"I'm a regular"

[AgnesNitt]

The benefits of being a 'regular'.

Yesterday I went to the rink to practice. After they marked my card, the woman behind the desk said, "You don't need a band. We know you."

Hey! One less thing to clean out of the skating bag!

At another rink, I was let on the ice for free after I forgot the 'limited free publics' card that came with group lessons. When I started to dig in the bottom of my bag for money, the guy just handed me a sticker. "Don't worry about it. We know you."

Anybody else have some nice treatment (probably nicer than I got) due to being a 'regular'?

[Schmeck]

When all 4 of us in the family used to skate at the local rink, we got a lot of perks for being regulars! Hubby got recruited for the 45+ men's rec hockey league, even though he wasn't quite old enough - they all agreed he could play, they were desperate to have enough players for the league, LOL!

Older, competitive daughter was allowed on the ice before 'official ice time' to run through her senior moves on a clean, open sheet of ice. Younger one had an awesome birthday party at the rink, they gave us some extra ice time for that!

I've been let on the ice for free, had my skates sharpened for half price, got free run of the lost and found when we forgot gloves and guards, etc. (Of course we put the stuff back after we used it!) We used to spend most of our weekends and evenings at the rink, and they were like family. 

[SynchKat]

When I was in my teens and training, we could show up any time throughout the day and if the ice was free the risk guy would let us on.  We would do run throughs and then get hockey sticks and a puck from the rink guy and shoot the puck around.

Now with my synchro team, we have ice to a certain time and the rink guys told us when they close the rink and can stay in until that time if we want to.  And the one Zamboni guy as he floods the ice before the kiddie classes always has the kids waving at him, he always watches for my son to wave to him and told me to bring him one day and he will show him the Zamboni....boy and machines, they just love them.

Lots of people are not very nice to the rink guys, I find.  But as the old adage says...you get more flies than honey. 

[Clarice]

Our old rink owners let my daughter have her Senior pictures taken on the ice during dead ice, and we didn't have to pay for it.  She was also allowed free dead ice time to make an audition video.  I doubt the new owners (city parks and rec dept.) would allow something like that, at least not yet.

[VAsk8r]

I've been allowed on the ice during group classes or before public or freestyle officially started and told to show up early so we could do my lesson before anyone else got on. I skated on public for a month before anyone asked to see my pass, and when I admitted I never actually got it from the skating director, the employee just said, "Oh, OK, just get it for next time."

I've also gotten the occasional free sharpening or allowed on the ice for free, but I think they respect me because they know I'm honest. I've gotten my skates out of the sharpening room before when no employees were around and then a day or two later reminded the manager I still needed to pay for my sharpening. The previous owners of the rink lost a lot of money from trusted regulars who weren't honest and routinely skated without paying.

[Janie]

I've been allowed on a public session for free once. The rink was packed as there was some sort of school/camp field trip, I popped in to assess the situation, and decided the ice was so crowded that it wasn't worth paying for (using my punch card) to go skate. I was about to leave but the lady just waved me in and said it's fine, just go

[Sk8tmum]

Not in Canada on club ice.  We have sometimes been offered a "oh just go on "  for payasyougo ice (which isn't club ice) - but, I pay anyways.  The margins are so tight for the arenas to keep offering us ice that I figure I'm not going to drop the revenues by any small bit ...