Question for Lee Valley skaters

[23inmyhead]

I skate at Hemel which is closing very soon so my friends and I are looking for an alternative rink where we can all skate and practice what we want to even though we are at different levels.


Lee Valley is one of the rinks we are considering. We all want to be able to skate on the same session and they are good enough to skate on patch but I'm not. They want to be able to practice spins and jumps etc so what we want to know is if Lee Valley allow jumping, spinning etc on a public session?
Also, do you have to take lessons there to use patch and what happens if you aren't at the minimum level for patch but are having lessons - when do you skate?


Thanks for your help.

[Sakuracherry]

Hi 23inmyhead,

Lee Valley definitely allows jumping and spins on public sessions! Many people have lessons on the evening publics, if you aren't of a high enough level for patch. I you want to use patch you do have to become a member of the rink and get a membership card, but that's free I think, they just need your details on the computer...

[23inmyhead]

Sakuracherry
Thanks so much for the information, that's really useful.

[itsallok]

Patch at LV is really quite flexible compared to others I've read about here, with (I believe) official levels being only SkateUK 5 for the novice level patches in the afternoons.  But I see people on Novice and Junior patches who are at very basic levels - they do have lessons but not every time they come.  I believe afternoon patches are more crowded than they used to be because that's when people from the (currently closed) Romford rink are able to come.

I'm sure you can jump and spin in public sessions if there's room, and some can be  empty (early weekday afternoons?) and others are far too crowded.

Also, I've been the only person on the ice at some AP public sessions too, which might be easy from Hemel.