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The Skater’s Companion

Meet the founder

Hi, I’m Rich Andrews

I am a skater, skate technician and engineer. Most of what I have learned about helping skaters began at rink level: listening carefully, looking at the equipment and working through the problem in front of me.

Rich Andrews working beside a figure skate in a skate workshop
In the workshop with a figure skate prepared for blade work

My route through skating

From rink work to skater support

There was no single leap from skater to business owner. It was a progression built across two rinks, with a significant gap between them, and through many small practical problems.

  1. Early 1990s

    Learning to skate

    I began skating around 1991, taking lessons and spending as much time around the rink as I could. I became interested not only in skating, but in how rinks and skating equipment worked.

  2. Age 17

    My first rink job

    At 17 I started casual work at Riverside Ice and Leisure in Chelmsford. The role included skate hire, ice stewarding and rink-maintenance work—the unglamorous but essential jobs that keep a session running.

  3. Years later

    A return at Cambridge Ice Arena

    After a significant number of years away from rink work, Cambridge Ice Arena gave me a route back. I started with general ice assistance and ice cutting, then moved further into sharpening and skate maintenance.

  4. The workshop

    Responsibility for the skates

    I went on to take responsibility for maintaining both the public-hire fleet and customers’ skates. That meant working with beginner, recreational, figure and hockey skaters—and seeing at close range how fit, alignment and maintenance can affect a person’s confidence on the ice.

  5. TheRink

    A specialist service grows

    What began with sharpening expanded into maintenance, repairs, fitting support, blade alignment, boot modification and practical equipment guidance. By September 2026, the workshop database contained more than 2,700 completed service records, covering well over a thousand named skaters.

Figure, hockey and recreational skating

I have helped people buying their first skates, figure skaters developing new skills, hockey players looking for a more reliable setup and experienced skaters trying to understand why familiar equipment no longer feels right.

Many conversations begin with foot pain or pressure. My role is to investigate whether fit, lacing, boot shape, blade position or wear may be contributing, explain realistic equipment options and recognise when the right next step is a medical professional rather than another workshop adjustment.

Engineering, fitting and coaching

I hold a Master’s degree in Engineering and am a Member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (MIET), a Member of BCS (MBCS), and a Member of the Society of Shoe Fitters.

At Cambridge I also coached through the GLL Learn to Play ice-hockey programme and later moved into team coaching. These are different kinds of experience, but together they help me look at the skater, the equipment and the activity rather than treating any one of them in isolation.

Rich Andrews checking the level of the edges on a hockey skate blade
Checking blade edges during skate maintenance

What I try to bring

Careful work and honest limits

I do not believe skaters should be pushed towards unnecessary purchases or expected to understand every technical detail. I try to listen, measure where measurement helps, explain the options plainly and be honest about what equipment work can—and cannot—solve.

The Companion is a way to make that approach useful beyond a single workshop conversation.

See the wider vision →