Outdoor winter rinks

[Snufkin]

I was so looking forward to outdoor winter skating once the annual outdoor rink opens in my home city of Newcastle. However I just heard from the Centre for Life, who run it, that they don't allow any skating "moves", including skating backwards. Well it seems to me that without being able to do basic stuff like that there's really nothing of value I can do at a rink for an hour. Once you've got the basic idea of moving without falling over, I find that just skating forwards repeatedly around the edge of the rink is not really worth doing (certainly not worth paying £9/hour for!).

Are there any outdoor winter rinks close-ish to Newcastle (preferably on the East Coast Main Line) that will allow us any more freedom than that? I'm not asking to be allowed to practice my barrier-clearing triple lutz here (ha), just to be able to work on some careful edges, turns and crossovers in some unusual surroundings.

p.s. I very politely and positively suggested to the Centre for Life that they might consider running a couple of special sessions next year that allowed slightly more involved skating, so that even if I can't attend regularly, I would be able to experience skating outdoors in my lovely city centre. I suspect this suggestion will go straight into the round file but it's always worth a try.

[WednesdayMarch]

I was so looking forward to outdoor winter skating once the annual outdoor rink opens in my home city of Newcastle. However I just heard from the Centre for Life, who run it, that they don't allow any skating "moves", including skating backwards.

That's ridiculous!  Do you think it's a "health and safety/insurance cost' thing.

I always thought - probably wrongly - that one of the reasons for putting these outdoor rinks into city centres (other venues are, no doubt available) was to encourage people into the area, to watch as well as skate.  Well, it's not overly exciting watching a load of people stumbling or skating around in a clockwise direction, with no other points of interest, other than the occasional wipeout. 

What a shame.  For everybody, skaters and spectators.  I do hope they can change their policy on this.

[Snufkin]

Yes, apparently it's for the safety of the novice skaters and children. I did think that in my experience of public sessions, by far the biggest hazard on the ice is actually novice skaters trying to go fast before they've learned to stop or control their direction properly. More experienced skaters are typically good at assessing the space and avoiding everybody else adeptly.

That's an excellent point about the spectator aspect of it. Currently I'm just messaging their social media person but I might try and get an email address for the person who organises the outdoor rink and see if I can construct a polite argument with all of these points in it. I'd love to make it a regular winter haunt, particularly since it's on my way back from work so would be much easier to get to than my regular rink.

[WednesdayMarch]

Social media may well turn out to be your friend in this case, especially if you can get other people to maybe tweet about how disappointed there are that Newcastle doesn't appear to have anybody who can actually skate and that they were hoping to watch something lovely while they enjoyed their coffee/strudel/whatever...  I really, really love the power of Twitter for getting companies to see sense!

[black]

Give these people a call;

http://www.beamish.org.uk/events/christmas-at-beamish/

www.beamish.org.uk/plan-your-visit/

[The ice mouse]

If you are travelling by train, then you could try York. It is out at the Designer Outlet, but there are plenty of buses from the centre as it also has the Park & Ride. They have rules, but not as bad as the Centre for life. The even have a tree in the centre of the rink to skate round.


You have to pay to get into Beamish before you can get to the rink. There is also one at Sunderland and Wynyard (although Wynyard do not let you use your own skates)

[Snufkin]

Well I had a response from the lady I was messaging. She had the following to say:

Thanks for your interesting comments about potentially hosting separate sessions for serious skaters.

I've passed these comments on within the organisation, and after some discussion it has unfortunately been decided that we couldn't hold specific slots for figure skaters.

However, we might be able to find a time in Jan or Feb when the rink is quiet enough to figure skate. The best thing to do is to call us after Christmas and we can recommend a suitable time for you to pop down.

So, it's not the optimal outcome, but hey, it's not nowt. Given I was expecting it to go nowhere.

The Ice Mouse - thank you, great options! The Sunderland one looks great, it seems like they have actual coaching sessions and stuff so skaters will presumably have some latitude. I will definitely arrange some trips down there while it's on.

[The ice mouse]

Snufkin


Where do you normally skate

[Snufkin]

Whitley Bay 

[skatebrasil]

Lol, obviously a non skater with no experience of rink management.