So here is what the rink looks like when it's a public session:
My coach and I are moving around in the Killian hold or reverse Killian hold, side by side like a wall moving through the skaters.
One thing I've learned is that little kids have no sense of how fast we're moving; they don't look before they move away from the boards; and they only are able to focus on what they want to do.
Shockingly the adults are exactly like them. So it's up to Dance Coach to give me cues on 'break', 'skate here', and 'stop'. He has the lead, and he has the years of experience.
Still once a little girl turned unexpectedly into our path and stabbed me in the leg with a toe pick.
As another example, Coach and I will be in the center doing crossovers in hold around the circle. To me it seems scary fast, but to Coach I'm sure it's just a breeze. Anyway, adults will skate right at us. We're a big black clad train who will crush anyone in our path if they skate in our way and we can't stop. We're careful but I'm shocked at the number of people who blunder into the center as if we're not there. How did these people get driver's licenses? How can they not see us?
So here's what I want to wear the next time I take a lesson on public ice.
The only thing that's missing are the laser eyes
We're not allowed to figure skate on public ice here. No coaches, no spins/jumps in the middle, nothing. Practice ice needs to be purchased by the session and there is only one set aside for adults.
ReplyDeleteNot so bad in the summer. There were frequently less than ten of us on the public skate times all summer and the monitor let us do whatever we wanted. Now, you can't even skate backwards. Public ice means everyone forward, same direction, counter clockwise. No jumps, spins, etc.
Anonymous 2:41, I've heard of rinks like that. Here I think the rinks look at coaches with students on public ice as a kind of ad for Learn To Skate. I make sure I know all the rink guards names and they are helpful keeping random skaters out of the center.
ReplyDeleteMy public ice (practice) is a lunchtime session, typically with only 2-3 other adults and me. Sometimes there is a preschooler working on a program. Sometimes there is a coach with a lesson. But, really, it's blissfully empty most of the time. However, I am so used to being able to go/move wherever I want that I find it extremely difficult to skate on weekend or afternoon public ice and actually do anything. The careening hockey kids are simply dangerous and have cut me off more than once in ways that make for spectacular crashes. Anyway, the point is, maybe you should look for a rink that has noon-time public ice (around here, lots do). The sessions tend to be all adults and all people who actually know how to skate because they are the only ones who are addicted enough to dash over on their lunch breaks for an hour or so. (Or they're retired, reasonably slow, and extremely courteous.)
ReplyDeleteMommytime, I look forward to noon publics when I retire in a couple of years. Unfortunately, I live in a town that's an hour from any rink in any direction--and there is a rink (sometimes 2) in any direction. Massively popular sport here, and I'm in the only town without a rink. sigh.
ReplyDeleteIt's an ice superhero. I call them You Can Skate Right Through Me Girl.
ReplyDeleteThe more I look at that dress, the more I wish there was some ice dance I could wear it for (minus the Bracelets of Doom).
ReplyDeleteThe Palmer Cox illustration is freaking hilarious...and soooo true!
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