Is your rink open all months of the year?

[SillyAdultSkater]

I'm curious, I know a lot of rinks in the USA are apparently open all-year round, but what about the rest of the world? 

[Bunny Hop]

As far as I know, all the permanent rinks in Britain are open all year round. They'd be mad to shut in summer, as that is their busiest time (was surprised when I went to the U.S. in summer and found that the public sessions were pretty quiet!). There are also teeny tiny 'seasonal ice rinks' at places like the Tower of London and Hampton Court Palace over the Christmas/New Year period, but they aren't permanent rinks.

Needless to say, all the permanent rinks in Australia are also year round. An ice rink is a lovely cool place to go in 40C (104F) heat!

[TreSk8sAZ]

I'm in the USA, and my rinks are open year round. However, in Flagstaff the rink was not entirely enclosed (I think 3-sided if I remember right) and they were actually not open year-round. However, snow caused the roof to collapse in January, and it's being rebuilt, so I'm not sure how it will be in the future.

[SillyAdultSkater]

Yeah I posted this in Europe and Rest of World cuz I know you USA people have a lot of those rinks.  (or, more honestly, just trying to get some conversation going to see who else is not from USA or Canada)

Didn't know UK had a lot of those too. Over here in the Netherlands you're outta luck unless you skate at Den Bosch, Zoetermeer or Hoorn; although some skating clubs will move to one of those 3 for the summer (at incredibly bloated prices and far less hours a week). The 6-month seasons are being named as one of the problems for why we don't have a lot of international level skaters.

[liisa]

I'm from Finland and for some reason most rinks in my area close in May and don't open until August. And those that are open through the summer months don't offer any public ice until September. I don't get this at all. I know the rinks need some time to fix things & for upkeep but 3-4 months? Because of this, I usually don't get to skate in the summer. I did manage to attend a few courses but that's all. Tomorrow I finally get back on the ice after over three weeks of no skating at all!

I'd like to hear more of other European skaters on the boards, too. Should we have a separate chat thread for that?

[iSk8Dance]

In Europe it seems to depend whether the country has a climate or weather.  The UK has weather - the rain's a little warmer in the summer.  On the mainland there may be a climate - it's hot in the summer and cold in the winter so you have summer sports and winter sports.

UK - most rinks open - some may close for a couple of weeks for maintenance.

From my experience most if not all rinks in Austria are closed during the summer - at least I've not found any open in the Tirol.  Same applies to Germany - usually closed from Easter to September/October.  Some rinks (e.g. Garmisch, Oberammergau) are open - but public skating may be limited if courses/hockey training are running.  There may be other rinks in the north (Hamburg, Hannover, Berlin) which are also open in the summer.  Some rinks may re-ice early (August after closing at Easter) for hockey training and may provide some limited public skating (e.g. once or twice a week - Berchtesgaden).  Slovenia - generally closed for public skating, but may have hockey training.  Italy - similar, but may have limited public skating between hockey training in some tourist areas during the summer - others may be closed for maintenance.  Switzerland - may be open rinks during the summer in tourist areas (e.g. Davos, Arosa), but may be limited public skating - depends if they can make money.  I did once have a great time in the summer skating on an open-air rink in Davos when the temperature was 30+ Celsius - it did have a cover to reflect the sun and the nights were cold.

[SillyAdultSkater]

LOL @ Britain having weather. Too true, too true...

[sofakartoffel]

I don't know about other parts of the US, but now that I live in California again I can say that most rinks around the Los Angeles or San Francisco Bay area are open year round. I lived about 20 minutes from a pretty popular rink for most of my teenage life, though I probably went there less than 10 times before I turned 20. Oh, all the time I wasted...  

I caught the "Adult Onset Skating Syndrome" post-Olympics (haha) while I was studying in Denmark. I joined a club there but only for a month since practically all ice is gone in DK after March (although supposedly a rink at the resort park Lalandia is open year round). I barely learned to skate backwards in that time as it was. I scrambled to Malmø in Sweden to practice since they had one ice rink there open until mid April, though I only made it there two weekends.

While I was in Lake Bled/Jesenice in Slovenia I was told by my bed and breakfast host that they had a skating rink five minutes away and I was so excited! LOL too bad she found out it was closed after she made a phone call, but apparently it opened up sometime in August? I know the DK rink I went to didn't even start up again until September at the earliest..

I actually tried to find ice in Berlin in the summer but I couldn't find any open rinks either. It was so frustrating to just get started with skating only to involuntarily go without it for four months! I didn't get to skate again until I came back to California late July and I pretty much had to start over again...

[iSk8Dance]

While I was in Lake Bled/Jesenice in Slovenia I was told by my bed and breakfast host that they had a skating rink five minutes away and I was so excited! LOL too bad she found out it was closed after she made a phone call, but apparently it opened up sometime in August? I know the DK rink I went to didn't even start up again until September at the earliest..

I was in Bled a few years ago during August.  Taken skates on chance of finding a rink open somewhere on the way there or back.  Purely by chance on a walk round the lake we stumbed across Bled Ice Rink - and it looked open   Enquiries revealed that is was open for hockey training during the summer.  Public skating wouldn't start until October.  A dance course (organised by UK coaches) was being held there at the end of October.

Back last century rinks in the UK were usually open during the summer, but if they needed to close for maintenance of ice plant, re-icing, etc. then August was a good month for this 'cos they lost less money.  Back in the 1970's my old rink used to close from the last week of July until September.  Since the UK was conned into Sunday opening for a more 'European' style (have you tried finding shops open on a Saturday afternoon or Sunday in France, Holland, Germany or Austria?) most sports facilities are open to make money not to provide a service.  Given that the differentiation between summer and winter isn't too great then there isn't really a concept of 'summer' and 'winter' sports so you can't afford to close a building down and leave it unused for months just because it's a bit warmer outside.  The concept of doing this just wouldn't be considered in the political climate of this little island - even if it was actually worthwhile.

BTW, I was once asked quite seriously by a southern European work colleague (on a visit and wearing pullover and jacket in summer - me in sleeveless shirt) why we were having air conditioning fitted in offices in the UK to chill them during the summer.

[SillyAdultSkater]

Heck I wonder why we fit our offices with airco in this country. I'm perpetually cold. 

[Mrs Redboots]

Many rinks in France are closed during the summer, but by no means all.  I think rinks in the large cities and towns there are open all year round, but in smaller places, and resorts, they tend to close for a month or so.  I know the Mountain Cup is held during the time when the rink in Villard de Lans is closed for the summer. 

[kiwiskater]

My local is open for skating year round but LTS hibernates for most of the summer due to the fact that it runs to school terms (school on holiday=so is LTS), darn annoying to all of us stay home because we work and would like to skate as per our normal routine, all you have is self directed learning for nearly 3 months