Got Skates!!

[dreamshark]

When I first moved to Minnesota, 30-odd years ago, I had figure skates and used to go skating on the neighborhood rinks. As the years went by there seemed to be too much snow to keep the rinks clear, and then the snow started to disappear but so did Park Board funding and there were fewer places to skate each year. Somewhere in there my feet actually grew a complete size and my skates simply didn't fit anymore. Occasionally I would look for new figure skates, but never found any that fit.

A week ago Sunday I was in Dick's Sporting Goods looking for gym shoes and decided to take a look at the (pathetically tiny) skate department. I think I was inspired by the Olympics. Like most general sporting goods stores, they had exactly one brand of cheap plastic figure skates, one pair in each size. They didn't even HAVE women's skates (but that's okay because women's skates are too narrow for my feet anyway). Lo and behold, the men's size 8 fit damn near perfectly! I bought them and have skated 5 times since.

This past week has been nearly perfect skating weather - no snow, little wind, and temps in the 20's. Unfortunately, Minneapolis has almost completely abandoned the pretense of providing ICE. I remember when every park had a rink - these days a community park with a skating rink is the exception rather than the rule. And the ice looks like they flooded it once in December and never again since: most of the rinks are studded with big lumps and pocked with bare patches. The only rink left in my immediate neighborhood, Lyndale Farmstead, was barely skatable early in the week, and completely unusable by Saturday. The best I found was probably Powderhorn, where you can actually skate on a real pond. Not only is it water all the way down, they actually flood it now and then to keep the surface smooth.

Anybody seen any skatable ice lately? No matter what the Mpls Park Board thinks, there's at least a month of winter left to go!

Comments

[laurel]

Have you tried the rink in the old depot down town yet? I've been curious about it, it looks really cool. (Alas, I haven't skated in years and don't have skates).

I know I've seen a decent looking rink in some park or other around here, maybe Kevin will know what I'm thinking of.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

If you mean the indoor rink, I've seen it but haven't skated on it. I would like to try that one when the weather gets to the point where you really can't skate outside. At the moment, I'm looking at skating more as a way of enjoying the outdoors in the wintertime than as an end in itself.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I have new skates, too! I haven't been skating, because of no reason I can recall. Did they set up a rink on Lake of the Isles?

K. [call me when you go next; I'd love to go too]

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

Traditionally, Lake of the Isles has been the premier outdoor skating site in Minneapolis, sort of the Little Apple's answer to skating in Central Park. I haven't tried them yet, but it's probably the best chance of maintained ice. Want to try it? Maybe tonight? Supposedly, the Minneapolis rinks that have lights keep them on until 9pm.

[pameladean]

The Park Board has had its funding cut repeatedly, so I doubt that it's their definition of winter that is really to blame.

I was just walking by Lyndale Farmstead. It has great trees.

P.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

Yes, I know they have their funding problems. But it's also a question of priorities. I think it's very weird that they are willing to pay to keep a warming house open but not willing to pay to flood the ice often enough to keep the ice usable. Ice without a warming house is fine; a warming house without ice is a waste of money.

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

Powderhorn would have been my suggestion.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I just queried the Minneapolis mailing list; maybe one of them knows something.

K.