Only $6 for public skate. It's a great form exercise, plenty of parking, and it's a fair decently arena. They have public skate nearly every day but I went twice over break and I had some annoying experiences. The owners/skate guards don't really take the time to police the rink so there are a lot of dangerous situations.
The first time was before Christmas and it was in the morning. Figure skating was before free skate so there were a lot of figure skaters when public skate opened. However, they were not skating around the rink nicely and would often do "tricks" into the edge of the arena, or main skating path. After about a half hour, hell broke loose and every child under the age of 5 decided to skate. In opposite directions. With figure skaters. Without their parents. Very fast. It was ridiculous that parents were just letting their kids out without them, especially if the kids couldn't skate. The owner/manager did take two of the figure skaters and had them set up a children's section in a third of the rink which did help.
I'm sorry, but if your five year old knocks over my boyfriend and he falls and smooshes them, it's your own fault. It luckily didn't happen but we had to stop short over and over to try to avoid them (and the figure skaters). I could see a lot of injuries happening if you were just learning to skate and you happened to be over 5.
We went again on a Saturday night but instead of figure skaters, there were all the 6th graders of Norfolk with the little kamikaze 5-year-olds. There were skate guards this time but they were about 15 and didn't do anything to stop 5 girls from linking arms and trying to Red Rover take out all the people around them. Namely my giant boyfriend who would easily break someone if he fell on them. It's great to see kids out doing something productive but they were still going in different directions, cutting people off, and whipping other kids around.
If you want a nice peaceful experience, go on a school day when they aren't there. I'm happy they have plenty of business because I love open skates but I'm not excited to jump back in there. read more