Great Skate #8 - Greenwood Park


Laurel's whole family joined me for Great Skate #8 at Greenwood Park on February 11, 2012. It was a real winter day with fresh snow and a windchill - a rarity in Toronto this year. We seemed to pack a whole winter of fun into one afternoon.

She's smiling under the scarf.
Greenwood is a nice rink. It's a double pad, with one side reserved for shinny hockey. (This seems to cut down on the number of three-foot-tall hockey demons on the recreational skating side.) Another good feature is a large window in the changing area that looks out onto the ice, so you can watch the skaters while staying relatively warm. There's a notice posted at the rink saying that the city will be upgrading the facility, but it isn't clear when that will start.

The youngest skater in the family just turned two. She wears bob skates and isn't really sure what this Great Skate thing is all about yet. Ask her what she thinks about skating and Two says "cold." But she's delighted as usual to be hanging out with her big sisters.

Meanwhile Three-and-a-Half and Princess Skater Girl are falling less and staying upright more. Three-and-a-Half told me she can do twirls, and then demonstrated: a tight circle of tiny steps, with an intense look of concentration on her face.

Neither of them have the knack of gliding yet. How do you teach that?

We had a good time on the ice, and then it got too cold. It's hard to skate fast enough to stay warm when you've got little legs.

Of course, it wasn't so cold that the girls didn't want to climb the mountain of snow piled outside the rink. And the girls were also keen to go down the toboggan hill a few times. (The grownup were a little less keen on dragging the sleds back up the hill.)







Update: Greenwood Park rink was renovated in 2013. Read about Great Skate #21 to see how it turned out.


Comments

Anonymous said…
What a great project. I try to vary my skating, we have a small rink downtown with music, a couple of hockey rinks in the woods where you have to get there early. There used to be another lake that got cleared off but there is only one in Anchorage now that I know of. We have a speed skating oval which is hardly ever used! Will think of you while skating.
February 16, 2012 at 10:06 PM
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