Aussie Willy
10-06-2002, 10:37 PM
If you are familar with my previous thread about a public liability issue with a rink in Melbourne then you may have some knowledge about this particular rink. Otherwise I will do my best to explain ......
Last night we had the Victorian Skating Championships (Australia). The event started over one and half hours late. It was meant to start at 4.30pm but started after 6pm. This was because the rink had a public session which finished at 4pm and the ice was very wet (it was quite a nice day in Melbourne - about 25C - but surely the ice should not have been as wet as it was). The had to zamboni it about 3 or 4 times and it still ended up with lumps of ice over it. I know if it had been held at our rink we would not have had this problem, but then this rink is notorious for having bad ice and it melting even on mild days.
Anyway competitiors obviously arrived at the times they should have but it must have been very distracting when they arrived and had to skate much later than what they had prepared themselves for. They also only had the cafeteria open for what they originally planned, not longer so everyone was getting quite hungry and annoyed.
On the whole it was unprofessional and I am sure contributed to a lower standard of performance from the skaters than what they would have liked.
Also this rink has a really bad name in Melbourne for the way it treats skaters apart from their own and unfortunately for our skaters, apart from the competition organised practise sessions, were only allowed to skate on the ice for one hour on the Tuesday before this competition. They were not allowed to go at any other times (except for a crowded public session) and so there were a number of skaters wanting to run through programs before the weekend who had only one opportunity to get used to the ice and getting their bearings of the other rink.
Basically for a national level competition this was just totally unprofessional.
Has anyone else had these types of problems?
Last night we had the Victorian Skating Championships (Australia). The event started over one and half hours late. It was meant to start at 4.30pm but started after 6pm. This was because the rink had a public session which finished at 4pm and the ice was very wet (it was quite a nice day in Melbourne - about 25C - but surely the ice should not have been as wet as it was). The had to zamboni it about 3 or 4 times and it still ended up with lumps of ice over it. I know if it had been held at our rink we would not have had this problem, but then this rink is notorious for having bad ice and it melting even on mild days.
Anyway competitiors obviously arrived at the times they should have but it must have been very distracting when they arrived and had to skate much later than what they had prepared themselves for. They also only had the cafeteria open for what they originally planned, not longer so everyone was getting quite hungry and annoyed.
On the whole it was unprofessional and I am sure contributed to a lower standard of performance from the skaters than what they would have liked.
Also this rink has a really bad name in Melbourne for the way it treats skaters apart from their own and unfortunately for our skaters, apart from the competition organised practise sessions, were only allowed to skate on the ice for one hour on the Tuesday before this competition. They were not allowed to go at any other times (except for a crowded public session) and so there were a number of skaters wanting to run through programs before the weekend who had only one opportunity to get used to the ice and getting their bearings of the other rink.
Basically for a national level competition this was just totally unprofessional.
Has anyone else had these types of problems?