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

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].