Rink 2

Yesterday I attended a special skating session at Gateway, it was a fundraiser for a family whose daughter is in skate school. They had lost their home and business -- pretty much everything -- in a fire. The special attraction for me (other than altruism) was that this fundraiser was an hour session on Rink 2. Rink 2 is the back rink at Gateway; it's used for hockey and for freestyle sessions, never for public sessions or skate school. Therefore I'd never skated on that ice. I was curious what it would be like.

The session was very uncrowded at the beginning (5 -8 people!) but picked up a bit for the last half. The ice was... different. It's hard to say exactly how. They had just Zamboni'd it before the session, and it was really nice. I think it's a little colder/harder. I spent the hour working on my right foot glide and my turn, but I spent the bulk of it working on my backward swizzles some more since it was not crowded. I must have spent a good half-hour just doing backward swizzles across the width of the rink at the far end. It was a good workout, and by the end I was able to (usually) bring my boots together (touching!) between swizzles. Having gotten to that point I did try briefly lifting one foot (backward one foot glide) but I probably managed no more than a second. Well, Rome wasn't built in a day. It was a productive session. I'd be better off doing that every day, probably, than longer sessions 3 times a week. If Gateway ever had morning sessions (currently first session is 9:30 a.m.) I'd probably go for an hour.