Hi, I am a parent of a skater and was curious if there were any mall skaters out there. And i mean actually train in a mall rink. What is you opionion on mall skating?

I don't train on a mall rink, but skate occasionally on one. It's kind of fun having a built-in audience, but I don't think the ice is maintained as well as at my home rink. Skittl1321 trains there, though - maybe she'll chime in here. One of my daughter's former coaches, an Olympian, told me he began at a mall rink. I believe Tara Lipinski did, too.

I skate at a mall rink- quite honestly, beggars can't be choosers. There is a rink about 45 minutes from me that isn't a mall rink- but the mall is 2 minutes from my house- if I want ice time, that's the place to be.

The ice isn't great. I don't think they EVER actually scrap it- just lay more water down. But they do resurface it before every session I skate. (I'm not entirely sure how often they do it during the marathon public sessions- might just wait for complaints???)

The best part- there is TONS of ice time. Freestyle every morning and every afternoon. All day public ice time weekdays and weekends. Evening ice time a few days a week. Hockey gets two Thursday evening and Sunday evening- the rest is either public or freestyle.

My rink lets you do freestyle on public ice. Because I am not really fast and high level yet, I don't go to freestyles yet. If the rink has less than X number of skaters (don't know what it is) you can even use the harness on public ice. (I think I've only used it when there were 10 or less public skaters. I ALWAYS yield to public skaters- but I expect other figure skaters to yield to me when I am in lesson, as I yield to them) There are good coaches there (many of the coaches also coach at the other rinks around the state). They have a USFSA club now, and an adult synchro team. One friday a month they do an exhibition- which gives you a chance to do your routine full out, on your own ice, to music, with an audience.

It is everything I could ask for in a rink.

My biggest complaint- the staff is a bit lazy. Sometimes it's impossible to find someone to pay. Thankfully there are almost always coaches on the ice, because in an emergency- I would NEVER count on the rink staff to do anything. (We also have NO ice monitors).

Edit: After reading the previous post I thought I would add:
- our rink is a full size hockey rink
- the hockey barriers and netting prevent food court stuff from being thrown into the rink (and most people sit in the actual food court, rather than right by the rink)
- because we back up to a wall, you can only really watch from 1 side and 1 end. The only time I've ever felt "stared at" was when I was the only skater on the ice (Sunday at 11:00) and there was a HUGE line circling around the end of the rink for movie theatre tickets.

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I skate at a mall rink (occassionally, although I prefer the big, hockey rink) but there are a lot of kids in the area who train there - it has the biggest LTS program because it has so much visability to the general public and so a lot of skaters get started there.

It really depends more, I think, on the coaching available at the mall rinks - we have some very good coaches who teach there - the ice surface is not as standard NHL size and so many of the coaches will coach both at the larger hockey rink at the mall so that the skaters are exposed to a larger surface.

They also do a lot of exhibitions so the skaters get used to having people watch them and perform for an audience, so that is good. Even the little girls like to get dressed up in their skating outfits!

The ice-dancers have their social sessions at the mall rink in my area, also. The mall likes it because they like having "the pretty ice-dancing" and although the ice surface is small, the dancers have learned to fit most of the patterns in and your edges have to be really good in order to do that! Some of the patterns get a little wonky and sometimes you run into the wall, but it is pretty good over all (once I got used to it - at first I was runnign into the walls all of the time!).

The thing I don't like about the mall rink is that you get really hot skating there (think: tank tops and skirts with lightweight tights) and there is usually someone watching or yelling something like, "Do a triple axel" (yeah, right) and oh, did I mention the things that fall on us from the food court? French fries, ketchup, coins - you always have to watch out for that!

IIRC, Tonya Harding got her start at a mall rink (there used to be two in Portland, now there is only one...)

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". One friday a month they do an exhibition- which gives you a chance to do your routine full out, on your own ice, to music, with an audience."


That is awesome that you can do that!!

I skate in a mall rink occasionally if I get a day off because they have adult daytime sessions. It's public ice but they let you do freeskate. It's NHL size, the only drawback is that the ice can get too soft. There's a food court next to it and regulating the temperature is difficult.

They play a pre-recorded tape of skating music, and there is also the mall music that can be heard. If you go with a coach they let you use a tape player on the side, and it's the only rink around that lets you use earphones. With all that noise, I sometimes put my earphones and not turn them on just to have some quiet.

Skating in front of the food court audience is great preparation for competition. And, because no one in the food court skates, they all think that you're awesome no matter what you're doing!

Well I do skate at a mall rink once in a blue moon b/c it's the closest and easiest to park at most times. However, there are MANY reasons I've stopped going to that particular rink. The main one is that there aren't enough working lockers available to store my stuff. (Yes, most of them are BROKEN!!!) Also there are no ice monitors there and no cones are set up. The ice is really crap there very quickly on weekends! It's really "skate at your own risk" there!!! The last reason is mainly that they is usually a HUGE crowd of unruly kids who are dropped off by their parents while they go shopping in the surrounding areas.

Another thing that was also interesting -- it's adjacent to a sport pub bar, so all the guys get to walk lengthwise down the rink to get to the pub!!! I do get the occasional watcher... and yes, they're usually OLDER men!!! (Well, older meaning USFSA Adult Track Class IV and V age.) Knowing my luck and the quality of the beer at that particular pub, I doubt I'll ever find a nice handsome admirer going into a pub like that one.

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Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

Jazzpants' mall rink is in the same mall where Kristi Yamaguchi started skating. The mall has changed and when they redid it from a completely enclosed mall to the current configuration, they tore down the old rink, then built the new one within 300 yards of the old location. It's really hard to tell where the old one was, because some of the old buildings are now part of the parking lot and some of the new stores are where the old parking lot was.

Steven Cousins used to train there too (with Alex McGowan, Debi Thomas's former coach). And Peggy Fleming uses a different mall rink when she's preparing for a show. A friend said she was surprised when she went to that rink once and sat down to put on her skates and right next to her was "a woman who looked just like Peggy Fleming", then realized it WAS Peggy Fleming.

Skittle's actually skating on my rink

I like it because it's not nearly as cold as other rinks, though that means the ice is slower than other rinks, too.

When my DH and DS come down, they aren't in a cold rink so there is plently of other stuff for them to do, too.

I can put up with a little taunting and a lot of airborne French fries for that kind of ice time. I have never skated in a mall before, think I might have to plan a trip around that. There are no mall rinks anywhere around here.

I don't know if this counts, but I skate 4 days a week at a mall rink - a dead mall that is soon to be replaced with a Walmart. Right now it's a 3/4 size rink, and there is no air-conditioning (currently 85-95 degrees outside) because part of the mall is demolished. The ice is usually terrible, and it's way too hot even in shorts and a tank top. Supposedly the rink will be moved, and it will be full-size. There are a few freestyles, but most of the time is public skate or hockey. The other rink in town is full-size and has a lot more freestyles. Unfortunately, that means skating at 6 am, which I'll probably start doing more often because the ice is so much better.

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Not to hyjack this thread, but does anyone know of a Mall rink somewhere on the East Coast where the shoppers are right there and can watch?

lovepairs - Charlotte, NC:
http://www.icehouserinks.com/charlotte/index.html

Haven't been there and rats! I see from their website that they're currently closed.
(Maybe it's maintenance - cross your fingers.)


ETA:
How about the Eastdale Mall Ice Palace in Montgomery, Alabama?
http://www.shopmalls.com/store.cfm?mall=1&store=103

The Westfield Countryside Mall in Clearwater, Florida (Tampa Bay Skating Academy) - the pictures show the mall on the main level.
http://www.westfield.com/countryside...RinkHours.html

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Thanks...I was hoping for something a little closer to Baltimore/Philly area. I'll check the NC one out! Thanks very much!

I've never been there, so I don't know if it's actually in the Mall or connected to the Mall. Pictures were useless - it's a rink! LOL

Anybody from Charlotte know for sure if the Charlotte Ice House is inside the Mall?

I believe my BFF told me that the Ballston IcePlex in Arlington, VA is on top of the garage, not on the main level, of that Mall.


Slightly OT: There apparently USED TO BE a rink in the Greensboro, NC Carolina Circle Mall. This LINK is to a blog about the town, but I realllllly liked her one post about the Walmart that's being built in the Mall's place:

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Well, I skate at a mall rink. Not like i've got any choice. Here in the Philippines, the only rinks are mall rinks.

It's fine by me actually, as long as i get to skate. but i hate going on saturdays when everyone is there, trying to learn, and i cant get my arabesque anywhere near up, because everytime i attempt to do so, I'd probably end up hitting someone in the face. So i train during weekdays.

hehehe.

LOL! Walmart is taking over everything. At least where I am we're getting a new rink along with the Walmart!

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The skating may not sparkle, but my dress sure does!

Just passed: Pre-Bronze MIF & Freeskate. Next goal: Bronze tests in July.

Ain't it the truth? It was a very funny blog entry, I thought.

You're from Texas - I remember skating in the ISI Nationals in Dallas many years ago. I think 3 of the 5 rinks used for the competition were in the malls. One was kidney-shaped and had a little Palm Tree Island in the middle - the Galleria Mall, maybe? I did Interp on that rink and was terrified that I was going to get disoriented and beach myself on the island! LOL (I'm still afraid of that when I skate near the wall at any rink.)

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And they could make money on it - sell gloves, clothes, bandaids.........

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Gosh- growing up in Texas i didn't know there were stand alone rinks.
I skated in Austin at Northcross Mall (and the mall was pretty much nothing but the rink, a food court and movie theatre). We went to the Galleria's in Dallas and Houston to skate.

What a treat it was to find an ice rink at the city recreational center when we moved to Ohio. The other rink I skated at in Ohio was in an arena- so if a concert was in town, there would be no ice.

Alas, I'm back in the mall...

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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)

The Ice Palace Skating Club skates out of West Edmonton Mall. They also have ice at another rink a couple miles away, but most of their time is at the mall. They have lockers, a dance room, offices -- all that a club would need. My daughter skated there for a year, and it was a little unnerving at first, but she adapted and quite enjoyed it. Yes, there were usually many spectators when the seniors were out there....