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miljo123 · #1 Jun 12, 09, 08:17

There are several varieties of skating:

Ice skating and various sub-forms:
Figure skating
Ice hockey
Speed skating
Tour skating
Roller skating and various sub-forms:
Artistic roller skating
Freestyle slalom skating
Aggressive inline skating
Road skating
Iceboarding
Skateboarding
Skating (slang)
Snow skating

Ice skating
Ice skating is moving on ice by use of ice skates. It can be done for a variety of reasons, including leisure, traveling, and various sports. Ice skating occurs both on specially prepared indoor and outdoor tracks, as well as on naturally occurring bodies of frozen water such as lakes and rivers.

Speed skating
Speed skating or speedskating is a competitive form of skating in which the competitors race each other in travelling a certain distance on skates. Types of speedskating are long track speedskating, short track speedskating, inline speedskating (or inline racing), marathon speed skating and quad speed skating. In the Olympic Games, long track speedskating is usually referred to as just speedskating, while short track speedskating is known as short track. The ISU, governing body of both ice sports, refers to long track as "speed skating" and short track as "short track speed skating".

Tour skating
Tour skating is a recreational form of long distance ice skating on natural ice. The Nordic style of Tour skating is often called Nordic Skating, trip skating or wild skating. It is popular in the Nordic Countries, especially Sweden, but increasingly in Finland and Norway.

Another style of Tour Skating which is popular in the Netherlands is called Toerschaatsen.

While the Nordic version usually involves choosing your own tours over the ice, in the Netherlands skaters follow marked routes on frozen canals and lakes. Consequently the equipment used and safety requirements differ somewhat between these two schools of tour skating.

The Netherlands is home of Elfstedentocht, a 200 km distance skating race. Long distance races are also organized annually in the Nordic countries, such as Vikingarännet in Sweden.