How to Try the Viral Ice-Shoe Trend

My doctor friend hates it when I send him texts that start with, “Hey, how bad of an idea would it be…” But while there’s nothing like launching an activity with the disapproving wince of a medical professional who loves you, there are also bad ideas that I’m capable of trying on my own, thank you very much. The moment I learned of a new viral social media trend that involves freezing your shoes in blocks of ice and using them to “ski” down grassy hills, I was already mentally going through the contents of my freezer, figuring out what I needed to eat in order to make enough room. And now, having completed this experiment, I, who am not a doctor, would like to tell you: This is fantastic. You should do it too.

The concept is beautifully simple: take shoes, freeze ‘em in containers with water, put them on, and slide. Inits current incarnation, it’s the brainchild of 18-year-old Carter Markey of Hawaii. Carter’s a high school senior, working on growing his Instagram (current follower count: 11.6K), who spends much of his time inventing and filming the kind of stunts that would make any doctor cry. Take a recent video, which features the text “Why can’t dad walk?”—a phrase that will presumably be uttered by his future children—layered over a montage of Carter and his friends riding shopping carts down steep asphalt, boogie boarding over jumps on a huge slip-n-slide, and whipping around at top speed on a rickety furniture dolly. (His other ventures include drifting a kayak on gravel behind a truck, tossing flaming tennis balls on a beach, and sharing bible quotes about Christ.)

If Carter seems an unlikely source for a trend that would obsess a 37-year-old mom of two, perhaps it’s because this is the first that’s gone mega-viral. Over a dozen other creators—mostly young men—have now filmed the stunt too, including skimboarder Adrien Raza, who has a combined 4 million followers and whose ice shoe video on TikTok has 18.5 million views. What does Carter make of this explosion? “I think it’s really cool I started a trend when I didn’t even really think the video was gonna do well in the first place,” he told me. “It’s super crazy seeing so many people do something just cause of one idea you had.”

Carter got the ice-shoe idea from iceblocking, a kind of warm-weather sledding that involved folding a towel on a chunk of ice, sitting on it, and gliding down a grassy hill. That seemed inadequately extreme; he “remembered that he had crocs,” he told me, and decided to freeze them into ice instead. It took him some experimentation to get the blocks right, as it did for me (not to mention that it required the heroic consumption of a very large bag of frozen garlic knots that had been filling my freezer for about eight months), but the technique is forgiving. As long as you finagle some kind of ice, your shoes will definitely slide.

It doesn’t take much of a hill, either; the ice is so slippery that even a gentle slope is fine. If you’re used to skiing, ice skating, rollerblading, or any other sport in which your feet glide, you may think you’ll have an advantage. You won’t. Skis and skates have edges; ice chunks don’t. This activity is nonsensical and lawless. You will lack control. You will fall. But for those glorious seconds in between? I don’t remember the last time I’ve laughed so hard.

While the trend’s videos have mostly featured sliding down hills, I attempted two other techniques: (1) being pulled by a husky, and (2) being pulled by a friend. The first failed miserably; when I immediately wiped out, the husky was disgusted and refused to participate further, opting to flop in the shade instead of exposing herself to this secondhand humiliation. She’s a dog that takes competence seriously.

The second, on the other hand, was a blast—and much easier than sliding downhill. Holding a friend’s arm, as they ran ahead across flat grass, allowed for better stability; I crouched low, which both lowered my center of gravity and made the inevitable wipeout gentler, and within a few attempts had increased my record ice-shoe-skiing distance from roughly 8 feet to about 200. Plus there was the fun of taking turns. It doesn’t take much force to pull someone on ice; a moderately strong kid could pull an adult and vice versa. And though one of my shoes broke out of the ice, it didn’t slow me down; I just stuck it back on top and kept going.

How to Ice-Shoe-Ski

Is ice-shoe-skiing about to be the next serious sport? Doubtful. For one thing, it needs a catchier name. But it’s perfect for an outdoor party or a day at the park, or just to delight friends/kids/strangers on a random summer day. Here are some tips to try it yourself:

• It works best if your shoes float, so foam clogs, like Crocs, are perfect. You want them to embed a little bit in the water; use a strip of tape to hold them down until they freeze.
• If your shoes don’t float, that’s fine too. Just make a layer of ice, sans shoes, then add them on top with a bit more water before freezing once more.
• The bigger your ice blocks (within reason), the more stable you’ll be when you slide.
• Ice-shoe-ski at your own risk, of course, but in my experience, it felt far less dangerous than I’d presumed. If you start on flat grass, with someone pulling you, you can test the waters at a slow, controlled speed.
• Freeze big shoes, so they’ll fit a range of feet. After watching a bit, even reluctant folks may want to try.
• While you’re at it, freeze or buy a plain old ice block and use it for sledding too. It’s a classic for a reason! Besides, you know what they say (I’m sorry, I’ll see myself out): make new trends, but keep the old.