Lace Up, It's Time for Outdoor Skating!

Skating in NYC is a classic and popular winter pastime. Did you know there are 14 skating rinks open for public skating in the city this season?! The most famous rink without a doubt is the Rink at Rockefeller Center which opens for the season tomorrow and Wollman Rink at Central Park is scheduled to open next weekend, Sat Oct 19 (weather permitting)!

Check out my Nov. 18, 2018 post on my two favorite outdoor NYC skating rinks- The Rink at Rockefeller Center and The Winter Village at Bryant Park, https://figureskatingetc.squarespace.com/new-blog/2018/11/18/top-us-family-ice-skating-rinks-forbes-nov-16-2018

Wollman Rink is located on 59th Street and 6th Avenue- a short five-minute walk from Central Park’s south entrance. Believe it or not, I have never skated in this iconic rink since I moved here from Boston when I was five yrs old. I love the NYC and love Central Park and will definitely put it on my list of to-dos for this winter. While this odd-shaped trapezoid rink is four times larger and half the cost of the Rink at Rockefeller Center, it does get quite crowded because there is no rule regarding the maximum number of skaters on the ice. However, you can skate to your heart’s content - all day if you like- and enjoy the stunning Manhattan skyline view. If you didn’t know, the Wollman rink was constructed by Donald Trump and it’s been featured in several popular movies including, Home Alone 2 and Serendipity. For more info, check out https://www.wollmanskatingrink.com

Photo courtesy of https://www.wollmanskatingrink.com

The Rink at Brookfield Place (formerly World Financial Center) opened in 2013 and is located at the North Cove Marina on the Hudson River Waterfront in Battery Park City. It also is a great place to skate and take in the breathtaking views of lower Manhattan. The rink will open in November and offer skating and hockey classes. Its figure skating programs are hosted by skating Olympians, Melissa Gregory and Denis Petukhov. One of the rink’s special festive events is its contemporary rock/pop Winter Ice Holiday Concert Show, ‘Stars United’. The show will be on Dec 10 and 11 at 7pm and will feature figure skating Olympians along with Iconic Vogue dancers and singers. Be sure to check it out! https://www.therinkatbrookfieldplace.net

Photo courtesy of https://www.downtownmagazinenyc.com/rink-at-brookfield-place-returns/

The other ten skating rinks in NYC are …
Manhattan- Sky Rink at Chelsea Pier (Pier 61); Laser Rink at Central Park (106-108th St); Riverbank State Park Rink (679 Riverside Drive
Brooklyn- Abe State Park (Coney Island Boardwalk); Aviator Sports and Events Center Rink (Floyd Bennett Field); Lakeside (Prospect Park)
Queens- City Ice Pavilion (47-32 32nd Place); World Ice Arena (Flushing Meadows Corona Park)
Staten Island- Staten Island Skating Pavilion (Tottenville); WW II Veterans War Memorial Ice Skating Rink (Clove Lakes Park)
https://www.nycgo.com/articles/new-york-skate-of-mind

have fun creating wintry magical memories in nyc
Make sure to layer up!

What is “bad ice?”

Photo courtesy: https://www.usfsa.org/content/What%20Makes%20Quality%20Ice.pdf

I know many of my skater parents have heard their children complain lately that the ice has been ‘bad' and consequently, they couldn’t skate well. You may not never taken your child’s complaints seriously because you probably thought it was just an excuse for his/her bad practice. Well, let me explain why your child was not making up an excuse and in fact, poor quality ice can negatively affect your child’s skating. When your child is complaining of ‘bad ice’, he/she is actually referring to the ice being too hard or soft and/or too slow or fast. I, too, have complained about skating on ‘bad ice’ and blamed it for not being able to do my twizzles or footwork or land my jumps. So when my class skated on wet soft ice again this past weekend, I got curious and decided to look into what is the perfect ice surface for figure skaters. I’m not a science person and definitely not an expert in chemistry but wanted to learn and understand  so I can provide a more scientific answer to my skaters and parents.

Temperature is a big factor affecting ice quality- the colder the ice the harder it is and faster you go. It also is a smoother surface. You would think ice should be kept at 32 degrees F since we all learned in school that it’s the temperature required to change liquid to solid.  However, that temperature is not ideal for quality ice. The ice is warmed by heat from the air, lights, & humidity in the rink as well as people. The surface temperature of ice needs to be kept colder than 32 degrees F to stop the ice from melting,

There are different ideal ice surface conditions for different sports. Speed skating ice is around 2.5 to 3 cm thick, requiring a thin sheet of ice to help minimize resistance/grip and maximize quickness.  Its ideal temperature is 15 to 23 degrees F. Hockey ice is about the same thickness but its ideal temperature is slightly warmer to be around 17 to 23 degrees F. 

Figure skating, on the other hand, requires a thicker layer of ice of about 4.5 to 5 cm to absorb the impact of jump take-offs and landings.  Did you know that male skaters weighing 150 pounds or more can land on the ice after a jump with more than 1000 lbs of pressure?…that’s a whole lot of extraordinary force! 

Figure skating ice is the softest (wamest) of all surfaces. The ideal temperature for figure skating ice needs to be warmer than speed skating/hockey ice at around 24 to 26 degrees F. If the ice is too cold (below 20 degrees F), then it becomes hard and brittle. Having brittle ice affects the smoothness because when you dig your toe pick into the ice for a jump, a piece of ice will break out. Instead, figure skating ice needs to be soft so it grips the edges of the blades better and ice won’t shatter from the impact of big jumps.

Ice varies from rink to rink and even in the same rink over time. So next time your skater complains of ‘bad ice’, you now know that he/she may not be giving you an excuse but in fact, had to skate on not so ideal ice surface which affected his/her skating.