I would put in a good pair of plastic platform petals untill you get better than switch back to the metal platforms.
or you can just wear shinguards, cheep soccer ones work fine but you will still slice up the backs of your legs if that is a problem.
If the pins are screwed into the petal you just need to unscrew them with an alan wrench to remove them. Sometimes the pins get damaged making this hard to do.
They still are good as new. The hard nylon teeth can give you a scrape, but nowhere near as bad as metal pins. Grip is very good, but less then metal. Can't beat the 330 gr. weight. I am using a 365 gr. dimension city pedal on my 19" now. It is the most shin friendly of all. I never slipped off, until one day I forgot about it, and did some hopping in the rain. Landed hard on my back and got a good lesson. These 8$ MTB pedals have decent wet grip. I have done a lot of rain riding on the 36 without a single slip. http://www.unicyclist.com/forums/showthread.php?t=62221
