Blades developed by Canadian take boarding from the street to the ice

TORONTO As sidewalks become slickened with snow and ice in the coming months, many skateboarders are likely to park their wheels until the weather warms up.

But boarding enthusiasts still anxious to ride even as temperatures plunge arent totally out of luck provided they dont mind swapping a cement surface for a slippery one.

A select group of teens took to the rink at the University of Torontos Varsity Arena on Thursday to test a specialized incline action board called The Wave, paired with blades developed by Canadian inventor Sylvain Landry.

The Wave features two boards resembling paddles attached in the middle to a spring along with wheels that rotate 360 degrees. By doing a twisting motion with the body, the resulting movement resembles that of a snake or wave.

Michel Panagis, vice-president of sales and marketing for Vertigo HV, distributors of The Wave, met with Landry, president of Extreme Blades and inventor of Blizice blades, and decided to try attaching the blades to The Wave and saw the two worked well together.

While there are discussions about packaging the board and blades as a dual unit, for the time being theyre only available separately.

The Wave comes with an instructional DVD as well as an Allen key that can be used to remove the wheel and put in the blades, which should be sharpened beforehand, Panagis said.

The small stainless steel blades found within the Blizice system can be inserted along the inside of the boards plastic mouldings.

Jacob Cook, 17, has been snowboarding for a decade, skateboarding for three years and wakeboarding for two.

Despite all the years of boarding under his belt, he admits he found the board/blade combo to be a bit challenging.

Its harder to move, he said as he took a break from spinning around the rink. Its more sticky on the ice, like the blades are digging in. Its really not much different other than that.

All in all, Cook said he enjoyed giving it a whirl.

Its really fun, just kind of doing manuals and trying new tricks.