at the public session today, this little kid was going around wiht one of those walker things, swerving in and out of other people. when i asked one of the skate guards about it, he said "oh, it's ok, he;s with one of the guards". on the rules list, it clearly states walkers are not allowed to be used, along iwth no more than two people holding hands at once, and no waist holding. well, all this was going on. one family of 5 decided to make a chain of people, another party of 6 were all holding onto each other's waists. and where were the skate guards? by the entrance, flirting with the girls.

That reminds me. . . Rule #1 of public session skating: NEVER skate on a public session during Christmas break! LOL!

Then I would say something to the management. That is as much a safety issue as figure skaters doing anything but moves and or stroking on a public session with alot of skaters.It is just a safety concern.

yea, i should have remembered that. but i hadn't been anywhere near ice for over a week, and my feet were itching to get back into a pair of boots. although i did get a good hour of skating in, since the rink opens earlier during the break, and most people don't know that. instead of opening at 1:30, it opens at 1. so people usually show up around 2, half hour after it usually starts. so by 2, the ice was essentially unskatable with so many people. but from 1-2, it was bliss.

I like ankle-biters, I think it's cute, I'd never heard it before. I think it just means...little. You know? Ankle-level. I don't see anything discriminatory about that, little kids are supposed to be short.

I just got back from a relatively crowded public session where I met Jazzpants, who is in NY visiting inlaws. We took turns watching out for each other, and she was able to do some very nice jumps and spins while I stood guard. She watched my back for my B cross strokes, but it was really too crowded to do more than three or four in a row. I expected the rink where we met to be even more crowded than it was. I used to take my daughter there for lessons on weekends before I skated. I now skate there on Friday afternoons, when there are usually no more than five or six of us on the ice and it's possible to practice moves.

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We went to the rink today to get my son's new blade put on his hockey stick, and to get his skates sharpened. Public skating had just started. There were 3 people there. My son wanted to skate, but I didn't have my skates with me. I let him skate, and sat in the stands watching all that beautiful, empty ice out there It was so bad, I even (briefly) thought about renting hockey skates .

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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

Over here those are the best! The small rink closest to me has public skates every day during winter break and if you get there 11-1 the ice is practically empty.

Yeah, Windsor is a non-freeskater friendly zone on public ice. Yesterday, before I was hit with chills and fever from current kidney infection (didn't sleep last night because of it.), I skated on Forest Glade Arena's Public session. I went to the middle to do one spin. I did the right inside 3 method entry, started the spin and was in the fifth rotation when the skate guard came to me and told me that I couldn't do any figure skating on the session. With that, I was forced to just stroke around forward for the rest of the hour. I was so bored, I got off the ice an hour early. I actually made a point to the skate patrol, that I was bored and showed them my sloppy bored skating posture over and over. Then it hit me after I left. One of the skating guards was the daughter of a figure skating coach, I knew. Anyway, I felt that that public ice was just torture. I was very careful of how I skated because of all the non-skaters on the ice and little ones. I even stopped a few times to see if some of the skaters were alright when they fell. Most of the females on the ice were doing that non-skater method of stroking; pushing with the toe picks not using any edge of their blades at all. This is why the female skaters were going down. The male skaters went down because they had their heads too low to the ice and didn't know how to stop properly when they did their racing games. Both skate patrols are hockey players and they let those hockey want to be's do anything they wanted even playing tag and skating in the wrong direction cutting infront of people. What we figure skaters need is to apply to the parks and recs deptments as skate patrols. Then maybe we'll be allowed to do at least spins in the middle of the ice where most non-skaters don't venture anyway.

I love Tecumseh Arena's public ice as they let us figure skaters do what we want to do on the ice within reason as long as we yield to the non-skaters: no flying spins, camels and no spirals on crowded sessons.

Brigitte

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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.

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I'm like Carleenp. I kinda like "enforced" stroking and I usually skate the city Sunday afternoon public session, with the hockey hot rods, dads and tots. I get figure skating ice 4 or 5 times a week where I do dance and elements so I use public sessions as aerobic training. I don't jump or spin at all and instead try to keep stroking for the entire session 50min/flood/50min. The rink guard makes everyone skate in the other direction on the second hour so I get both ways, and the crowd thins out too. It is one heck of a work out. If the ice isn't too rutted I'll do leg pulls around. My coach is a great believer in being fit for skating, so I either have to run or do this. I'd rather skate publics than run :-)

Skating is ALL good. It's just what you do with it, and trying to do something that isn't suitable for a certain type of ice isn't worth the frustration.