Would you jump and spin if...

[nicklaszlo]

I was practicing on a free admission public session at an outdoor rink I've never been to before.  It's got no guards and the staff pay no attention to what is happening on the ice.  It was not crowded.  After practicing steps for about two hours, I got bored and did some upright spins and loops.  I thought that probably the worst thing that could happen would be that the staff would ban me from skating there again, which would be no loss if they never allow jumps and spins.  It turned out nobody paid the least attention to me.  What do you think?  Did I commit a great sin, or are stupid rules meant to be broken?

[MadMac]

Sure. In this case I would go ahead and do it since crowd conditions were safe. If management called me on it I would just apologize and say I hadn't seen the sign.

[sarahspins]

This is really a big "it depends".... if the session wasn't super busy, and you can safely jump or spin, I see no harm in doing so.

Like MadMac, if someone approached me about it, I'd claim to have not seen the sign - at worst (assuming you didn't cause an accident) you would get a warning, they wouldn't ask you to leave unless you had been asked to stop (most likely several times) and kept doing it anyways.

Personally, I'm of the mind that some moves patterns can be more dangerous on a public than jumps and spins, and I've yet to see those banned

[hopskipjump]

Dd always does jumps and spins on public ice (if it is safe).  If they were to ask her to stop, she would be embarrassed and stop.  The outdoor rinks here tend to be really busy though and don't even allow backwards skating - it's just circle, circle, circle..  You're a lucky duck!

[Skittl1321]

Nope.  I'm a rule follower. 

If the rules said no jumps and spins, I wouldn't jump or spin.  (But honestly, I also probably wouldn't skate there.)

[jjane45]

Interesting, for the 3 outdoor rinks I skated at under same park district, none explicitly bans spins and jumps. One rink actually puts out cones if you ask nicely. Maybe there were some bad incidents at this rink? Back to the original question, if there is a sign I will not do it.

[nicklaszlo]

The outdoor rinks here tend to be really busy though and don't even allow backwards skating - it's just circle, circle, circle..

The sign said backwards skating in the middle only.  But there was nothing to indicate where the middle is!

[techskater]

jjane, which rinks are you skating at outdoors?  It's a nice thing to do from time to time to reconnect with the love of the natural side of skating.   

[jjane45]

jjane, which rinks are you skating at outdoors?  It's a nice thing to do from time to time to reconnect with the love of the natural side of skating.   

True. I miss the days of simple skating fun, without thinking of stagnating progress lol. My outdoor rinks are on Chicago's south side, pm me if you like to know more specifics!

[JHarer]

I agree with Skittl, I figure the rules are there for a reason even if they don't make sense I will follow them.

[chowskates]

I agree with Skittl too. And I would just go somewhere else to skate!

[nicklaszlo]

I would just go somewhere else to skate!

Saturday afternoon freestyles are basically nonexistent here.  And my home rink was closed for a show.

[turnip]

On a quiet public session, I would jump and spin definately.

You just have to be extra hyperaware of everyone else, because unlike on a patch or freestyle session, they won't have a clue what you're setting up to do, and may well be not very in control of their own direcition or particularly aware of anyone else around them.

It's sometimes easier to do jumps and spins than field moves/mitf, as its easier to do them in a different place or go round again if someone is in the way, rather than start a whole pattern again

[Doubletoe]

I might try to sneak in a spin or two, but only if there was hardly anyone on the ice and there weren't any kids there who looked like they would try to copy me.  The most dangerous thing is non-skaters trying to do jumps or spins, since they could hurt themselves and others around them.

[Icicle]

If there was a sign saying no jumping or spinning, I probably wouldn't, though I've never skated at a rink that would impose any restrictions whatsoever. I can't understand why it should be that way. At one of the rinks I skate it's not allowed to race or play with a puck, and I've seen kids do just that. And why do people assume that serious skaters can hurt anybody by jumping or spinning? In my opinion, if someone is good enough a skater to jump or spin, he won't endanger anyone. Beginners who cut across or chase one another pose a much bigger threat to everybody around.

[karne]

The ruleboard at our rink says "No Dangerous Skating". I've been yelled at before for doing a waltz jump on our weird freestyle-public hybrid. But if there's no-one else there - or very few people on a public session - I'll jump and spin. Because when there's hardly anyone else there, it's not dangerous (to them, anyway)!

I've been known to actually go to a morning public session occasionally to practice and just have the ice to myself!

[Laneybug7]

My rink sounds alittle like Karne's, when it's public session with the cones and skateguards I've been told to do only 'basic' spins and no jumping. But on the rule board it says 'Skate at your own risk'/'No reckless skating'.   And yes I would jump and spin even if there was a sign..it's part of my nature, I've always been sort of a rebel to rules..lol.  I especially like playing 'dodge the skate guard' which is basically doing small jumps and quick spins when the skate guard isn't watching.  Of course, then there are the skate guards who just dont care.  I was doing camel spins and lutz jumps during a public session..he didnt care as long as I didn't hurt anyone. So I guess it just depends who is the skate guard or rink manager/supervisor at the time.  Honestly, I think the kids racing around with bars of death or kids playing tag/racing are more dangerous than figure skaters doing jumps and spins.

[AgnesNitt]

"What sign? Do you see a sign? I don't see  a sign."

All signs are posted by tall men. They're out of my visual range. I seldom see signs.

[JSM]

I was yelled at this weekend for doing camel spins on a public session.  It was my first time at this particular rink and didn't see signs prohibiting figure skating moves (though it was crowded, maybe I missed it?), and there were other skaters on the ice (local kids, obviously) doing doubles/flying spins in the middle, so I figured it would be okay, though I didn't plan to jump.  Well, since I was the outsider, I got the talking to!

It's just weird to me as when I was a kid, just learning to skate, I was the one who watched out for the good skaters, not the other way around!  If you weren't good enough to be in the middle, then you stayed out of the middle.  It was a goal of mine to get good enough that I could do those moves.

Nowadays, it seems, we have to avoid the young ones.  On a 'training session' (basically it means that anyone who has their own skates, figure/hockey/speed can get on the ice), I was in the middle of a spin when a young boy in hockey skates went 'whoa!' when he saw me doing the move, and to check me out, he came RIGHT up to me.  If I hadn't stopped I could have really hurt him.  Where is the common sense?

[FigureSpins]

You should not have been singled out.  I (personally) don't think that Flying spins, doubles/triples, spirals or camels belong on a public session.  If the skaters need to practice those elements, the freestyle session is the appropriate venue.  A (nice) skate guard asked me to request that one of my students stop doing camels on the public.  I said I couldn't do it unless he stopped the other freestyle skater who was doing flying camels.  The rules should apply to everyone evenly.  (He agreed and spoke to the other girl.  I just needed to remind my student that I had already told her not to do camels/spirals on the session.)

To answer the OP, yes, I would do it once or twice.  I learned to follow the guard and jump behind him/her.  Spins would be an issue for me if it was a "no spins" policy, but I never plan to do camels/back camels on public sessions.  I once demanded a refund at a rink where the guards gave me grief for doing back crossovers and brackets in the center.  (Ignoring the hockey skaters ripping around backwards without looking and jumping over the boards into/out of the boxes.)

[JSM]

Thanks figurespins.  To be fair, I don't know if those other skaters were reprimanded after the fact, as they were locals and were known by the rink staff.  I mostly felt silly because I was just following what I saw - we all know rink cultures differ!

I rarely do public sessions, and when I do, they are adult specific sessions with no restrictions on figure skating moves, so it didn't enter my mind not to spin.  It's something to remember for the future.

[karne]

Honestly, I think the kids racing around with bars of death or kids playing tag/racing are more dangerous than figure skaters doing jumps and spins.

I 100000000000% agree with this. At least figure skaters are usually in control of their movements.

But our rink doesn't believe in rink guards. Ever. Not even during school holidays.

[Icicle]

I met a little girl at one of the rinks where I skate yesterday. The girl had an injury a couple of months ago, and she wasn't allowed to jump. So yesterday she didn't do any jumps at the public session. So I said to her mother, "She still isn't jumping, poor thing!" The mother said, "Oh yes, she can jump now, but it's not allowed here." I stared at her. "What do you mean? There's no sign, and no one told me not to jump. I've been jumping." She said, "Well, you were lucky. The lady at the desk was busy, so she didn't come to check on the skaters, but if she had seen you, she would have been really nasty." I said, "O-okay, let's pretend I didn't hear it." By the way, there were like five people on the ice and plenty of room for everybody to do whatever they wanted. Weird!

[LilJen]

I jump and spin only when it's safe to do so (little traffic).

That said, I WISH the rink would post signs prohibiting other potentially dangerous activity, including kicking a puck around, zipping fast around people who are very shaky on their feet, whipping around in a line, and so forth. Other rinks I've been to have a list of rules of sorts posted in various spots in the lobby. I can't think why mine doesn't.

[Sk8tmum]

My kid is on of those reviled individuals ... a rink rat.  In the period she's been doing this, she's put broken arms in slings, assesed head injuries, bandaged up slashed legs, arms, faces; picked up broken teeth; scraped fallen toddlers up off of the ice, helped shaky skaters navigate onto the ice; been caught in the middle of screaming domestic arguments; helped with crowd control when a bunch of people wanted to video someone in analphylactic shock.  She's also been berated for asking people to skate politely, not perform crack the whip, not slide across the ice in their shoes, do figure skating activities (not allowed on our public ice), skate the wrong way ... ask kids to stop using the pylons as bumper cars ... And she certainly doesn't yell, she speaks to people politely and discreetly and smiles when she does it. Usually most people are good, but, some aren't.  She does a good job, by all reports.

The rink rats don't have an easy life of it.  And they're usually not very well paid.  She gets the arguments all the time of "but, it's not busy - why can't I (insert here).".  The problem is that if someone catches her letting people do "x" she could lose her job; it also sets her and the other rink rats up for "but, [insert description] let me do it last week!".  So, being consistent is important.  Her other thought is that the adults on the sessions are role models for the kids. If the kids see adults breaking rules, then, they figure it's okay for everyone to do it.