Skating lessons

I'm not sure there's much an instructor can tell you. Grab a folding chair for balance and push it around until you're comfortable enough to go without it. Wear knee pads and a helmet. You'll get it eventually, but you'll fall a lot at first.

Once you're able to skate, it'll be time to learn the hard part: stopping.

If there are adult skating lessons available, I haven't heard about it. But if there are, someone is bound to comment here soon.

Wrist guards.

http://www.duluthfsc.org/index.html

Strap a pillow to your arse.

Double bladed skates with fire help..

Thanks for the advice.  You guys are a hoot.  Love PDD!

not unlike inline skating except a little more instability on ice skates.  Try rollerskating at world of wheels in Superior with roller skates or on rollerblades sometime to help to get the feel of the difference in the strides which may help you out on ice.  Enjoy and have a few good laughs too.

I hadn't been skating in about 20 years either, and then I had only ever been once as a kid. I went out and BAM it was easy as pie. I have friends that can't even stand up on skates, but if you were able to do it before, or have rollerbladed, I think you'll be fine. Practice practice practice. And don't feel bad when you fall on your butt or run into the wall, it's actually very funny :-)

I was probably on ice skates about 7 or 8 times in my life prior to moving up here 10 years ago.  Little kids will probably still point and laugh at me, but it didn't take too much for me to reach a point where I didn't feel like I was taking my life into my hands every time I went out on the ice.  Hence I think Paul's advice is all you'd need.

It's like riding a bicycle. . .