HEY,Fellow Skaters!!! I've told you what a Public Skate is like for me and what happens and what I do when I go on my annual Public Skate Thread. But now I'd love to hear about what a Public Skate is like for all of you,and what you do when your there.

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FSWer

I don't skate on public sessions.

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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 don't skate on many public sessions because the ice is such a mess. I only skate two sessions a week (plus group lessons) and we have two freestyle sessions so I use both of those.

But during the day- a public session is mostly empty. There might be one or two other people on the ice, but usually not. The ice is hard, cracked, and rutted. The slightest toe pick scrape will bring up a big chunk of ice. It's hard to practice any skills because the ice is so bad.

In the evening on Tuesdays, the ice is very crowded, with lots of LTS skaters. The ice is better quality, because it was scraped before LTS. It's not too difficult to practice one or two things here or there, but you can't do a program and you can't do MITF. Coaches are giving lessons and yell at public skaters who get in their way- but those skaters don't understand the unwritten rules of the ice, and really can't be held to them.

On weekends- the ice is packed. It's not worth going.

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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)

I skate an occasional public session to work a different set of skills. I tend to skate continuously on public sessions and that builds endurance.

It also keeps my eyes and reflexes keen with so many people in close proximity. I DO work on three turns, mohawks, and (some) brackets during public sessions among the traffic and at speed. I have enough confidence to do these without taking a tumble and causing an accident.

For me, it rounds out my skating practice. It's also fun seeing different people beside the usual dozen who attend our freestyle practices.

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Bill Schneider

It depends which public session I'm on. The morning ones during the week are usually pretty empty and are good for practicing figures and dance. That may change during the summer because day camps come for field trips.

The afternoon ones are busier, and are better for practicing specific skills where you're more or less in place. I take my dance lesson on an afternoon public session, but we do it first thing before too many people have arrived.

Tuesday nights used to be very busy because that session was immediately following group lessons. Now that group lessons have ended, it's much less crowded. I teach a couple of private lessons on that session.

I generally don't bother skating on weekend public sessions unless I'm really desperate just to feel some ice under my feet.

It varies. I skate publics when I have a day off so I can go to an empty session, or on weekends to take my daughter. If it is the weekend, I stick to elements safe for the level of crowdedness. Sometimes that means only no camel spins, and sometimes I have to abort a lot of jumps and only get in a few, sometimes I can't jump at all, so I stick to the middle and drill spins.

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It's all about the dress!

Well I usually don't skate on public sessions, however, I do skate on the Friday evening public sessions because ice show practice is held at the same time. It isn't crowded at all, the practices are structured so the Friday practice is for certain numbers, most people aren't aware there is a public session at that time.

We have very nice ice and, if you can stand repetitive show music, not too bad! Sometimes they even turn the heat on to make it warmer. i might video this Friday and put it on my youtube account (I should, so I can remember my part ).

I like attending the practice at this time, my skating class follows after a short break (during which I eat a snack). We usually have a lot of fun during the practice (and class).

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

Whenever I skate a public session it is always to have fun NEVER practice. I see it as Public Skate is "play" hang with friends and freestyles are practice.

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2010 Skating Goals

1) Land Double Axel
2) Pass Junior Moves at the end of January
3) Pass Novice Free at the end of January
4) Pass Senior moves by september
5) Consistant double flips and double lutzs
6) Learn a new cool spin!

It depends on where I skate.

At the rink in my hometown, where my mom still lives, I've gone on a Saturday and a Monday, both times at noon. There weren't many people on the ice either time, and both times by the end of the session, I was the last one left (they also have not tossed me off the ice despite the fact that I went over time both times).

Last weekend the boi and I went to a public skate that is not at the rink within walking distance of where we live (their Saturday public skate is at 9 p.m.! I went in there once and it looks like there's only one rink, so they probably have to do some fancy scheduling stuff) but at the next closest one, and the ice monitor told me afterward that she counted 30 people out there, though she said there's usually around 10 or so; she said least-busy sessions are Saturday and Sunday afternoons during spring and summer, but to avoid the Friday night sessions like the plague as they're busy and I gathered from how she worded it that they're also usually packed with unruly kids.

Obviously I like un-busy sessions the best...gives me more of a chance to woodshed and just play around and get used to being on the ice, which I'm still working on!

Tomorrow I'm trying out another rink that is attached to a high school near where I work; they have an "after school" public skate from 3-4 p.m. so I'm going to take a late lunch, and hopefully my boss will tell me to go home early again on Friday so I'll go on Friday as well if that's the case. I called them today and they said it doesn't get very crowded at all, so we'll see. That will be the only way i can skate during the week as all the rinks around where I live have lunchtime sessions only on weekdays, but I don't work anywhere near where I live. The next closest rink to work isn't having public skating at all in May, go figure...

A High School Ice Rink......COOL!!!!!

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FSWer

$3 for 2 hours of ice (senior citizen rates) I have no complaints.
It's so empty on mid-week evenings it's almost like private ice. Just me, some high freestyle kids, and a couple on a date.

Last week for 10 precious minutes I had the whole sheet to myself right after a good smooth cut. I reveled in the moment, free to examine my tracings and view my (non-existent) figures improvement.

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Great forum quotes:
On Falling: '...it doesn't matter, it's what you do AFTER you fall that's more important' ISK8NYC

I practice when I can if I have to skate a public. Flirting with the zam driver helps cuz then he plays my CDs and if I am lucky he'll play my program towards the end of the session when people start clearing out

Even though there are a million rinks around here, public sessions are few and far between. There is usually 1 session on either a Saturday or a Sunday and the times are never the same. Those sessions are packed full of hockey kids and hockey dads skating full speed in the opposite direction as everyone else. They are also cocky enough to get in your way if you're spinning. Rink guards (if they have one) don't do anything. When my DDs were in LTS, they would never go to a public session - too scared.

Most rinks have a lunch session 2 days/week. From what I hear they are pretty empty - 10 people max. My work is not close enough to any of them that I can take my lunch break to skate. I did go to one last Friday on my day off and I was the only one - it was heaven!

Luckily, our rink has open at least one open freestyle session every day of the week. I'd rather pay the $15. If I wanted to get up really early (5:30), I could skate for $5. My coach told me that they would open a rink for me(there are 8 in the complex) for $10 during the day if there was an empty rink.

I think the school is a private school. Judging from signs in the rink, they seem to have a girls' hockey team too, which I think is nifty.

So, I went today...not bad at all. There were four other kids on the ice at first--a showoff on hockey skates, his not-quite-so-skilled friend (who I think he was showing off for) and a couple of girls, who between them spent MAYBE 15 minutes on the ice and spent some of that time flirting with the boys and screaming whenever they lost their balance. (There was also the football team hanging out outside the locker rooms waiting for practice and warming up, I guess, but they weren't there long either) The session is from 3:00 - 4:00, and by 3:30 I was alone on the ice.

I also think they probably don't get much of the "public" in as I called yesterday to ask how busy it was and the guy said, "does that mean you're coming in?" in a slightly-eager voice...and today I arrived and told him I was there for the public skate and he said "that must've been you that called the other day!" LOL. He was really nice, offered me the skate rental room for taking my skates off and such as the lobby has a concession stand and seems to be a student after-school hangout, so there were quite a few kids there. This worried me at first when I saw them starting to stream in but then I realized they WEREN'T there to skate.

I'm definitely going back; I think I'm going to make Wednesdays my skate day, and any Friday that my boss lets me leave work early (since on those days I usually roll at about 3:00 anyway). Nothing like a practically-private, personal free-skating session, lol. I was afraid it'd feel really weird, like I'd be the outsider at the high school rink, but if anyone took too much notice of me I didn't really see it (or maybe just didn't care). I suppose it helps that I look very young--I've been mistaken for a high-schooler before--so maybe some of them just assumed I was a student they didn't know (I don't know how big of a school it is).

Too bad there aren't any rinks open this weekend, though...the boi was asking me when we could go skating again.

Skating in public sessions is normally a nightmare for me. I live in the northeast so there are several rinks to choose from. However, every rink has different rules. Some allow freestyle, some are more strict. November - March, it's pretty useless for me to skate publics as there are wayyyy too many people to even do MIF.

One rink had a sign on the wall that said "no camel spins." Ok, so I did some back spins - harmless enough, right? Oh no, so the guard skates up to me, and as soon as I see him coming I know I'm in trouble. "No spins allowed." But, I say, "The sign says no CAMEL spins, not no SPINS." and he goes "Well I was just told by that lady over there (crotchety looking old woman) that you can't do spins." Frustrated to the point of tears, I left the rink rather than risk getting yelled at for working on 3-turns that looked too advanced.

Ok.. another rink. "No blades above the knee." Fine, I do a sit spin. The blade is below the knee, right? "You aren't allowed to do that." Ok, fine. I do a loop jump. What - the blade is well below the knee, right? Guard skates up to me. Uh oh, in trouble again. "No jumping." Holy mother of ?!!!! I follow the rules and it's never enough.

And then finally my absolute worst public skating experience was at some awful rink in the Poconos, COLD rink too, very uncomfortable. I start off with my usual "easier" freestyle stuff, to "test" the guard and see if he approaches me before I start on my more difficult stuff. So I got away with quite a bit before I was told "no jumping." Ok, so I did a one-foot spin. And then I was told I couldn't even do that. So I ask the guard "Why?" and she says to me "there's no 'open-blade skating' allowed." And I ask her "What's 'open-blade skating'?" and she goes "Basically, you can't pick your feet up off the ice."

Stick a fork in me!! I'm done. I'm not the world's most advanced skater - the hardest thing I can do is an axel. But sometimes I feel like I'm being unfairly targeted because I'm an adult. Would they ever stop a 5 year old from doing singles? Never.

Why do I bother with publics? Well, in my area they are usually the only sessions on weekends. Also, they're cheap, and I'm broke. And finally, I feel the least pressure to work on my MIF there - If I do MIF during freestyle I feel crunched for time, like I should really be working on jumps. But I find that if I skate publics, more often than not I get yelled at by the guard for being a better skater, whereas the 3 year olds can bounce off the walls in all directions and nobody cares.

I once got nailed by a skate guard for doing forward crossovers around the center circle on a public session - the super-slow-motion kind where you hold the extension. The poor kid was new and inexperienced, and thought I was trying to do spirals or something. Luckily, since it was my home rink and I was a regular, I could pretty much laugh at her, assure her I wasn't doing anything dangerous or against the rules, and continue practicing. They've relaxed the rules quite a bit since then!

I was at a different rink (upstate, not the Pond) a few years ago on public and did a TWO-FOOT SPIN....skate guard "no spinning allowed" um ok. So I did a WALTZ JUMP....skate guard "no jumping allowed" um ok. 3-TURN? "no way"

meanwhile, hockey kids are zipping around the wrong way doing their hockey skating, kids are playing CRACK-THE-WHIP and annoying hockey dads are hip-checking anyone in their way.

I was P*SS*D!!!! and promptly left, but I did make my point known as I left. Because, no where was it posted "no jumps, spins, etc" but it was posted "NO HORSEPLAY or HOCKEY SKATING ON PUBLIC SESSIONS"

Luckily, my rink is ok with anyone doing pretty much anything on publics, within reason and depending on the crowd. It helps if the management knows you and your abilities.

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

Some of our public sessions are great, particularly if you can make a morning session 10.30 -12.30 (the advantage of flexible working hours and self employment!

Today's had less people on it than the preceding patch (freestyle) session which meant plenty of space to practice our free dance.

I used to skate mostly public sessions - our rink guards dont' object to careful figure skaters doing pretty much anything (in fact many a morning session is made up of adult figure skaters and nobody else). There was a recent blip with coaches being told they may not use the music during public sessions but that seems to have gone away now.

I go to a public every Saturday, with my daughter. She does her LTS class first, then there is public skating. I just stroke around with her. I don't try to do anything more than occasionally run my legs for a bit. It's too crowded.

Every once in a while - once every few months or so - I can get to a weekday morning public session in Hackensack. Those are normally awesome. The ice is great, it's basically empty, and I can play for cheap.

First of all, HI everyone! It's been a while since I've been around due to my irreliable internet situation in Ithaca. I'm basicly just home for the weekend and decided to see what's new. Anywho, I had some experience with public sessions. Basicly here's my rule; as long as the skate guards don't see it, then you're good. I'm pretty sly at dodging the skate guards and making sure I do a rather quick jump or spin when their skating with their back turned. Sorry I know, bad influence, however I almost think of it as a game and see how much I can do without getting caught and/or running little kids over.

One thing I don't like about public sessions is when you're doing a spin or something fancy and little kids don't get the concept of backing away. Instead they move closer to me which causes me to stop before hitting them. And yes, public sessions are a fun opportunity to more or less show off and give the little kids some tips. Also there are the rare yet lovely times where public sessions are actually emptier and easier to practice on than crowded freestyle sessions. For example last summer during public ice, they're were only THREE other skaters on the ice besides me. I was able to practice everything and there was no need for skate guards. Haha speaking of public sessions, Im going to one probably next week with some friends..so THAT should be interesting.

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[i]Beauty May Be in the Eye of the Beholder
But passion is in the heart of a skater.[/I]

Our rink has midday public sessions that are almost always blissfully uncrowded. The ice varies depending on who's cut it; sometimes it's awfully bumpy and rutty, and other times it's nice and smooth. I generally get a LOT of good MITF, dance and even FS practice in on these sessions. There is only so much time I can spend on midday sessions, though, and still get my work done (I freelance from home).

Weekend public sessions? Forget it. And if you want to work with your music, of course you have to take in a freestyle session.

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"Go wash an elephant if you wanna do something big." -Baby Gramps

Same with our rink, except that in theory camels aren't allowed unless you're in lesson. DH and I nearly always do the lunchtime public as it's generally not too crowded during school term time to get dance patterns in. Of course, there are the lunchtime public sessions when management has decided to allow a group booking of hundreds (not kidding) of school kids on ... and not told us until after we'd paid for the session!! And school holidays are a disaster.

But overall, publics are OK at our rink - certainly more manageable than private sessions (what US skaters would probably call freestyle or club ice) in terms of scheduling.

I don't skate on public sessions. During the weekdays at my rink if you go at the right time, they are pretty much empty. However, I'm usually at work, and if I have the day off and can skate, there are figure skating sessions on the other surface all day long I do instead. And we have figure skating ice on weekends. Plus, on weekend public sessions, there are generally WAY too many kids all over the place who get in the way, and I generally don't like kids. Especially large groups of them.

In grad school, the rink was for students/faculty only, and had public session all day...those were great because typically it was just myself and other members of the student figure skating club practicing, we could control the music, and any non-skaters who showed up would just stay on the little studio rink. We even got the entire synchro team to show up a few times for extra practices right before a competition, the rink management didn't care.

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

oh oh oh! I so agree with this! Often times a little kid will ask me if I can do "one of those twirly things with my arms over head" and ask me to show it to them -- And they stand right next to me. Please! Give me at least 10 square feet of space unless you want your head knocked off!

Horrible, dangerous and to be avoided if at all possible.