Great Skate #41: Trinity-Bellwoods Park, Toronto

After the thrill (and cost) of skating in New York City, it was interesting to skate in Toronto again and notice the differences.

On January 29, I went to the rink in Trinity-Bellwoods Park in the west end with my oldest niece, who is now Ten. It was a long streetcar ride to get there, and then a fair hike from the park entrance to the rink. The rink itself is the basic standard for rinks in this city: a single ice pad, surrounded by "hamster cage" fencing, with some benches near the rink. A short walk away is the changeroom/staff office, which has washrooms. No special amenities, no music, no frills. But also, no admission fee.

Child's mandatory skating helmet, Roots trackpants, Maple
Leafs ad and (out of frame) Tim Horton's ads too...
yep, the Great Skate Project is back home.

While it's basic, the Trinity-Bellwood had everything we needed for a good afternoon of skating. There were a dozen or so skaters with us on the ice. Some were proficient skaters, some were taking their first wobbly glides. And something similar was happening in parks across the city.

The Trinity-Bellwood rink is one of 52 outdoor artificial ice* rinks managed by the City of Toronto.

According to the non-profit group that manages the CityRinks website, Toronto has more outdoor artificial ice rinks than any other city in the world. In addition to the city's 52 rinks, there are also others. These include the rinks at Harbourfront and the Brickworks, and a few private organizations also maintain rinks that are open to the public.

The city has issued a customer feedback survey for its artificial ice rinks. You can bet I filled it out as soon as I found out about it. I live within 10 minutes of two city rinks - one which was recently renovated into a top-notch facility, and one which is similar to the Trinity-Bellwood rink. It was interesting to think about what they each do well, and the different things that are needed to improve them. I hope to read the survey report when it's finished.




What Does "Artificial Ice" Mean?

"Artificial ice" is how the City of Toronto describes rinks that use compressor coolers. These rinks stay in good frozen condition even when the weather thaws. The ice isn't artificial (it's frozen water) but the rink is created by artificial means.

Other Outdoor Ice Rinks I've Visited With My Nieces:

Monarch Park in Toronto (Great Skate #15)

Withrow Park in Toronto (Great Skate #13)

Riverdale Park East in Toronto in 2012 (Great Skate #2) and in 2018 (Great Skate #46)

Greenwood Park in Toronto in 2012 (Great Skate #8) and in 2014 (Great Skate #21)

Murray Street Park in Orillia (Great Skate #9)

Dufferin Grove Park in Toronto (Great Skate #29)

Dieppe Park in Toronto (Great Skate #5)

Glen Stewart Park Rink in Toronto (Great Skate #31)


Location: Trinity Bellwoods Park, 790 Queen St W, Toronto, ON M6J 1G3, Canada

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Great Skates

Great Skate #21 - Greenwood Park (renovated)

Image
The weather on Sunday, January 5 was mild and snowy - a perfect day for skating. My friends and nieces joined me at the Greenwood Park rink. Those of you keeping track might notice that Greenwood has already had its Great Skate, but it's had such a dramatic makeover since then that I'm counting it as a new rink. Two years ago, at Great Skate #8 , the Greenwood Park rink looked like this: Greenwood Park rink on February 11, 2012 It was a typical Toronto rink. Not beautiful, but it did the job. Last winter, the rink was closed for renovations. It reopened in November , looking like the winner of a skating rink beauty contest: Greenwood Park rink in November 2013 It used to be a single ice rink surrounded by a chain link fence, where you might feel a bit like a gerbil in a cage (if gerbils could skate). Now Greenwood Park has two rinks. One, used for shinny and skating lessons, is covered by a snazzy roof (which probably has some practical, keep-the-ice-icy ...
Read more

Great Skate #7 - Ryerson Community Park

Image
Cathy joined me for a peaceful afternoon skate at Ryerson Community Park on February 4th. This is the little rink tucked into the Ryerson University campus. There weren't many skaters out and everyone else was a university student. Two guys were practising their hockey skills, using turned-over benches as goals. A girl practised her figure skating spins while flirting with a guy who looked like he was torn between flirting back and joining the hockey players. The Ryerson rink is round, and because there were so few skaters on the ice, it was a good opportunity to explore something I've noticed during Great Skate 2012:  people always skate in a counterclockwise direction . I tested this, deliberately skating clockwise. With just Cathy and I doing laps, we weren't getting in anyone's way, and there wasn't any peer pressure to overcome. At first, no problems, although it felt a bit odd. Then after a few minutes I realized that we had somehow turned ourselves a...
Read more

Great Skate #34: Love Crescent Parkette

Image
On Saturday, March 7, I enjoyed a solitary skate at a natural ice rink in Love Crescent parkette .* That was probably my last Great Skate of the season. Since then, the weather has shifted from wintery to spring-like. The sun is warm, the air is soft and you can hear water dripping everywhere. There may be a few die-hard skaters and shinny players out there, but I think most of us are ready to switch to cycling, ball hockey and other warm-weather activities. The Love Crescent rink was first built in 2013 by a group of community-minded skating enthusiasts. The street is tucked away in a neighbourhood just north of Kingston Road in east Toronto. It's not a place you pass through on your way somewhere else; you have to know where you're going to find it. The rink builders were clever. They designed the rink in the shape of an oblong donut. In the centre is a space for shinny players. Around the centre, separated by a wide snowbank, is a track for pleasure skating. There are ...
Read more

Great Skate #33: Gage Park, Brampton

Image
On Sunday, March 1, the Great Skate Project revisited one of the rinks of my youth: the skating trail in Brampton's Gage Park . My friends Jennifer and Riubert joined me, with their two small boys. Gage Park is located in downtown Brampton - the quaint, slightly shabby part of Brampton that has been eclipsed by the mushrooming housing developments all around it. In the late 1980s, Brampton rebuilt its City Hall, and that project included the installation of a skating trail in the neighbouring Gage Park. I think it was the smartest thing that Brampton councillors have ever done. It's been years since the last time I skated at Gage Park. This was the first time my friends had been there, so I was glad my memory of it lived up to reality. I don't know how long the skating trail is, but it does a big loop around the perimeter of the park. There is a skate sharpening booth ($5 per pair), a snack truck and public washrooms. Parking (free on Sundays) is across the s...
Read more

Great Skate #40: Bryant Park, New York City

Image
The rink at Bryant Park doesn't have the same "I saw it in the movies" cachet as the rinks at Central Park and Rockefeller Center , but it is pretty spectacular. The rink is the centrepiece of Bryant Park's Bank of America Winter Village . Chalk up a point in favour of corporate sponsorships: admission to this rink is free. (I did pay for a lock to secure my locker though.) The amenities include a spacious changeroom, a snack bar and skate rentals. Also, a platoon of penguins and snowmen that unsteady skaters can use to keep their balance. There were lots of good things about this Great Skate, but here's what I got excited about: the skating direction was clockwise. Skating clockwise is a very rare thing on public ice rinks. I asked one of the staff members if they always skated clockwise. He said that the skating direction was counter-clockwise in the mornings, and clockwise in the afternoons. So sensible. On a Friday afternoon, the rink was busy but...
Read more