LOL,hello skaters. I did some thinking...and I think I saw the way to ask this. So what I would love to know from you all is.....do you share your rink, or do you share your rink with.....

__________________
FSWer

You make the most random thread topics.

__________________

Our rink has one pair (they also train at another rink- and I think are the only pair in eastern iowa), two synchro teams, and a mess of hockey teams. I haven't seen any ice dancers- but one woman did an exhibition Dutch Waltz with the skate director- so there must be at least one dancer.

__________________
-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 pairs and ice dancers. The dancers have to use a different ice time now because they kept skating into freestylers/publicers and people started complaining. At my other rink synchro is really big and there's at least 5 different teams.

We've got everything, in some form or another. Two (hopefully soon to be three) synchro teams, adult pairs teams (but no youth teams at present), and solo dancers (but no teams). I hope to start training figures pretty soon, too, but heaven knows how I'm going to manage that with all this other stuff on the ice!

Our "freestyle" sessions are largely dancers and adult beginners. Public sessions can be anything - figures, freestyle, dance, moves and hockey. Hockey lessons are the worst!! They take up a lot of ice and are really noisy (and usually wreck the ice) - hack-hack...

__________________
Is Portland the only city with it's own ice-dance website? http://www.pdxicedance.net/

You missed out one option: Public Skating!

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

Youtube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/chowskates
~~~~~

don't share with another discipline....



unless you count HOCKEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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

Okay, depends on what you mean by "share?" If you mean on the same FS session, then it would be pairs and ice dancers. If you mean share the same rink but at different times, then I probably should have also checked "synch skaters" too.

We only have one sheet of ice so...we make due out of that sheet of ice and when we use it. It's not perfect, but it's currently a workable solution for me.

S@D: (re: hockey) Now, now!!! Be nice... LOL!!! Besides, there are some nice eye candy out there that play hockey too. Of course, I have to watch 'em from afar not only b/c I'm married, but... well, I do need to breathe ... (jazzpants ducks and runs for cover from all the hockey enthusiasts here on this board...)

__________________
Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

You missed out free skating! We don't have separate sessions for different disciplines, so our rink is a mixture of dancers and free skaters. And pairs, but they don't usually train on the same sessions as I do.

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

Mmmmmhmmmm!!!!!!!! Now if they'd only look my way and appreciate my big skater butt in my little skating skirt!

My weekend rink is really focussed on hockey (and the home practice ice of our local NHL team) and has few freestyle sessions, a great LTS program, and (now that I've been to publics elsewhere) pretty decent public sessions with a core group of adult figure skaters practicing in the center.

My weekday rink has everything, and lots of amazing skaters to look up to (both adult, kid, and professional).

I like both. Weekday rink is where I go when I need a kick in the butt-- the freestyle sessions are energizing (albeit scary when I need to dodge the very fast, very good skaters on program). My weekend rink is kind-of a breather from that world and just plain fun-- I have lots of skating buddies there and I love to watch the progress of my fellow adult beginners. Plus, I'm a huge fan of my home NHL team (as anyone who has seen me in t-shirts, etc, know) and love knowing that I'm at their home rink!

__________________
When asked what his "secret" to success was, Wayne Gretsky said: "Skate to where the puck is going and not to where it has been."
Is the figure skating version of this: Skate as if you're doing an axel and not just learning how to hop?

We share our rink with a very strong hockey club (national champion of last year), with shorttrack speedskaters, with a show-skating club, with an "exercise for seniors" group, and probably that's not a full list. There's no dance or pair skating at our rink - there MIGHT be a synchro group with the show club but I'm not sure.

Our hockeyers appreciate my butt a little more than they should.

Speed skaters are by far the best eye candy. They go dressed from top to toe in stretch lycra and they have better butts than even figure skaters do. And they're bent over all the time, so you can look at their butt. Incidentally, speed skaters are also the most gallant creatures on the ice of all disciplines, and they move in the most logical trajectories of all.
Can you tell I like speed skaters?

I AM playing nice!!! I almost had one converted to figure skating....(still looking for that "perfect pair partner") 6'2" about 200 pounds of hulking masculine muscle....brunette, green eyes....we would have looked NICE together!!! Plus, he picked up spinning and a waltz jump in 5 minutes and said picking up 135-140 pounds was NO PROBLEM since he usually lifts twice that and he is really nice!!!

His wife said NO! (grrr-party pooper!)

still looking for a pair partner....

Sessy, the only "speed" skaters we have are the stupid kids that zoom around on public sessions...quickly done in with a well-placed boot or hip-check

my bad? I'm just kidding! But I'd like to one day...

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

Well we have a heckload of this kind of speedskaters:

They're on the 400-metre tracks (sometimes on the 333-metre tracks, but they dislike those because the straight track is very short and the curves are very shallow).
On the 30x60 ice rink (hockey/figure rink) we get shorttrackers, who look slightly different:


I agree, those kids who "speed" skate the way you describe, deserve a boot. Occasionally when they make me break off a spiral sequence by crossing over the ice all of a sudden in the middle of the rink for like the TENTH time I'll go into my forward outside bielman anyway. I can actually steer the edge of that one (I've had to a few times and I'm amazed myself how much I can steer it), but it scares the living hell out of them. They generally get the hint and actually look around them before crossing next time. Sometimes they don't get the hint, I usually take that as a sign that it's gotten too crowded with laypeople and that I should go home.

Also a good one apparently is to get a backward hydroblade and bowl them over. OOOPS my bad I didn't see you! Oh it's a good thing I'm so close to the ground, else I might've hurt myself falling...
At least, according to a 65+ year old ice dancing teacher at a neighbouring rink (although I think he's quit teaching lately) this works well... I've never tried this myself.

We have one kid who will occasionaly come to public sessions in clap skates (and jeans a t-shirt) and speed around the rink- but not with the form of a speed skater. Scares the heck out of me- because the only way I've seen him stop is run into a wall. I don't think those skates are made to come to a sudden stop the way hockey and figure skates do- and he clearly does not have much control of his skating. I usually take a break and wait for him to leave. I've seen him run into too many public skaters (who clearly are not "yielding" to him- umm... they are public skaters, they don't know how to yield) so I don't want to take the chance.

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

You're right, they have nearly no ways of stopping. But they can get out of the way if necessary. Their forward crossovers are generally very controlled and good - considering it's the only thing they're practicing all day.

Well if he was a good skater I wouldn't be concerned- I think he just got a used pair and goofs off in them. If Apolo Ohno showed up at my rink, I wouldn't be concerned with my safety. (Though I might still get off the rink, just due to the OMG SCAREY speed at which they move)

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

Hmmm, maybe I will move to the Netherlands and take up looking at speedskaters!!!! hubba-hubba!!!!

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

Teeheee!!!
They're also often pulling down their overall to their waist, taking off the shirt underneath and walking around the rink like that while they're doing their stretching, running, sideways hopping and other stuff like that... I mean OMG HOT HOT HOT! They've got those 6-packs, but in a nice way. Bodybuilder type of guys also have sixpacks but those always look so artificially pumped up, this looks totally natural and SO yummy!!!
I'm always totally staring and trying not to get caught staring.

We do get the occasional speed skater on our public session. And my favorite Monday night ice guard is a speed skater. Can spray ice better than any hockey skater can too!!! Sadly, none of them looked anything like AAO in body shape.

(Down, Sessy! DOWN!!! Good girl!!!)

__________________
Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

Yeah, it always comes down to the wife's choice!!! And I'm sure if you were in her shoes, you'd do the same too!

I'm so glad that I'm choosing to go it alone! It's just not worth the aggravation to looking for a good partner, and as primary coach likes to remind me, I have enough on my plate AS IS!!! (Doesn't mean that if the oppty comes up that I wouldn't go for it... just not "looking for it." KWIM?)

__________________
Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

I wouldn't - or at least, I'd keep skating solo too. I got into skating to escape from having to have a partner in dancing!

Say,I know this might sound inpossible. But is there also anyone here who ACTUALLY is on the is at the same time as a different Discipline? Or can it happen?

__________________
FSWer

FSWer-
I don't skate freestyle sessions- but the one I did skate the pairs team were on the ice at the same time as the singles skater.

Also the public sessions I do skate- usually a portion of the kids synchro team will be practicing (though not a "official" practice) as well as hockey skaters (but no pucks or sticks), and of course the public skaters who are all over the place in terms of what they can and can't do.

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