Skating fast when rink is busy?
Hey everyone, this is my first thread on the new site.
I wanted to ask sort of a general question, when you’re at the rink and it starts to get a little crowded how do you handle being a faster skater? I am not the fastest guy in the world but I am quicker than the normal person who goes to the rink, I always try to adhere to the “faster skaters to the outside” rule and I don’t go as fast as I can but I find that just sort of “cruising” around the rink I am running up behind people pretty regularly and NO ONE seems to understand that they should stay to the center if they are a beginner or are going slow. I tend to base my position on the floor in/out on how fast I am going. If I slow down I move in and vice versa but the average person doesn’t do that. The beginners want to stay outside and balance on the wall, kids cut across the floor at random, the skate trainers are insane! And the kids with those are trying to skate way above their ability and fall a lot, usually right in front of you. I try to be courteous and slow down a little, I pick my lines ahead of time so that I’m not running up on people whenever possible but you’ll always have those people who just cut across in front of you and you can’t help that. I have seen some people who are going as fast as they can and having tons of close calls, I try not to be that guy but sometimes it happens anyway for whatever reason.
My question is, what is considered the appropriate behavior? Should I just go super slow? Should I continue to carefully swerve in and out of traffic? I don’t want to hurt anyone out there, especially a kid but I am just trying to roll around and if I just skate the way I skate I go a little quicker than the beginners out there.
Am I the jerk here?
Comments
Imo its inevitable that swerving will cause a collision eventually no matter how god you are at skating. My remedy was to go to a different rink that wasnt as popular and that had staff that tell the kids not to skate straight out in front of people or in the reverse direction . Ie clockwise.
Newer skaters don't really know the whole ettiquette thing and they won't internalize it until they can move faster. I don't like talking to people while I'm skating but I do pick key individuals to tell them what's standard/better. Being a clean example goes a long way. When I am skating slower and practicing newer tech, I go to the middle area/ the inner ring. When I'm doing chain sliding and need moderate speed, I take the appropriate lane. For 1/2-rink slides, I take speed on the outer lane and slide at max speeds. The more you provide clean examples, the more obvious it becomes that it's the good thing to do.
There were some newer skaters at the rink that I frequent and they were on the outer lanes doing their thing; toward the end of the night, they found their way to the middle to get their practice in. (Sure they were a little older than your standard twerp but I think the example stands.)
If you have good tech and control, take the corners and weave in and out around there. I think the more we let absolute beginners do whatever, the harder it is to keep a semblance of order. It's a reoccuring "issue" becuae new skaters join on a regular basis. It is up to the more experienced people to set good examples and maintain the culture. Of course, evolving the culture is important too.
I skated a lot at Champions in Spring Texas. Great floor! The crowd varies a lot there. Experienced vs beginners everyday.
You are going to crash into people. Kids and people that are new do not know of or have any knowledge of the flow of a rink. They change directions on a whim or a wave from a friend.
I am amoung the group of faster skaters. We self regulate. We also flag others going fast to warn of an issue ahead. When traffic is thick we slow down. When it thins and people we recognise on the floor are of the predictable type, we crank it up. Every rink has a flow pattern. You learn that in some rinks people skate in a shorter circle even on a long floor. The others skate the entire length of the floor, generally a faster rink. Wall entry/exits also affect danger areas and interruption of flow. Learn your rink. Follow the rules and learn your surroundings.
Good advice everyone, thanks for chiming in. The issue hasn’t really improved. I have done different sessions to see if things would be better at certain times or on certain days and it’s pretty much the same all the time. When we went last Saturday night, thinking maybe the better skaters would come out and the families wouldn’t nothing was different from a Saturday day session or a Sunday. The biggest thing with the night session was that there was a floor guard BUT, he was not a good skater, struggling around on a pair of rental in lines and he really didn’t do his job. He seemed far more interested in socializing than safety. In fact, he cut directly in front of me 3 times without even looking before he cut across the floor and the last time he slammed me directly into the wall like a board check in hockey! So, I think I’m out on Saturday night, it costs more and it isn’t any better.
We went today and the owners were there, they usually aren’t. The lady is a fantastic skater and she tried to keep some order but, there is just so much chaos here. I watched a kid enter the floor, go straight across the center, take someone out along the way, and then proceed to skate opposite the flow! I say “kid” but she was probably 12-13 and competent on the skates. Tons of skate trainers running around and putting kids in bad situations, even a father not on skates walking his kid, on a trainer around the rink in the middle lane. Then the kids who can sort of carry some speed but they have no control but they’re trying to weave in and our of traffic, it’s just shocking that it’s gotten so bad. IWhen I was younger in the mid 90’s and starting out I don’t remember anything like it is now, but maybe it was, maybe I was the kid in the way, I dunno.
Either way, I like our local rink, the floor is good, prices are half or less of what other rinks charge and they’re open both days of the weekend. I guess I’m just griping but man, I wish something could be done with the problems, it’s dangerous as out of control as it is there but I don’t know that other rinks would be any better, guess I need to try them and see.
As an adult-night only fast skater, I was also told to stay on the outside. Problems with that are:
Like others, I gotta judge my surroundings and skate accordingly. Kinda sucks when a good tune is playing and you get a good roll on.
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We self regulate our speed. If traffic is light, we fly. Starts to get crowded, we slow down. If you have to touch other skaters to get around the floor at your speed, you are going too fast. A person still has to respect the rinks rules though.
Occasionally (especially during crowded sessions), I will have to call down a good skater for excessive speed. I do hate to dampen their enjoyment, but, for all the reasons stated in the previous posts, it must be done. We are fairly strict about speeding and what we call 'reckless skating' (weaving in and out, cutting across the centre, etc.).
Sorry, chiliphil1, but you would probably get called out from time to time during crowded sessions in our rink.
I like the ice crowded. Nobody else skates like me. I use the double push to generate instant speed and then just carve it up around the other skaters. I never get called out, I never hit anyone and I never fall. One rink I skate at has the most awesome hockey guys - they're all 100 times better than me at anything hockey but they don't fit into the flow of the public skate. I do and I can tell that the other skaters like it. I think that's what makes the difference. I'm fast but I'm under control and I keep everyone else on the ice safe. I often get asked if I'm ex-NHL or if I give lessons. I'm not and I don't, but it's a nice way to meet new people.
Would like to point out there is clearly a difference between controlled and uncontrolled fast skaters. The Uncontrollers go fast, yet are still a little wobbly and just don't have the instinct and finesse to avoid/avert situations. I avoid these Uncontrollers as much as possible. The Controllers can hit most all situations and have an out that is anticipated, calm, controlled, and reflexed ; no falling, no running into someone, etc.
I love to weave thru traffic and my skate rink certainly knows who can and can't do it effectively and safely. I'm much more concerned about uncontrolled fast skaters than wobbly newbies as I can anticipate the newbies. With uncontrolled fast skaters you never know what boneheaded thing they will try, often at the expensive of a newbie.
I agree that controlled fast skaters are not really a hazard. But the problem is that if you let them skate fast, then other, uncontrolled fast skaters will argue that they should be allowed to skate fast also, which creates a hazard. As much as I would like to say, 'They're better than you and know how to skate so suck it up,' I can't because of how bad the PR would be with such an action.
The appropriate behavior is to skate smart. Every time you decide to go fast, assess the risks associated with skating fast on that night, and at that point in the night. I generally only go to adult-night sessions at the rinks I go to and I'm usually the fastest person there. When I'm shuffle skating or fast skating I'm always going significantly faster than the traffic around me, it's the way I learned to skate and I've been doing it for the better half of a decade. At the rinks I go to, everyone knows me as the guy who skates at outlandish speeds and weaves in and out of people (but never hits anyone). I’m able to do this because I’m smart about how I speed. When I decide that I want to skate fast, I think about the condition of the floor, what the grip levels are for that night, and at that point in the night, the feedback my wheels/skates are giving me, how dense the crowds are, how many people are on the floor, how orderly people are skating (are people paying attention, are they on their phones, are people skating across the floor, are people skating predictably or unpredictably, etc.), how I’m feeling, how I’m skating, and many other factors to determine the risk factor. Determining a risk factor allows me to gauge how fast I can skate before getting into a territory where I’m uncomfortable or deem not worth getting into. Once I start skating fast, I will continue to gauge the situation and adjust my speed accordingly to ensure that I don’t put myself or anyone else in a situation where someone can get hurt. I can recall many situations where I decided to slow down and get off the floor for a few minutes to let the action die down because I was able to recognize that the risks far outweighed the reward. By trusting my gut, keeping strong situational awareness, and learning how to expand my comfort zone I have been able to get into countless situations where I’ll be cutting through a crowd and end up with less than an inch to spare between me and the person/wall on either side of me. To me, situations like that aren’t reckless, they’re calculated. I can count the number of times when someone has gotten injured directly or in part due to the speeds I skate at on one hand (twice, in over 10 years of skating, both times I was the only one injured and it wasn't a major accident). I skate fast because I find it exhilarating to skate at high speeds and even more so to do it while skating through a crowd of people knowing that the slightest mistake can result in serious injury. But that doesn’t mean I’m invincible or that I shouldn’t think about the people around me. If I ever get into a situation where I believe with any amount of certainty that someone will get hurt I will always take the route that results in the least amount of harm to the people around me, even if it means running into a wall (which I have done before). When crowd skating you need to skate smart, be aware of your surroundings, predict other people’s movements, and learn how to actively skate in and out of your comfort zone.
I love it when the ice is crowded. When it gets too crowded, I just switch from skating to running as it makes dodging fragile objects a lot easier.
Skating in an unpredictable, busy rink is great for your skating skills. Learning to stop or move for a newbie who has fallen or has cut you off is essential for a general skate. When i was a kid rinks were busier an you didn’t skate fast in a general session until the speed skate came on.
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