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Adventures Out
Gliding on the Ice
Recently, my daughter and I watched a Dragon Tales show on PBS, during which Zak and Wheezie, the two-headed dragon, learned to skate. Zak was cautious and Wheezie was wild, so they had to work together to get their dragon body to glide on the ice. While other dragon characters offered advice, it was four-year-old Max, one of the show's human characters, who gave me a real-lifeice mantra to follow: “step, step, step, glide.”
Now that I have my mantra, the next step is to hit the ice. When I was little, a local farmer flooded part of his fields to create a skating rink for our community. Once or twice we also went to Rockefeller Center in New York City to glide around that picture-perfect ice. As a teenager, I lived across the street from a small lake, and if the weather was just right, we would have some wonderful skating parties. With the music humming in my head, I could glide along imagining I was Dorothy Hamill.
But, to be honest, my figure eights and pirouettes were never that good and I haven’t skated in years. Now that The Edge Sports Center of Bedford has opened its state-of-the-art indoor rink just a few miles from my home, I'll be strapping shiny blades onto my five-year-old daughter’s feet. And instead of me slipping and sliding my way across the ice as her instructor, I'll hire a professional to teach her how to skate.
Where to Learn to Skate
The Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) offers more than 40 ice skating rinks statewide. Of those, 13 are DCR-managed facilities, while the rest are operated by a private firm, a town or city, or a local community group. Facility Management Corporation (FMC Arenas) manages 24 skating rinks, from as far north as Chelmsford to as far south as Plymouth. FMC offers skating lessons through its Bay State Blades programs: Tiny Blades (ages 2-1/2 to 5 years) and Learn to Skate (ages 4 years and up).
The nonprofit Bay State Skating School provides instruction for adults and children ages 4-1/2 and up in 14 rink locations, including metro-Boston, Lynn, Newton, Medford, Quincy, and Weymouth. Some town-managed DCR rinks and the Edge Sports Center of Bedford offer lessons through their municipal recreationdepartments.
Inspirational Ice
The best-known skating spot in the city is Frog Pond on Boston Common. A wading pool in the summer, the pond is a popular ice-skating rink from mid-November to early March. Frog Pond is such a landmark that it has its own official opening ceremonies with precision skating teams, pairs and champion figure skaters. Frog Pond offers concessions, skate rentals, rest rooms, and a warming area.
Head across the Charles River into Cambridge and you’ll find a 2,900-square-foot ice skating rink just steps away from the Charles Hotel. The Charles Hotel Skating Rink is open to the public and available for private events.
In East Cambridge, Kendall Square Community Skating hosts a seasonal, outdoor ice skating rink in a landscaped courtyard. The refrigerated ice surface is maintained by a zamboni, and the rink offers skate rentals, lessons, private rink rentals, and a cafe serving hot drinks and snacks.
The Larz Anderson Skating Rink in Brookline's famed Larz Anderson Park is an open-air rink with a heated skating pavilion, ice skate rentals, a skate sharpening shop, and a snack bar. Lessons are provided by the town recreation department.
Where do you go if you’re really good on the ice? Check out Lexington’s membership-only Hayden Recreation Centre. Its Haydenettes---synchronized skaters ages 15 to 25---are U.S. Figure Skating National champions.
For the rest of us, just remember to step, step, step...glide.
(BPP, 12/07)
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