Our fall/winter ice schedule came out. I was a bit disappointed- as the session I usually practice on was cut from 2 hours to 1 hour and is now "cheapskate" which is $5 including skates.

But I worked it out and there are PLENTY of opportunities for me to skate during the week, so the schedule if fine by me.

I thought it would be interesting to compare how rinks divy up the ice time- here's how ours worked out.

Public Skate (figure skating allowed, including coffee club)- 48.75 hours per week
Freestyle Ice- 13 hours (everyday but Friday after school, two mornings starting at 6:30, and then a few mornings 8-9, which is during school, I guess)
Club Ice- 2 hours
Hockey ice- 18.75 hours (almost all Sunday, Thursday evening, otherwise late nights)
Power skate (I assume this is mostly hockey players? Never been)- 2.5 hours
Contract ice (I assume broomball?)- 2 hours
Learn to Skate (including synchro practices)- 5.75 hours
Rock and Skate (the worst ice EVER)- 2.5 hours

How is your rink? Is there enough time for figure skaters? I think that with over 60 hours of figure skating allowed ice time a week, ours isn't doing too bad. I haven't seen many of the highest level figure skaters practicing on public sessions, so that really cuts their time- but we don't have too many really high skaters (and those that are split their time at another rink) and I have seen skaters doing doubles and running programs on publics. I think the hours aren't too bad either. YAY rink!

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-Jessi
What I need is a montage...
Visit my skating journal or my Youtube videos (updated with 2 new videos Sept 26, 2009)

We have roughly 45 hours' dedicated teaching ice a week.

Then Figure and Dance Clubs have an hour each.

Not sure about public sessions, as I don't use them - several hours most days, certainly. Hockey has Sunday and Monday afternoon and evening (not always, on a Sunday), and there's a late night practice on a Friday evening, I believe, and possibly/probably on other evenings as well. And there is a hockey school one week a year which takes our morning teaching ice, which is happening next week.

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Mrs Redboots
~~~~~~~~
I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

Bwwaaaahhhhh!

Our rink is open 6:00 to midnight 7 days a week 17.5 hours a day= about 125 hours in a week.

Ice maintenance 8 hours

Open Public skate 2 hours
Open Senior Citizens 2 hours (eg Adults)
Open Tots 3 hours
therefore 10 hours of public taxpayer ice, it's free too which is the only nice thing.

Figure skating club ice 12 hours. As there is no figure skating allowed on public ice, this is what we all join. It works out to about $8/hour. At my level I can skate on 4 hours of club ice a week. This is a lot of figure skating ice, by the way, clubs in other towns have maybe four to six hours a week.

Available dead ice in the mornings, usually rented by the local schools 6 -8 hours a week. Figure skating can rent this if it is available and we do when it comes closer to competition time and parents pull their kids from school for the day.

That's it for non-hockey. 30-35 hours a week.

Hockey has everything else about 90 hours a week.

Figure skating 10% of ice time
Hockey 75% of ice time

Hockey complains they don't have enough ice time so there are plans to build a second ice pad. If so, figure skating will get an additional three hours a week and hockey will get another hundred hours. Welcome to Canadian Hockey Madness where every child could be the next Wayne Gretzky.

I had to do my best guesses on the hockey times since none of their schedules are posted online yet.

Rink 1:
-43 1/2 hours - public sessions (can take lessons & figure skate on most of these sessions)
-2 hours - club ice
-1-2 hours - rink's skate school
-approx. 3 1/2 hours - synchro teams
-1 1/2 hours - stick & puck
-approx. 25-30 hours - hockey

Rink 2 (with 2 sheets of ice):
-18 hours - public sessions (can figure skate, but no lessons)
-29 hours 50 minutes - club ice (including synchro, power classes, jump & spin classes, bridge, and the club's learn to skate)
-6 hours - stick & puck
-1 1/2 hours - adult pick-up hockey
-approx. 35-40 hours hockey (youth teams, adult teams, college team)

Rink 1 has tons of great public ice, but most of it is during working hours, and the weekend night sessions are insanely packed with teenagers. Rink 2 doesn't have much public ice, but has lots of club ice, which is great, but expensive.

I was going to say the same thing, but you beat me to it. We don't have the concept of "public freestyle ice" here, except at figure skating rinks. Either you play hockey, or you're a wanna-be hockey skater terrorizing the public hours with your mad hockey-stop skills. Figure skaters are confined to club ice or quiet noon time public session when kids are in school.

This is a sort of typical week for the fall schedule

Sunday

Public Skating 2-4
Club ice 4:15-6:15
Hockey 7-8:15

Monday
Public Freestyle (maybe) 5-6 am
Club Ice 6-7:30 am
Public skating -11:30- 3 pm

Tues - Public skating 10 am - 2 pmm
Hockey 5-6:30 pm

Wed
Public Freestyle 5:45-6:45 am
Club Ice 6:45-7:45 am
Public skating 11:30-3 pm
Learn to Skate 6- 7 pm
Club Ice 7:15-8:15 pm

Thursday
Public skate 10 am - 2 pm
Public freestyle 5-6:30 pm
Hockey 7:15-8:45 pm

Friday
Club ice 6-7:30 am
Public skate 11:30-3 pm
club ice (power and moves and jumps classes) 3:30-4:45
Hockey 5:30-6:30

Sat
Club Ice 7:15-8:15
LTS 8:30-10:30
Public skating 1-5 pm
Hockey 5:15-6:45

And we don't always get all that public freestyle-only if there's nothing else going on. You can't use the music on the PA, though you can put a CD player on the boards and you can't use the harness (it belongs to the club and we made a deal with the rink when we bought it and put it in that only trained club members on club ice would use it)

j

Belmont Iceland

All Freestyles are Open and public year round.

Sunday
11:00 AM - 12:30 PM Skate Club of San Francisco
1:00 PM - 5:00 PM Public Session

Monday
6:00 AM - 9:00 AM 3 Consecutive Freestyle Sessions
9:15 AM - 11:45 AM Public Session
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM Skate and Shoot
1:45 PM - 3:45 PM Public Session
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM Freestyle
5:15 PM - 6:15 PM Freestyle
6:30 PM - 7:45 PM Skate Club of San Francisco

Tuesday
6:00 AM - 9:00 AM 3 Consecutive Freestyle Sessions
9:15 AM - 11:45 AM Public Session
12:00 PM - 2:45 PM Dance Session
3:00 PM - 5:00 PM Public Session

Wednesday
6:00 AM - 9:00AM 3 Consecutive Freestyle Sessions
9:15 AM - 11:45 AM Public Session
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM Skate and Shoot
1:45 PM - 3:45 PM 2 Consecutive Freestyles
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM Freestyle
5:15 PM - 6:45PM Freestyle

Thursday
6:00 AM - 9:00 AM 3 Consecutive Freestyle Sessions
9:15 AM - 1:00 PM Public Session
3:00 PM - 5:00 PM Public Session
5:15 PM - 6:15PM Freestyle
6:15 PM - 8:45 PM Public Session

Friday
6:00 AM - 9:00 AM 3 Consecutive Freestyle Sessions
9:15 AM - 1:00 PM Public Session
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM Freestyle
4:15 PM - 5:15 PM Freestyle
5:30 PM - 7:45 PM $5 Friday Public Session

Saturday

6:30 AM - 8:30 AM 2 Consecutive Freestyles
8:45 AM - 9:45 AM Freestyle
10:00 AM - 11:00 AM Freestyle
11:15 AM - 11:45 AM Stroking Class
11:45 AM - 12:50 PM Learn-to-Skate Classes Summer Series
1:00 PM - 4:00 PM Public Session
4:15 PM - 5:15 PM In House Youth Hockey Summer Season
5:15 PM - 6:00 PM Hockey Skills Class Summer Series

More info here:
http://www.belmonticeland.com/calendar.cfm

__________________
Keep Evolving. "From this moment forward, every voice that told you - You Can't - , has been silenced." - Freedom Writers

San Francisco

All Freestyles are Public and open year round

Monday
6:30-7:30AM Freestyle
7:45-8:45AM Freestyles
8:45AM-9:45AM Freestyles

5:15-7:15PM
Skating School


Tuesday

5:30-6:30AM Freestyle
6:30-7:30AM Freestyle
7:45-8:45AM Freestyles
8:45AM-9:45AM Freestyle

4:15-5:15PM Low Freestyle
5:15-6:15PM Freestyle

Wednesday

5:30-6:30AM Freestyle
6:30-7:30AM Freestyle
7:45-8:45AM Freestyles
8:45AM-9:45AM Freestyle


Thursday

5:30-6:30AM Freestyle
6:30-7:30AM Freestyle
7:45-8:45AM Freestyles
8:45AM-9:45AM Freestyle

4:15-5:15PM Low Freestyle
5:15-6:15PM Freestyle

Friday

5:30-6:30AM Freestyle
6:30-7:30AM Freestyle
7:45-8:45AM Freestyles
8:45AM-9:45AM Freestyle

5:15-6:15PM Freestyle

Saturday

6:30-9:45AM
Club Freestyle

10:00AM-12:45PM
Skating School

2:45pm-4:00PM
Skating School

Sunday
2:45-4:00PM
Skating School

5:45-8:15PM
Synch Practice


More info here: www.skatebowl.com

__________________
Keep Evolving. "From this moment forward, every voice that told you - You Can't - , has been silenced." - Freedom Writers

More Info on SF Bay Area Rinks

There are even more rinks in the greater bay area than the list below but these are the ones I know of right now....Please feel free to add. These are just the ones within a 60 mile radius of the city.

Dublin Iceland Distance from SF: 35.3 miles. Bridge Toll Accessible by Mass Transport: NO
http://www.dubliniceland.com/calendar.cfm

Oakland Ice center Distance from SF: 12 miles. Bridge Toll Accessible by Mass Transport: YES
http://www.oaklandice.com/figureskating.html This is a lot of freestyle from 5:45 am until 12:30 noon 6 days a week.

San Mateo Ice Chalet Distance from SF: 21 miles. Freeway No Toll Accessible by Mass Transport: YES (slow)
http://www.icecenter.net/sanmateo/

Cupertino Distance from SF: 45 miles. Freeway No Toll Accessible by Mass Transport: ? Located inside of a mall.
http://www.icecenter.net/cupertino/index.html

Redwood City Ice oasis Distance from SF: 26 miles. Freeway No Toll Accessible by Mass Transport: NO
http://www.iceoasis.com/figuresessions.asp

Santa Rosa Snoopy ice Distance from SF: 54 miles.Bridge Toll Accessible by Mass Transport: NO
http://www.snoopyshomeice.com/

San Jose Logitech Ice Distance from SF: ~50 miles. Freeway No Toll Accessible by Mass Transport: YES
http://www.logitechice.com/index2.html

Palo Alto Winter Lodge (seasonal outdoor) Freeway No Toll
http://www.winterlodge.com/

Kristi Yamaguchi Holiday Ice Rink at SF Embarcadero (seasonal outdoor) Freeway No Toll Distance from SF: 0 miles. Accessible by Mass Transport: YES
http://www.embarcaderocenter.com/ec/...ink_spons.html

San Francisco Yerba Buena Distance from SF: 0 miles. Accessible by Mass Transport: YES
www.skatebowl.com

Belmont Iceland - Distance from SF: 23 miles. Freeway No Toll Accessible by Mass Transport: YES
http://www.belmonticeland.com/calendar.cfm

__________________
Keep Evolving. "From this moment forward, every voice that told you - You Can't - , has been silenced." - Freedom Writers

hmm... our rink has a very simple schedule

8am - 10am only open for lessons
10am - 10pm public skating

This is barring any rink booking...

__________________
~~~~~
Blog: http://chowskates.blogspot.com

Youtube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/chowskates
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At our rink (Bird Arena at Ohio University, Athens, Ohio):

Public skating - 10 hours (figure skating jumps and spins "officially" forbidden)
Freestyle/figure skating - 11 hours
Learn to Skate classes - 3
Li'l Synchro practice - 2

The rest is divided into hockey, broomball intramurals, and Phys Ed classes for the university.

The rink opens each morning at 6 am, and continues until 11 pm, so there's only a small portion set aside for figure skating.

And - (apologizing in advance for the whining) - it's closed from April through early September.

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Bill Schneider

At our rink we have 4 ice pads, it's divided up pretty evenly because we have all 4 disciplines. There is a special figure skating rink. And all the other rinks are basically used for hockey school, public skating etc. Sometimes one rink is not used during certain times but we are all pretty happy with the schedule.

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...drool...a rink with four ice pads!!! I think I need to move.

As far as Public Skate time go's. I feel that less then 2 isn't bad myself. However I have noticed it myself Jessi, were you have rinks with 2 arenas and they don't even use both in most cases. For example. If a rink does Hockey a lot too. They don't always to the advantage of both,and use 1 for continuing games of Hockey,and the other for Public and Learn to skate. Given the time they have to split in just that #2 rink (for Public Skate),rinks like that would have plently of time for 2hrs. Even with a afternoon/evening skate. BTW. can anyone please define a "Cheapskate" Program? Thanks.

__________________
FSWer

I did in the original post. It's only one hour- but the fee includes skate rental and it's just $5. Since our rink is normally more than that, plus skate rental- they are calling it "cheapskate".

__________________
-Jessi
What I need is a montage...
Visit my skating journal or my Youtube videos (updated with 2 new videos Sept 26, 2009)