Skateboard on ice?

I'm not a skateboarder, but I do figure skate. Ice skates need sharp edges to be able to glide along the surface of the ice. If your blades are dull, you'll go sliding around and won't be able to control your movements very well. I'm just thinking of skateboard wheels and how they have no grooves or anything. They would have no traction whatsoever on ice, I'm guessing. You might be able to slide around, but you wouldn't have any control. Think of how you have to put special tires on your car in the winter for driving on ice. Regular tires won't give you the traction you need. I'd imagine it's the same for skateboard wheels.

For your second question, ice skating includes a wide variety of speeds. If you're a speed skater, with special blades, you can go extremely fast. If you're a figure skater, you can go moderately fast, or you can go rather slow, depending on your ability and courage. There is no "average speed of ice skating," unless you're just talking about someone stroking around the rink, but even that can vary drastically, depending on the skater's type of skates and how much confidence they have.

If he steps on the ice with a regular skateboard, I would imagine it would quickly fly out from under his feet and he would land flat on his back, flushed with embarrassment.

As for altering the wheels, I can't believe anything would work other than thick, deeply grooved, rubber tires--which would not go fast. Think about the zamboni and how slowly it maneuvers across the ice. It's the weight and the special tires that help it stay steady, I believe. They don't go fast and they cannot maneuver quickly, not without losing control. If you want speed, you need skate blades.

Apparently, there is a way of converting your skateboard using hockey skate blades. Check out this YouTube video on how to do it.

Lpapercranes said:

The converting-the-board method is cool, but wouldn't work in this case...But thanks!

what if she sat on the board and scooted along with her hands, kind of like you do when you just start sledding and you're getting yourself going at the top of a hill? If there's so little friction, would she be able to pick up some momentum and get going at a reasonable speed? (say, at least as faster than the average human can run?)

Click to expand...

I don't think she'd reach a 'reasonable' speed, the tires are too wide, there would be too much friction for speedy sliding, but not enough to let the wheels turn properly. On the other hand if a person pursuing her on the ice was wearing street shoes, he'd be slipping and sliding and not much of a threat.
Also, in an ice rink, there are only a few entry/exit points. You don't chase, you just wait.
Even a snowboard wouldn't help: they need that slope to get the momentum going, just pushing isn't enough.

What if her previous skating experience gave her enough of a sense of how to balance on the ice that, in smooth soled shoes, she just slid faster and more accurately than her clumsy, unpracticed pursuer? She'd be slower than she was in ice skates, but faster than a guy flailing and falling.

The other problem aside from the board just sliding around would be having a means of propelling it. With a skateboard, unless you're going down a hill, you need to push yourself along with one foot to build up your speed. To try doing that on ice would get you little to no results unless your character was wearing some form of cleat or there was snow frozen to the ice that gave some traction.

I don't know if this figure skater's chair was adapted in ways you can't see in the video, and therefore this might not be at all relevant to your question, but I love sharing this video anyway:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOE8Ym4efkM

Okay, probably way more relevant (I searched for "skateboarding on ice"):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckjh8ceKPL0