“The Olympic Experience”

Just a little update to tell you about my trip to Vancouver, BC. I was there during the International ISU World Adult Competition which was being held at the Burnaby Rink 8 facility, which, yes–has 8 friggin’ rinks! But I knew my family was not going to be into hanging out in some rink in Burnaby and watching adult skaters compete. So, since it was a family occasion with a packed agenda of stuff to do that did not involve skating, I did not go. (It is held in Vancouver every two to three years, though. I’m developing a tentative plan to return for a private, all skating Vancouver trip….)

Skating, Richmond Oval, BC from Lisa Ferris on Vimeo.

I did, however, take my skates and my son, Naim and I went to the Richmond Oval (where the speed skating oval was in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics) and had a lot of fun skating there. The big speed skating oval is no longer there (wouldn’t that have been fun?), but they have two full-sized rinks and we skated in the middle of the day on one with very few other people. It was a really nice skating experience. My son and I were laughing because everywhere it had signs saying “This way to the Olympic Experience!” Well, not quite, but it was a really nice facility.

Vancouver has a plethora of rinks. I was jealous. You are never more than about a 30 minute bus ride (or probably a ten minute car ride) from some available ice in Van. Skating in the big rink with not a lot of people made me really miss that experience I used to have in Portland when I skated at Clackamas Town Center. It made me…think about trying out the Sherwood rink.

Between my old skates and the big rink, I was able to do things I haven’t done in years. It was just more relaxing to have all the space. I thought, hmmm. I had discounted the Sherwood rink because of the distance, but if I time it just right, It would take an hour and 18 minutes to get there (vs. about an hour and ten minutes to get to Lloyd), plus I could go any day of the week except weekends (I am making an assumption here about daytime quiet at this rink, this is actually going to take some experimenting.) And I could go when the kids are at their school and stuff.

I would miss my Hooky Club ladies, though. And so I don’t know if its worth it. Its going to take a bit of experimenting. I am going to try it Wednesday and see how it is and see how they are with me. It doesn’t hurt to try it once or twice. If it doesn’t work out, then I can always continue with Lloyd, or do some kind of combination of both.

I’m working on my skates. I went to Cyclone Taylor Sports in Vancouver which is HUGE skating store. Figure skating only. I looked at getting new Reidells, but decided no. I can’t justify that after my Edea purchase. I may have a buyer for my Edeas, but she wants her own blades (and I want the Reidell dance blades, so that works out). So also on Wednesday I am going to do some skate doctoring. I am going to try to get the toe box on my old skates stretched a little, sharpen my dance blades, take them off the new skates and move them to the old, and re-shoe string the old skates, polish them, and then I bought a Reidell skate arch support kit that when I get it I will experiment with that a little. Then, I will have a hopefully nice pair of skates that will be comfortable and last several more years. And get a little money back from my Edeas. I would say “lesson learned” but I really don’t know how you can learn this lesson without putting blades on the skates and trying them out for a period of time, which is what I did, and then you can’t return them. So, I acted in good faith and I don’t know how I could have really prevented this, but there you go.

Skating could be sporadic while I experiment a little and have my skates in the shop, but there is always Daily Burn!