I'm curious as to how far people drive to skate, and how often.

Feel free to hate me now- I drive about 5 minutes including the time it takes to park (which sometimes isn't easy). In the summer I bike- it's about .8 miles.
Because it's so close I sometimes just go for 30 minutes, which is really nice because my knees don't do well with more than an hour. I'm at that rink 3 days a week, or once hockey is gone 4.

The other rink I skate at is 45 minutes away and I skate there only for club functions which right now means twice a week for show rehearsal.

When I lived in Ohio, one rink was 15 minutes away and the other 45 or so. I skated once a week then.

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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)

My rink is about 15 minutes away, and I'm there 6 days out of 7 for one thing or another. I try to get in an hour of practice every day, but sometimes I only show up for synchro or to teach group lessons. My dance partner's rink is 2 hours away, so when we practice one of us has to make the drive.

I leave about 45 minutes to an hour before the session and that's enough time to drive, warm up, get changed and be on the ice early.

Some days, I make three trips to the rink, but I've been trying to cut down on that because of the fuel cost. One day a week, I try to make the coffee club session, then I just stay the rest of the afternoon working on my laptop and teaching privates/groups into the evening.

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I'm a 10min drive from home (although it gets to 30min in traffic) and about 20min from work to the rink. The synchro rink is 1hr 15min coming home from and 2+hrs getting to. I really hate London traffic!

I'm another one who lives really close to the rink. My primary rink I leave 30 minutes before the session starts and for the secondary rink I usually give myself an hour. I usually don't need all the time but DC traffic is legendary in its badness.

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Happily defying the laws of physics when I skate...and not in a good way

If I could meet ole Axel Paulsen, I would kick him in the teeth

President and Founding member of the I hate Toe-Loops Club

Still a member, but trying to get out of the Pre-bronze peanut gallery.

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About 20 minutes away but if I want a dance lesson I drive about 3 hours and tweny minutes.

When my daughter was younger we drove 45 minutes for a 5:45 am lesson 3 days a week.

j

From late October to late March I drive 15 minutes to the rink 5 days a week to practice and to coach. One day a week I drive 1 1/2 to the rink where my coach is for lessons. Between March and early July if I want to skate I have to do that same drive as none of the local rinks are open. In early July the rink 1/2 hour away opens, primarily for hockey, but I can usually skate on weekends during the public skate, although no jumping or spinning if it's busy. If I want to skate with the adult group that's at about my level I have to drive to the rink two hours away so I stopped doing that when the price of gas went up. I only do that if I have something else to do in the area anyway.

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You miss 100% of the shots you never take.--Wayne Gretzky

Our main rink is about 20 minutes away, but it is only open October-March. After that we have to drive an hour to the rink that is open year-round but I carpool with other moms from our main rink, so it isn't too bad. The next closest rinks (where she needs to go to practice for dance Test Sessions with a guy that is tall enough for her) are 2 hours away. Yes, Maine is beautiful, but the only easily accessible ice is on the roads!

About ten-fifteen minutes in the car - but it can be up to 30 minutes in traffic. Usually I drive home, which is just as well as I have more patience in traffic than he does. Half an hour on the bus.

I go 3-4 times a week; Husband goes more often as he goes on Tuesday and Thursday evenings as well.

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

I'm on the other end of the spectrum on this one. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday mornings I drive about 50-minutes (after working my overnight shift) to skate at my home club's rink 8:45-10am.. and maybe stay for coffee club, depending on how many other people are there. Then I drive about an hour and 10 minutes to get home from there.

On Wednesdays and Fridays I drive an hour and 20 minutes from work to the rink where my coach teaches and then it's a two-hour drive home. Roundtrip, including from home to work and work to the rink and from the rink to home is about 230 miles... only some of it in traffic. I know I'm crazy... AND my coach is worth it!!!

Primary rink: 10.2 miles or roughly 25 minutes 7 days/week. I'm typically there for about 3 hours/day on the weekdays and weekends.

Secondary rink: 25 miles or roughly 40 minutes 2 days/week. I usually spend an hour there on the weekday and 3 hours coaching on the weekend.

What I make in coaching at these rinks makes up for the long drive.

My home rink is about 5 minutes away. That's really nice when I have to teach at 9 AM on Saturdays. The rink where I have my chorography lessons on Monday nights is 30 miles away and can take an hour to get there with traffic. It's too bad it's that far away as it's a very warm rink (temp wise) and I love skating there.

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"Where are we going and why are we in this handbasket?"

Rink #1: 45 minutes away. I do most of my teaching there, & some practice. This is where I learned to skate & so this feels like my home rink.

Rink #2: 1 hour away without traffic, up to 2 hours with traffic. This is where I go for my lessons, once a week. It also shifts between 3 different rinks depending on the season, but they're all the same distance.

Rink #3: 25 minutes away. I'm relatively new here, I teach group classes & am starting to practice here because I earn free ice time from teaching.

Home rink: 8 miles or 10-15 minutes depending on traffic; Open late August-first week of June. I usually go to public skates ($5/2 hours) instead of drop-in ($15/45 minutes). Then if i leave after an hour, I don't feel so guilty about the $$$$$$.

Rink where i take from my coach: it's 55 miles away....so about an hour each way once a week; it's a two-hour session so it is actually worth the drive as far as quantity of time on the ice.

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

It is about 50 minutes each way for me. Fortunately the rink is only 15 minutes from the office. It also helps that I leave the house at 5 a.m. and the longest part of the drive is through the country so I don't wake up until I arrive at the Timmy's at 5:50

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Dianne
(A.O.S.S.? Got it BAD! )

I win! Year-round rink, where I do most of my practice, is a 2-3 minute drive from my house, depending on where the traffic light is in its cycle. Sessions there are 50 minutes, which I do 2-3 times per week.

Seasonal rink is about a 15-20 minute drive. I practice there 1-2 times per week on public sessions. I usually stay between 1-2 hours.

My main rink/home club is 5 minutes from home.

The other rink I skate at regularly (Sunday dance sessions) is about 40 minutes away; I used to actually live only a block from that rink so I usually walked there. Sometimes I skate there on early morning weekday sessions because it's the closest rink to where I work (about a 10 min drive) and city figure skating ice there is really cheap ($8 for a session, a session being 2-3 hrs).

The two other rinks I skate at sometimes (esp in summer) are about 15-20 minutes from home.

The past two years, I drove 2.5 hrs each way once a week for my synchro team, but I had to give that up.

In college I could throw a rock at the rink (Miami's old Goggin) from my dorm, it was so close...man I miss those days.

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2010-2011 goals:
Pass Junior MIF test
Don't break anything

Rink #1: 5 minutes away - I used to be here 5 days a week, but I'm thinking about changing coaches so I'll only be here 2 days a week for 1.5 hours

Rink #2: 20 minutes away - 3-4 days a week, 2 hours each time

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"Without a struggle, there can be no progress" ~ Frederick Douglass

I live 5 minutes from my main rink, which is a big 4-sheet complex. There are eleventy billion little recreational rinks in my area. Unfortunately, the rink where I teach at 10am Saturdays is 25 minutes away. :yawn:

Rachelsk8er, I had the same thing in college (Kent State)! I lived across the street from the rink my freshman and junior years. Uh, it may or may not have played a factor in choosing that school...

Well only because I don't have my backyard rink this year, which is like 10 steps from my back door!

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Dianne
(A.O.S.S.? Got it BAD! )

We live just under 17 miles (27 kilometres) from the rink. It should take us 25-30 minutes to get there, but we have to allow a good hour to make the 9:30am patch session, as the traffic is just that bad. Occasionally we end up arriving massively early as a result, but those times would be rare exceptions.

Just three minutes away. I'm really lucky and I refuse to move house hehe!

Nicki

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I take transit. Right after work I head to the rink which is about 10 min away from work. After work I head home about 20 min. So all in all the rink is 20 min from my house.

I skate at another rink that if I take transit it could be 1.5 hours. Luckily driving takes only about 50 min. UGH. I only go to that rink once a week and only do so because it has a very good adult session on a very good ice surface

The rink is about 5 miles away or 6 by the back roads which is usually quicker - 10 to 15 mins depending on time of day. Sometimes it's longer and in Ascot week (horse racing) it used to be impossible to go as I couldn't get back. I've now discovered a new route (only taken me 8 years!) which can get me home in 15 mins even with the race traffic.

If I had to go any further I wouldn't skate as I'm too lazy to go far!

I go for 45 mins to an hour 3 times a week and sometimes up to 5 times.