When we made the move here I found it very, very difficult to find information on how skating works in Germany. I was even shocked, too late, to find out the rinks close for around half the year!
Eventually, only by luck, I was able to locate a couple of year-round rinks. They are not easily found via Google Maps or anything. It is practically only by word of mouth. For example, the nearer one to me was completely unknown to a skater I became acquainted with despite her many years of skating in the area. I only knew of it by being told about it by a fellow skater at the farther summer rink.
I’ll eventually review rinks (and many others.) The prices are very low, but it is public sessions. It’s between 5 and 8 euros for 2-6 hours. There is no open freestyle, like I was used to, just club ice.
I was told there were no clubs at my current rink for adults, but that they had adult freestyle on Sunday mornings. I was given the website and instructed to email the clubs listed on it to find coaching, but another skater said they were only for kids. She let me know about the Sunday session and said there would be coaches there, but I understood it as open freestyle.
It was actually an hour and a half group lesson with an off ice warm up. The coach gave us fliers about the club that we could join.
It is 22 euros a month, and it covers drop in sessions of group lessons during the week. The Sunday adult session has a separate 10 euro charge each time. These fees include the ice!
Today there were five of us, and we had 2/3 of the rink with the hockey group in the rest.
This coach did not know of competitions anywhere around here, for me. I’m on my own for that information. She can help me register as a skater (it’s a thing here. I’d forgotten.) Then I can test in the German system. More on that later. All I know is that it’s numbered rather than called pre-bronze-gold. I never was able to find out online about this, so it is one of the reasons I’m making this post for others.
I’ve been told that there is more support for adult skaters in Hamburg, but that is far. Hannover has a club with some adults who compete, so I plan to look into that also despite it being less convenient to get to. At least the prices are great for group! I inquired about private lessons, but she has to get back to me, and I don’t know the rate.
I’ll report back on anything else I find out.
Topic: What I have learnt about skating in Germany… including summer ice! (& Romania) (Read 2358 times)