What a difference at the arena today! I thought my skates were mis-sharpened at first, but it turns out the arena manager "shocked" the ice (his words).

Last Friday the ice had a soft feel to it, but over the weekend he brought the temperature up to "almost slush", then dropped it to 13 deg F. The reason he pointed to was that high school hockey was starting and he needed the harder surface to take the wear.

It made spinning and sliding edges much easier, but it doesn't feel as secure.

At top level events do arenas regulate the coldness of the ice to a temperature deemed "best for competition"? I would think there'd be a specified acceptable temperature range. Just curious.

THey try to, but when they start letting the second group on the ice without a cut sometimes makes one side very wet. Like the one at 2003 Worlds in DC - Ladies LP

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Tim David's Website

Glad I'm not the only one who is sensitive to ice temperature. Ages ago I remember skating at a rink in Atlanta that was having some cooling problems and had two melting spots and the rest of the ice rock hard. Fall City.

I find hard ice to be better for hard deep edges and faster spins but totally unforgiving on underrotated jumps. If the ice gets too cold it can shatter into HUGE chunks - once we had a skater doing triple loops hit the same spot 3 time when there was a loud "crack" and a hunk of ice 2 feet around and an inch thick popped about 6 inches straight up as she hit the entrance edge. Took them a month to fix that spot Hard ice also cracks more - my most famous move at our rink was I came out of a scratch spin right over an old crack without much oomph and shifted onto my R exit foot when "pop" the crack opened up and clamped my blade in place. I had to get one of the coaches to help me pull out. Ever since then I tell the kids scarey stories obut the ice monsters. LOL
Lyle

Nope, you are not the only one!

Really? I found the warmer ice at summer school much more secure on the edges. With all the rinks opening up for hockey now, everybody has their ice super cold and I have to back off on the cross-overs or I start skidding - I do NOT want to go down when I am going that fast close to the boards! I even had my skates sharpened today just because of the hard ice.

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Dianne
(A.O.S.S.? Got it BAD! )

Maybe we all have different definitions of "Hard ice" -- I, too, find it more difficult to get on an edge on that hard ice -- which now that hockey season has begun (and the outside temperature has dropped) is what we have at our rink.

I got my skates sharpened, too, and it ain't much help!

At my rink, the best time for me is when the temp is in the mid-70s outside -- then the ice is PERFECT (pre- and post- hockey season, that is!). If it's too hot out, the ice gets mushy...

And yes, very sensitive...

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

Actually, I can relate to this. Over the summer, my rink had perfect figure skating ice with it being just the right crispness and softness. It was so great. Then near the end of September they dropped the temperature of the ice to make it harder because hockey was starting up. Since then, all of the skaters have struggled with adjusting to the new hardness on their edge jumps. You really have to push down hard to get off the ice on the edge jumps. In addition, it is much colder in the rink now too, which makes it harder to train. The temperature outside has not changed much because it is still relatively hot down here. But the extra coldness in the rink makes it harder to get the body working together on the elements.

Sigh........I miss the "summer" ice.....

"Standards" for hockey ice and figure ice aro something like 19 and 20-something degrees respectively.

I don't know how standard it really is, or if it's changed over time.

I hate hard ice. Deeper ROH sharpenings will compensate somewhat if you're stuck with it for a while...

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Casey Allen Shobe | http://casey.shobe.info
"What matters is not experience per se but 'effortful study'."
"At first, dreams seem impossible, then improbable, and eventually inevitable" ~ Christopher Reeve

At the beginning of hockey season, they will crank up the compressors to harden the ice...makes it really, really cold! They want a very hard base. They might also flood it with another layer or two and wait a week or two before they start bringing the temperature up. That's what they do at our rink. We have a cement base. I don't know if it makes much difference.

At first, we were skidding all over the place. Now that the temperature has been adjusted up a bit, it's much better (or they never adjusted it and it was us doing the adjusting ).

But, you can have ice that is too soft. There is a rink in my area that has very soft ice. Makes spinning hard but you can land all of your jumps!!! One of our girls skates there and has a triple something, but when she skates at my rink she can only do doubles because she keeps skidding and falling out of the landing...so she sticks to doubles.

I just hate going in early on Sunday's for rehearsal after a game...because the temperature in the rink is about 5-15 degrees colder than normal. Sometimes cold enough to see your breath! Then we are on the ice for rehearsal then club time and I have dance after that so it's 4 hours on the ice freezing!!!

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

Newer arenas have computerized systems to control the ice temp. The systems take into account how long it takes to get from one temp to a higher or lower one, and can be programmed according to the arena's own program for hockey and figure skating.

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Girlfriend, where you skate how on earth could it ever be "perfect"?

IMHO hard ice holds a really deep full force edge much better than soft ice. Now I'm pretty hefty and soft ice will actually mush or squash and make a ripple if you go into it fast and hard enough. Hard ice will hold (if your edges are sharp and you lean enough) right up until it shatters.
Lyle

I have--unfortunately--never had the experience of hard ice holding a deep edge better than soft ice! I kind of like the ice at Jazzpants' rink (Yerba Buena in S.F.) because it's so soft that I can always hold my camel spin entrance edge there, as well as my other spin entrances! Hard ice--like the early morning ice at my rink--can make me slip off my edges if they're too deep or if my foot isn't right under my hips.
My favorite ice is what I like to call "brand new bar of soap" ice. It's hard enough to be fast, but it still holds your edges. Artesia East-west Ice Palace (Michelle Kwan's new rink in the L.A. area) has ice like that. They must have one of those new temperature control systems.

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"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." - Dara Torres, 41, after her 2nd medal at the 2008 Olympics

Nowadays it depends on my mood on how the ice is. Before I loved hard/unmade ice bc I get warmed up quickly, it fools my body. And when I stepped onto clean ice, it takes me a while to get fully warmed up.

But these days when I skate on unmade ice I feel like I have to push twice as hard, and almost prefer clean ice.

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Tim David's Website

I love freshly zammed ice! The only thing I hate about it--other than the puddles we at the ends of my Sunday practice rink--is that no matter what I'm *supposed* to be practicing, I hear this siren call to do my spiral sequence on that nice smooth ice, LOL!

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"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." - Dara Torres, 41, after her 2nd medal at the 2008 Olympics

Freshly zammed ice is wonderful for that darn pre-bronze 3-turn pattern! And for regular 3-turns and mohawks. And for checking spin tracings, and jump tracings, and yes, the spiral sequence!!!

Aw, the heck with it...it's great for everything!

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

Yeah, I *AM* SPOILED ROTTEN when it comes to ice quality! LOL!!!

Probably true, judging from the facility tour pictures....(see Slide 15-17...)

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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!!!

Heh-heh - well, when it IS perfect, I certainly know it!!

Not that same old boring, always the same good ice you guys have out there -- you know it's really cold there?

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

There used to be a thermometer at our rink. When I was reading this thread, I was trying to remember the last temp I saw. I think it was at least two years ago. I remember thinking "this is cold". I can't remember when they took it down. But I understand it is a "hockey rink" and the ice is usually hard, though summer is a bit better, if only because the outside temp affects things, no matter how they try to keep it hockey hard.

I'd probably stick if I skated on a surface that was softer! LOL! But it is hard to get a deeper edge on that polished granite! I have always assumed it was mostly just me, and that better skaters don't have a problem with this! Also, I find the ruts become magnets for getting stuck on, say, maybe a swingroll or dance pattern...just here and there.

and now for the other extreme....

Last evening I went for my first skate at my home town arena. They have a sand floor, an old refrigerating system and no insulation on the walls.

Outside it was 55 degrees (F) and raining. Inside condensation was dripping off of the iron roof rafters and the ice was sooooo soft it felt like spring skiing.

Geeze, from one extreme to another in the same week!

Once it gets seasonably cold outside, this arena is great. The ice is not too hard, not too soft, but not until the outdoor temperature stays below 40 deg F.

Meanwhile during the work week the arena I skate at at lunch time stays rock hard.

It makes for interesting transitions.

One thing encouraging to me was that I was able to spin better this week. At first I thought it was the hard ice, but even last night on the soft ice it was going better. Maybe the new blades are helping, or maybe I'm finally starting to improve my spin technique.

Or possibly next week my spins will be just as bad as they ever were.