CDTraveler

My son would like to take his hockey skates with us on an upcoming trip. These skates have about an 11 inch long rather sharp blade on them. To me, they're sporting equipment; will the TSA see them as weapons?

We'd rather not put them in checked luggage because they were a rather expensive custom order, and my son has them nicely broken in now, so would be extremely upset to have them stolen by the luggage gremlins.

cestmoi123

TSA website says that ice skates are OK for carry-on.
http://www.tsa.gov/traveler-informat...ohibited-items

You might, of course, get the "rules changed, website is out of date, yadda yadda" claim from the TSA, but they should be entirely fine.

CDTraveler

Gotta love TSA "logic" - my pocket knife is banned, but skate blades, much larger and almost as sharp, are not.

amw3000

No issues, just don't board the plane with them in your hand without guards. Keep them in a bag with guards and you wont have any issues.

chollie

Blame the FAs that were worried about a tiny fixed blade but are perfectly comfortable with racing skates.

You want to go where?

Now let's not over-inflate things. While there have been times when skates have been banned, it is not because TSA perceived them to be weapons, but rather because they saw an object, which could be used as a weapon. I don't think they ever denied that the primary purpose of skates was skating. Fortunately, for athletes everywhere, it seems like you can carry them on, now.

I've always found it rather perverse that they would ban items like hockey skates but continue to allow wine bottles, either by the crew or via duty free, which could serve as both a cosh and a cutting instrument.

Again, despite the fact that the skates were expensive, skates really aren't the target of thieves. They want things that are easily sellable - electronics and jewelry - or of course, cash! The real risk is not that they will be stolen, but that they will be lost. Taking into account both the cost of the skates and the cost (in time and blisters) of breaking in new ones, you definitely want to carry them on.

cestmoi123

Yeah, this was a (rare) case where TSA was actually trying to be (more) reasonable, but got shot down by outside pressure.

chollie

I'm not sure I believe those changes were suggested in good faith.

The FAs objected to tiny knives, but the knives were only one of several items. Ski/trekking poles were going to be permitted. TSA could still have relaxed (normalized) the rules on the other items, but instead, the entire list was rescinded.

LETTERBOY

Let's ask Richard Zednik and Clint Malarchuk.

CDTraveler

... or the kid on the opposing team who needed 10 stitches in his arm after a collision with one of his own teammates.

There's a reason that metal thing on the bottom of the skate is called a blade. It would be far easier to slit a throat with a skate than with my pocket knife.

You want to go where?

...assuming the attached boot didn't make it a pretty awkward weapon.

chollie

That would depend on whether or not the screeners verified that the blade could not be removed.

You want to go where?

I don't know about modern hockey skates, but figure skate blades can be removed, although it is a time-consuming process that would surely be noticed.

chollie

If someone had nefarious intent, it would be much easier to tinker with a pair of skates to make it easy to remove the blades than it would be to turn a very small knife blade into a serious weapon.

I'm not suggesting skates should be banned, only that IMHO, they're easily capable of causing much more damage than the small knives that the FAs were worried about.

No one is going to take command of a plane with either one, but there is more potential for damage from the skate blades.

OT, but in an antique/junk shop a few years ago, I saw an older pair of skates with removable blades. The idea was that you could walk around in the skate boots just like regular shoes. When you were ready to skate, the blades attached under the boot. I wish now I'd paid more attention to the mechanism, but it worked very much like cycling SPDs. Pretty cool, actually.

You want to go where?

I don't see how arguing that skate blades are more capable of causing damage than small knives is a good way to discourage TSA from banning skates.

To my mind, it is irrelevant whether one is marginally more dangerous than the other (I could certainly craft an argument for the reverse) because neither of them are a real threat to aircraft security.