Public Sessions Rules

[riley876]

I have old broken earphones I wear as ear plugs when needed.   To take the edge off the screamers and sirens.   I'm betting it would exceed safe levels at times.   I'm willing to trade off a little situational awareness for a little serenity.

( <3 bugs+doc )

[skategeek]

If you want to hear real pre-teen girl screaming, go to a rock concert by whatever the current fav boy band is.  When my daughter was that age, I took her and her best friend to a Back Street Boys concert in an arena filled with ~18,000 pre-teen girls.  I don't think my ears ever fully recovered.

I think I've just seen my future.  We have Twenty One Pilots tickets for January.  At least I have time to get ear plugs.

[riley876]

Can someone who used to be a screamer, tell us about why they did it?  Was it entirely involuntary?

It's just such a foreign concept to me.  I was most definitely not a screamer.   Pathologically quiet actually.

[Isk8NYC]

If you want to hear real pre-teen girl screaming, go to a rock concert by whatever the current fav boy band is.  When my daughter was that age, I took her and her best friend to a Back Street Boys concert in an arena filled with ~18,000 pre-teen girls.  I don't think my ears ever fully recovered.

Been there, done that.  You're right: really loud and screechy. When I coached swimming, the difference between boys and girls meets was obvious.  Put 25 girls in a big tiled room...it was ear-splitting when the races were close.

The secret to chaperoning all bus trips (girls or co-ed) are earplugs.  Buy them at the pharmacy - great for those nights when DH has a cold, too.  I've used the earbud solution at the rink, too.

That said, last night at a burger joint, our ghroup had to wait several times for the GROWN MEN at a nearby table to finish their yelling so that we could talk amongst ourselves.  I thought it was yelling at the game on the big-screen TV over their table but no, they were just yelling at each other for no apparent reason. 

We were very happy when the waiter brought them food to wash down their giant glasses of beer.

[tstop4me]

I guess my rink is atypical.  Most of the screaming comes from the little hockey boys playing tag and throwing gloves at each other.

[cameocooper]

Did you do so?

Personally, I would contact management in person. I would also show management videos that you shot of people doing things that were dangerous to other people, especially hockey play, during public sessions. And it wouldn't help to go with a group of other people, who say similar things.

Is your rink owned and/or managed by a government, or by a private business?

Another thing to ponder is whether there are any other rinks within reasonable driving distance.

I took up skating mainly it was convenient -  I don't need to drive far, compared to other sports like hiking, backpacking, kayaking, skiing, beach play, dancing, etc. If it isn't convenient for you, and you are frustrated and unhappy, I don't see the point. Depending on where you live, there may be lots of other sports and other physical activities that you might enjoy.

Of course, if the sole problem is rink mis-management, you can seek to do something about it.

Unfortunately little bit after the original post, I had to give up skating for a few weeks, due to health issues, so never wrote or spoke to the rink. but am going back to skating soon, but will be going to a different rink. so hopefully the new rink is a bit more organized.

[Query]

Anyone who has dealt with 5 year old kids, especially but not exclusively girls, knows they often scream in normal play. I'm not sure whether it shows excitement, or whether it is just a way of fitting in. It's hard to believe the human vocal system can go as high in pitch as the girls go.

I'm tempted to say that this distinguishes kids from adults, that adults only scream in desperate fear or calls for help.

Except that isn't true at sporting events, or political rallies: many adults never grow out of the yelling/screaming phase. They apparently do it for much the same reasons: excitement, anger, fitting in. I would claim a lot of the enjoyment people get from watching spectator sports is releasing tension through a form of "primal scream therapy."

A survey was conducted relating to a proposed hockey arena, with results shown at http://www.bristolcityst.org.uk/pdf/New%20stadium%20survey%20results.pdf

24% of survey respondents agreed with, and 73.1% of respondents strongly agreed with

"The ground's acoustics should be designed so that the fans' cheers reverberate around the stadium, creating a cauldron of noise."

Silly me. I thought arenas should be designed to damp out excess noise and reverberation, to make it easier to understand spoken announcements. Also to make it easier to sync what you see with music played, in dance moves, cheerleading, and figure skating. I was completely wrong.

I know someone who screams at his television set (and Youtube computer screen) during political things, when no one else is watching. He knows knows the television doesn't hear him, but he screams anyway.

I conclude that making noise is normal human behavior.

[riley876]

I conclude that making noise is normal human behavior.

Cheers for your thoughts.  I think there must be a cultural element to it though.  I've heard of rock bands playing huge crowds in Japan, with the crowd dead silent, except for enthusiastic but formally polite clapping between the songs.   I've heard it's rather disconcerting playing such a crowd if you aren't used to it.   

On the other end of the spectrum,  at least from the common perspective here,  Americans have a reputation for being very vocal and shouty, especially at sporting events.  (Deserved or not, I have no idea, I never went to any sporting events in the US during my travels).   I think NZers generally fall in the middle of these extremes, with possible a bigger difference between the loud kids vs quiet adults than either US or Japan. 

Personally I've never been one to make noise under any circumstances.  Actually I don't even know if I know how to scream. Can't say I've ever tried it.  Maybe I should.

[Neverdull44]

The rules depend on how crowded it is.   Weekend, forget about doing anything but stroking and maybe an upright spin or a small waltz jump.  It's just too crowded.   

Medium crowd , and they always put an ice monitor on the ice.   I think it's an insurance/safety feature.   Then, they stop all camel spins too.

During the week, absolutely empty.  But, still, there is a no headphones and a no objects (pucks, sticks) and they only play their music.   But, I routinely practice back camels, figures, lutzes.  Usually me and one or two other skaters.

[Query]

Evenings and weekends are mostly a impractical for fancy stuff on public sessions at most rinks.

But we've recently returned to having Friday evening and Sunday afternoon skates. But the facility doesn't advertise anything, and we don't use DJs, so they aren't very busy, and people can generally do whatever figure skating tricks they want, and they show courtesy.

However, Friday two days ago was a fund raiser, and was busy. That's the thing with publics - they are unpredictable. A fund raiser, party, or school outing can change your planned private skating practice into a complete waste of time, though even there, the first 15 - 30 minutes are often not busy.

If you have the money to rent private ice, that is the way to go. Alas, if you don't rent far enough in advance, the times that you can rent private ice are limited. And it isn't cheap.

Some rinks let a small group of people rent the facility after normal hours. If you could get a group of people together, and you can plan sufficiently in advance, you can consult the rink to see if it is a possibility.