Ice Skating With Clay Pipes, The Other Skater Pipe

snagstangl · Mar 17, 2018

https://www.instagram.com/p/BfObIQJHq5G/
I don't have any affiliation with the Instagram account this is on. But I read about Skater pipes, not the Charatan shape, made from clay that would be attached to coats of ice skaters of the past. If you fell, that means you were unskilled, a fragile clay pipe would break. If you could keep it in one piece then you were a good skater. The video show some of them. The ones that are tied in a round knot mad it easier to put on your coat I think.
I wish I could figure out how to download the video, but I don't have an account.

barepipe · Mar 17, 2018

Thank you for sharing this. It is a fascinating bit of history and pipe lore. I wonder if those clay pipes with the curled up stems smoked well, it is very cool.

beefeater33 · Mar 18, 2018

That is a true piece of history, thanks for sharing!............ I liked this part- "The real professionals took a so-called office-pipe, which was over 50 centimeter long. To bring it back undamaged was an act of true heroism."........... WOW, that's over 20 inches, and they skated 15 miles.......... 8O

snagstangl · Mar 18, 2018

Office pipe sounds better to me than churchwarden. I can't tell if some of the pipes that were tied in a knot were able to be smoked. I have seen them come up on ebay occasionally but I have never gone after one.

papipeguy · Mar 18, 2018

That was cool. I had not heard or seen anything about this practice before. I would wager that more than one hip flask caused some damage to the rear area.

jvnshr · Mar 19, 2018

Interesting tradition. Thanks for sharing.

sajgre · Mar 19, 2018

Thanks for posting, what a great event

. Would love to try to smoke those extreme bends

crashthegrey · Mar 20, 2018

That was really cool. Thank you for sharing.

mso489 · Mar 21, 2018

This must mean that taking a tumble while skating on a frozen river was really common. If it was just smooth skating, there would be no celebration about getting the pipe to Rotterdam in one piece. Along those lines, my sister got a 14" Gouda clay pipe all the way home on the plane from The Netherlands, and mailed it to me, and it remained in one piece, so she gets some kind of plaudit. She was somewhat surprised herself.

jpmcwjr · Mar 21, 2018

Thanks for posting, what a great event . Would love to try to smoke those extreme bends

Only if they'll pass a pipe cleaner! They do look very interesting.
And I wonder if it resembled roller derbies in a small way. Ya know, a subtle hip check here and there....

Civil War · Mar 21, 2018

Gotta admit didn't see that before

snagstangl · Mar 21, 2018

I'm glad some are finding this interesting.

snagstangl · Jul 20, 2018

here is the first article I read about this.

jpmcwjr · Jul 20, 2018

You could read that?? Impressive; I can read only the headline and the sub under it.

geejay61 · Jul 25, 2018

As far a I do remember the pipe was a little claypipe. About 15cm (5.9inch). They had to take it back together with a package of cookies (Goudse Stroopwafels)

These little claypipes are now used by tasting en testing tobaccos.

I had made a picture but I don't know how to post them.

mso489 · Jul 25, 2018

I wonder how the terrific skating culture of The Netherlands is doing with the odd high temperature trends. Do the canals still freeze thick enough for safe skating? Maybe one of our Dutch members will give us a weather report for last winter or later this winter.

geejay61 · Jul 26, 2018

No mso489, we haven't had winters, like you described, for ages. The last "Elfstedentocht" was in 1997. We can skate, most of the time on special created icetracks.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elfstedentocht

huntertrw · Jul 26, 2018

In his book titled The Christmas Pipe author Richard Carleton Hacker devotes several pages to the tradition of clay pipe skating in Holland. He states, in part, "One of the most famous of the old clay pipe skating contests was the 200 kilometer race from Gouda to Rotterdam. Rotterdam residents would come to Gouda, purchase any number of clay pipes, fasten them onto their clothing, and then streak back across the ice to their hometown, trying not to snap a stem on the way. Cracks and other irregularities in the ice, not to mention an overabundance of Christmas cheer, often meant few skaters and their pipes arrived back in Rotterdam without getting 'smashed.'" Mr. Hacker further notes that manufacturers have been producing clay pipes in Gouda for over 250 years.
If my arithmetic is correct, 200 kilometers equates to 124.27 statute miles - just imagine skating so far!

npod · Jul 26, 2018

:clap:

jpmcwjr · Jul 26, 2018

One day our GGG grandchildren will be skating on the Thames River in London.

Ice Skating With Clay Pipes, The Other Skater Pipe

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