Portland Rink Report

All-Figures Open Competition

2009-08-03T12:14:00.000-07:00

All ages. All levels. All figures.

This was the basic premise behind the "All-Figures Open Competition" that was held at the Lloyd Center Ice Rink in Portland, OR July 25-26, 2009.

Sponsored by the Oregon Skating Council, we wanted to create a competition where anyone, regardless of age, test level or experience, could compete any figure, and as many figures as they wanted. There would be no pressure to do a figure that a person basically couldn't do just to fit into a prescribed "category" - and no test level requirements to get hung up on - I mean, just because you passed your 8th figure test "way back then" - why shouldn't you be able to compete a figure you could do "NOW" - maybe as much as 30 (or, in some cases) 40 years later?

We weren't sure how to really set this up - very few rinks actually have "patch sessions" anymore and very few coaches are teaching figures per se, except maybe in the context of teaching moves. But we kind of knew there were little pockets of people around the country doing and testing figures still - finding time during empty morning public or freestyle sessions - grabbing a little piece of ice here and there to enjoy learning the basics of what skating is all about - compulsory figures!

Here in Portland two of the rinks offered "Figures class" in the months before the competition. At the Lloyd Center Ice Rink the Oregon Skating Council reserved "summer training ice" on Tuesday evenings for 3 months - the first hour of which was a "patch session" for practicing figures on your own private strip of ice, just like in "the old days". Any coach, regardless of rink affiliation, could come and teach, and one of the Lloyd Center coaches made herself available for lessons/consultations during the sessions.

In April I was thrilled to get an email from a skater in Seattle, letting me know that there were 4 skaters in the area who were getting ready to compete. I was thrilled to know that people were excited about the competition and wanted to come. A month later I got another email from a skater who had just moved to Seattle and had heard about the competition. Interest was certainly starting to build!

In setting up the competition, we did feel a need to have a "Restricted" category - but the "Restricted" category was for skaters who had not passed any test beyond the 1st Figure test or it's equivalent. In the "retricted" category the skater had the option of having circles "scribed" on the ice. A "Creative Figure" was also offered in the "Restricted" group - a skater could make up their own figure and would be judged on creativity and execution of the figure.

In the "Open" category, all figures plus the special category of "Creative Figure" were offered. The figure events were put into groups such as "Brackets" "Back Loops" "One Foot Eight" - meaning the skater could choose which foot to start on, and also chose whether they wanted to do inside or outside edge starts. Everyone could choose which figure within the given category they could be most comfortable. The whole idea was just to have fun, skate the figures you wanted to skate no matter what your level. Very inclusive!!

The competition took place over two very early mornings at the Lloyd Center Ice Rink. The rink is a small mall rink with skylight lighting (which proved to be a hinderance to some of the skaters, what with the sun glare and all). It started with 3 skaters in the "Restricted Forward Outside 8" event and quickly moved on to Open Forward Three to Backward 3 (from the 2nd figure test, for those who follow these things). All five of the judges who volunteered to judge the competition judged all of the events. And I did not hear one complaint!!

The largest event was the Open Forward Serpentine Event, with a total of 6 skaters - some of whom had tested and others who had never tested figures. The winner of this event, Aziza Jappie, is a younger competitor (I believe she is 16 or 17), who has her Senior Moves but until last year had never seen or done figures. I thought it was great that despite her lack of experience, she prevailed in this event against her somewhat more seasoned (on many levels!) competitors! After the event Aziza was overheard saying that she wished she had done figures before doing Moves because she would have understood conceptually what she was asked to do in Moves and would have passed them quicker. I thought that was great!!

On Sunday, the rest of the Open events occured. The highest level figure skated was the One-Foot Eight with three skaters in this event. The judges had a great time examining all of the figures and determining the winners and rankings. As the judges left the ice after the final figure, they applauded the skaters for a job well done. I think they had just as good a time as the skaters!! They certainly seemed thrilled to be there!

In all there were 15 competitors, 15 events and 39 starts. 3 skaters were "kids" (teenagers) and 12 were adults who had mostly tested figures when they were younger. One-third of the skaters came from the Seattle Area. Each of the "kids" won one or more of their events. One skater competed 5 figures total and another skater only skated one. Everyone had a great time and are starting to prepare for next year. Hopefully we will hold this competition next year. Maybe we will be able to attract more competitors. And now we know what we are doing!! And that it worked!

If we build it, they will come has to be our motto!

update

2009-02-18T12:54:00.000-08:00

Hi.
I am still skating at Valley (although a lot less frequently). Ice has been OK on Thurs. am when I go - and there are very few people there - even less than last year. They have rare free style times, due to hockey.

Sherwood ice has in general been good, as has the ice at Lloyd Center - although this week had my dance lesson while a birthday party was going on & had to dodge a bunch of kids who had no idea what they were doing.

CHERYN

So what's up?

2008-09-04T10:34:00.000-07:00

So it's been a month since I've posted - not sure why - I think on some level I am done blogging about the state of the ice rinks here in Portland. I mean, what else is there to say?

So just a brief rundown of my most recent observations:

The ice at Valley is better than it was last winter - it is more even and I was even able to skate on the end part of the rink closest to the lobby, an area which I had considered basically off-limits because of the severe ruts and sloping - I basically had altered most of my skating to avoid this part. The other day I actually set my figures up on that piece of ice because that was the only clean ice available (I'm thinking other skaters have learned to avoid it also - so that's why it was clean. Habits. Interesting.

The ice at LC has generally been very good - the other day it was so fast that I got scared while doing one of the dances - I was moving too fast! They are eliminating one of the dance sessions (Saturday early-evening) in a couple of weeks - it was poorly attended and I guess the management decided they would try to leave the public session open longer in hopes to gain more revenue (? - oh well, at least they have a plan) - so now the only social ice-dance session is Sunday morning and hopefully the attendance will improve in the fall.

The ice at Mt. View has been a little disappointing - I have been still going to the Adult-only Coffee Club on Wednesday at noon - it is very quiet and nice ice - we can play our own music and I can get a lot of skating done. I don't think they are actually cutting the ice before the session and only laying water on so it is a little rutted and not that "smooth-as'glass" surface that I enjoyed so much earlier in the summer. I also wondered if it just didn't seem as good since the ice at Valley has improved so much.

So we are getting ready for the "High-Level Adult Dance Camp" which will be at Mt. View and Lloyd Center the weekend of July12-14 - we are expecting a lot of good skating - I don't plan to do the whole camp but I will be helping with the food and going to the off-ice and social sessions as long as my feet can hold me up - it should be fun and invigorating to the skating community in general and especially the people who are interested in competing.

Otherwise it's business as usual - getting out there and skating and hoping for good ice and acceptable customer service...

For What It's Worth

2008-08-04T16:50:00.001-07:00

I stopped by Valley today to see what the ice was like (I was sort of in the neighborhood) - and it looked okay. I asked one of the skaters I saw there if it was better than last Friday and she said it was a lot better.

But I got a report from her coach (and another skater who emailed me) that it was terrible this morning and that some of the adult skaters turned around and went home when they found how bad it was.

What I saw this afternoon looked okay - it didn't have those zamboni-wide "shelves" where you were constantly entering new levels and it looked like the flow was pretty good from what I could see of the figure and recreational skaters that were on the ice this afternoon.

That's all for now - I will try again tomorrow as I have a friend from out of town who wants to skate and she has liked Valley in the past...).
Lisa, your redundant reporter.

Is There ANY Excuse for This?

2008-08-03T17:13:00.000-07:00

I should make this picture bigger because I'm not sure that you really get the picture of this ice that was experienced this week at Valley. I mean - they were having pretty good ice this summer up until this week - and then what happened?

What you see in this photo is a series of deep ruts (make by hockey blades) over another rut made by the zamboni itself - these zamboni-ruts create what look like shelves across the rink (each shelf being the width of the zamboni-blade) - and so when you skate you kind of go down these little shelves. In themselves it wouldn't be that bad, but add in the completely-random hockey-ruts in almost every sector of the ice rink and you basically have a disaster on your hands.

And a disaster that is not worth the $8 for the session plus the time and money spent getting there.

I can only hope it is better next week. I'm going to try to get a lesson with my Valley-bound coach this week but after this week she will be out of town and I may enjoy my end-of-summer ice at Lloyd Center, Mt. View and hey - maybe even make the trek down to Sherwood because THIS JUST AIN'T WORTH THE AGGRAVATION!!! (am I yelling?)

Another view, just in case you didn't get it the first time:

In Case you Don't Believe Me

2008-07-24T14:19:00.000-07:00

This is a typical day at Valley these days - showing an actual hockey lesson (with stick!) on the left, a figure skating coach, two teenagers figure skating, and on the far left, some recreational skaters hanging out by the wall (at least that's what I think is going on) - add in some ice-dancers, an adult doing figures and maybe someone else doing Moves and you have a typical summer day at the Valley. Not too crowded, smooth ice, pleasant personalities, good music...

And yes, HOCKEY LESSONS (with sticks) - (can you tell this is my least favorite part?).

Valley ice

2008-07-18T07:26:00.000-07:00

Was at Valley yesterday for 1:30 session. Forgot that over the summer there would be other people there - lots of kids for a birthday party.
anyhow, the ice was good, no more sloping - and you could actually see all the hockey marks-a great improvement.
They got new carpeting - it is certainly unique and bright.

Hope you are having a nice summer.
CHERYN

Another Skater Sighting - NYC!!

2008-07-17T14:04:00.000-07:00

Gotcha!!

I didn't actually see him, but I saw a photograph of John Zimmerman in the window of a nearby discount shoe/clothing store modeling for something - I didn't actually notice that part...

Just for that I had to buy something there. A pair of bright orange Crocs to soothe my aching feet!

Goodbye NYC!!

Too few rinks in NYC!!

2008-07-17T08:14:00.000-07:00

No - I didn't bring my skates. I thought about it but decided against it because 1) Chelsea Piers is having "summer skating camp" and the only sessions I could go to were early morning Dance practice sessions (hey, I'm on vacation) PLUS it was so expensive!! ($29??? Forget it!).

I am in touch with skaters from other skating boards and one NYC-skater offered to pick me up in Brooklyn and bring me to her rink (Aviator - looks like a nice facility and good prices and ice-times... but getting to Brooklyn and all of that just seemed like too much and she ended up being too busy - it was a nice offer...

And of course the famous outdoor rinks - Rockefeller Center and Wolman Rink in Central park are closed for the long, hot summer and so those were out. I did manage to walk by Rockefeller Center Plaza and look down on what would have been the ice - it is a restaurant in the summer and so that was fun. But there are no other rinks on the island - Hackensack would have been nice, but too far and I'm sure there are other rinks on LI but again... a hassle for what has essentially been a 4-day trip...

I did meet with a friend who is a skater and also a veterinarian - you better believe we have a lot to talk about - got some good tips about where to get used blades and also a little just general skating tip which I will use when I get home - it's always fun to talk about skating with people from around the country because you never know what will come up and what you can use. Plus she told me about the Hackensack Adult camp and how awesome it was working with John Zimmerman (yes, he is just as good-looking in person she assured me) and his wife Sylvia Fontana - she got some good advice from her, which was great hearing about... we went to the Natural History Museum (being essentially vets and scientists I figured this was a good choice) and had a great time walking aruond talking skating and vet med and looking at dinosaurs and dioramas...

Also glad I didn't bring my skates because after 2 days of walking in NYC (and walking, and walking and walking...) I have ginormous blisters on my foot and would not have been able to get my foot into the boot anyway... so the whole thing would have been a waste of time and energy.

I hope someday to broaden the PDX rink report to include ice rinks from all over the country (and perhaps, the world) but for now I can just dream of coming back to sweet Portland and it's abundance (compared to NYC in the summer) of sweet summer ice...

And yes, I've seen other famous people - Colin Firth anyone? (he is REALLY skinny!) And Kathleen Turner looks just as good as she does onscreen!! But no other skater sightings... sigh...

Skater Sighting in Denver Airport!!!!!!!!!!

2008-07-15T09:10:00.000-07:00

So I'm on my way to NYC - vaction for me and work-related stuff for my husband. We had a long layover in Denver and so spent quite some time hanging out in the Denver airport.

You wouldn't think you'd see anybody famous there - after all, I was going to NYC where I was sure to run into some familiar-looking faces. I would just expect that sort of thing. No big deal.

So imagine how surprised I was to run into someone who is famous (to me, and undoubtedly to some of you) EVAN LYSACEK as I was getting off the escalator at the Denver airport.

It was kind of shocking. I looked and then looked again - "Evan!!!" - screamed in my mind. I looked again and then looked at my husband - he said, "That was Evan" (how great to have a husband who recognizes fame in the skating world!!) - I looked again as he was going down the escaltor. Should I say something? Get an autograph? The instantly shy side of me kicked in and I so I didn't do anything - I figured he needs his privacy, and as Chris pointed out to me afterward, he was on the phone at the time. It would have been quite rude.

I was wondering about that phone call. Who was it? Tanith? Frank? (Johnny? :)! )

And why Denver? Maybe he was in Colorado Springs getting some choreography from Christopher Dean... (I think this is how those rumors get started) or maybe just like me he was on his way... somewhere else...

And here in NYC? Yes, I've seen some familiar and somewhat famous faces. But it isn't really the same as when you least expect it.

Quiet Summer - Not So Much to Write About

2008-07-12T15:29:00.001-07:00

Well, I've been thinking about this blog and I just don't have as much to write about these days - the ice is generally good, the kids are nice and the hockey lessons are just what they are... hockey lessons.

Although it was kind of funny the other day at Valley. It looked like just another normal morning - some freestyle kids, some adults, some adult ice-dancers, me doing figures and Moves and dance patterns, some lessons, some hockey lessons (with sticks)... and then this group of teenagers got on the ice - about 25 of them -- so there were basically every kind of skating going on (no speedskaters...) and the thing that struck me the most was how odd the hockey players with all of their gear and sticks and everything in that melee... it was a good session but...

Hockey lessons... Now there is an oxymoron.

So I will not be bloggig for a couple of weeks I think - I am leaving for vacation tomorrow (we are going to NYC) - and I don't think I'm going to bring my skates... haven't decided yet but it doesn't look like there are many open sessions on the area rinks and the ones that are open look kind of far away on the map... we only have 4 days. If only we were going in the winter, I could go to Rockerfeller Plaza or Central Park...

So have fun fellow skaters - stay cool and have great skating times!!!!

More Adult Bliss at the Valley

2008-07-01T16:50:00.000-07:00

I know - Valley and Bliss in the same sentence? It must be an oxymoron!!

I got there early today so that I could warm up - I finally had a lesson (it's only been a couple of months) and I wanted to be at least semi-warmed up! That freestyle session on Tuesday morning had only the few adults it usually has during the school year, which was great!

The ice was pretty smooth and it is definitely lower than it was for most of the winter - you can see the yellow boards and they are even all around. I tend to avoid the ends and the corners but I think it is mostly habit and smaller dance patterns - I should try to lengthen them out again because I think the ice is okay as far as dipping down at the ends and the corners. Must remember for the next time.

The other thing I noticed is that there were remarkably fewer hockey lessons (thank god!) and the ones that were there were very quiet and nice and you hardly noticed them. I like that when they don't come out brandishing their sticks like they were weapons of mass destruction - that really really scares me sometimes! I mean, there they are in all of the "armor" and then there's little me in my little skirt and white skates with those delicate dance blades - no decent picks to kick them with - like I could get through all of that gear...

Digressing again..

Adult Bliss at Valley.

Tomorrow: the smooth, cool ice at Mt. View beckons me.

Just a few random notes

2008-06-30T18:56:00.000-07:00

I don't have time to do a regular blog with stories, etc. today but I wanted to make some notes on some random observations on the rinks, the ice and the participants:

Lloyd Center - where on earth are all of the multitudes of ice-dancers that we have in Portland? I have been to the Sunday morning social sessions for two weeks in a row now and the attendance has been pretty sparse... and we're not seeing the kids that we were seeing a lot of for a while. Maybe they are too busy skating during the week to make it to the Sunday sessions (and with school being out they do have all of that time) or maybe their parents are feeling the heat of the economy and they are not wanting to drive into LC for these special sessions.

I don't know. It's nice to have all of that room, but they are sorely missed!

The ice was beautiful both weeks, by the way.

Valley: Well, the week after "hockey camp" and things are just as they always were. No ice cut this morning but some early-morning "fog" on the ice left the ice with this kind of odd surface. "Summer ice" is what I could call it. Kind of hard to skate on but at least it was even.

Hopefully tomorrow morning (Tuesday) will be better because they will for sure do an ice-cut after the early-morning hockey session. Now, how well it will be done remains to be seen...

"Which One of You is The Blogger?"

2008-06-25T20:42:00.001-07:00

I went up to the Adult session at Mt. View today. When I first got there I was the only person there and I was late. So I figured, "Oh well, I'm going to be the only one there... oh." Well.

So I put on my skates and went into the middle to do some figures. I didn't bother with the patch blades - too much trouble to be changing skates all the time... and of course I was late so I didn't want to waste even more time with all of that skate-changing and I just wanted to get some exercise and try to get my skating-legs under me and all of that stuff.

Then a couple of friends came in - my friend and her family, who also skate (speed-skaters, but oh well) - THEN another person came onto the ice and as she got on she said to my friend and I, "So which one of you is the blogger?" I of course said it was me and she said that it was because of me that she was there!! I thought that was awesome! This was an adult skater (okay, Gordon, "grown-up skater") who was coming back to the ice after a long absence... wanting to get back into skating... the same story that a lot of us have -- and she came to Mt. View because she was looking for those adult comforts that this session provides - AWESOME!!!! (Me, a celebrity!).

This alone justifies why I'm doing this blog - if one person comes back to skating or finds out about a session that they are missing by reading my blog, then my work is done.

Yea.

It was a good session although I got almost nothing done because I was too busy chatting. Oh well, this social stuff is part of skating. Being an ambassador of the sport and all of that.

Because the summers are long. There was "hockey camp" at Valley this week - could they have told me about it last week when I was there? - NO - I found out from my coach, who I called to see about a lesson this week - if I hadn't have called her I wouldn't have known... the on-line schedule makes it look like they are having hockey camp and public and stick-time all at once. It's impossible to tell if there is an 8:45 ice-cut or whether they will cut the ice at 9am for the hockey campers. These are important things for the working adult or even competive young figure skaters and their coaches, but of course, these things are not addressed. We are left to hang out to dry, so to speak.

At least the Lloyd Center makes it clear what they are doing: "Kool Kamp" kids are on the ice from 10-2 and 2-4. That is "their time" and it is great.

It's odd to me though that these things are called "camps" when that name alone evokes memories of activities done outdoors and out in nature, eating S'mores and all of that... but oh well, in our urban landscape we have urban "ice" camps.

And so it goes...

It's Going To Be A Long, Long Summer

2008-06-18T09:46:00.000-07:00

Why do I say that? The sun isn't even out yet and I'm complaining about a long summer?

It used to be we adults dreaded summer skating because the rinks were over-run by free-wheeling freestyle skaters. I used to hear some of the kids say things like, "Just run them over!" - words which caused me to skate as close as possible just to see if they would do it. They never did.

Now I totally welcome the freestyle kids. The group we have now is very nice, would never think to "run us over" and their numbers are few.

What we have now is Big-Boy Hockey Players With Sticks Taking Hockey Lessons. HOCKEY LESSONS! Okay, I'm happy for the coaches. They are earning $60/hr or so just like the figure-skating coaches and it's great to see them getting actual instruction in something that is probably useful to their playing that great sport of hockey. Sometimes their drills look just like what we learn in figure skating and sometimes it looks a lot harder. Of course with all that padding, if they fall they can't possibly hurt themselves, but once again I totally digress.

I was at the Valley yesterday. I came late to the morning public session and so of course I didn't expect clean, patch ice. There were several lovely teenage figure-skaters and one adult. There was one figure-skating coach. Several groups of recreational skaters (moms with groups of kids) were doing the wall-hugging thing which is no burden to me. There was also one hockey lesson - a little kid - he and his coach were in the far corner next to where the zamboni comes out - not prime real-estate as far as the state of the ice goes, so no big deal. I got on the ice and did my thing with a few simple figures.

I found a LOVELY patch of ice at the far end and was doing some more complicated figures. I didn't seem to be in anyone's way and the ice was flat and clean. Oh boy! Then these two tall teenage boys came out in full hockey gear and were skating around with their sticks - FAST -- I was like - "They better not hit me!!" but I held my ground. THEN their coach came out and deposited his cones adjacent to where I was skating - "Hey, I was here first!!" - he didn't seem to notice.

He had the boys come down the outside lane really fast with their sticks flying - right at me!! I bailed - one of them almost checked me and I was like, "Watch out!" I moved my "patch" over a bit to get out of the lane. At a certain point I gave up and just continued to skate and work on Moves. They took up the entire end with all of their scraping and stopping and all of that. I wished that I'd had the energy to work on dance patterns - it would have been nice to have a partner - a really strong one, and just go sailing through their crap. Maybe another time...

This whole time the figure skaters and their coach didn't seem to notice or really care, which makes me wonder... why do they and their parents allow this sort of thing to occur? I wonder if other rinks around the country have to deal with this? Yet another thing to be steamed about...

Why do I keep going there???

Today I plan to go up to Mt. View for another serving of Adult Bliss. Hopefully there will be no hockey players, with coach and sticks. Only cold and smooth, smooth ice. I better remember to bring more music this time...

New "Coffee Club"

2008-06-13T09:19:00.000-07:00

This week I decided to venture up to the Mt. View Ice Arena in Vancouver, WA to try out their new Adults-only session "Coffee Club" which is Mondays and Wednesdays from 12:15 - 1:45. Usually I don't find this noontime skate to be very convenient to my very laid-back veterinary housecall schedule, but I had the day off and wanted to check it out since this session may be one of the only "hazard-free" summer sessions in the area that I can attend.

By "hazard-free" I mean no kids, no wild freestylers (well, maybe there will be some wild adult free-stylers...), no busloads of school or camp groups, no hockey players or hockey lessons... just adult skaters quietly doing their thing...

It was a cold June day and the rink was very cold. I asked if there was any heat anywhere and they said they don't leave it on unless they are having an event (apparently they save $7,000/month by not turning it on). It was really cold!! For the first time ever I wore my long coat (lined) onto the ice - I figured if my coach can do it, so can I!!

But I was the only one there and they had cleaned the ice and left the lights on, which was great. I asked the guy at the desk about the lights and he says he sometimes turns them down lower but today he would leave them up (yea!).

I was able to go through some figures and eventually took the long coat off. It was kind of lonely and I didn't play any music or anything (reminding me of the old "patch" days - we never even thought to put music on back then). Finally another one of the adult dancers came - so great - now I had some company!

The ice was BEAUTIFUL! At first I kind of had to get used to that hollow sound the ice makes when you strike the ice, but after a while I got used to it and really felt like I was flying around. No ruts or bumps really - no obstacles of any kind. We put on some music (I only had one CD with me) and eventually a hockey guy came out and skated - and then there was one woman who probably hadn't skated before and he stayed with her for the remainder of the session.

Apparently these sessions haven't really caught on yet... but this is how it started in Sherwood when they first had the coffee club - for about the first year or so there were only a couple of people, but rather than have "dead ice" they just kept the session and eventually it filled up and is very popular.

I had to ask for my coffee and there were no cookies in sight, but since I'm off sugar so that was no big deal.

Nice session. I will go again and hopefully some of my "ice-starved" adult skating friends will come and skate with me. I don't want to go lonely-skating this summer!!

"Hosed" at the Valley

2008-06-11T16:35:00.000-07:00

Some of us were making jokes yesterday about the fact that there had been a hose on the ice that had left a mark. I'm not sure if it left a rut, but there was a mark on Monday morning that was unmistakably that made by a hose left on the ice. We could joke that we were "hosed" - apparently the ice hadn't been cleaned in the morning, or was so hard to skate on that it appeared to be so - I wasn't there so I can't comment, but let's just say that there had been some complaints.

So Tuesday started off as another day of "Adult Bliss" - joking around - "Oh no, there are a couple of hockey lessons today - watch out!" -- that kind of thing.

And then the two busses pulled up. And the teenagers starting pouring out of them and into the Valley lobby.

The dreaded school group. And worse yet - the dreaded school group from Salem - the worst school group known to man (in my experience). Could no one have warned us that this would happen?

I tried to skate a few figures as fast as I could -- too bad I had taken so long to warm up and put my skates on... but I had no warning... couldn't they have told us?

And what about those hockey lessons?

Well, apparently no one knew about this group - what the -- another communication breakdown at the Valley.

At least I could play my own music... that might calm them down... (I find that if you play the right type of music, you can soothe the savage teenager... or child for that matter) - but if it's the crap radio, then the frenzy just gets bigger...

So the radio comes blaring out and so I asked if I could please at least play a CD. Nope. No CD. "They requested the radio." They requested the crap radio? I don't believe it.

So I left. Befuddled and angry once again at the lack of respect and lack of communication at the Valley. My time was not well spent... and I don't have to even mention again the whole price of gas fiasco...

But hey, the ice was good - nice flow for the few minutes that we had...

Adult Nirvana at Valley Ice Arena

2008-06-06T10:55:00.000-07:00

Why do I call it "Adult Nirvana"? --

In Eastern philosophy - Nirvana is kind of like heaven, some might call it enlightenment with extras - that amazing feeling you get when all is right in the world...

Or on the ice.

The flow is good, the ice is relatively flat. There are ruts, but so what - it is a hockey rink after all. The kids are out of school, the days are getting longer and the sun is out...

Oops - scratch that thought... the sun is not out. It should be, but it's not. So the rink is cold, but all of those other factors are there - a bunch of blissed-out adults (bliss is something you get in nirvana, apparently) enjoying their passion in these last final days before school lets out and the figure skating and hockey lessons and general recreational "mom-and'me" crowd starts to come and wreck havoc on our little patch of glorious, fantastic, mind-blowing hobby...

Addicted? I would say yes I am.

Lloyd Center being closed this week hasn't brought what I thought would be crowds - no doubt the coaches feel more welcome at Mt. View. Oh well, let them have their fun up there - we will still be enjoying this for another couple of weeks at least. And yes, the lights are on:

Valley Ice

2008-06-05T16:18:00.000-07:00

Went to Valley this afternoon - ice was actually nice and the hockey lines were more visible than I have seen them in a long time. A few more people than usual at the early afternoon time (1:30). Wonder how crowded it will get once school ends. Usual problems continue with the service there and the general cleanliness of the rink, but you can't be perfect.

CHERYN

Do you think?

2008-05-28T09:23:00.000-07:00

Do you think those guys read my bog? The managers, the staff, the "powers-that-be" at Valley?

The reason I'm wondering is that I skated both Memorial Day and Tuesday morning and the lights were on! Not full-out hockey lights (who needs THAT much light???) but the 1/2- 3/4 lights that make seeing the ice, the room, and your fellow skaters that much easier...

Memorial Day I could understand. There were lots of figure skaters there (hmm, a preview of what the summer ice is going to be like?), a couple of hockey lessons (why do they need lessons - I never remember this from the past - don't they usually have one big group lesson called "drills"? -- anyway, another digression...) and the usual adults (getting ready for an upcoming test session?) and, well, me.

Tuesday we were back to the usual "adult bliss" - good ice, lights on, pleasant company. Is it because there is early morning hockey ("old-man hockey") and they just inadvertently left the lights on after that session? Time will tell when I trespass towards the Valley again tomorrow, for the much-anticipated "Thursday morning with clean ice" session.

Meanwhile I will probably begin lobbying a little harder for an 8:15 ice-cut on Mondays and Wednesday (IF I start going to those sessions... hmmm) because it gets pretty chewed up especially with all of those freestylers in the mornings... whatever happened to that 8:15 ice-cut anyway???

It just disappeared...

But since the hockey lines have ALMOST re-appeared, maybe that ice-cut will do the same...

Why, Why Oh Why (ine)

2008-05-23T17:28:00.000-07:00

Why Why Why can't they turn on the lights? I know we are all trying to save energy.

But is there something about figure skaters (and public recreational skaters) that don't need light to skate? Do hockey players need more light than figure skaters?

Yesterday morning I went to Valley to do a critique for one of the adult skaters who is working on a Moves test. The lighting was the dark and dingy stuff and I wasn't feeling so well in that my head was stuffed and I felt dizzy. The lighting didn't help. So I asked this adult student's coach if she could have the guys turn up the lights so that I could do a proper critique - with lights!!

So the coach went in and asked and came back to say that they were told not to turn the lights up for the public session. Okay. BUT the coach (and her family) own the rink!! Doesn't that count for anything???

So I had a dull and dismal skate, didn't stay long, that's for sure... although I did notice that 2/3 of the way through the session the lights were up - they have to start warming the lights up early for the big hockey session that follows...

Nothing makes sense anymore (am I have a life-crisis? Am I going to go all philosophical on you guys?).

And other thing (here comes the whine of the why's) - I took a look at the schedule that is on the internet. It says that Thursday morning there is a freestyle before the public session at 9:30. Well, this comes as news to me because I thought they used Thursday morning for "ice maintenance" - which is why I like to go for the public -- the ice is clean and good on Thursday morning and I can sort of count on it.

So I called this afternoon to get some clarification. Of course the guy I spoke to didn't really know much, but he didn't think they were doing ice-maintenance on Thursday mornings since the schedule says there is freestyle...

Why don't they advertise the change in schedule? Don't they kow by this time that figure skaters are creatures of habit and like to schedule skating around the rest of their busy lives? Do they think we wake up one morning and think, "Oh, I think I'll go ice-skating?"

Our recreation, our exercise, our passion, is kind of like a job... for better or worse, for most of us we need some kind of structure for the practice.

Anyway, I digress once again.

I guess it's time to program the rink's number into my cell phone so that any time I might get up and think, "Oh, I think I'll go ice-skating" I will call first to make sure that there is ice. Especially when gas is $4/gallon (and rising...).

Hell Has Frozen Over at the Valley Ice Arena!!!

2008-05-20T16:52:00.000-07:00

And why has hell frozen over, you may ask???

Well, to start with, they are playing CLASSICAL MUSIC during the public sessions!! Not CDs, but the radio - the classical station!! They've been doing this for several weeks now thanks to one of our lovely skaters who made the suggestion to the staff there. Thank you! This is Great.

For another thing, the ice is almost even!! I noticed today that those yellow boards are almost the same height all the way around. The area directly across the rink from the CD player still looks a little high, but really the general surface has levelled out considerably, making it (presumably) easier to navigate.

And I'm not sure but it looks like the lighting may be better, but as I've noted before when one or two things are better, it is easier to ignore some of those other bothersome problems. Yea!

The ice surface is still rutted (post-hockey zam-job? zoned out zam-staff?) in places, but generally much better or at least more tolerable. Since I came into the public session late - more than 2 hours after they passed the zamboni over the ice, I didn't expect good patch ice or anything... and so, yeah, it was pretty good.

The adult crew at Valley is enjoying those last blissed-out empty public sessions of spring in the few weeks before school lets out (the dreaded "summer-season" of hockey lessons, figure skaters and recreational skaters...) and I enjoy the company there very much.

In the end, it's still the Valley, but on some level... it is home.

My skating? Still weak in the legs and dizzy in the head. This cold/flu really knocked me this time, but at least I was there. At least I was there.

Still Sick? Well, Not Quite... BUT

2008-05-15T10:08:00.000-07:00

Since I haven't skated in over two weeks I thought I would try it. I would just take it easy. Just skate around, do some edges, not work too hard.

It wouldn't be that hard.

Or so I thought.

I decided to go to Lloyd Center since it's warm and very close to where I live. I went to the 10am public. No one there. The ice had not been made (which they usually do, but hey, it's off-season, there are energy considerations, etc. and so - what's the big deal?).

I was exhausted by the time I put on my skates. I thought, "Oh man, this is going to be hard."

And it was. At first I could hardly skate AT ALL - it was as though I had never skated before... knees wouldn't bend, ankles were stiff - Aeeeiiiee - what am I doing??????

I stayed on the ice for about a half-hour - eventually doing some edges, some crappola figures and little parts of dances. I even went backwards!! Too dizzy in the head to do many turns...

It got kind of boring - there was only one hockey-guy on the ice. And me. I wished there had been someone to talk to, someone to skate around with while talking. That was about the level that I wanted to skate... maybe I should join the Hooky Club.

Not using your body for two weeks really makes a difference!! I wouldn't have believed it.

So when do I go next? That is the big question! Dare I go over to Valley, only to pay $8 to skate around in the cold?

Maybe tomorrow.

Maybe next week.

We shall see. I do miss it. And miss my friends.

Your Redundant Reporter

2008-05-14T11:47:00.000-07:00

Is getting even more redundant it seems... This is another video of empty ice on a public session at Valley in the morning.

It's weird, but it IS mid-season - I mean, who is really thinking about ice-skating that much with spring in the air???

I was thinking about when I was a kid - NOBODY skated mid-morning except for the elite skaters at our rink (and I'm talking National and World Champions here!)... so maybe we are just spoiled...

I Shouldn't Advertise This!!

2008-05-08T10:43:00.000-07:00

Thursday morning is probably the best time to skate at Valley these days. They make ice for the public and it is empty, empty, empty!!!

Especially when I am not there - still out with a cold, but will probably try again tomorrow or next week.

Thank you Skatecam, for providing these provocative videos!!

Smooth skating at Valley

2008-05-05T15:00:00.000-07:00

Hi!
I was at Valley this am for my weekly lesson - the ice was actually smooth and many of the hockey markings were actually visible - they had disappeared for awhile - nice to see them back, even if very light - who knows how long they will last. Ice seems to be better since the hockey season has ended & with it the early am hockey - free style actually occurs on some mornings early - don't know if anyone goes, but if you want empty ice, it might be worth calling to see when they are having free style sessionsl

CHERYN

When You're Sick...

2008-05-01T11:46:00.000-07:00

You don't want to skate.

You don't want to work.

You don't want to blog.

I have the flu and have not been doing much. Bummer. It has been a few years since I've been sick and now I am wondering what it feels like to be normal.

I did get some photos for the blog from the elusive "Skatecam" - ice at Valley this morning was quite beautiful and apparently, pretty empty:

I don't know how they play hockey in there - you really cannot see the lines - makes me wonder what the refs do when they have to make a call... "Um, well, I THINK you were over the line..." (Line, what line?).

I was thinking we need a web feed from all of the rinks so we can see the conditions/crowdedness at any time during the day. The security cameras at Lloyd Center could pick that up easily...

Will have to make friends with someone in the security office over there...

Happy skating everyone! And be well!

Where Have All the Dancers Gone??

2008-04-27T13:35:00.000-07:00

It's a beautiful sunny Sunday in Portland. I decide to head out to the Lloyd Center to go to the social dance session. I'm thinking, "What a great day for ice dance - I'm all relaxed, the sky is blue and I want to dance!"

I guess very few other people felt that way.

It was a nice session - don't get me wrong. It's nice to take a lesson and not have to worry too much about getting in everyone's way, or feeling uncomfortable with other dancers buzzing around me... but c'mon people - where were you?

There were about 10 of us on the ice today. Maybe. 2 men, the rest women (makes for a lopsided social session, that's for sure!). The ice was beautiful. The company, fantastic.

We were able to do figures and work on parts of patterns. That is nice.

Oh yeah, and there was the "runner" on the ice. This kid jumped over the barrier and started running and sliding on the ice. I took it upon myself to tell him to "Get OFF right now!!". I didn't know I had it in me - he looked kind of startled. Oh well, it kind of made my morning.

One of the skaters took a lot of photographs at the sesion so I am happy to post a couple of them to show everyone just how empty it was! You are missed, fellow dancers!!!

When It's Good - It's REALLY Good!!

2008-04-24T20:31:00.001-07:00

No - Not my skating!!!

The Ice At Valley!!!

I got there today at 9:10 and the ice was being cut for the 9:30 public. Thursday is the only day of the week that there is an ice-cut for the 9:30 public and so this week I decided to take advantage of this fact. Not only were they doing an ice-cut, they were putting hot water on the ice.

This is something they should do all of the time, but apparently they don't. I still don't know that much about zambonis and how ice is made (although I do have a video about it that I have never watched...) but if you put hot-water on the ice while you are making it, it makes for a very smooth sheet of ice.

And smooth it was. I could tell from the instant I touched my blade to the ice that I would have a good skate. Fast, smooth ice. A smoother feel than Lloyd Center ice, which has been more "crunchy" of late. I can't describe it exactly, but it feels like butter. Very nice and very smooth.

It is still somewhat sloped, but I think that if I were to choose between having a totally flat rink or a smooth, buttery surface, I would choose the smooth surface. For figures it's nice to have flat ice because you don't feel like you are going to lose your momentum when you go up the hill, or lose control when you go down. For the most part, if you do your figures between the two blue lines (if you can see them) you will not have to deal with the slopes of the ice.

So yes, it is better. It still is a 20-mile round trip for me to go there in the morning. I may make this a "once-a-week" special trip rather than taking the time to go there more often.

But when it's good, it's very very good.

[And when it's bad - it's horrid].

Rink Judging System

2008-04-23T21:11:00.000-07:00

I was thinking today as I skated again on "Little Shiny" (LC Ice) that I could take the new judging system created for judging figure skating (called IJS or International Judging System) and apply it to my judgement of the rinks I skate at in the Portland area. Since I am a judge of figure skating (albeit I don't use this new system very much as a test judge, but I do have some exposure to this system) I figured I am somewhat qualified to use this system in any way I want, so here goes:

So in this judging system the skaters are given two sets of marks by the judges - the "Grade of Execution" for each element in the program - these grades range from -3 to +3, with 0 being "just okay" or "Just right" - nothing special but the element has been performed. -3 is usually given for a fall or a major error on the element. Positive grades of execution (or GOE) are given if the element is really good or even great.

The 2nd set of marks is more subjective (as if those first Grades or Execution or GOE are totally objective, but I digress) - these are the Program Components. These are what used to comprise the old "Presentation" or Artistry" mark in the 6.0 system and include categories like "Skating Skills" "Performance and Execution", "Choreography", etc. These categories are given a score from 1-10 with 10 being the best there ever was or could be (think: John Curry) and 1 being - well, pretty mediocre (think: me or any recreational or beginning skater).

So how does this apply to judging the rinks, you may ask?

For the GOE, we could look at the different elements of what makes a good rink: The quality of the ice could have a certain set value and then we could add or subtract from that value on any given day. We could look at Customer Service, cleanliness, etc. in the same way.

For the Program Components we could set up another set of criteria (although these criteria might be the same, actually, as I haven't defined that many levels of satisfaction yet...) and then could be judged on a scale of 1-10. In the end we could see who "wins" given these criteria that I have arbitarily set up.

I will work on this more in the coming days.

Tomorrow - a lesson at Valley (I hope) to do figures (I hope) and to figure out the categories, etc. - maybe I will even do a [mock] judging!!
Happy skating everyone!

Another Beautiful Day at Little Shiny

2008-04-22T13:26:00.001-07:00

Such beautiful ice! Such beautiful service! 1.5 miles from my house! Warm!

Okay, so the music situation leaves a little to be desired. I think I can play my own CDs on the public, but I'm not sure. It seems like one of the skaters does this, but I can't tell if it is allowed or whether the staff is just placating a certain individual... so today I put on my iPod, which was good, UNTIL they turned the volume up on the speakers so loud that I couldn't hear the iPod!!

Today the ice was so beautiful it looked like glass - literally - or maybe a mirror - just beautiful - maybe just a little crunchy, but who cares?

And it is generally flat, although not completely, which I find amusing... You can't feel it unless you are trying to do figures, which of course, I like to do.

This is my last week of the "free" public sessions (since I am taking a class) and I've decided not to do it for the next 8-week class period since the summer vacation will start at about week 6 of the class and I know that I won't want to go to the publics during the summer. I think.

I will have to think about it.

Maybe I will do some calculations and see if will still make sense to take the class. It will probably turn out cheaper in the long run... even with those weeks of missed public sessions due to "Kool Kamp" (which is a great thing for the kid-set - camp at the ice rink? What a concept!!)

These morning public sessions also seem to be very popular among the "mom and me" crowd (parent and me?) - 3 and 4 year olds coming to skate with their moms. Luckily they are pretty predictable and generally stay around the edges - which is great, unless I am doing some killer dance-patterns...

Well, enough rambling for today. no photographs/graphics as blogger seems to be having some type of problem with that...

Just in from "Skatecam"

2008-04-17T14:21:00.000-07:00

"The ice was really good today!!!"

"And there was no one there." - Skatecam

I do declare!! Good ice at Valley!!

2008-04-16T12:50:00.000-07:00

What possessed me to go to Valley this morning?

Did I know somehow that the ice would be good?

How would I have known that?

It's not like I have the past to go on - sure it's been getting better but it's still so touch-and go...

But today, it was quite beautiful.

The hills are mere rises and the valleys just the gentlest of slopes.

The ice was made this morning at 6am. There were several skaters taking lessons in the time period from 6:15-9:15. There were no further ice-cuts for the supposed 9:30 "public". Since the morning ice has returned there is no semblance of a schedule.

Someone said that they were thinking of asking for an ice-cut around 8:15 but decided against it because they might screw it up - interesting to have to think of it this way...

Apparently they were talking about me at 6am - this would have been good ice for figures. For Lisa. Nice of them to think of me when I was still snoozing away in my little bed. Early morning ice and I have not been friends for quite some time... that's why I work part-time!!

I digress. I got on the ice at 9:15 and although the I couldn't quite see my figures, I did some anyway and the ice was nice. Softer than it has been and no hockey or Zamboni ruts. the usual crowd of skaters came in and we played great music.

I can skate again - just stroking is a complete pleasure! And I'm getting bolder doing turns, etc., although I'm still wary of the slopes and rises which tend to be in the areas where many of the turns are done in dance. But oh well. It was a good practice. On good ice.

So where do we go next time? Is there any way of knowing whether it could possibly be this good again? Like on Friday morning?

With gas at over $3.50 a gallon I still have to think carefully about making the 20-mile round trip there in the morning. and of course the $8 versus the free public at LC - which is a 3-mile round trip from my house...

Dilemmas, Dilemmas. Such is the skating world in PDX...

Quiet Session at "Little Shiny" Rink (LC)

2008-04-15T13:57:00.000-07:00

Oh, it's getting really redundant - skating at the Lloyd Center rink at the 10 am public - very nice... ice is flat... good... very few people on the ice... an opportunity to practice figures for a half-hour and then just having a nice, nice skate... pleasant people who work there...

Is it all just a little bland? The sameness... the niceness... the food court smells...

I could get used to this, but probably won't - most likely heading off to Valley at least one day this week because I got this photograph from the enigmatic "skatecam" this morning of the ice at Valley today.

It looks beautiful - so pristine and white... in reality I heard (again, from the enigmatic "skatecam") that it was still full of hockey ruts (what do you expect for a Tuesday after "old man hockey") had some hills and valleys in the hockey boxes, but was "skateable".

Sigh... What more can you expect?

My loyalties have been split...

I think a Mt. View session is in my future - there is a coffee club there on M and W around noon. will have to try it. Maybe next week...

Smooth as Silk: LC ("Little Shiny Rink")

2008-04-13T20:11:00.000-07:00

Saturday evening dance session at Lloyd Center is usually not so well attended. This can be good or bad depending on how you look at it. It's good because the ice is BEAUTIFUL and well-manicured following the public session that preceeds it (which is no small task I am thinking) which is delightful for any ice-dancer.

It's BAD because there are very few people (men) to skate with!

I made the most of the (bad) situation by just enjoying the ice and working on basics and parts of dances, which is about what I am capable of these days - with anything that requires quick turns and changes on the upper-level dances. I am okay with the lower-level and (mostly) forward dances - these are easy (relatively) and I enjoy skating them with about as much flow as I can muster by myself.

The atmosphere in the mall is a little wild in this early Saturday evening time slot - more people hanging out, more people in the food court (watch out for flying french fries!) and just more onlookers than most of us are used to - but as I've mentioned, you learn to ignore it for the most part (although one is ever-wary of things that might get dropped onto the ice, including, it seems, parents who decide to dangle their child over the edge of the barrier - not too smart considering that in this small rink the ice-dancers sometimes need to get very close to the barrier in order to get the patterns into this small rink. I have not seen it happen, but I would hate for some child to get slammed by oncoming ice-dancers!!!

I had to admit I was a little intimidated that I would get smacked myself last night - there was a team of "elite" ice-dancers on the ice last night doing the dances (or the parts of the dances that they could fit into this rink) and I just couldn't help but feel that I was going to get mowed down (or get in their way) at some point. It never happened, but I did feel uncomfortable, I must admit. It's been a long time since I've skated on the same ice with skaters moving at that speed and with that power (oh how I miss skating in Boston...)...

Another good reason to have a partner, even a temporary one at a social dance session - two people dancing together are far more solid than just me skating solo.

Speaking of partners, I want to congratulate all of the hard-working ice-dance teams that just finished up competing at "Adult Nationals" this past weekend and especially to Laura Rose and Kiel Leighton who were 1st in the Original Dance portion of the Championship Dance competition!!! I must say I LOVED their dance at Pacific Coast Sectionals and can't wait to see it on icenetwork!

Also don't know what happened to Portland's other team of Julia and Jordan who apparently withdrew from both of their events and haven't been heard from since... Strange.

I know that I am not usually into "naming names" in this blog but I just wanted to put out a very big CONGRATULATIONS to all of the skaters from Portland who competed in Lake Placid this weekend. I know that every one of you worked very hard to be there!! Yea!

Let's Not Jump to Any Hasty Conclusions!!

2008-04-11T16:31:00.001-07:00

Okay, so the ice was better than it has been in the past month or so, but it still wasn't flat. At Valley that is.

This is what one person said: "On Wednesday it was great, Thursday it was good, and today (Friday) it was okay". The public session is after morning hockey ("old-man hockey" - I wouldn't call it this, but that is an exact quote from one of the zamboni-guys who works there) and a once-over with the zamboni isn't really enough to get the hockey ruts out. So there were some ruts, not bad, but my blade happened to fall into them a few times, which makes a person more cautious.

And the hills and valleys? They are still there, but they are better than before the zamboni broke. You no longer feel like someone is pushing from behind or that you have to labor to get up the hills. But they are not gone.

Those hills are just waiting to come back, waiting to turn us all into cautious, scared skaters. Waiting. Lurking. It will be just a matter of time I think.

Lighting is also a problem as the "big lights" are largely burned out - so you will go from very bright to darker - sun, shade, sun, shade, sun, shade - kind of like our Portland weather lately... disconcerting.

Word must have gotten out, though, that the ice was better because there were quite a few of the regulars there, plus a few "freestyle kids" and ice-dancers. Hard to do any figures, but oh well, that is for another rink at another time.

Maybe.

Valley Ice

2008-04-10T20:23:00.000-07:00

The Zamboni has been fixed and the ice has also been fixed (or at least significantly improved). There is still a small valley at the ends where the hockey nets sit, but otherwise the ice is flat, and in fairly good shape. I usually go there on Thursday for the early public session (1:30 or so) and have private ice - it would be nice to have some company, as it can seem a little lonely.

Keep on skating.
CHERYN

Zam Fixed??

2008-04-10T08:48:00.000-07:00

Apparently the zamboni has been fixed (I heard it was a problem with the transmission - yikes!) AND reportedly the ice is now good. As of yesterday (Wednesday) afternoon.

AND for those of you wondering, apparently a LOT of the hills (and the valleys) are flattened. I'm not sure how that happened but I will be going out to test it myself tomorrow. I will be sure to use the very scientific method of feeling the ice underneath my blades and also standing still and seeing where my blades take me. (THINK: skiing on the bunny hill).

Maybe there is a god after all.

Who AM I?

2008-04-09T12:34:00.001-07:00

And why I am keeping this blog?

People have been asking how I have so much time to skate AND to write this blog, so maybe I have a little explaining to do: I am a 53-year-old married small animal veterinarian. I do house-call practice and have been for ten years now. I started skating when I was 6 and skated "in a competitive atmosphere" until I was 14 and then quit for all of the usual reasons (teenage-ness for the most part - crappy skating for the other part...).

Fast-forward 16 years: Torville and Dean win the '84 Olympics. I get the skating bug again. I buy some used men's skates and start to skate at the Boston-area rinks. I have just graduated from vet school. I have no money for lessons or new skates and have tons of school loans. So I just skate from time-to-time from my memory. I used to like dance but can't remember the dances so I make them up. I do some lousy freestyle, but it's fun anyway.

Finally, in 1989, someone tells me about an ice-dance class at one of the local rinks. By this time I have my own white skates and decide to take the class. I enjoy re-learning all of the dances but am worried about not having a coach - wondering how that is all going to happen.

Then I took a job on the south shore of Boston. One day this guy comes into the vet practice with these two dogs - little poodles. My boss winked at me and said, "Come and see these dogs" so I went into the exam room with him. I could not understand why he wanted me to see these two dogs because it was an average visit - then the guy says, "Yup, the dogs are with me all day at the rink."

"Rink?" I say - looking at my boss who was grinning from ear to ear. My boss says, "Yeah, this guy is the owner of the rink a couple of blocks from here". so I ask the guy about dance and he said that yes, they had a dance session - at noon on Mondays and Wednesdays and that there were "some younger people there".

So I went and started ice-dancing with the group at that rink and met an ice-dance coach and started testing, etc. I got the bug bad.

So then in 1993 we decided to move to Portland. I wondered if they would have dance and yes, they do - which is great!! Anyway, I worked several types of jobs here in Portland (all vet jobs of course) but always had the intention of starting a house-call practice, partially so I could control my hours and have more time to skate and not have to depend on early-morning ice.

So why do I write this blog?

I like to write, so that is a start. I wanted to blog about SOMETHING and have a lot of opinions about animal care and veterinary medicine that are not particularly popular and I didn't want to get my clients involved. So I started this blog about the rinks in the area.

I do not have any particular training in ice-technology, only what I can feel with my feet through the skates. I realize that some of the problems with the ice (like say, at Valley) is not necessarily due to negligence but to certain engineering factors that I have no way of understanding. So I hope everyone can take my blog with a grain of salt and know that really, I love skating and I enjoy most aspects of skating in the Portland area, including any perceived problems with the ice and/or rinks etc.

So enough about me - I just wanted to get this off of my chest (so to speak).

I also want to send out a big "good-luck" to all of the Portland skaters who are in Lake Placid RIGHT NOW competing in the US Figure Skating Adult Championships. Go Portland skaters!!

Lisa

Zam Alert: Valley!!

2008-04-07T19:57:00.001-07:00

Just got a call from my coach - no ice tuesday at Valley because the zamboni is "broken" - whatever.

I wasn't going to go anyway, but just wanted everyone to know.

Zam alert.

At Lloyd Center, You Never Know

2008-04-04T12:48:00.000-07:00

Who or what is going to see you skate!!

So yeah, some people like the idea of skating in private seclusion at the other area rinks. At Lloyd Center you don't have that luxury - anyone can see you in all of your skating glory, which at times is not so pretty!!

So today I got there for the 10 am public. There were only a few people there and the ice was very nice. I went over to the end and set up some figures and was very happy to be doing so. I was doing a (for me) very nice back-outside eight and I saw these people standing near the corner of the ice looking at me. You learn to not look back and so I ignored them and just concentrated on my figure, the tracing, my position, feeling more CORE, etc. Then I could hear the one guy saying something like, "Hey lady -blah, blah, blah". Again I just ignored him - I figured if he wanted to say something he would say it again.

So as I came around the guy says, "Hey, you know they don't do figures anymore!" I just said, without looking, "Well, I still do!" and that was that. But that bugged me. I thought, "Who is this guy and what does he know about figures or whatever... -- What????"

It really bugged me. I wondered if it was someone I knew. This also really bugged me. Why didn't he just say, "Hi Lisa" or something.

Then I saw his wife and realized who it was - a friend who is quite a joker!!

But still you never know who might see you skating at the Lloyd Center Ice Rink.

And then there are the smells from the food court, wafting down at you...

Fewer valleys at Valley

2008-04-03T15:36:00.000-07:00

Went to Valley this afternoon for the public session. Got there at 1:30 and left about 2:45 - private ice the entire time. Just wanted to report that there seemed to be fewer hills & valleys - just the bad spots at the ends where they put the hockey nets. They seem to be working on improving the ice conditions, at least as of this afternoon.
CHERYN

The Rumors are Flying at Valley!!

2008-04-02T16:23:00.001-07:00

Ha! I knew this would get your attention!! (Really, I had been asked by one reader to include more confirmable gossip - and then that made me wonder - if it is confirmable, is it really gossip?).

I went there today not expecting much. BUT they apparently got a new blade for the zam (aren't they always buying new blades? How long do those things last anyway? Doesn't seem like very long between them having to get a new blade) and the surface of the ice was markedly better with fewer ruts and ridges and zamboni-water lines, etc. (although there was still that one big long line down the left-hand side of the rink - but still).

So at first it seemed okay - but THEN I really really noticed the hills - they are everywhere! If you start standing still between the middle red line and the far blue line and point towards the zamboni-room door, you don't have to push AT ALL and you will go downhill into the zamboni door. It is hilarious. Then when you get to the zamboni door you can make a right-angle right-hand turn and try to make your way up the hill next to the boards to the corner opposite the zam door.

The hockey-goal-boxes are still the worse part - doing a dance pattern which invariably goes into those hockey boxes is impossible - you feel like you are being pushed from behind and then you can't get back up the hill to do the restart. I'm wondering if it is easier with a partner - at least you have someone to hold onto when you feel like you are losing it!!

I have heard that the freestyle skaters are having trouble doing their programs because the jumps are often placed in the corners - they can do the jumps as individual elements in the middle of the ice (easier for loops and salchows and axels I suppose because of how those jumps are shaped - with a flip I would want some power coming into the jump by stroking up the long side first - [of course now that would be known as telegraphing - glad I don't freestyle anymore!!]) and the lutz is generally done headed into the corner but of course you don't have to do it that way) but when it comes to doing their programs the uneveness of the ice is wreaking havoc on the skaters, but I digress.

Okay the rumor is that the manager aparently said they were going to take the ice down in AUGUST and start all over. That's 4 months from now - I don't know if I can wait that long, really.

Can you?

Lloyd Center: The Big Winner!!

2008-04-02T16:19:00.000-07:00

The votes are in and the Lloyd Center Ice Rink is the winner of the Portland Rink Report's "Favorite Skating Rink in PDX" poll.

Wow. I guess it was really no contest. The rink is centrally located, is warm and is pretty friendly. The downside is that it is small. Oh well, I guess that this is not really a problem for most of the readers of Portland Rink Report!!

Thanks for voting. I'll try to come up with a more interesting poll next time.

Last Day to Vote!!

2008-03-31T09:54:00.001-07:00

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!!

2008-03-30T20:12:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-03-28T21:00:00.001-07:00

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

2008-03-26T21:55:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-03-25T17:29:00.000-07:00

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!!

2008-03-24T19:25:00.001-07:00

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!!!

2008-03-21T18:58:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-19T21:42:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-18T20:46:00.001-07:00

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!!

2008-03-16T15:50:00.000-07:00

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??

2008-03-14T14:16:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-11T21:25:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2008-03-09T19:26:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-08T15:10:00.000-08:00

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!!!!!!!!!!

2008-03-07T11:41:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-03-06T16:32:00.000-08:00

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

2008-03-05T16:17:00.001-08:00

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

2008-03-04T16:38:00.000-08:00

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!!

2008-03-02T13:29:00.000-08:00

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!!

The Hills that Are Valley...

2008-02-29T11:52:00.000-08:00

What can I say? Another day of bumpy, hilly ice at Valley - so disappointing after the much-improved ice earlier this week. Am I just getting too spoiled skating at those other, flatter, cleaner rinks? I don't think so.

Trying to do figures there is very difficult. Up-down-up-down - all in the course of one circle! Speeding up right before you do the turn on the 3s is a little disconcerting (think: little screams inside my head) to say the least, especially when you are trying to learn control. I suppose it might be good for my proprioception (the thing in your ear and head that keeps you upright) to try to find that balance point all of the time, but give me a break!!!

Of course, it still feels like "home" and I miss my friends when I am skating at those other, lovely rinks. Makes me wonder how this is all going to play out.

Stay tuned. Will probably skate at Sherwood and LC next week because of the upcoming figures competition. After that - who knows?

Lloyd Center: Public Place... Private Ice!!!

2008-02-28T16:15:00.000-08:00

I haven't been to an early afternoon session at the Lloyd Center - ever! And so I was pleasantly surprised on this sunny day in Portland. I called to find out when the early afternoon ice-cut was and was told that I could get onto the ice at about 1:20. The person on the phone also told me that there would be a short exhibition first - I think this is something they do there quite often since there is an instant audience in the mall. Okay, well, then I won't have PERFECTLY clean ice to do figures, but I also thought there would be more people there in general and I would have to make due with whatever I had ice-wise.

When I first got on the ice there were about 6 people and I was able to set up my figures at one end - no problem. Then everybody left and I had the whole place to myself for about an hour! It was heavenly. It is a little odd to be the only one out there - you are the only one for anyone to look at, but so be it. It was really nice not to have to watch out for ANYBODY and the ice was good and flat and clean. Yippee! Definitely worth the price of admission!

Most likely it was so empty because the weather was so nice and why would anybody but the crazy people be ice-skating on such a beautiful day? I will definitely go back again and make it a point to go in the early afternoon for a very nice practice! Too bad there were no ice-dancers there to skate with (hint-hint) because that would have been it especially, doubly fun!

We can dream, can't we?

Tomorrow, back to Valley for a lesson. Fingers crossed.

Another Good day at Sherwood... mostly

2008-02-27T21:26:00.000-08:00

Went for a late morning/early afternoon of figure practice at Sherwood. Got there around 10:25 am and there was one person on the public session. She was very happy because they had made new ice for her even though she felt it was okay - she was completely thrilled, actually, and couldn't believe it! I got on and worked on figures - the ice was pretty good. It is a little "crunchier" than the ice at Valley lately and sometimes my blade would get caught in the tracing of my previous trace on any individual figure. Kind of disconcerting, but partially my fault for wearing dance blades (with a deep hollow) for figures, instead of wearing figure blades which would have a shallower, flatter grind and so I'm guessing I wouldn't have that problem and the blade would also run smoother. Oh, well, that will come later.

I asked if they would turn the lights down as I had heard that they were going to turn the lights lower for the figure competition. The zamboni guy said they hadn't decided exactly what they were going to do yet but he would turn them down for me. That was nice. I liked having the lights turned down because it seemed more calm than with that bright, white, "supermarket" lighting that they sometimes have.

I got off the ice at 11:30 because I thought they would be doing an ice cut for the Coffee Club like they did last week. I asked about it when it became obvious they weren't going to clean the ice and the zamboni guy said no, the ice was fine and I could still do figures on the ice the way it was. I was a little confused because last week the ice had been used much less and yet they cleaned it for the Coffee Club. So we got out and skated and it was fine but I couldn't see the logic in the whole thing, but then again I've seen that logic (or lack thereof) at all of the rinks in the area at one time or another.

On the way home from work this afternoon I stopped by at Valley to ask my coach for a lesson later this week. She said that the ice had not been good there in the morning and that one of her older students had decided that she wasn't going to skate there anymore. It really is too bad that they are losing a lot of people and it's strictly because of the safety of the ice - at least that is what they are saying.

Tomorrow my plan is to go to Lloyd Center for an early afternoon skate. I have to find out when they will be doing an ice-cut and plan to go so that the ice is clean so that I can do some figures. I hope it is not crowded. I like doing figures there because the ice is flat (those curlers have to have it that way!) and the lines they have for the curling really help me set up my figures - I know that my figures should be a certain size to fit within some of the lines - that is great and that is what I need at this point of my practice for the upcoming competition.

Great Day at Valley!!!!!!

2008-02-26T12:38:00.000-08:00

Well, the ice was in great shape today at Valley!! And I mean that in the best possible way - it was really great ice - probably the best it has been in months and months!!

I got to the session a little late this morning - probably should have gotten on at the very beginning so I'd have really clean ice to do figures - there were several skaters on the ice when I got there - oh well, since there are no patch sessions anymore, I guess I just have to take what I can get - and it was all pretty good!!

One of the skaters today noticed how thick the ice was - you barely have to step down when you get on - it is a little disconcerting. You also cannot see the lines at all - I keep wondering how they play hockey there - like, can the refs actually see the plays and violations and all that if they can't see the lines? Will there be more fights than usual because of bad calls? I don't know as I don't know that much about hockey, but I can imagine that that would be a problem at times. As a figure skater I don't care so much, although when doing actual figures you use the lines for orientation of your circles, and well, that can't be done at Valley!!

Speaking of hockey, I heard a rumor that the early-morning hockey practices (the ones on Mondays and Wednesdays that took the place of the early-morning freestyles) will be coming to an end soon, as it is the end of hockey season. What that means for the figure skaters remains to be seen, since most of the people that used to come to those freestyle sessions are skating at other rinks these days. Hopefully for those of us that skate the later freestyle and morning public sessions, the ice will be better than it is after that "big-boy" hockey practice in the morning. Yikes, those guys sure chew up the ice!!

I wish there was a clean and warm place to stretch before and after skating at Valley. I always end up just using the wall or the bench to stretch out on but it would be great to be able to get down on the floor. I have used a yoga mat in the past (the one that I keep in my car, NOT the one that I bring to the yoga studio - I wouldn't want to mess up the floor of the studio with whatever I might track in from the floor in the open-room/snack-bar/changing area at Valley!) but it is drafty and cold on the floor so it is less than optimal for warming up and cooling down -- too cold! I've tried stretching in the pro's room but that option is not open to everyone I guess (it helps to have friends who are also your coaches!).

All in all a good skate... but it is so inconsistent (no, not my skating, - the ice!). I want to go there later this week but I always wonder... will it be worth it?? I made it a point to tell both the zamboni guy and the rink manager how pleased I was with the ice today. I don't know if that will help, but it certainly can't hurt!!

Mt. View - another skater's perspective

2008-02-25T14:06:00.000-08:00

Lauren Zell contributed the following comments regarding the Mt. View Ice Arena in Vancouver, WA - just over the bridge from Portland (http://www.mtviewice.com/) - thank you Lauren!!!

"I skate at Mountain View on Monday and Tuesday mornings from 6 – 8. The first session in the morning is at 5:00 and the ice is resurfaced every two hours. I find the ice smooth, but it is softer after the 7:00 resurface. Today after the resurfacing, the lutz corner still had pockmarks from a skater’s double lutz/double toe combos in the previous hour. Some slushy ice filled in the worst divots.

The management is friendly. There is a heat lamp above some of the benches where you put your skates on, but the aluminum benches are cold (I wear one pair of tights and a georgette skirt so probably notice this more than most skaters)

My biggest frustration is with the music. The rinkside music system consists of a dual cd unit, a dual cassette unit and a receiver. The track indicator for the cd unit doesn’t work, so if you are using a cd with dances of several types on it, you hope that you’ve pushed the forward/back button enough times. Also, the cd has a variable speed lever, so I’m never sure if we’re doing the dances to the right tempo.

Today’s frustration stemmed from not being able to get sound from the cassette unit through the speakers. "

Lauren

Lloyd Center - A Welcome Respite from the Cold

2008-02-24T14:46:00.000-08:00

The social ice-dance sessions at the rink in the Lloyd Center Mall (http://www.lloydcenterice.com/) are a welcome respite from the cold rinks. The ice is smaller than the normal NHL size rinks in the area - it is quite a bit narrower and I believe a little shorter than the normal rink. It is also quite warm.

The ice is generally well-maintained - especially since they also have curling at this rink - the curlers are notoriously picky about having the ice surface being slick and flat and fast. This pickiness spills over to the figure-skaters and usually they can count on having pretty good ice and this weekend was no exception.

The guy who made the ice this weekend drives the zamboni very slowly - some may complain about how long it takes to make the ice, but it is good ice. I have also heard people say that this ice is kind of slow because it is softer than the ice at the other rinks, but I don't really experience it that way. Sometimes the ice seems kind of "crunchy" but this weekend I thought it was pretty good.

We had some new people at the dance session today - the man was an experienced free-style skater and his wife a beginning skater. The wife was told that she couldn't skate on this session because she was a beginner. I really don't like this kind of thing - we need to find a way to get the beginning skaters interested in ice-dance... maybe they could have a class or something. Eventually we worked it out that if she stayed out of everyone's way and mostly skated around the perimeter she would be okay. I think she and her husband were grateful that we made it possible for them to skate. I know several beginning-level ice-dancers that feel intimidated by the dance sesions (and believe me, I TOTALLY understand, feeling intimidated myself at times, although I'm pretty experienced). I don't know what the answer is exactly, except that everyone must watch out for themselves and try to be aware of where everyone else is. Knowing the dance patterns helps.

I'm hoping that someone will come forward to help me co-author this blog - apparently we can have up to 100 authors - not sure yet how that works, but if someone is interested please contact me - maybe if you make a comment I can contact you. Somehow we should get together in any case!

Friday February 22 - Valley

2008-02-22T17:14:00.000-08:00

Well, I went back to Valley this morning, dreaming of clean beautiful ice. Of course I was disappointed as we had the lovely rutted stuff that we've had lately. Luckily there were none of those huge yellow bumps which seem to happen when it has been raining and there is a lot of condensation.

I managed to find some spots to work on my figures for Adult Sectionals which is happening in two weeks. But it is funny that when the ice is smooth I don't notice how uneven it is, but today with all of the ruts and having to be especially careful, I notice the hills again.

I asked one of the zamboni guys why there could be good ice one day and not the next. He said that if they clean it twice then it's okay but the other guy this morning only did one round with the zamboni. I know it takes more time and more energy and water, but could they possibly just care about us a little?

On the other hand, I still had a good skate. I generally like the atmosphere there because the people are friendly and we can do whatever we want with the music, etc. I guess it's that slacker attitude that when brought into another arena (so to speak), it makes for a good experience. If only the ice were better!

Tomorrow I am doing a judging critique at the Lloyd Center Ice Rink (http://www.lloydcenterice.com/) for the Skating Club of Oregon (http://www.skatingcluboforegon.org/) for all of the Adults that are going to Pacific Coast Adult Sectionals, which will be held at Sherwood Ice Arena this year. The event is open to all adults who are competing there regardless of club affiliation. I love this attitude of inclusiveness and am glad that my club is open to hosting all of the adult skaters. It is a good place for people to put out their programs in front of an audience a couple of weeks before the competition. Of course, being in a mall, the rink is small and somewhat warm, but there are also a lot of people who watch the skaters and that is good for someone who is going to be competing and will get them used to having an audience, or at least onlookers.

Portland Ice Rink report #1

2008-02-21T20:52:00.000-08:00

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.