What I have learnt about skating in Germany… including summer ice! (& Romania)

[AlbaNY]

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. 

[Bill_S]

Thanks for putting that together. It's interesting to hear about the differences in skating opportunities between countries.

It does make me wonder why they don't put more information online about the different rinks and their figure skating options. Word of mouth carries only so far.

[AlbaNY]

I may as well write about how skating goes in Romania too.  (Bucharest, but I'm told in Brasov that adult skaters are not allowed in the clubs that have freestyle sessions.)  I've skated at AFI and the Otopeni rink.  I had the chance to skate in Brasov, but I opted for the picturesque outdoor rink.  In the summer there is no ice aside from AFI.

I think the prices and session times at AFI seem to have changed a bit since I was skating there regularly?  https://patinoarafi.ro/en/schedule-and-prices/
It's about $7usd for an hour and a half of public skate.
Lessons with a staff coach are about $25usd for half an hour.  Amazingly my coach, a two time Olympian coached by Carlo Fassi, has only the same fee!     Group, almost two hours, with him at Otopeni is even less.  (I just saw for the first time that the rates were the same for the hockey dudes at the AFI rink, and I am shocked!  In wayyyy Upstate NY I knew one asked $125/hour!  Anyway...)

There is no testing in Romania. 
There are group lessons with various clubs and coaches at Otopeni and private lessons at the mall rink (AFI.)  Serious skaters go to both, because there is only one morning session at Otopeni, and it closes in the summer.

There are some competitions that adults can enter.  I only did one, so far, and I highly recommend it as a friendly place to showcase and have light competition with very pretty medals.  (Bucharest Open.)  My friend in NY and I plan to enter for 2024.  The level they place you at is different than in the US and the program requirements are also.  I was doing bronze in the US, but with lutz and such I was silver there and supposed to have a longer program with more jumps than I had practiced for all my other competitions.  Thankfully they don't penalise that.     As I said, it's for fun, a nice professional video, and very nice medals. 

As for Germany...
The two summer rinks that I can personally say exist are:
https://www.willingen.de/poi/eissporthalle-willingen
&
https://www.salztal-paradies.de/eislaufhalle.html

[AlbaNY]

Thanks for putting that together. It's interesting to hear about the differences in skating opportunities between countries.

It does make me wonder why they don't put more information online about the different rinks and their figure skating options. Word of mouth carries only so far.

It boggles my mind they do not make more effort in marketing and transparency.  Germany is rather weird.  So much is as if twenty years ago tech-wise.

[Query]

I googled

  germany "ice rink" "open all year"

and found, among others:

Munich: https://blog.mylike-app.com/top-5-ice-skating-places-in-munich/
  Includes some indoor rinks, and one that opens in November (i.e., real soon now)

https://www.goldenskate.com/forum/threads/best-ice-skating-clubs-and-coaches-in-europe.93085/
mentions Obersdorf in Bavaria, Germany, and some near Germany.

See also
  https://www.hausamsee.fun/en/skien/?category=3

I stopped looking after that, but there may be more.

I also found some links in

  +"indoor ice rink" +"germany"

E.g., the first link there listed 3 indoor rinks. I didn't check if they were the same rinks as the first search found.

Does the relative scarcity imply that few people play hockey in Germany? Or that some Germans find it easier to travel to nearby countries which have cold weather or indoor rinks year round?

[AlbaNY]

Query, yes.  There are rinks open in Bavaria, but that is over seven hours driving or even more by train each way from the part of the country where I live.  Other northern countries also melt their ice in summer for the most part, I'm told.  The rink in Willingen claims to even host skaters from neighbouring countries in the summer, but I only saw crowded public sessions with a handful of figure skaters at the centre.

They love hockey, but they accept that ice is just available for six months or less and turn to other sports the rest of the year. 

[Query]

7 or more hours each way... I guess you couldn't do that every day after work.

I gather there are artificial (i.e., lubricated plastic) ice rinks in Germany. But that would wear out your expensive blades very, very quickly. Some time ago, I skated on an artificial rink, and my blades felt like they needed sharpening (by my picky stands) after about 20 minutes. I was told by locals they resharpened after every hour. But they used cheap blades on artificial ice, and reserved their better blades for real ice...

[AlbaNY]

7 or more hours each way... I guess you couldn't do that every day after work.

I gather there are artificial (i.e., lubricated plastic) ice rinks in Germany. But that would wear out your expensive blades very, very quickly. Some time ago, I skated on an artificial rink, and my blades felt like they needed sharpening (by my picky stands) after about 20 minutes. I was told by locals they resharpened after every hour. But they used cheap blades on artificial ice, and reserved their better blades for real ice...

My new coach here has 40 metres of artificial ice for the summer.  I tried some that my friend had for her hockey skater son, and yikes.  It was not well maintained, so I could hardly skate at all.  It was murder on the blades, so I definitely am not inclined on my more expensive pair now.  I can drive an hour+ for ice in summer and rather do that.  I am thankful for that option!

[AlbaNY]

So, I had my first private lesson today.  Afterwards we had coffee, and we discussed some skating things as well as just friendly chat.  I'll be able to report back more about testing here and such once I muddle through a German website.  There are 8 levels, and it's kind of Moves and Freestyle in one bundle, but more heavy on the freestyle? 
Soon I'll be an official club member and have a skating license or whatever to call that.  They have some pretty nice club jackets, shirts, hoodies, skirts...  I like this!
Also, I was wrong.  It is 12 euros a month for adults, not 22.  I suppose I couldn't believe it when I wrote that down.  Kids are half that.

My coach is lovely.  I'm naming her Coach Generous, because she wouldn't accept more than ten euros... for an hour and half lesson.   

[AlbaNY]

So, they do actually have a website and show testing requirements here.  It's a headache to wade through, because Google translate is rather useless for skating terms making brainpower a better option. 

There are 8 levels, and they begin at 8 and get more advanced as the number lowers.  (Weird to me.)
I'll post more about that as I can better translate, but as an adult I'm not likely to get past 7 or 6 since it requires axel and doubles by then.  Bummer.  There is a form to have my US testing recognised, but given how advanced they expect things to be for their tests I don't expect to get much from adult pre-bronze.     Maybe not even bronze if I can manage that on a trip back either? 

[AlbaNY]

Alright, I have corrections to make and a bit more to say about Germany.

The total per month is actually 22 euros, as I originally thought, because there is a ten euro ice fee.  (Sorry, my German isn't super reliable.)  That's for adults.  Daughter is 6+10 per month.  This is for two group lessons of an hour available each week.  The additional Sunday one is ten euros each time.  There is an option for fitness off ice and such for another 5, but I don't live near enough or have the flexibility in time.  In summer there is off ice and inline training instead.

They have very different ice use layouts!   
I will attach the map and key.  I've evidently made egregious traffic flow violations so far.   
...Okay, I can't navigate how to both resize the photos to be small enough and also save them under the correct file type to attach here.    ...
Maybe a screenshot???...

Tomorrow Daughter and I will try a new rink, because I hope to find extra coaching.