Last Day to Vote!!

It look like there is one more day to vote on your favorite rink in the Portland area!!

It also looks like only a very few of my voluminous readership has voted! What is with the apathy folks?

So far it looks like Lloyd Center is winning hands down, with Mt. View trailing. A few swing voters have gone for Sherwood and Valley - so what is YOUR choice?

Vote today. Vote often. Actually in this poll you can have multiple votes and you can change your vote.

Interesting system...

For Ice Dance - Lloyd Center!!

Ice dancing is really my favorite discipline in skating and I'm so happy that we have really good social ice-dance sessions in Portland at the rink at the Lloyd Center. When I moved to Portland from Boston in 1993 I wasn't sure if there was any dance here and was thrilled to find out that dance was alive and well in Portland!

The dance sessions are Saturday evenings from 5:15-6:15 and Sunday morning from 10am -12 noon. Sunday mornings are generally better attended than Saturday evenings, but this morning's sessions were pretty sparse. Usually we have quite a few young people, mostly teenagers taking lessons and learning dance from the more experienced adult skaters, but there were just a few of them on the ice today. I wonder if that has something to do with spring break?

Anyway, it's a nice session and today was no exception - there were enough social ice-dancers to have people (well, men, in my case) to skate with and enough room for one of our adult teams to work on their compulsory dances and original dance for Adult Nationals (coming up very soon!) and another adult to work on an International Dance with not one, but TWO coaches!!

The ice was good despite some talk about there being something wrong with the zamboni (?).

Overall, no complaints - Ice Dance is alive and well in Portland, OR!!

Who'd a-thunk it 15 years ago when I moved here from Boston that there would be ice-dance out here in the great, wild northwest?

Pleasant Spring Break Surprise at Lloyd Center!

So I decided to brave the Spring Break crowds for the public session at Lloyd Center this morning. And it was okay!! I had thought that being Spring Break and being such a popular (and visible) rink it would be super-crowded at 10 am. I had pretty much decided that if it were to be a mob scene, I would just go upstairs to the very nice Barnes and Noble, get a cup of tea and enjoy a book or magazine instead. But I was happy to be proven wrong.

I got there just as the earlier freestyle session was ending and it looked to me like most of the skaters were taking off their skates and getting ready to greet the rest of their day. Was it possible? Would I be the only one on the ice for a while?

As it turned out there were a few freestylers and lessons at the beginning of the session. But I was still able to do a little bit of figures for a warm-up down at one end and everyone left me alone for the most part. After some time more and more recreational "Spring Break" skaters started to come, but at that point I felt already established on the session and stayed for at least another hour and got some good work done.

I didn't expect the ice would be that great, what with the extra-heavy skating traffic of Spring Break skaters, but the ice was fine and I totally enjoyed it's flat smoothness (emphasis on the word "Flat").

I wish I could have talked my friend "skatecam" into coming with me - maybe the allure of taking pictures of good, flat ice, pleasant, clean changing areas and pretty-nice bathrooms wasn't enough for skatecam -- I mean, what would be the fun in that??

And of course I had no way of knowing how nice the session might be.

Maybe some other time...

Well, It's No Rockerfeller Center... But It's Close

A friend was talking about how nice it was at the Lloyd Center Rink - her daughter has started classes there this winter and is totally enjoying it! she said she had never really thought of the mall as anything but "The Mall" before but now she is seeing it much like cities she lived in in Greece, where every little city and burg had a "town center" where all of the action took place - the people would meet and go to the market and the young people would hang out and play games... just like at the Lloyd Center.

I have thought about this "mall as community center" since I've lived in Portland and spent a lot of time skating there. I have learned that there is a good tailor and someone to fix your shoes, a post-office and various stores and coffee shops and restaurants - and of course the rink, centrally located.

Had my class there tonight. The ice was really hard and pretty chewed up - but of course it IS Spring Break and I am betting the public sessions were crowded with happy kids and dazed parents -- getting some exercise and spending a lot of energy and having fun skating.

Not a bad thing, really.

Can't wait until spring break is over and we have our empty daytime ice again.

I know the early mornings are probably not so busy this week - I hope the figure skaters are sleeping in - their regular schedule of early-morning ice is so grueling - at least it would be for me!!

Valley: Good for Balance? Bad for Balance?

So - look at these pictures side-by-side. Supposedly these yellow boards are the same height.

They don't look at all even, do they?

One might argue that the photo on the right is closer than the one on the left and therefore the board may look higher.

In reality, the reason that the boards look like they are of different heights is that the ice is built up more in some places along the boards than at others. Now in itself, this is not a big deal because you never really skate that close to the boards - this has been the situation there for quite a long time, actually. But after some time the height difference makes it's way across the whole ice, dipping up and down, center and ends, all over the place. You can see it when you look at the rink from the sides.

And I can really feel it as I'm skating.

I've decided that uphill is okay and is probably good aerobic exercise. I can certainly feel it in my legs when I'm going up.

Going down is another matter and can get a little scarey especially when you are doing a turn, at speed and then start to go downhill. You don't have very much control over your speed and well, I get scared of the whole thing and feel like I can't skate anymore.

On the other hand, maybe this is good for proprioception (balance) to skate on such a surface. Eventually you have to compensate for the hills. When you get to skate on a flat surface, it all seems so easy... "I can skate again".

So another day at Valley (why didn't I go to Mt. View as Anonymous suggested in the comments section of my last post?). too early? too flat?

Of course at Valley I saw an a couple of friends and some of the kids that I've been watching for the past few years were there to take their freeskate lessons. It's great to see how they have grown!

What can they do about the ice? Maybe if they cut it with the zamboni sideways it would cut off part of the hills/valleys so that it would be flatter overall instead of just compounding the problem by cutting it over and over again in the hill-fashion. Of course then there is the problem(?) of creating too much snow. How will they get rid of it? (hot water, anyone?) Will the zamboni eventually just go crazy and not want to try to cut it anymore? Can zambonis go up and down steeper and steeper hills? Are they built for that?

Many questions to be answered... maybe...

Your redundant reporter.

When the Easter Bunny Comes - Go Ice Skating!!

I think the only rink in town that is open 364 days a week is Valley (the only day they close is Christmas - I don't know why... but anyway) and so there I headed Sunday morning knowing:

1. No one would be there because it is Easter and people probably assume they are closed.

2. That no one would be there because they never advertise their schedule in any way, shape or form and

3. That the weekend zamboni-guy would be making the best ice that he could given the general circumstances of the rolling ice at the rink that is Valley.

And so I was right - although a few more people showed up than I would have expected including my coach and one of her younger students! So there was me, another adult who is testing soon (gotta get that extra practice in you know!), a dance team and then maybe one or two families coming to skate on Easter Morning.

And so it was a happy time generally and the ice was decent, although still very very hilly - everywhere!! The ice in-between the hills was good and I even could do some figures, which was nice.

Not sure about the rest of the week, though - I heard a rumor that there would be a group coming in for the morning public and so I called this evening to make sure. The guy on the phone didn't know what was happening since he doesn't work in the morning. I asked him to if he could possibly look at the schedule... - and so he did and then said that there would be 250 coming in for Wednesday morning!! That is a lot of skaters!!

I think I will call tomorrow just to make sure - and then... go to Lloyd Cente? Mt. View? Take some time off?

I don't know... we shall see... but sometimes you just have to wait and see I guess.

Spring Break Comes Early to the Lloyd Center Ice Rink!!!

So what if Spring Break doesn't really happen until next week? At the Lloyd Center ice-rink spring break pretty much started this week because of people coming from other parts of the country where they were having their spring break.

Oh well, the ice was still good and as long as I wasn't looking for figure-ice (ice for doing figures) it was fine - mostly just coming in for a short period of time practicing a little and getting a little exercise. Having the "free" publics (because I'm taking a class) is a great opportunity to just try skating a little during the day instead of feeling like I have to "get my money's worth" by spending as much time as physically possible on the ice (usually in my case, about 90 minutes, give or take).

I should have called first this afternooon because they were having a "broomball" session which kind of interrupted the regular public session. I really don't get how those broomball people don't fall - I certainly would!!!

And yes, I still miss my friends at Valley. And the ability to control the music. That is nice over there.

Another redundant post from your redundant reporter.

Next week: looking for ice - spring break will make things more difficult, that's for sure. Can I give up this addiction? Hmm, probably not but may go trolling over to the Adult sessions over at Mt. View (unless of course I have to work... bummer!).

Flat. A New Concept in Skating Rink Technology

Lloyd Center rink is pretty flat.

It's pretty easy to skate on.

It's a good thing, too, because there are a LOT of people that get their start skating there and not having to deal with hills probably means a lot more happy skaters.

This certainly made me a happy skater today.

A free public session (because I'm taking a class) in the morning. One other figure skater on the ice. No one in the mall.

This is my idea of skating-heaven.

So the ice was a little crunchy. So what? The ice was smooth and unencumbered by bad lighting, lumps, bumps or hills. Just nice, flat, pristine ice. A good practice. I can skate again. Sigh.

Hot flashes are a bit of a problem at this rink. In the cold rinks they just feel nice and I feel toasty. At Lloyd I have to get off for a minute until it dissipates. This is not a complaint. Just an observation.

Back this evening for my class. The ice is used because there has been an hour freestyle session just before the class. But it is no big deal. The class is good and I am happy.

So many happy smiling faces - small children, parents and various other rink denizens. All having fun in our skating community.

Valley - Hard to Skate On, That's for Sure

And all of these bumps aren't even the bad part!!! It's the HILLS!! And the VALLEYS!!

It's never knowing where your blade and your body is going to go - even when you think you know what you are doing!!!!!!

Can we say - FRUSTRATED????????????????

Another redundant post from your frustrated reporter.

When Oil Meets Ice: Lloyd Center Madness!!

Well, this would have been a great day to have "skatecam" with me because I would really like to have gotten a photo of the ice today. I asked around but no one had a camera phone that I could use - (maybe I didn't try hard enough...). this photograph is of an oil spill over a melting ice-flow, but it gives you an idea of what the ice was like today.

On the 1st dance session the ice was really hard to skate on - it was as though there was oil mixed with the water coming from the zamboni and it froze into annoying little dribulets (I know, this is not a word, but it is perfectly descrptive of what it was!) of frozen water on the surface of the ice. It was the kind of ice that makes your teeth hit together as you skate. It was the kind of ice that I have trouble skating on... fear of falling kept me from doing much on this session. It would have been nice to take a lesson, but I was too scared.

Luckily there were LOTS of complaints and the second session was much better and much less attended, actually, so I think I got some good skating accomplished. There were a few areas that seemed to be affected by the dribulet-situation but all in all there was enough "good ice" in between those spots to make the session skatable, so that was good. At least the situation seemed to be easily rectified (something that seems to be lacking at The Valley for instance).

I took advantage of my free public session and skated on the session that starts at noon for about 1/2 hour before the crowds came. It was good and gave me a chance to just do some turns and stroking. Sometimes the social ice-dance session is so social I don't get much skating done, and these public sessions are better for just skating since I rarely know anyone... of course that on some level is less fun, but oh, well.

Meanwhile I may just have to get my own "skatecam" for emergency situations like this one - you never know where you may unexpectedly hit some crappy ice!!!

So What is it About Valley??

It's certainly not the ice. I could feel every lump and bump and hill and valley under my blade today and although the ice was less rutted than in was on Tuesday (they apparently did both a wet and a dry cut and caused some skaters to have a very short session...), it was still disconcerting in it's hilliness. Wondering if it is that I am still tired from last weekend and still kind of scattered as to where I am going with my skating these days?

But there was something about the session today that felt oh, so good - it had that "used to be this way" feeling about it. It was a day off for some Beaverton school-district students so we had some good figures skaters (yea!), an ice-dance team (yea!), a couple of the adult regulars (yea!), three coaches with lessons (yea!), some hockey guys (yea!) and a handful of regular recreational skaters of all ages (yea!). And there was something oh so very nice about that. It was cozy, it was comfortable and it was familiar.

Valley. My comfort rink.

Except for the ice.

My other dilemma is now that I am taking a class at Lloyd Center (it was fun but short, by the way) - all of my public sessions there are free and I live about 5 minutes from that rink. So why didn't I go there today? I guess I still wanted some of that old comfort at the Valley.

Despite the ice. Which is scary.

So of course I will give it another chance and another chance and another chance until I finally just give up there altogether.

Or not.

The weekend will bring me back to Lloyd Center for a dance session this weekend. I hope.

A "Foggy" Day at Valley

No, it wasn't foggy in the rink, it was foggy in my head this first day of skating after the big competition last weekend. I know from experience with other skating things that the first day back is kind of a waste - your body is so used to practicing whatever you were working on (and no longer HAVE to work on) that you kind of do it over and over again in circles, knowing you don't have to do it, reliving how it was and how it could have been...

It was one of those kinds of days at Valley.

The ice wasn't much better. The photo here (thank you, Spycam) shows a typical rut most likely made by a hockey blade and a not so great zamboni job (can we say "ice-cut?"). Since I wasn't really doing anything it didn't matter but it sure was different from the ice I experienced last week at both Lloyd Center and Sherwood. Makes you wonder why I spend my hard-earned $8 there (yup, their public session costs more than anyone else's - the public session is the same price as the freestyle and is the same price whether you rent skates or not [to which I think - "I'm not getting full value for my $8"] - they don't care, it just makes it easier for them to just charge everyone the same and then they don't have to monitor anyone or anything.

Or the bathrooms for that matter. Besides being kind of gross (kind of? - well, they are old and you can't really do anything about the rust on the sinks, but still...) - there was no toilet paper today in any of the stalls and there was only one roll in the closet where they keep it. I pity the person who goes in there this evening and finds... NOTHING!

So why do I go there? Well, you never know who's going to show up and sometimes you meet an unexpected friend as well as those regulars who are your friends and that makes it all worth it. We had a good time talking about the competition and all of that, so yes, it was worth it.

Next skate? Don't know yet... thinking about taking a class at LC just for a change of pace. We shall see... Stay tuned blog-readers!

A little Shameless Gloating - Me - Competitor!!!

Whew - I am exhausted from the weekend of skating and judging at the competition at Sherwood this weekend!!!

The figure event went okay - a little bit of a meltdown on the serpentines (of all things) when I almost fell and then kind of scuttled across the change of edge sideways - of course that never happened during practice - I wonder if it was something on the ice (actually that's kind of what it felt like...).

The ice was okay for figures - maybe a little "crunchy" but I didn't notice it while I was skating the figures for the judges - I noticed it more on the warm-up where my senses were a little more heightened than usual (endorphins? nerves?). I don't think my blade fell into my tracings because frankly, I don't think they were that close... hmm, maybe that's why I almost fell.

The 3s - I know I haven't talked about my skating much specifically in this blog, but I have to say that I outdid myself in the 3s - I was somehow able to do the BI3 with as much flow as I ever did in practice - maybe more - it was an exhilarating feeling, that is for sure - yea me!!

The events went very well, everyone worked hard and the out-of-towners seemed happy for the most part I think. The locker rooms were quite clean, also I noticed, which is nice.

My husband had one small observation about the people working the snack bar on Friday night during practice. He ordered a cup of tea and it was pretty obvious that the person who waited on him had no idea how to make it. Seems simple enough to me - pour boiling water over tea, but apparently this task left this person quite perplexed. Not a complaint, just an observation.

I wanted to include this little video that the "skatecam" ("spycam") made of my FO-BI3. Sorry it's so small. She wanted to come out on the ice to do the video but felt that the judges and the referee would not appreciate that.

Rinkside (and on-ice) at Adult Sectionals

Had figures practice ice last night at Sherwood. The ice was not so good. Ridges from the zamboni were everywhere and my warm up patch in the near-corner was somewhat hilly and not in a way you might expect - uphill into a corner? Oh well... it was only warmup ice.

I tried doing a serpentine in the layout area but missed my centers completely. I will make a point not to use that area on Sunday morning as I must, must, MUST be able to see the centers. Absolutely.

Maybe there are some sort of special glasses with a filter that will filter out all glare from the lights on the figure ice... I wonder if there would be much of a market for that?

I was at the rink today to judge several events. I sure hope they have better ice for the figure ice tomorrow morning because I sure saw a lot of ruts in the ice today and would NOT want to try to put my figures on that ice... of course it could be an excuse ("oh, sorry - I never mess up like that - it must be the ice!!").

Otherwise everyone seemed happy. It's great to see so many adults competing with nary a child in sight, except those there to cheer on mom or grandma!

One more day.

Praying for good ice.

LC: Mad Public Session!!!!!!!!!!

So I went to the Lloyd Center today presumably for a quiet practice session. I brought my scribe so that I could make sure that my circles were the right size and everything. Some of the coaches were thrilled to see a scribe... Anyway, it looked like there were going to be just the few usual skaters and they were making new ice when I got there.

As I was stepping onto the ice, I was told that there was going to be a group of 65 kids coming in - I could see them at the cashier - oh no!! My perfect session spoiled! One of the coaches was expecting a class and so she put cones up at one end to reserve a section for herself. I figured I'd have 10 minutes of practice and then would have to leave. I thought maybe I would come back this afternoon... but I didn't want to push it.

I got on the ice and scribed out a set of circles. The kids are very quickly getting their skates - obviously they have been here before... I did one outside 8 and determined my circle size was fine for the competition (phew!). Did a serpentine. It was fine.

Then they all rushed onto the ice and at once heading right towards me!!

I noticed that there was nobody on the coned-off area and asked the coach about it. She said that nobody had signed up for her class and so I was welcome to use it for figures. Eureka!!! The practice was saved!!

There were a few strays into the coned area but I got some good work done. Then they took away the cones and I stayed another half-hour and diligently worked on my figures in the center, whereever I could. I figured - "Oh, why not" and got more good work done. "The figures" probably didn't look much like figures per se because they were just parts of figures but oh well, I accomplished my goal for the morning and practiced figures.

I think if I'd have come in late I would have taken one look at the crowd and said, "Oh no!!" and turned around and gone somewhere else... but once I was out there I felt more ownership of the ice and was able to get some work done.
I guess it all depends on your attitude (and your expectations of course!).

Lisa. Sage competitor.

Sherwood - Gearing up for Sectionals!

Well, my videographer, "Skatecam" didn't show up today so I don't have a video of my 3s to show you all. I wanted to see them, too before the big competition this weekend! Oh well, I have to rely on how they feel and the feedback I've gotten from my coach and her compatriot.

The place is really gearing up for the competition this weekend. Some people have already come in from out of town and skaters from the northern region (Vancouver, WA) came to test-drive the rink before the hoards come in for official practice ice starting late tomorrow afternoon. It was great to see two ice-dance teams, a couple of adult free-stylers and another "figures" skater, plus some regular recreational skaters all share the ice.

A member of one of the dance teams asked if it was always this cold at the rink and wondered whether they would turn up the heat for the competition. I have always experienced this rink as very cold and when we judge here they always give us blankets and yet we freeze. So no, I don't think they will turn up the heat, although with a LOT of people in the arena maybe there will be some body-heat generated. Also later in the day it may get warmer... I don't know.

So a good practice, nice people. It's going to be a fun weekend (I think, I hope...).

Tomorrow back to Lloyd Center for (hopefully) a short, quiet morning practice and then back to Sherwood in the evening for the "official practice".

Lisa. Competitor.

Another Sweet Practice at Lloyd Center

Well, this blog is starting to get redundant: another day of nice ice and stellar customer service at the Lloyd Center rink. Sweet, smooth, perfect ice...

I went for the 10 am public session. The freestyle had just ended and the ice looked pretty good but not really good for figures. The staff was open to my asking for an ice-cut and 15 minutes later I had the ice to myself. I did notice today that it was slightly hillier than I had noticed in the past, but maybe I am just getting more aware of the "hill" phenomenon, something that I don't notice so much when I am doing dance and Moves, but with the figures you can really tell.

I'm wondering what's going on over there, though - for about 20 minutes I shared the ice with a figure skater and a guy in hockey skates - budding ice dancers, but otherwise it was just me. I'm surprised not to see the usual recreational skaters and occasional figure skater or hockey player. Of course, it was another sunny day in Portland, so maybe that is it.

Otherwise I guess this is just a secret that there is often empty ice (and very nice ice) to skate on at Lloyd Center!

News Flash: I just heard from one of my anonymous (even to them) reporters that the ice this morning at Valley was pretty good because they didn't have hockey prior to the morning freestyle session. This is good news for all of the Valley-ites!

Also my source reiterated the rumor that the early-morning freestyles on Mondays and Wednesdays will return sometime soon (date as yet undisclosed) but will most likely be cancelled again sometime in the fall, or whenever hockey season starts again (doesn't it seem like it is always hockey season?).

Sherwood - Another Practice Day Smoothie

After seeing this video I now know that I cannot wear this hat or this sweatshirt for the competition! And it's true that video will make you look 10 pounds heavier... I cannot say whether it makes me look slow or not - seeing as this is figures and all... I also can say that after a brief session with my coach after this was filmed, my technique is now 1000% more correct!

Gearing up for this weekend's competition brings more skaters, coaches and general activity around the Sherwood rink. Went to the 9:30 public, expecting near-empty ice and found more people that I expected!! Dancers having final lessons before their competition, other "figures" skaters, a lesson, a young ice-dancer and a few recreational skaters made for an interesting and congenial group on the Sherwood ice today.

The ice was not resurfaced before the public, although they offered to do it if we were going to do figures. But there was some clean ice available for me and rather than taking the time to make the ice, we were excited to get out there for what might be my final lesson before the competition!

The ice is so much better than Valley (there, I said it!!) - BUT not as flat as Lloyd Center. I could feel like up-and-down hill thing a little bit, which I hope they can fix by this weekend. It wasn't so bad that I had trouble getting back to my centers or anything because of going uphill (there are probably other problems for me getting back to the center!) Also the ice was a little crunchy again so my edges made a little "snow" and if I got right on my previous tracing, I might fall into it a bit and get stuck!! Oh well, not bad for the price of admission as they say.

They were doing some general maintenance things today so you had to be careful not to run into equipment on the ice, BUT it was nice to see someone cleaning hockey-puck-marks off of the surface of the walls, etc. - the place is going to look really nice for all of our out-0f-town competitors, coaches and officials, which is really great!!

Decided to not risk the chance of hilly and possibly rutted ice this week at Valley and so will plan to go to Lloyd Center tomorrow (much closer to my house) and then back to Sherwood on Thursday for another, final lesson - or at least a quick look by my coach.

Getting closer!!

Lloyd Center: Great Figure Ice... On a Dance Session!!

The ice was quite beautiful at the Lloyd Center this morning - especially for figures... but it was a Dance Session! I apologize to any dancers that were annoyed by my random figure-making and hope that it wasn't too annoying. Only one week left before the competition and so I guess I'm a little excited. One of the other competitors remarked that she wished they were using the LC rink for the figures competition because it is so nice and flat and when the ice is maintained the figures just work so well! Oh well, hopefully things will go well at Sherwood next weekend!!

I called Valley to see if they had any public sessions this morning (sometimes they will throw in a random public when there isn't hockey) but they had cancelled all public sessions today because of a hockey tournament. Oh well, maybe some other time!

So the ice for the dance session was very good and the session was pretty sparsely populated. this makes it easier to skate the dances because with the smallness of the rink, and lots of dancers, it can get pretty hectic and at time, dangerous - you always have to look out for where you are going!!

I like the current attitude of the zamboni-people and office staff there - they seem to be bending over backwards to keep the ice-dancers (and us figures-skaters) happy! Whoppee!!