Favorite Rink

[kander]

Over the years I've been to rinks all over the country. What is your favorite rink and why? For me its:

1) The Snoopy rink in Santa Rosa. The ice is oversized and always in great shape, it has a very "open" feel when you're skating in it, the building is very large and unique, it's surrounded by redwood trees, there's a snoopy store right next to it.

2) The training center at Lake Arrowhead. There are no hockey boards (that's a great way to skate!), it's in the middle of a forest with picture windows all around the ice, it's a figure skaters mecca.

3) The outdoor rink at Squaw Valley in Lake Tahoe during the summer. It is without doubt the most beautiful setting I've ever seen for skating. During the summer it's warm and you look down over Lake Tahoe while skating. You have to take a gondola to get to it

[doubletoe]

I agree that the Lake Arrowhead rink is fun to visit, but I can't imagine how Mao Asada and Jeffrey Buttle ever managed to practice their straightline step sequences there because the rink is cut a little short by that big mirror at the end (which I always wished was along the side of the rink instead, so you could actually admire your own spiral, LOL!).

Squaw Valley sounds wonderful! IIRC, that's where they had the 1960 Olympics. The winner of the pairs event that year actually coaches at my rink and he told me it was a real challenge to compete there because one side of the rink was in the sun and one side of the rink was shaded, so they had to deal with rock hard ice and slushy ice all in one performance. I can't imagine what that must have been like but I'd sure love to skate there with no judges sometime, LOL!

My favorite rink for performing: Herb Ritts 1980 Arena at Lake Placid Olympic Center. Such great ambiance and history! It makes you feel important to be skating there in front of an audience. :)

My favorite rink for practicing: East-West Ice Palace in Artesia (L.A.), CA. The rink just has really good ice and good feng shui, IMO.

[Thin-Ice]

Squaw Valley sounds wonderful! IIRC, that's where they had the 1960 Olympics. The winner of the pairs event that year actually coaches at my rink and he told me it was a real challenge to compete there because one side of the rink was in the sun and one side of the rink was shaded, so they had to deal with rock hard ice and slushy ice all in one performance. I can't imagine what that must have been like but I'd sure love to skate there with no judges sometime, LOL!

Sorry to disappoint you, but the rink where the 1960 Olympics were held is no more. It was near the bottom of the hill at the Squaw Valley ski runs and you could just park in the ski resort parking lot. The only admission was for ice costs. The roof collapsed during a realllllly bad snowstorm in late 1982 and the rest of the building was demolished in early 1983.

The current Squaw Valley rink is at the top of the resort and you have to pay $27 for the gondola ride and ice session cost, or you can pay another $5 and also use the pools up there. If you can find a way to get up there without the gondola (snowmobile? snow-cat? snowshoe?) the ice sessions are $11 for adults. There's also a cheaper gondola ride/ice session if you go up after 5pm. That's a problem for me because it's pretty chilly (basically an open-air pavilion) and wearing a parka makes it hard for me to skate.... so I don't skate fast/hard enough to warm up, then I don't warm up enough to take off the parka! The view is gorgeous.. but it doesn't have the history of the old rink. My coach also skated at the new rink when it first opened and since it's open-air, she said if she skated one direction she had no problem landing double toes and double salchows... but if she went the other way, the best she could do was an axel, because of the wind factor!8O

[dbny]

My favorite rink for the joy of skating is Kate Wollman Rink in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, NY. It is the only rink in NYC where there are no buildings or traffic visible. Because it is in a park and next to a lake, it feels like you are skating on a large pond. We often see hawks circling overhead, or great blue herons taking flight from the marshy area behind the rink. Occasionally ducks will land on the ice! Some of my favorite moments there have been bright, brisk, sunny mornings, skating in an evening fog, skating in a gentle rain, and skating in a big, fluffy snowfall.

[mdvask8r]

I also love the Herb Brooks 1980 rink in LkPlacid. You can feel the "ghosts" of the greats!

[singerskates]

# 1 fave rink in which to practice? Toronto Cricket and Curling Club Why? No boards. Super smooth just the right softness/hardness for figure skating.

# 2 fave rink where I have practice but also got a lesson or two? Royal Glenora Club Why? It was near my hubbies relatives in Edmonton, they allowed me to skate there as many times as I wanted even though it was a private club and I got two lessons from my friend Ben Ferreira early in the week of 2007 Skate Canada Adult Championships.

[AgnesNitt]

I also love the Herb Brooks 1980 rink in LkPlacid. You can feel the "ghosts" of the greats!

I was there for a week. It's a nice facility, but I didn't find the ice to be that well kept.


My favorite rink is any rink that gives me sr. citizen rates.

[Isk8NYC]

My favorite rink is gone, alas. It was Ice World in Totowa, NJ - two sheets of well-maintained ice, cheap freestyles, and fun adult skaters! Bonus: it was right near the Calico Kitchen so apres-skate food and socializing kept me out until all hours of the morning. (My poor mother, now I understand why she was usually awake when I got home.)

[AshBugg44]

Toyota Sports Center in El Segundo, CA.

[MusicSkateFan]

AN EMPTY ONE!

But I will take one with No One Practicing the Crossover 8 pattern!

[Mel On Ice]

Georgetown Ice Arena, Allendale - skaters from the 4 area clubs converge and skate together, ice is reasonable ($8/hr or $12/2 hrs). Ice is always in good shape and 90% of the time it doesn't smell like hockey, even though that is where a few colleges play.

Brentwood Ice Arena, St. Louis - the $2 lunch skate just couldn't be beat, and it was always figure skaters doing moves or freestyle. AND lunch at Applegates afterwards.

Name escapes me, but one of my favorite competitive venues has to be the rink where AN 07 was in Chicago. I have competed there for free and synchro. The rink is comfortable, seating is generous, and the locker rooms are ok, with the exception of a lack of electrical plugs so those with frizzy hair caught in a snowstorm could repair the damage.

And I will always love the Rec Plex in St. Peters for purely nostalgic reasons.

[doubletoe]

Name escapes me, but one of my favorite competitive venues has to be the rink where AN 07 was in Chicago. I have competed there for free and synchro. The rink is comfortable, seating is generous, and the locker rooms are ok, with the exception of a lack of electrical plugs so those with frizzy hair caught in a snowstorm could repair the damage.

ITA!! The Olympic rink at the Edge Ice Arena in Bensenville is a great rink! :D Such great memories from AN07, too. . .

[JazzySkate]

(I haven't posted often, so here goes) -

South Mountain Arena, West Orange, NJ.

(Old) Skyrink, Manhattan, when it was in a building at 33rd between 9th & 10th Aves., now Chelsea Piers. IMO a ripoff: high fs session fee and if you're either visiting and from out of town, or competing and have to drive in, you pay to park. Expensive. At least offer a discount.

Ice World, Totowa, NJ. NJT stopped right behind it.

[stacyf419]

(I haven't posted often, so here goes) -

South Mountain Arena, West Orange, NJ.

(Old) Skyrink, Manhattan, when it was in a building at 33rd between 9th & 10th Aves., now Chelsea Piers. IMO a ripoff: high fs session fee and if you're either visiting and from out of town, or competing and have to drive in, you pay to park. Expensive. At least offer a discount.

Ice World, Totowa, NJ. NJT stopped right behind it.

I used to skate at Ice World when I was a little girl! Around 1976...
And I used to and still do love South Mountain, which is now the Richard Codey.

[flying~camel]

Georgetown Ice Arena, Allendale - skaters from the 4 area clubs converge and skate together, ice is reasonable ($8/hr or $12/2 hrs). Ice is always in good shape and 90% of the time it doesn't smell like hockey, even though that is where a few colleges play.

I will second that!

For competing, I'd have to say the rink Wyandotte, MI is one of my favorites because I love that competition and I seem to always spin well on the ice. I also LOVED the 1980 rink in Placid even though I took a huge chunk out of it on my flip at ANs 8O

As a kid, I always loved the Homewood-Flossmoor Ice Arena in Homewood, IL because the rink was warm and ice was always nice to skate on.

[ibreakhearts66]

I've really only skated around southern california (although I did skate at the Sky Rink in New York a few years ago). In So Cal, I like Paramount and Valencia best, although I've never skated at El Segundo or Artesia, and I've heard good things about both. I like Paramount because of it's size, also because there are lots of high level skaters there on the weekends. I like Valencia because it has an NHL, an Olympic and pond rink, and it has lots of freestyles throughout the day.

[Rusty Blades]

My favorite rink would be the first one I skated in, in "Crossroads Nowhere's Ville" Ontario. It was an arch-framed all-wood building with an ammonia and brine "refrigeration system" (more like "sometimes tries to cool system"!) that could rarely hold ice to April 1 nor make ice before December 1. The acoustics were TERRIBLE! The ice was scraped by men with shovels and the flood was done by a farm tractor with a tank on the back. The dressing rooms were spartan and cold.

You would wonder why such a place would be a "favorite"? Well, it was "home". All the kids from miles around came to skate there two, three, or four times a week. Families came to skate on weekends, and the figure skating club had sessions there four times a week. Being a rural area, when I started thinking about competing, the town fathers gave me a key to the rink with free rein after the last hockey game of the evening until the maintenance people had to do the ice at 9 the next morning. I was skating more than 20 hours a week for peanuts. It was also a wreck in that rink in the early morning hours that ended any hopes of ever competing - so that part is bittersweet.

I would LOVE to skate at a REAL dedicated figure skating club, but I haven't.

Of the places I have skated in the last 3 years, I prefer the early morning sessions at the Manitoba Competitive Figure Skating Training Centre. The sessions are light, ALL competitive skaters (a LOT of mutual respect!), and everybody looks out for everybody else. The maintenance people know me and when they see me come in, I get "an extra special double flood" which is the best ice I have seen in my 3 years back. (I praise and flatter them for their proficiency with the resurfacer so their 'male pride' inspires them to do a good job ;) ) I am sure there are better places to skate but this place is home and the people are my second (or third?) family.

[RachelSk8er]

--The old Goggin Arena at Miami University, which is no longer. I went there every year for camp as a teenager, and spent counless hours in that place in college. I just loved it. They broke ground for a new rink right after I graduated in '03, it's state of the art and beautiful but it's not old Goggin :(

--Yost Arena at University of Michigan. Old school classic hockey arena, and the ice is AMAZING. I competed there once in college and would always hit up an open skate when I went to visit friends at U of M because I just love that ice.

--Belle Tire arena in Fraser, MI--but ONLY the main arena, the others are too darn cold/dingy. It was a staple in the synchro season, sometimes twice a year when they hosted Mids, so I've competed there probably close to 20x.

--Ann Arbor Ice Cube.

--Lake Placid

--Dunki'n Donuts Arena in Providence, RI. Won my first and last national synchro medals there (silver in novice in the early 90s, gold in adult in 08).

--Locally, Pavilion Skating Club in Cleveland Hts., Ohio--on the Olympic sized side. I really like the windows, it gets a lot of natural light in there. And the ice is really nice and it's not particularly cold.

--RIT rink in Rochester, NY. Huge window=natural light and the ice was usually nice. Plus it was a WARM rink.

--My home rink (in Strongsville, Ohio) has great ice, but we have 2 surfaces and for some reason, I only like the side we normally use for figure skating.

--Garfield Hts Rink in Garfield Hts, Ohio. It's dirty, dingy, smells like a combination of hockey players and zamboni fumes, the sound system sucks, the ice surface is smaller than NHL...I don't skate there any more, but I pretty much grew up in that place and certainly didn't mind it as a kid.

[RachelSk8er]

(I haven't posted often, so here goes) -

South Mountain Arena, West Orange, NJ.



Is this the arena that's pretty old but was renovated not too long ago? I coached a synchro team that competed there once, it was pretty cool.


Toyota Sports Center in El Segundo, CA.


This one is really nice, too. I was there once for a synchro PSA seminar. I'm generally a fan of any ice rink with plam trees outside.

[jazzpants]

My home rink - Yerba Buena!!! Nice, open and bright. You get a view of downtown's skytowers and the Yerba Buena Gardens. Quite nice!!! The ice is not too hard (where it's like hockey ice), not too soft (where it's mush).... JUUUUUUST right!!! :mrgreen: :bow:

Snoopy rink - Nice open rink, though no outdoor view. Lots of reminders of the old days when I was skating as a kid during the public sessions with the hokey-pokey. (Though now as an adult I will never EVER do that and I doubt I can drag kander to do it either! :twisted: :P ) The Warm Puppy Cafe is pretty nice too. Can watch skating while others skate while you have a burger, hot dog, pizza...

My favorite to perform is the same as doubletoe, the 1980 Rink just b/c of the historical aspect of it. I don't know if this is the rink where Charlie Tickner also skated on for his Olympic event, but if it is, it's my homage to him, even though I've only had him as a coach for a short time. And what an appropriate rink for me to set foot on ice for the VERY FIRST TIME for my AN DEBUT! :bow: :bow: :bow:

I also obviously have an attachment for Chelsea Piers, b/c my NYC coach is there and nice view of the ocean. They have showers and locker rooms, which is nice if you can get an empty locker and brought your own toiletries. Minus is obvious that it's TOO DAMN EXPENSIVE there.

Ice House (aka the Hack) is definitely the ideal place to "star gaze" and watch the elite sessions going on while stretching and getting ready for my own (albeit wimpy b/c I had back problems but still nice b/c I get to meet flutzilla and her darling son again! http://www.cosgan.de/images/smilie/liebe/n010.gif :D ) FS session. Just kinda interesting watching Adam Rippon, Miki Ando, Oksana Baiul (and probably others that I didn't recognize right away...) on the VERY SAME ICE doing their thing!!! It's really a thing of skater's beauty. I could see how FrankR is inspired to skate now. And don't forget those YUMMY WHITE MANNA BURGERS!!! Now THAT is a thing of beauty too!!! YUM YUM :yum: :yum: :yum: Only minus is that you really need a car to get there. It's a pain to get there via public transportation (or rather going back from there) from NYC. :frus:

[Thin-Ice]

My favorite to perform is the same as doubletoe, the 1980 Rink just b/c of the historical aspect of it. I don't know if this is the rink where Charlie Tickner also skated on for his Olympic event, but if it is, it's my homage to him, even though I've only had him as a coach for a short time. And what an appropriate rink for me to set foot on ice for the VERY FIRST TIME for my AN DEBUT! :bow: :bow: :bow:

Figures were done on the USA rink.. but the SP & LP were on the 1980 rink. One of the coolest things was seeing Charlie perform there again for the AN Exhibition in 2004. He received a standing ovation as soon as his name was announced.. so you're not the only one who feels this way about him and Lake Placid.

The 1980 rink is where I made my AN debut too.. back in 1996, so it will always be one of my favorites.

Another of my favorites is the old Blue Jay rink (long since gone, replaced by another rink in Blue Jay, which was also torn down and now the only rink in that area is the one at Lake Arrowhead) where I skated for the only time as a kid. My 1st grade teacher owned it.. and she would turn it over to the graduating 6th grade class the last day of school every year for about 3 hours and give us free hot chocolate. My goal at that point was to get once around the rink without falling down and without holding onto the boards at some time during the day. It took a couple hours, but I finally achieved my goal -- and never skated again until 17 years later.. when I took my first lesson at a shopping mall rink that has long since closed.

And now TRUE CONFESSIONS: One other reason I'm a big fan of Charlie Tickner's comes from when I had been skating only a few months. One day I was at that mall rink practicing (really terrible crossovers) during the middle of the day and I was the only one on the ice. Soon this guy came in and threw on his skates and blew around the rink about three times, then came up to me and said "Do you want some help with those crossovers?" I figured he probably knew what he was doing, since he looked really fast and confident and strong when he was doing his warm-up laps. He told me not to lift my crossing-over leg so high and not step over so much.. and then showed me how to make it smoother (although I'm still working on it!). During this discussion, my coach walked into the rink, put on her skates and started to come towards me. The guy skated off and proceeded to do some really cool fancy footwork. My coach said "Soooo, you've decided to dump me for a World Champion huh?" I had NO idea who she was talking about.. then she told me "Oh that was Charlie Tickner, he's getting ready for a show." I knew the name, but not the face... but I've always thought it was really cool that this hotshot skater offered to help some obviously awful adult skater for no reason.. except maybe he felt sorry for me. I managed to stay out of his way while he rehearsed... but remained in awe of him for years... until I started skating at the rinks where he was teaching and started seeing him on a regular basis and realized he's just a really nice guy. But I have to admit sometimes the awe still gets in the way. I had asked him to put me on the ice at 2008 AN.. and during my first practice with him, I was incredibly nervous. I think it was just the combination of it being Lake Placid and him and my first time in a new level... but I told him I felt really nervous having him watch me and he just laughed and said "I've been watching you fall for years; you can't do any worse here than you do at home" and somehow that made it a little easier to deal with the overpowering nerves. It also helped that I was sharing him as a fill-in coach with a friend who was also on that ice, and she came up just as I was saying that, and as we skated off together she admitted she felt the same since of awe and nerves. And as every fairytale has a happy ending, I skated as well as I could on the day of my competition (not great, but I was thrilled since I did everything I was capable of and exceeded my expectations) and afterwards he gave me a hug and said "Congratulations, nice job!" which was better than any medal could have been at that moment.

[kander]

Another of my favorites is the old Blue Jay rink.


Yeah, the Blue Jay rink was special (until the roof caved in). I hadn't heard that they built a new one and then tore it down.


Re Charlie: Pretty much everybody thinks he's a great guy, including me.

Thin-Ice: when are you at Ice Oasis? I'm there thursday mornings and saturday afternoons.

[FSWer]

Newington Ice Arena for me!!! At least at this time it is. Be I feel like a reall On Ice Skater when I'm there and like I belong there!!!!

[RachelSk8er]

The 1980 rink is where I made my AN debut too.. back in 1996, so it will always be one of my favorites.


Come to think of it, the 80 rink was where I had my first-ever competition when I was a kid. My old synchro team--back then it was still precision--used to go there every other year for a fairly big competition, and it was always the first of the season. They had so many juvenile teams that they had an initial round and teams that placed high enough went to the final, while the others went to a constellation round. We won the constellation round and got our medals (I still have mine hanging in my room), but I was so oblivious that I thought we had won the whole thing!

I got so mad later that season when we had a competition at a "normal" rink and I learned the harsh lesson that not every rink you get to compete in is a big arena like the "stars" on TV get to compete in all the time.

[mdvask8r]

. . .teams that placed high enough went to the final, while the others went to a constellation round. We won the constellation round and got our medals (I still have mine hanging in my room), but I was so oblivious that I thought we had won the whole thing! . . .
Well, of course! If you won the constellation round, you MUST have won the whole thing!! . . . now if it had been the consolation round . . .

[winziped]

Cero Grados , is a small rink that is located in a shopping center and is very friendly and nice i like it a lot and is my favorite rink

[Isk8NYC]

Well, of course! If you won the constellation round, you MUST have won the whole thing!! . . . now if it had been the consolation round . . .
In some places, they give cute titles to the later rounds, especially with kiddies. I remember swimming in the "Bee Olympics" when I was a preteen. I found out years later that it was there was an "A Division" and a "B Division." Get it? "B" = "Bee" - they even gave out shirts with the famous Muhammed Ali quote "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee" on them. lol

Maybe the stars were out for Rachel's team, eh?

[mdvask8r]

. . . I remember swimming in the "Bee Olympics" when I was a preteen. I found out years later that it was there was an "A Division" and a "B Division." . . . "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee" . . .Gotta love it when the organizers are so creative about making EVERY kid feel good! :)

[Thin-Ice]

Thin-Ice: when are you at Ice Oasis? I'm there thursday mornings and saturday afternoons.

I'm there Wed. & Fri. mornings.... since that's where my coach is and it's 2 hours away from my house. The rest of the time I'm at Dublin... which is only an hour from home.:roll: