23-vfpq3o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373691/original/file-20201208-23-vfpq3o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373691/original/file-20201208-23-vfpq3o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373691/original/file-20201208-23-vfpq3o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Outdoor rinks in Canada have been found to be racially diverse meeting places. Here people take to the Rideau Canal in Ottawa on Feb. 18, 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Freedom to fail</h2>
<p>In our <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.17645/up.v5i4.3430">recently published research</a> we identify several features that support sociable interactions between strangers at local ice rinks. Two important characteristics promote this dynamic: the freedom to fail and the temporary suspension of social hierarchies.</p>
<p>Maybe your last time at the rink involved sliding into a stranger, tripping onto the ice or avoiding a fall by reaching for a passing stranger’s arm. It’s not just you. </p>
<p>Our observations show that such things happen all the time. The rink’s a place where you don’t need to be your best self: it’s OK to fall … and fail. Embarrassment aside, there’s a lot of judgment-free space for you to practise skating. And, when things go wrong, someone will likely offer to help. So long as no one’s seriously hurt, you’ll probably also share a laugh with a stranger. What could be perceived as a vulnerability is the thing that brings strangers together. </p>
<p>Our research documents everything from small signs of support — sympathetic winces, nods of recognition, encouraging words — to more sustained support for novice skaters. This includes strangers helping frustrated beginners to tie their laces, assisting nervous skaters onto the ice and providing impromptu skating lessons (“watch the ankles,” “bend your knees”). At the rink, being less than perfect is part of the fun.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An adult bends down to talk to children; all are on ice skates on an outdoor ice rink." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373688/original/file-20201208-18-1ynkpm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=54%2C46%2C5121%2C3399&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373688/original/file-20201208-18-1ynkpm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373688/original/file-20201208-18-1ynkpm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373688/original/file-20201208-18-1ynkpm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373688/original/file-20201208-18-1ynkpm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373688/original/file-20201208-18-1ynkpm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373688/original/file-20201208-18-1ynkpm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A new study finds outdoor ice rinks to be one of the few intergenerational socializing spots in the city.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Maxim Shklyaev/Unsplash)</span></span>
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<h2>Helping strangers</h2>
<p>Another unique feature of the public rink is the temporary suspension of social hierarchies. Markers of social status appear a little less pronounced than in many other contexts, in part because these rinks are non-commercial spaces. Normal social boundaries blur, so there’s relaxed contact between strangers as they encourage, cajole, fall or assist each other. </p>
<p>Diverse identities mix on the ice. Age hierarchies are often reversed: adults fall over and children check that they’re OK as they help them up. Older folks seek advice and defer to the on-ice expertise of young people. </p>
<p>This sort of intergenerational play between strangers is really special, as few <a href="http://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/1207/">public spaces allow for play</a> across generations, with play too often restricted by age and space in western culture. Playgrounds are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1206331218797546">built explicitly for children</a>, so once children age out (usually by 12), their caregivers lose access to a space where they too <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14649365.2013.800220">might play and meet other caregivers</a>. </p>
<p>Taken together, we call these positive characteristics “<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.17645/up.v5i4.3430">soft infrastructures of sociability</a>.” Like all infrastructure, they require regular maintenance, and we all have a stake in maintaining them. Municipalities are wise to provide the material and social supports needed to maintain these kinds of spaces. </p>
<p>While we have ample evidence of sociable interactions, we aren’t claiming that these public rinks are perfect. Skaters’ experiences aren’t necessarily universally positive. Even with the rink’s considerable conviviality and diversity, we also found some evidence of interactions that patrol social differences, and how these rinks may operate as “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/2332649214561306">white spaces</a>,” or settings that were previously white-dominated and therefore not entirely comfortable for Black, Indigenous or other people of colour. The next phase of our research will interview skaters to dig deeper. </p>
<p>As Canadians settle in for a winter where the pandemic will no doubt continue to wear us down, our social lives will continue to move outside. Free and accessible outdoor leisure spaces where we can engage in easy sociability with one another — both people we know and strangers — are more important than ever. The outdoor public rink may help some of us feel a little less alone.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/151530/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mervyn Horgan receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Saara Liinamaa receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. </span></em></p>Canadian skating rinks are diverse meeting and mingling places and seem to nurture respect, support and sociability, a new study stays.Mervyn Horgan, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of GuelphSaara Liinamaa, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology & Anthropology, University of GuelphLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1105522019-02-20T11:06:12Z2019-02-20T11:06:12ZSkateboarding defies the neoliberal logic of the city by making it a playground for all<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259917/original/file-20190220-148513-hywb53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1331%2C1022&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Flying free.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/freakingnoob/3919890737/">Perry Hall/Flickr.</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Skateboarding today is a global phenomenon, with around 50m riders and thousands of skate parks worldwide – it will even <a href="https://theconversation.com/ollies-at-the-olympics-why-having-skateboarding-at-tokyo-2020-is-a-winning-move-63349">feature as a sport</a> in the 2020 Olympic Games. From the full on testosterone of Thrasher skateboard magazine to the fashionable styling of Vogue, the skater girls and boys of Kabul to the Native American reservations of South Dakota, the skate parks of Brazil to the streets of Shenzhen, skateboarding is no longer just for punkish, subcultural rebels – it’s everywhere, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-skateboarding-flipped-its-white-male-image-and-welcomed-the-whole-world-97659">for everyone</a>. </p>
<p>Along the way, skateboarders have achieved great things in art, film, photography and DIY skate park construction, and have engaged with important matters of gender, community and professionalism, plus commerce, heritage and social enterprise. </p>
<p>This may come as something of a surprise to those who are mainly familiar with the stereotype of skateboarders as white teenage boys. In fact, a skater today might well be Asian and hipster cool, black and entrepreneurial, female and physically challenged, older and gay – or any other variation imaginable. </p>
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<p>Alongside gritty urban streets, new skate terrains have emerged, from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NY3XIi8FVdA">DIY constructions</a>, flow bowls and street plazas to longboard parks, multistory wonderlands and hybrid public spaces. Skateboarding’s influence even extends to preservation, heritage, planning and urban politics. </p>
<p>Entering a skate shop, you are as likely to see branded shoes and t-shirts as actual skateboards. Inevitably, big companies <a href="http://www.jenkemmag.com/home/2012/11/26/how-corporations-are-changing-skateboarding-and-why-it-matters/">are also involved</a>, including the likes of Adidas, Levi’s, New Balance, Nike and Vans. </p>
<p>Many university academics are even now researching skateboarding, from the perspectives of sociology, gender, sexuality, sports professionalism, graphic design, architecture, politics and urbanism. Personally, I’ve been actively researching skateboarding since 1988, culminating in my new book <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/skateboarding-and-the-city-9781472583451/">Skateboarding and the City: a Complete History</a>, as well as being an active skateboarder since 1977. </p>
<h2>Play over productivity</h2>
<p>Most profound of all is skateboarding’s contribution to city streets and public spaces, for it remains, at heart, an urban activity. While cities are made up of housing, offices, banks, transport, universities and so forth, skateboarding makes use of these buildings without engaging with their productive activities. Freed from the strictures of regimented skate parks and the demands of organised sport, street skateboarders implicitly deny that cities should always be productive or useful. </p>
<p>The kind of skateboarding that rides up the walls of banks, slides down handrails and grinds across plaza ledges, disrupts the economic and functional logic of cities. Instead, skateboarding correlates with <a href="https://www.theplayethic.com">Pat Kane’s</a> contention that our dominant work ethic should be accompanied by an equivalent “play ethic”, where play is not just personally pleasurable but also collaborative, creative and politicised. </p>
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<p>Here, skateboarding suggests that our lives and cities should be full of mobility, pleasure and joy – and not just of sedentary labour and earnest endeavour. The result is, or should be, a city not of passive shopping malls but of vibrant bodily life. </p>
<p>This, perhaps, is the most overtly political space created by skateboarders: a pleasure ground carved out of the city, as a continuous reaffirmation of one of the central slogans of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/may/02/protests-in-paris-may-1968-photographs-then-and-now">1968 strikes and student protests in Paris</a>: that <a href="https://www.sunypress.edu/pdf/62188.pdf">“sous les pavés, la plage”</a> (beneath the pavement, lies the beach).</p>
<h2>Overcoming obstacles</h2>
<p>Today, skateboarding in public spaces is legislated against everywhere from Brisbane and Manchester to Quebec and the Bronx. This accords with a common social fear of teenagers in general, with skaters as young adults being regularly viewed as potential muggers, robbers or worse. As US president George H.W. Bush once said of skateboarders: “Just thank God they don’t have guns” (quoted in Thrasher, March 1992, p.74).</p>
<p>Physical barriers are also put in place to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/jun/13/anti-homeless-spikes-hostile-architecture">discourage skateboarding</a>. As the homeless are routinely excluded by “defensive architecture” such as odd-shaped benches, spikes on window ledges and sprinklers above doorways, so skaters encounter rough textured surfaces, “skatestopper” blocks, chains and scatterings of gravel, deliberately intended to ruin their run.</p>
<p>Yet skateboarding can be an ideal training ground for entrepreneurs and other model citizens. Skateboarders are constantly learning and inventing new tricks, which demands innovation, risk taking and an ability to learn through failure. Their typical distrust of organisations, teams and routines means they are independent minded, with a sense of personal responsibility. </p>
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<p>Skateboarding has provided an experimental space for the likes of video artist <a href="http://annaschwartzgallery.com/artists/shaun-gladwell/">Shaun Gladwell</a>, film maker <a href="https://www.biography.com/people/spike-jonze-9542284">Spike Jonze</a> and photographer <a href="http://frenchfred.com">Fred Mortagne</a> to hone their creativity (you can find more <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5Wkg5tmbyD7u62Vcz8F4jw/videos">examples here</a>). </p>
<p>It can also promote community values: the Pushing Boarders events (London 2018 and Malmö 2019) are exploring diversity among skateboarders. As African American skater Karl Watson put it: “The skateboarding community embraces all ways of life, whether you are black or white, old or young – it embraces all people.”</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-skateboarding-flipped-its-white-male-image-and-welcomed-the-whole-world-97659">How skateboarding flipped its white male image and welcomed the whole world</a>
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<p>More positive attitudes towards skateboarding are beginning to emerge, as people become aware of its economic and cultural benefits, and mindful of the need to encourage healthy physical activity among city dwellers of all ages. In cities such as Malmö, London, Brisbane, Rapids City, Coventry and Hull, public recognition for skateboarders has undoubtedly increased in the form of support for skate parks, skateable public spaces, skate-focused schools and city policy.</p>
<p>It seems as though skateboarding is finally being seen in its true light: critical, rebellious, non-conformist – and a dynamic presence in cities around the world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/110552/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Iain Borden does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Skateboarding is no longer just for punkish, subcultural rebels – it’s everywhere, for everyone.Iain Borden, Professor of Architecture and Urban Culture, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/408592015-04-28T05:27:26Z2015-04-28T05:27:26ZIn praise of skaters – elves saving cities’ forlorn and forgotten corners<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79496/original/image-20150427-18138-ie1a34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Skaters bring culture and creativity to places others avoid.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/somethingness/13041209864">Nic Redhead</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Skateboarders aren’t too popular with civic authorities. Routinely demonised as vandals and as a danger to other members of the public, they are often portrayed as an antisocial nuisance to be excluded by law or sometimes lured away to officially sanctioned skate parks. Skaters, being predominantly teenage lads, can seem like an alien and dangerous sub-species, scowling from beneath hoodies festooned with zombies, occult runes or lewd cartoons. </p>
<p>Yet the real trouble with skateboarding is that it challenges the dominant use of cities, which remain controlled by civic and corporate interests whose primary purpose is to run the place as a machine for consumption. Pesky skaters are at very least an unruly nuisance getting in the way of valued customers, or, worse still, are enjoying the cityscape for free, a specific symptom of a general teenaphobia.</p>
<p>Iain Borden, the UCL professor whose <a href="https://www.bartlett.ucl.ac.uk/architecture/research/projects/skateboarding">ground-breaking book</a> first brought the place of skaters in the city to attention recently suggested skating had achieved <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/apr/20/skate-city-skateboarders-developers-bans-defensive-architecture?CMP=share_btn_tw">a more positive place</a> in many cityscapes around the world, now recognised as a creative, challenging and healthy activity. </p>
<p>To an extent this is true. Skateboarding builds confidence and the social capital that can combat social exclusion, alcohol and drug abuse. The sport is becoming respectable with skateboarding designed into some spaces and <a href="http://www.designboom.com/architecture/house-of-vans-london-indoor-skatepark-08-25-2014/">superb new skate parks</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79515/original/image-20150427-18167-19r7h1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79515/original/image-20150427-18167-19r7h1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79515/original/image-20150427-18167-19r7h1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79515/original/image-20150427-18167-19r7h1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79515/original/image-20150427-18167-19r7h1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79515/original/image-20150427-18167-19r7h1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79515/original/image-20150427-18167-19r7h1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An ideal way to explore the big city.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisschoenbohm/4229820086">Chris Ford</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
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<p>However civic respectability may not be part of the attraction. Central to skateboarding is the sense of the skaters’ local scene, a heritage and culture that may be inscrutable to non-skaters. Skate culture is powerful social glue. Skaters will tell you that they can turn up in an unfamiliar city, skateboard in hand, and immediately be welcomed to join in with the locals. </p>
<p>Skateboarders’ bonds can also come as a surprise to city authorities. In the autumn of 2014 the city council in Norwich proposed a <a href="http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/news/norwich_city_centre_skateboard_ban_moves_a_step_closer_1_3657815?action=login">ban on skateboarding</a> throughout the city centre. Norwich’s new skate park had been built, according to the council, on “the tacit understanding” that skaters would not use the city centre.</p>
<p>On the evening of the council debate to herald the ban the public gallery of the town hall was packed with skaters, with more beside left outside unable to fit in following a demonstration and a public petition with more than 6,000 signatures. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79509/original/image-20150427-18160-1e834kb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79509/original/image-20150427-18160-1e834kb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=745&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79509/original/image-20150427-18160-1e834kb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=745&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79509/original/image-20150427-18160-1e834kb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=745&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79509/original/image-20150427-18160-1e834kb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=937&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79509/original/image-20150427-18160-1e834kb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=937&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79509/original/image-20150427-18160-1e834kb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=937&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Who are these kids?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/vixon/72497275">Victor Leite</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
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<p>The council <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-30210193">withdrew its immediate plans</a> for a ban although the possible use of a restriction, a Public Spaces Protection Order, has been mooted. This new PSPO legislation also threatened skaters in the town of Kettering, while more typical bans are also looming in Barking and Bristol. Iain Borden’s global optimism can seem a bit too sunny down at street level.</p>
<h2>Stop, watch and learn</h2>
<p>Skaters are not out to cause conflict. They would much prefer to be left to their own devices, often out of sight and out of mind. While the ominous hoodies and garish logos may look like trouble, it is worth taking time to watch skaters using their favourite spots, as against the fleeting encounters on the high street. </p>
<p>Skate scenes are very sociable, with their own etiquette for taking turns, working out tricks for competitions and looking out for each other. The sport fuels creativity through photography, video and graphics. Skaters treasure and look after top spots, raising money to build ramps and blocks. The spots may not be theirs to own, but they are very good at colonising a city’s forlorn and forgotten corners. </p>
<p>In my city of Newcastle upon Tyne the top local site, the Wasteland, was an old factory floor – skated for more 20 years. “Our summer home” the skaters would say – and they visited it up until the very day when developers finally excavated the concrete, including the parting graffiti: “Farewell our fair weather friend”. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79491/original/image-20150427-18126-114ugk2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79491/original/image-20150427-18126-114ugk2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79491/original/image-20150427-18126-114ugk2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79491/original/image-20150427-18126-114ugk2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79491/original/image-20150427-18126-114ugk2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79491/original/image-20150427-18126-114ugk2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79491/original/image-20150427-18126-114ugk2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79491/original/image-20150427-18126-114ugk2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Goodbye, Wasteland.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mike Jeffries</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>A new wasteland has been found, again a demolished factory site – and money has been raised from DIY skate competitions to build new ramps and blocks. Revealingly the same site is also features on a recent list of <a href="http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/abandoned-buildings-wastelands-newcastle-gateshead-8850695">Tyneside’s top eyesores</a>. The skater’s eye sees the city differently.</p>
<p>In Tyneside their other favourite site is across the river in Gateshead. Called Five Bridges it is a windswept plaza where pedestrian walkways converge under a vast and gloomy flyover. It is an unlovely space, but Gateshead Council put more than £11,000 into building skate ramps and jumps – a great deal of money to invest in entertaining unruly youths. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79492/original/image-20150427-18173-v3uzzx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79492/original/image-20150427-18173-v3uzzx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79492/original/image-20150427-18173-v3uzzx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79492/original/image-20150427-18173-v3uzzx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79492/original/image-20150427-18173-v3uzzx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79492/original/image-20150427-18173-v3uzzx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79492/original/image-20150427-18173-v3uzzx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79492/original/image-20150427-18173-v3uzzx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">All those pesky kids are helping keep Five Bridges safer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mike Jeffries</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It did so after an elderly resident had told her councillor about the skaters who hung around on the plaza. Bracing himself for the usual complaints the councillor was surprised to hear that she liked it when the skaters were there because then it felt safe to walk through.</p>
<p>So don’t think of skaters as hooligans and vandals. They are much more like a badly dressed version of the Boy Scouts, although the skaters I got to know through my research are <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13574809.2012.683400">not so keen</a> on that cosy description. Maybe a better idea is like the elves in the fairy tale <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/shows/elves-and-the-shoemaker">The Elves and the Shoemaker</a>, a mysterious and often invisible presence busily making the city a better place to live.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40859/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mike Jeffries does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Skate scenes are social, creative, and can make urban living better for everyone.Mike Jeffries, Teaching Fellow, Ecology, Northumbria University, NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/319262014-09-19T16:12:14Z2014-09-19T16:12:14ZSouthbank skaters’ victory shows grassroots culture still worth fighting for<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/59595/original/qj44sf6w-1411139169.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The undercroft is still open for business.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/more_pi-dah/2392300644">more_pi-dah</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A year-and-a-half after the <a href="http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/">Southbank Centre</a> published its plans for the redeveloped Festival Wing that would have <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2013/apr/12/skateboarding-south-bank">removed</a> the skaters from their habitual haunt in the building’s undercroft, the plans <a href="http://www.thestage.co.uk/news/2014/09/southbank-centre-still-committed-redevelopment-despite-agreeing-let-skatepark-remain/">have been scrapped</a>. A joint statement by the centre and the campaign to save the skaters’ undercroft, <a href="http://www.llsb.com/blog/">Long Live South Bank</a>, stated that it would be kept open without charge, seemingly indefinitely.</p>
<p>This is quite a reversal of Southbank’s stance, with the centre’s rhetoric throughout the campaign towards the skating community and LLSB shifting from caring sympathisers, to annoyed landlords with nuisance tenants, to aggressive name-calling. The project’s failure can be pinned to three, related issues. </p>
<p>First, there was the overwhelming groundswell of support for the skaters. The Southbank seemed surprised by this. For decades skaters have been treated as anti-social deviants, yet the community thrives as a form of urban practice and creativity with roots going back decades – and the undercroft was a central part of this scene before the Southbank took off as a go-to area for hoards of tourists and visitors (who like to watch them).</p>
<p>Skateboarders use the city in unexpected and different ways, ways in which planners did not intend, and private landowners often don’t like. But their continued presence in cities all over the world demonstrates its appeal and longevity.</p>
<p>The skateboarding subculture is tied into the subconsciousness of cities. So when a key cultural site is threatened by “big business”, it was hardly surprising to see others standing with them, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jan/15/southbank-skatepark-boris-johnson">including London’s mayor, Boris Johnson.</a> The undercroft is not just another skate spot – it had been defended for decades, with skaters facing off efforts to marginalise and criminalise them.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/59583/original/hwf3ww9z-1411129614.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/59583/original/hwf3ww9z-1411129614.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59583/original/hwf3ww9z-1411129614.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59583/original/hwf3ww9z-1411129614.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59583/original/hwf3ww9z-1411129614.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59583/original/hwf3ww9z-1411129614.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59583/original/hwf3ww9z-1411129614.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Grafitti artists making the space their own.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/dgjones/421156482">David Jones/flickr</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>New isn’t everything</h2>
<p>The Southbank included an alternative skate park in their plans, described as “an area for urban arts”. This was a clear and transparent attempt to commercialise skating from the outset, and was a rather patronising gesture. </p>
<p>Skate parks have long existed as places where skaters can go to practice, socialise and perform in relative safety and comfort. But as spaces designed for that purpose, they remove the element of creative re-appropriation of the city that is part of the culture. Such parks represent a spoon-fed consumerism that goes against the grain. </p>
<p>The proposed skate park was not only extremely corporate in appearance, but represented a complete whitewashing (literally) of the undercroft’s history, and would undoubtedly have been branded, sponsored, overly-policed and micro-managed. It was seen as a transparent attempt not only to remove skaters from prime real estate, but also to impose greater control over them.</p>
<h2>Unoriginal thinking</h2>
<p>Third and perhaps more importantly is that of the capitalist logic at work behind the Southbank’s plans. While the Festival Wing plans were heralded as dynamic, creative and visionary, really they only recreated cityscapes that have proliferated across the world. Coffee chains, “boutique” retail stores (usually owned by larger corporations), food markets, pop-up events – these are all indicative of the march toward the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-privatisation-of-public-space-17511">privatisation of space</a>. Capitalism has become extremely proficient at creatively adapting its aesthetic appeal, while maintaining the end result of further privatisation of land, centralisation of wealth, and homogenisation of cities. </p>
<p>The skaters recognised this early and were able to expose its inherent contradictions. Why would a “culture for all” not include skaters? If Southbank was really committed to broadening the cultural offerings, surely preserving the undercroft was paramount. It already attracts marginalised young people; it already allows them to form diverse communities around a shared common interest; it already promotes social interaction, healthy living, and cultural engagement. The desire to create more saleable retail space is not reason enough to destroy a community that already matches the aspects the Southbank wished to promote. </p>
<p>In an era when our cities are increasingly corporate, private and elitist, Long Live South Bank’s successful defence of the undercroft proves that democratic, grass-roots community activism still works, and it proves that our cities are still worth fighting for.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/31926/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Oli Mould does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A year-and-a-half after the Southbank Centre published its plans for the redeveloped Festival Wing that would have removed the skaters from their habitual haunt in the building’s undercroft, the plans…Oli Mould, Lecturer in Human Geography, Royal Holloway University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/225422014-02-10T19:33:13Z2014-02-10T19:33:13ZWhere athletes look can spell Olympic success or failure<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40375/original/jzf4hbfs-1391385865.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Australian skier Katya Cremer (right) flies through the air in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Julian Smith</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Some of the most exciting moments in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/sochi-2014">Sochi Winter Olympics</a> will be in racing events such as ski and snowboard cross and short track speed skating.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fAADWfJO2qM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Watch Steven Bradbury’s infamous speed skating gold medal winning performance in 2002 …</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gPCOin3l8OY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">… while Lindsay Jacobellis throws hers away in the snowboard cross in 2006.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While it may seem obvious that vision plays a big role in determining where athletes go and how they keep track of all the things going on around them, it may be less obvious that small differences in how athletes use their eyes to guide themselves around the course can make the difference between a gold medal and finishing off the podium.</p>
<h2>Watch where you’re going!</h2>
<p>The high-speed environments that athletes race through are incredibly demanding regardless of whether an athlete is racing against the clock (such as <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJdCpHG6V-U">downhill skiing</a> and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCr15BAcT-c">speed skating</a>) or against competitors (such as <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ockPK3uczro">ski cross</a>). </p>
<p>Research in <a href="http://www.journalofvision.org/content/10/4/24.long">driving</a> and <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00221-001-0983-7">walking</a> have generally shown that people look in the direction that they want to go – they look ahead, rather than at their feet. </p>
<p>When going around a bend, which is necessary for many of the racing events at the Olympics, where a person looks can <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20556368">influence the line</a> they take through the bend and looking to the inside of the turn is associated with selecting the quickest path, or racing line (which means faster race times!).</p>
<h2>Taking it to the track</h2>
<p>Sport scientists have begun to apply this knowledge and measure the eye movements of athletes in a variety of sporting events. Using state-of-the-art, mobile eye tracking technology, we can measure the eye movements of athletes as they compete in the real world. </p>
<p>While it’s no easy feat (think cold, snow, and waiting hours on end in the lodge for weather to clear), we have adapted the technology to allow us to record the eye movements of <a href="http://sochi2014.olympics.com.au/sports/freestyle-skiing">Australian ski cross</a> athletes while they perform training runs on the track by fitting the eye tracker into a pair of ski goggles.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40269/original/vpfspsd8-1391138167.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40269/original/vpfspsd8-1391138167.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40269/original/vpfspsd8-1391138167.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40269/original/vpfspsd8-1391138167.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40269/original/vpfspsd8-1391138167.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40269/original/vpfspsd8-1391138167.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40269/original/vpfspsd8-1391138167.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40269/original/vpfspsd8-1391138167.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Eye tracking footage during ski cross racing. The small red circle represents where the skier is looking.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This type of technology provides a look into how athletes use vision to navigate the course. We can judge the importance of different areas by measuring the amount of time spent looking at them. </p>
<p>By recording the gaze of athletes in their natural environment we’re given a rare glimpse into the visual strategies they use to control their actions, how they deal with unexpected events (a competitor suddenly appearing from behind them) and which type of visual strategies lead to faster race times.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40381/original/f4w69t3m-1391387462.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40381/original/f4w69t3m-1391387462.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40381/original/f4w69t3m-1391387462.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=765&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40381/original/f4w69t3m-1391387462.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=765&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40381/original/f4w69t3m-1391387462.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=765&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40381/original/f4w69t3m-1391387462.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=962&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40381/original/f4w69t3m-1391387462.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=962&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40381/original/f4w69t3m-1391387462.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=962&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sung Ching-Yang of Taiwan training in the Adler Arena.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Srdjan Suki</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In <a href="http://download.springer.com/static/pdf/825/art%253A10.1007%252Fs10339-006-0087-1.pdf?auth66=1391311196_9ad1c0faef7a37aba227525894d083e8&ext=.pdf">speed skating</a>, my colleague <a href="http://www.ucalgary.ca/hpl/vickers">Joan Vickers</a> had the unique opportunity to measure the gaze behaviour of some of the world’s fastest athletes on ice. </p>
<p>By recording gaze behaviour while athletes raced around the track, she was able to see how focusing on different locations through the turn affected lap times. </p>
<p>Much like the findings from studies on driving, she found that skaters had faster lap times (by almost 2.5 seconds) when they looked at the spot where the inside turn changes direction.</p>
<h2>Training the eyes</h2>
<p>In events such as the Winter Olympics, where athletes are already in peak physical condition, the ability to find other aspects of performance that set them apart is crucial – and eye movements might be one of the keys. </p>
<p>By identifying the critical gaze behaviours that lead to better performance and by comparing differences between expert and developing, or novice, athletes, sport scientists and coaches can develop training strategies to help athletes look at places within the race environment that lead to faster race times. </p>
<p>This emerging area of research has already shown that performance can be improved by teaching novices to use the visual strategies of experts in a number of areas including basketball, <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-8986.2012.01379.x/full">golf putting</a>, <a href="http://www.researchgate.net/publication/51131402_Quiet_eye_training_in_a_visuomotor_control_task/file/e0b49515e981a744f0.pdf">rifle shooting</a> and even <a href="http://sshs.exeter.ac.uk/media/universityofexeter/schoolofsportandhealthsciences/exsell/documents/publicationsmw/Vine_et_al_2012_Surgery-STT.pdf">surgery</a>. </p>
<p>As technology and our understanding of gaze behaviour continue to improve we may be able to identify and train the next Olympic gold medallist by measuring what – and where – they see!</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/22542/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Derek Panchuk receives funding from the Australian Institute of Sport High Performance Fund (Winter Olympics).</span></em></p>Some of the most exciting moments in the Sochi Winter Olympics will be in racing events such as ski and snowboard cross and short track speed skating. While it may seem obvious that vision plays a big…Derek Panchuk, Lecturer in Motor Learning, Victoria UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.