Figure skating rinks near American universities | Page 2 | Golden Skate

Figure skating rinks near American universities

lzxnl

Final Flight
Joined
Nov 8, 2018
First of all, thank you to all of the kind responses! I'm quite excited to study at MIT. I visited MIT 3.5 years ago and never thought I'd actually get in one day!

:jaw:

Can I have your old place of residence!? :laugh: I pay more than $15 for one hour.



Wow, congratulations! Brown, UM, now MIT. Very impressive!

By the way, the MIT Figure Skating Club has subsidized private lessons. I'm not sure the details, but you might want to look into that!

Yup, I love my local ice rink. It's so empty during the week that Yuzuru could totally come and train his routine during public sessions and it'd be totally safe :laugh:

First off, congrats on getting into Brown, UMich, and MIT! :D

I attended MIT for graduate school from 2016-2018 and joined the MIT Figure Skating Club in 2016 (and remain an active member). They're a fantastic group: a wide network of students, alumni, and staff, and skaters of all levels, from beginners who've never set foot on ice before to high-level competitive skaters. We only have ice time on campus from October through March, but there's a lot of practice ice time every day (usually Monday through Friday 8-9:30 am, Saturday 7am-11:45am, Sunday 9am-12:45pm, plus Monday afternoon ice). There are designated times on Saturday and Sunday for ice dance and moves in the field, but otherwise you're welcome to do freestyle on all other sessions. It's only $10/year for students to join the club, and you get access to all the club practice ice. The club does subsidize for lessons - up to $200 each year, with priority given to skaters to compete on behalf of MIT at the collegiate competitions. The club gets most of its funding from hosting competitions, and tries to help keep costs low for students :)

For off-campus options, there are a few:
- The Skating Club of Boston (SCOB) is nearby and can be easily reached via public transportation. Only caveats are that the ice time is rather expensive ($23 for a 50-min session for non-SCOB members), some sessions are very crowded (early morning and late afternoon), and some sessions are closed to SCOB members only.
- The Veterans Memorial arena in Somerville has free public skating time Monday through Friday 12-3pm, and public skating on Sunday afternoon 4-6pm. Skaters are allowed to jump and spin, though it may be difficult sometimes when it's very crowded.
- Warrior Ice Arena (where the Bruins train) also offers some freestyle ice. They have public skating sessions, too, but I've heard you cannot jump or spin during that time.

Hope this helps!
Did I read that right? Free public skating with jumps/spins allowed at the Veteran Memorial Rink!? What!!??

About MIT club ice, you're kidding right? $10 for the whole season's club ice? That's amazing. I'm so excited to meet people at the club. My uni back home never had an ice skating club and I'm curious to experience life at one!

There are quite a few free rinks in Boston in the winter. I lived in a different area but my experience was they were very crowded on weekends and evenings and completely empty during school hours. There didn’t seem to be any enforced rules and you could pretty much do anything you want. Only downside is the ice quality is not always the best. You can look up all the DCR rinks on mass.gov. Also look up FMC Ice sports. They have a bunch of rinks in Boston and they stay open in the summer. I think public skating is around $5. So lots of cheap options in the area.
I think staying open in the summer seems to be important now, given the MIT rinks close then. I'm a little sceptical about free outdoor rinks because of the effect on the blade tbh, but it sounds like an experience I need to have sometime.

Congratulations on your acceptance to two outstanding U. S. Universities, lzxnl. :rock:

Golden Slate actually maintains a list of links to various skating clubs and facilities that you can investigate.

https://goldenskate.com/directories...ing-clubs-and-ice-rinks-in-the-united-states/

https://goldenskate.com/directories...-skating-clubs-and-ice-rinks-in-rhode-island/

https://goldenskate.com/directories...gure-skating-clubs-and-ice-rinks-in-michigan/

Thank you very much!

There's an insane number of ice skating options here. Woah. Where I am now, there's only four rinks, although one of them is open 364 days a year with public sessions lasting at least 6 hours a time.
 

sandraskates

Final Flight
Joined
Oct 31, 2006
Country
United-States
It's only $10/year for students to join the club, and you get access to all the club practice ice.
10 for the whole season's club ice?

You'll need to get some clarification here (or perhaps I read it wrong).

That might mean you pay $10 to join the club, which entitles you to skate on the club ice at whatever fee they charge.
Usually clubs pay the rink to rent the ice for their members, and then the members pay for each club session they want to skate. Club ice sessions can be as much as a free-style session.
 

treblemakerem

On the Ice
Joined
Dec 24, 2014
I think staying open in the summer seems to be important now, given the MIT rinks close then. I'm a little sceptical about free outdoor rinks because of the effect on the blade tbh, but it sounds like an experience I need to have sometime.

Actually most of the free rinks are indoor. They just melt them in the summer. They are used mostly used for all the youth hockey teams. When I said ice quality I meant they don’t necessarily Zamboni it every hour and they don’t control the ice temperature so if it’s cold outside the ice gets really hard and not the best for jumps. There might be some holes to watch out for or grooves from a hockey practice. It is maintained so you won’t hurt your blades, but the MIT ice is probably a lot nicer. I used to go to several different rinks depending on the schedules. The FMC rinks are open in the summer and there were a couple private rinks in my area as well.
 
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