Where well-constructed figure skates are made out of leather and not a plastic shell like the inline skates, a proper skate will hold your ankle upright and not allow the back and forth rocking movement of the ankle. This is an essential starting point to enjoy your skating experience. Although most rental figure skates make it difficult to really enjoy the freedom of ice skating, some ice rinks that rent skates do offer more supportive skates. If you just plan to skate once or twice a year the rentals can get you gliding, but now you have a good excuse to explain why you're not trying the double axel. For the recreational skater, if you don't have a frozen pond nearby, many communities have an ice rink within a fifteen-minute drive.
Most ice rinks offer daily or weekly public skating sessions.
You can rent skates or bring your own and enjoy one to three hours of skating around the rink. Some public skating sessions offer private lessons that you can often arrange upon arrival. Public skating is a fun activity to enjoy alone or with friends, but if you are looking to really learn more about skating, this is not necessarily a resource. For those who want to get further along, it is definitely not too late in life to learn a new sport and really enjoy it. These are typically a group lesson format.