Portland Ice Rink report #1

I wanted to start a blog to report the conditions of the skating rinks in the Portland, OR area. It has gotten to the point that I'm not sure where I'm going to skate on any given day due to the conditions of the ice at some of the arenas. Also the level of customer service at times leaves something to be desired. So I thought I'd start a conversation in this vein and see where it leads me.

My main rink is the Valley Ice arena (http://www.valleyicearena.com/ in Beaverton. I go there because it is like "home" to me - I have been skating there for about 14 years and although it is old and cold, I have usually enjoyed skating there. Lately the ice has been a bone of contention for me. It is hard and lumpy and full of little bumps and scratches everywhere. It also has had a very uneven surface - you can feel yourself going uphill and then down and sometimes it is very very freaky to skate on it.

So I have been skating elsewhere of late. I like to do figures (school figures), Moves and dance so my ice needs are varied.

Yesterday I went to the Sherwood Ice arena in Sherwood (http://www.sherwoodicearena.com/) - the ice was so beautiful and the staff made extra special care that the ice was clean and even for doing figures. I was astonished by their level of courtesy - they insisted on making the ice although it was hardly used at all - for the coffee club (a group of adult skaters that are pretty picky about their ice). It was great and I enjoyed doing figures on it. Clean and smooth.

So today I went back to the Valley Ice arena. They have been working on the ice and when I came in the manager assured me that the ice was really good because they've been working on it and they ran the zamboni 3 times to make sure that the ice was good for the public session in the morning. At first I was not so sure that the ice was good - you could see the flow of water (now ice) made by the zamboni, but there seemed to be a lot less ridges and bumps in it than usual. You could see that they had been scraping down the edges. After a while I realized that the ice in between the little ridges was really very smooth and kind of felt like butter under my blades. I liked it!

The lighting there still leaves a bit to be desired - it seems like the lights in the middle of the arena are burned out and the ones on the ends are very bright so that can be disconcerting and makes it hard to really see your figures (the lighting was much better at Sherwood but of course it is a much newer facility).

Overall a good skate and I plan to go back there tomorrow. If the ice stays this good I may be coming back for good. But who knows? Time will tell I guess.



That's all for now.