The Great Skate Project

This marks the eighth (!?!) year of my Great Skate Project. While I may not be able to get to a new rink every weekend this winter, I’ll try my best to skate somewhere at least once a week, and write here about the rinks I visit for the first time. My friend Carrie joined me for Great Skate #47 on Saturday, January 5, 2019. Carrie hadn’t been skating in a few years. I wanted her to enjoy getting back on the ice again, so we visited a rink in Toronto that is known for its amenities: The Bentway Skate Trail . The Bentway Skate Trail opened in January 2018. It’s part of a larger public space under the Gardiner Expressway, next to historic Fort York in the west end of Toronto. Along with wintertime skating, it has art installations, music performances and other special events throughout the year. The Bentway was created by “the collaboration of a range of city-builders and experts” and it’s a neat example how private philanthropy can intersect with urban planning. The skate t...

My youngest niece, who is Almost Eight, joined me for Great Skate #46 at Toronto’s Riverdale Park East in the late afternoon of January 14. This is the Riverdale rink’s second time on the Great Skate list. In January 2012, was the site of Great Skate #2 . Last year, it was renovated by the city and it reopened in December. The dramatic change in its appearance qualifies it to be counted as a new Great Skate. You reach the rink by a staircase from Broadview Avenue. Previously, the Riverdale Park skating rink was a typical hamster-cage hockey pad. Now the hockey pad has a neighbouring figure-eight skating loop, landscaped with “islands” of evergreens and edged with benches. Heated changerooms are short walk away. The view westward over the Don Valley is still spectacular. Almost Eight and I arrived just in time to wait for the Zamboni to clean the ice. (That happens to me a lot.) Waiting in the cold is never the best part of skating, but those first glides on the polished ic...

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...

When I had the opportunity to come to New York for a conference this week, I was very excited to be able to take my Great Skate Project international. I researched the rink options, circled them on my map, and made room in my luggage for my skates. Skating in Central Park was high on my list. I didn't realize at first that there are actually two rinks in Central Park: the Wollman Rink and the Lasker Rink . Wollman was closer to my hotel, so I headed there in the evening of January 11. (And I only got a little bit lost on the way.) Unsurprisingly, skating in New York City is a more commercial enterprise than in Toronto. The Wollman Rink admission fee (in U.S. dollars) is $12 from Monday to Thursday, and $19 from Friday to Sunday. (It's cheaper for children). A locker rental is $5 with a $6 refundable deposit, and you can rent skates for $9. A snack bar sells everything from sandwiches to cotton candy. I think it's worth it. How often do you get to feel like you'...

After finishing my Great Skate #36 and enjoying a sustaining slice of pizza from a nearby trattoria on St. Clair Avenue, I was ready for more skating. Why not check another rink off my list before heading home? Cedarvale Park Rink looked reasonably close on my map. Just a few streetcar stops, and then a walk along Arlington and I'd be there. Well, the streetcar part was easy. I underestimated the distance along Arlington though, and ended up trudging uphill for many blocks before finally reaching Cedarvale Rink, which is tucked in behind the Phil White Arena. When I arrived, the Zamboni was cleaning the ice, looking heroic under a stunning full moon. (My smartphone camera doesn't do it justice.) Skating on a freshly resurfaced rink on a cold evening is extremely satisfying. Cedarvale Rink has the nicest changerooms I've seen so far. They look like they were designed by Ikea.

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...

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 ...

Skating burns approximately 500 calories an hour. The rate varies of course, depending on your size, sex and speed. But if you're an "average" woman, the rate is somewhere between 425 and 515 calories an hour. Which was a good thing on January 21st, when Cathy, Nicole, Gilles and I hit the rink at Mel Lastman Square after enjoying a massive brunch at Cathy's house. I'm not sure we burned off all the calories from the croissants, cheese scones, "special" eggs and other yummy things we enjoyed, but we made a good attempt. Mel Lastman Square will probably be the most northerly rink the Great Skate visits in Toronto. It's a long TTC ride from the Beaches, but it's very nice once you get there. During the warmer months, the rink is a reflecting pool in the square. It's ringed by benches, and there are lockers and washrooms in the civic building a few steps away. There was a real mix of ages and skating abilities while we were ...