I'd have to say it's the little kids who don't realize that there is a direction of skating in the rink, and going against that flow is dangerous, not just to me, but to you as well because i am a lot bigger than you. Double the danger factor when the kid is a 4 year old fully decked out in hockey gear thinking they're a Wayne Gretzky, weaving in and out of people, in the wrong direction.

Which is why i usually stay in the center figure skating ring. Except, many people, mostly kids, go in there and don't do anything but cut across. So i'll be doing back crossovers, and the kids cut right into your path, and i can't always see them because a) i'm going backwards and b) they're short. i don't even mind if a hockey skater is in there working on some skating techniques, like turning quickly and crossovers and stuff. Usually, they're very respectful. but the kids, they just assume nobody is going to hit them. and the skate guards at the rink are horrible about enforcing the rules. And i mean horrible. I've complained to them numerous times, but they don't seem to understand that if i land on top of a little kid, they're the ones getting squashed.

Even worse, if i'm doing a spiral. especially back spirals. I can't see when i do a back spiral, and i was in the figure skating ring, and a kid came within almost an inch of my blade. i would've kept going, but the hockey player in the ring yelled out to me, and i turned sharply to avoid hitting the kid going in a straight line through the ring.

even if the parents told the kids the rules before, i think it might make a huge difference. I sometimes take a 9 year old and a 7 year old skating, and i've been taking the 9 year old since she was 6, and i always tell them to go in the same direction, avoid the center cones unless they want to do something with figure skating, and do not weave in and out of people, especially close to the boards. and they don't do it. they follow the rules, and in the 3 years since i've been taking the 9 year old, and recently the 7 yeer old, i've only had one accident with them. the 7 year old fell and cut his finger. thankfully, there hasn't been any near misses either. they know if htey see someone working on a move to stay out of there way, especially in the center ring, even if htey're in there too.

sorry this is so long, just ranting and raving right now.

sue123, I have to agree with you about the scary little kids and the ice guards who do nothing to keep order on the ice. (However, I have also seen GREAT ice guards in some rinks--but far too few of them in proportion to how many are needed elsewhere.)

....BUT, even in a coned off area, if it's a busy public session, it's not the time to be doing back spirals (or camel spins or lutzes). Yes, the little kids and other public skaters should follow the flow of skating and not cut you off, but at the same time, freestylers can't be doing everything they would do on a freestyle session. Some rinks even have rules against doing certain elements in public sessions because of the safety factor.

I'm sorry to sound as if I'm lecturing. I don't mean to, but just wanted to say that in a public session we skaters who do freestyle elements also have a responsibility to skate responsibly.

You should NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER do back spirals (or camel spins, for that matter) on a public session!!!!! For that very reason--no way to see, & the totally oblivious kids!! We aren't even allowed to do them on a freestyle sessions (the spirals, not the camels) unless we're on a lesson so a coach can be keeping an eye out--it's too dangerous!

That said, I share your pain, totally clueless kids who don't watch where they're going at all. I try to remind myself that they've paid to be out there too--and I'm really the odd one out, not them. Most people on a public session are there to skate round and round the rink, & don't understand there's more to it!

I know one thing that is worse..... Little kids running amuck on freestyle sessions. =-0 I try to have a good additude about things at the rink, but this drives me to insanity. The worst is the coach of these kiddlies who skates around with blinders. Hello, your students are likely to get killed here! And, if not them, someone else. This is one thing on my poop list for sure. I don't want to hurt anyone and I want to go home to my family.

Chico

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"I truly believe, when God created skating, he patted himself on the back."

Oh man.....attitude not additude! Geesh......I've been shopping all day and my brain is muck!

Chico

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"I truly believe, when God created skating, he patted himself on the back."

Well I agree with Sue123. We pay way more for our lessons and ice time etc. than those outside skaters do, so we should at least get the middle of the ice to practice. At my old rink they used to say over the loudspeaker " The center of the ice is for figure skating only" Most of the time it was good, no one would go through the middle. The ice guards were horrible, but nice kids. Some of the younger figure skaters don't even know where to set up their jumps or do their spins and the parents and coach don't care. I would go into a jump down the center towards the end of the ice and some little princess would be spinning there. I would go the same path several times and she would still be there when she could go in the middle and do the damn spin. One of these days they are gonna be hurt and then maybe the ones responsible for them will start to realize.

I disagree with that logic. We pay more for our lessons and ice time because we are getting the luxury of private coaching on ice that is strictly for figure skating and has a maximum capacity. We pay practically nothing for public ice because it is a session that is expected to be packed with people who know how to skate forwards and that's it. I've never personally been to a rink that allows figure skating at all on public ice. I work under the assumption that if I want to practice my figure skating, I go to figure skating ice, not public.

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~No thinking, breathing, or hesitation!~

I have encountered small children like that in rinks before. I've also encountered older children and teens that I really have had to look out for, during rowdy public sessions - some of them are just there to goof off and seem to be oblivous to anyone else.

I often do low-level figure skating moves on public ice, because the sessions are not very crowded. I currently have a lesson during public ice time, too.

My main, primary rink has a rule that you aren't supposed to do certain moves like forward or back spirals, camel spins or flying spins on public sessions. You also aren't supposed to do some of those things unless it's uncrowded or you're with your coach on a Freestyle session. When it's less crowded, I will do a brief forward or back spiral away from anyone else, which my coach has said is okay. But I won't do it if there are many more skaters or skaters too close to me.

On at least two occasions recently at my primary rink, there was a man in his THIRTIES or FORTIES wearing figure skates and doing fast-moving back spirals. On an uncrowded public session, without really looking where he was going. My coach was there and commented to me that he shouldn't be doing that, but I don't know if anyone told the man about it.

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Andrea

My rink (as far as I know) does not have any "no figure skating" rule for its public session. This is a blessing an a curse...on the plus side, no one prevents me from doing any freestyling when the session is empty (when it's not the winter or summer, during the weekday noon skate sessions). On the other hand, I've witnessed some very scary moments.

I've had experiences when I was working on sit spins or upright spins in the center circle when a child (usually between the ages of 5-10) will actually come towards me mid-spin. I will see him/her out of the corner of my eye and think that I have to get out of this spin without hitting this kid, and I don't know if the kid can stop. That always scares the cr*p out of me. Usually, the child just thought the spin was cool and wanted to see it up close, but doesn't understand that standing two feet away from me in mid-spin is not very safe. When that happens once, I will stop spinning altogether on that session and work on things that don't look cool to the uninitiated (like brackets and double three turns).

I've also seen teenagers (16+ year old boys) skating around with the little chair-things meant for toddlers to push around so they don't fall. Oh, and I love it when they decide that it's a good idea to throw the chair across the ice at their friend who's on the other end of the rink. And when they decide that they're no longer interested in the game and leave the chairs out in the middle of the ice for someone else to clean up.

I've also seen kids on the ice bouncing rubber balls that they got out of a 25-cent vending machine in the lobby. (...because pucks aren't allowed, so rubber balls must be...)

Then there are the folks who skate while talking on their cell phones. And who don't empty out their pockets full of change before skating (last week I was skating on a freestyle sesson that followed a public and found that there was a quarter and a nickel lodged about a millimeter under the ice surface...had to call someone to dig those coins up before someone tried to spin/jump in that spot and ruin their blades).

Then there are kids who like to slide around on the ice and will fall/slide on purpose, regardless of whether there is a clearing or not. I saw a kid take out a woman in her 50s last year (at a different rink, not the one I currently skate at), and she hit her head on the ice and they had to call the paramedics. Another rink I used to skate at put up cones around the center circle to designate the "figure skating" area. Well, the "sliding kids" at that rink like to play something akin to cone bowling...you know, skate towards the cone, and then slide on your butt/stomach and see how many cones you can knock over. (Or how many figure skaters you can knock over)

I agree with the above poster about skate guards not really "guarding" anything--I know there must be some great skate guards out there, but I haven't met any yet. All I can say is, if the skate guard is doing camel spins, she's not watching the session. Or, if he's sitting on the railing talking to his friends, he's not watching the session.

Something worse than little kids who think that they're Wayne Gretzky?

Adult/teenage males that think that they're Wayne Gretzky! I'm NOT talking about hockey players here, I'm talking about the ones that charge around irrespective of what anyone else is doing and then proceed to 'skid stop' into the barrier ... they can't do a proper hockey stop so do a pretend one with the barrier there to catch them. They also seem to be the same ones that go to the centre to do their 'tricks'.

Then, of course, there are the proud mummies and daddies who shove their kidlets into the centre of the ice because they think that it's safer there and, hey, there's all these nice people who will look after them I was once doing an upright spin in the centre of the ice and I saw this parent shoo her kid towards the middle. No, I thought, she won't come straight for me. Oh ****** I thought as she did just that. Poor kid nearly got beheaded as I tried to stop the spin without bashing her with my toepick. Stupid ***** mother!

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The best whisper is a click

IMO, the worst thing about public skating is guards who don't take their job seriously. And I think most of the time it's because they work for rink management that doesn't take skating safety seriously.

The most impressively managed public session I've ever been to was at the Northwest Rink in Baltimore. The center was marked off with cones and anyone cutting through was immediately and forcefully chastized. Speed demons weaving in and out of traffic got the same treatment. I'm sure it helped that the guards were all adults. My only complaint was that the whole session was skated in the CCW direction.

We're not allowed to do any freestyle on any of our public sessions here. Considering what everyone has posted, I wouldn't consider a public session at my rink for those reasons.

You never have been on a session where I am a skate guard.

I run my sessions with an iron fist. There is no tag, racing around, snowball making, going in the wrong direction, cutting through the center where the figure skaters are, cellphone usage. I am also stealthy in a lot of the times I won't where my vest so the kids who think they are getting away with something are very surprised when they turn around and find me behind them.

Our rink use to be what a lot of you are describing. Four years ago me and another guard spent about a month and cleaned the place out. Trouble makers don't come around much anymore.

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Keeping School Figures Alive!!

my rink allows figure skating in the coned off area. and when i did the back spiral, it was pretty uncrowded since it was still early, i figured it was safe. guess i learned my lesson though.

but even still, it really annoys me with the people darting back and forth, and the skate guards just let it happen. drives me crazy.

Top 5 public pitfalls

5) Crates. A child asked me to push her on the crate while her parents (no skates) watched at the boards. The child was a perfect stranger to me as I was to the child. I certainly did not want the liabilty if something happened, (i.e. fell off the crate etc.) I told the child I was not her baby sitter. She of coursed looked surprised. I don't intend to mean to any child but I certainly don't want the responsibility

4) Birthday parties run amok. (my rink promotes b-day parties. There are often 3 going on at once)

3) Teenage boys and their dads playing tag with a hockey glove. (Something happens to the intelligence of some men when they put on skates)

2) The center ice is coned off, kids know they're not to skate through but they do, often trying to imitate a spiral or spin. They give a glaring look like they know they're getting away with something, especially after they have been told not to cut through.

1) Adults cutting through the center coned off area who are well aware that it is for figure skaters. I must admit that it is 99.99% men who do this. They too give a glaring look like they know they're getting away with something, especially after they have been told not to cut through.


ps I don't hate men, I am happily married. Just some observations.

Lmarletto, that's the very same rink I was talking about when I said I've seen GREAT ice monitors! I've also seen them ask freestylers who are doing risky things in a public session to cool it (e.g., lutzes in the corners of the rink).

When I was a kid, I also saw good ice monitors at Fairfax Ice Arena.

At some other rinks, I've seen ice guards playing with HOCKEY PUCKS on a public session, or eating pixie sticks (and dropping half of it on the ice) or throwing popcorn. Unfortunately usually the shift manager is nowhere to be found for complaints.

Edited to add that sometimes the guards at Northwest Ice Rink will switch the flow of traffic to CW about 10 minutes before an ice cut or for a long while at the start of a public session. All of the guards are very nice (and have very interesting stories about their personal skating and outside lives and families), and, if asked before the session, might be willing to switch the direction of traffic for a while.

You should be able to see exactly where you're going and who you might hit if you're going to go backwards, otherwise you shouldn't. It's dangerous. I've skated in "open" freestyle sessions in the past and tried setting up triple loops and ended up going around about 20 times because a kid was in my way every single time, it's just going to happen. And you should be able to see them, no matter how short they are, that is YOUR responsiblity as the more proficient skater.

I understand freestyle ice is expensive and sometimes hard to come by, but the rink is doing you a courtesy in letting you practice freestyle/Moves in the Field on their public sessions. Most rinks do not allow it, even in the center, because it IS dangerous. You shouldn't do something that could endanger anyone else, if you can't see when doing your back spirals then you shouldn't be doing them. It's public skating, not freestyle skating. A little kid going through the middle in an out-of-control fashion because they can't skate actually has priority over you- you should be on a freestyle sessions if you want to practice freely.

I definitely would say that the little anklebiters are the worst part of public sessions.

Luckily though, I mostly skate on public sessions that are pretty deserted, so I don't fear doing spirals or camel spins. I would stay away from those moves if I was at a busy weekend session though.

It's a pain to be an adult skater and have to rely on these sessions! I did for quite some time when I didn't have a car. My general advice if you have to skate busy sessions is to do lots of work on turns. They are very safe and lets face it, few people practice them enough. Scratch and back scratch are doable too.

Back 3 mohawk is a nice one to work on for bronzish adults.

I would hesitate to look at public sessions as anything other than useless ice, unless it's a session that you know for a fact is always sparsely attended or mainly adults, such as our local lunch time open skate.

It is foolish and dangerous, IMO just as foolish and dangerous as those little hockey kids darting in and out of traffic in the wrong direction, to do any kind of freestyle on a busy session, even if you are in the center of the ice. If you absolutely must do freestyle, assume that others will be in your way, all of the time, and they will not be paying attending to what you are doing. I think that if you hurt someone else while you are doing a freestyle element, then it is your fault, not theirs. It is not figure skating ice. People on open skating sessions do not understand the rules of figure skating, they do not understand what you are trying to do, and they do not care that they might be in your way. As the more knowledgeable skaters, it is our responsibility to make sure that we are not a danger to the uninitiated.

I understand that freestyle ice is more expensive - heck, I grumble about it during the summer months when our nice, inexpensive lunch time skate goes away. I spend way more money in the summer than I do in the winter, because I don't want to be on the ice with the hockey kids, and I don't want to lose my valuable training time on a session that may not be suitable for freestyle, so I end up on freestyle ice. However, these are the things we must take into consideration when we are skaters.

Hope I didn't offend - this is just my opinion, and I'm sure different areas have different local situations.

Edited to add that by "freestyle", I mean jumps, spins, and MIF patterns. I don't mean individual footwork elements such as three turns etc.

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"The only place where success comes before work is in a dictionary." -- Vidal Sasson

"Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway." -- Unknown

Well, at least at my rink, they do block off the center ice for figure skating, so I don't see anything foolish about doing freestyle in the appointed area even if its busy, but you have to watch what you do. I've done freestyle at busy sessions for years and I've never had an accident. However, I am glad that I don't have to do it anymore.

But I agree that weekday lunchtime sessions are best if you can go then, because there usually aren't more than 15 people on the ice.

What makes me upset about our rink the most is that they have few freestyle sessions available so lots of kids go to the publics on the weekends to have their private lessons. In general, there are usually at least 10 privates taking place at any given weekend public session. They go where they want, do what they want (camel spins, etc), many pros have their tape players with them and work on programs with the students. They don't stay in the middle, which is designated as freestyle (but how could they, considering how many lessons are going on) but skate all over the rink, any direction and don't know the meaning of getting out of someone's way. The lights are dimmed, visability is poor, music is loud. This could give a person nightmares thinking about what could happen.

I go to practice sometimes on weekends, but mostly work on endurance, stroking type of things at those crowded public sessions. I think it is wrong to have so many lessons taking place and for those people to expect the rules to be broken and not have any consideration for the general skating public. I think it is only a matter of time before someone is seriously injured at our rink and even though we have a posted disclaimer saying the rink takes no responsibility if you're injured, they actually could be held libel if they fail to hold up their end of the bargain. They have state safety codes they must follow and they would be in deep doo doo if they had to go to court and people testified that there were all these lessons going on, the guards were talking on their cell phones, the ice was badly in need of resurfacing, the lights were basically off and so on.

What is most alarming is that public sessions have statistically the most skater injuries-far more than hockey or f/s. Lots of the skaters are beginners and you combine them with the higher level people doing f/s, hockey players racing around, inattentive guards and oblivious parents and you have a nice, tastey recipe for disaster.

I've made suggestions with our management. They respond like you're nuts or get really defensive. They complain about how much it costs to run a public session, make you feel bad for complaining and threaten to cut public sessions because they aren't worth it. They claim the teaching pros are highly trained and "in control" of the lessons and won't allow their students to do anything potentially risky. BS! It's all BS and only a matter of time before they are faced with an extremely costly lawsuit and even more upsetting, a person with serious injuries. I shudder to think about what will happen to one of those little kids who barely know how to skate and are out there with no supervision, just waiting to get hit. I know of an incident at our rink where 2 senior level skaters were at a public session and doing camel spins, etc in the middle and a child was hit. I don't know if the kid was badly hurt or not but if anyone believes the management cares about this stuff, they are wrong because it continues session after session.

I see a shiny blade attached to a child's face. What does it take for these morons to wake up?

~AF

Once in a while I do some slumming and skate on public ice. If it's in Windsor, ON, you can only skate forwards fallowing the flow of traffic. No freeskating allowed at all. But if I skate in Tecumseh on their public ice, we're allowed to do as we wish. I still don't do spirals, camels or flying spins on the public ice though. It's just not safe for the non-figure skaters if I did do these on public sessions. As a mom and a responsible figure skater, I don't want to cause injury to little kids or any public skater on public ice. One, it's not right. Two, it's suppose to be public ice not my figure skating club ice. Three if I should cause injury to someone while doing a spiral, camel or flying spin, Tecumseh Arena would end up banning all freeskating moves just like Windsor. If I'm going to jump on public ice I either jump in the middle area or look for a huge opening and be ready to come to a halt on a dime if needed. I use the eyes behind my head to check for other skaters that may get in my way. I had to learn to be able to abort what ever move, spin or jump I'm doing on a dime while skating with reg. ellite junior competitive skaters who skate like the wind and come out of no where since I've been skating on the senior session during my club's ice. So stopping for public skaters who happen to get in the way of me is no big deal.

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"It's not age that determines but the heart." "Skating is not just a sport for the young but it's a passion for the soul of the young at heart." Brigitte Laskowski

I am a nomadic adult skater who is a member of Windsor FSC (Skate Windsor) WOS SC again since Sept. 1st, 2008.

http://eastcastlemusic.tripod.com

Singerskates Sports Music Editing

Last time I skated on a public session was in Scotland, and although it was half-term, it was over the lunch-hour so very quiet, and we got some useful work done. Most embarrassingly, though, the rink was part of a gymnasium complex and you could see people on the stationary bikes watching us - especially Husband and his other partner working on their Foxtrot.

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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!

We are very fortunate at our rink when it comes to figure skating on public ice. There are so very few freestyle sessions that us adult skaters can make... Our public sessions are generally not crowded -- at least the ones I attend. Actually, because our rink is in a mall next to a food court, I think they encourage figure skating because it's entertaining to the mall patrons. There are almost always lessons on public sessions because our club isn't tremendously competitive, so we don't have any (that I know of) homeschcooled competitive skaters that take lessons during the day.

Little ones are almost never a risk at our rink, especially if they're on the ice with their parents. Ths biggest problem I see at the rink are the teens who decide on a whim to skate in their shorts and waaaay short skirts and tank tops. Not that attire is the issue (althoug when the girls fall, you can see undies). They are the ones that don't heed directional flow and dash across the ice playing tag and having falling contests. They are big enough to knock you down and have no control over their speed or direction.

Everyone else is very courteous, though. I always watch very carefully and never practice anything that would put anyone else in danger unless I'm in a lesson and my coach can keep a better eye out for me. I'm also a chicken and tend to abort any move if there's someone in a three-foot radius of me, LOL!

Chico, I feel your pain! I no longer skate on a couple of freestyle sessions at my rink because of 3 tots who are allowed, actually encouraged to use the session as their personal playground. At least one or two days a week they all three work with one coach and she encourages them to race each other around (usually screaming), which is very distracting to the other skaters. Occasionally one or more of the kids likes to go crawling around on the ice. They are too young (4 or 5 or maybe 6) and inexperienced to know to watch out for the other skaters (this is an open session with some skaters doing high freestyle and moves) and there have been numerous near misses. The skating director is fully aware as she is herself teaching on those sessions, but she apparently sees no problem with it. I know other skaters are bothered by it, but I don't think anyone has complained because most of the other skaters on those particular sessions share the same coach as the tots and they don't want to cause trouble. I am lucky enough that I could rearrange things, but it is annoying that skaters paying for the ice are having their time compromised.