Does your rink have a guard on the ice during public sessions?

[tstop4me]

If you skate at more than one rink, check all applicable options.

[skategeek]

Hmm.  Not sure how to answer this.  My main rink always (so far as I know) has a guard during regular public sessions, but never for the adult-only sessions.

[Bill_S]

My local rink always has two guards for public skating sessions. They are always college students enrolled at the university.

[hellotwizzles]

i chose the first option.

The rink I go to skate public sessions has people occasionally checking in from an observation deck/window when its busy- but never a skate gaurd person, usually rec center staff. The till where you pay for public is also close though, so i imagine if there was an accident someone can run over and call for help probably in less than a minute. Theres one public session- actually the one where I saw a fellow adult skater and was inspired to learn more about the sport!- that is at 8:00 am before the rec center even properly opens. Staff open the arena door on the lower level and you can skate with a scan card pretty much alone except for others who show up- the upstairs office is still dark at this time.

I dont think most city run rinks have guards...especially the outdoor one that goes up every winter- that ones just chaos.

Ive only tried club ice with coaches everywhere at another rink, but i think they have the same setup where theres someone periodically checking in for skaters to pay/just in case but no one on ice all the time for freestyle. Maybe skate gaurds are more or an american thing, or my city just doesnt have the liability policy/concern to have them.

[dlbritton]

When I first started skating my rink had a guard during open public but not during adult only public.
There haven't been any guards for at least 3 years now.
The guards were usually young hockey guys that were more interested in chatting with the teenage girls than
actually doing much else so they haven't really been missed.

[Loops]

Never.  And there is some crazy stuff that happens between the hockey players, freestyle (as in on hockey skates) skaters with their headphones and crazy moves, and the ice tourists.  With only 5 public sessions a week, it's uber crowded and they usually have the disco lights going.

And people wonder why I never go or take my kids 

[tstop4me]

The guards were usually young hockey guys that were more interested in chatting with the teenage girls than
actually doing much else so they haven't really been missed.

Reminds me of one rink I used to skate at.  The guards during public session were also mainly teenage hockey jocks.  We had one skater during public sessions who was a beautiful teenage girl.  She was an advanced freestylist, and frequently did some dangerous moves ... in particular, flying camels.  The guards never intervened.  The rink manager had view of the ice, and occasionally, she would interrupt the music, get on the PA system, and tell the girl to knock it off.  I asked the rink manager why she had to do that, why the guards didn't enforce the safety rules.  Her reply:  "Oh, the guards are all asking her out on dates."

[The Sacred Voice]

My rink typically has a rink guard on if it's busy, but I mostly go to sessions where it's not so busy so they'll usually have the person that's doing skate hire keep an eye on the rink when the skate hire's not busy. My rink's guards also come from the ice hockey jock background and are generally useless at enforcing the rules or telling people off.

Something that really gets my goat is when rink guards don't want to apply the rules equally because one of the people on the rink is their friend. That's worked in my favour sometimes, but it's also been really annoying in other instances.

[hellotwizzles]

Reading back on this thread, since everyone seems to have let's say, low key rink guards- I wonder if it would be better to just have a designated first-aid person or a runner at the rink rather than a guard, or simply have people on public ice wear helmets or do a skating test.

I'm a lifeguard, and even though we're always watching the pool- we have people either voluntarily get life jackets or else do a swim test and prove they can swim one length of the pool (widths for kids). It takes maybe? 5 minutes at most for people who are super slow to do that 25m, and it's not hard to see them even in a crowded pool so it's not like we have to kick everyone out to do swim tests. Usually for kids, we'll make a note they passed it on their pass or their parents account so when they come back to the pool, we know they can swim and don't have to do it again.

Maybe just demonstrate that you can skate a lap, no matter how "badly", stop and pick yourself up after a fall and you're good to skate- if not then parents can sign for their kids agreeing to supervise them and adults can just sign assumption of risk forms if they want to be there that badly even if they can't skate.

[FigureSpins]

Our rink has guards during prime time: Friday evening, Saturdays and Sundays.  The weekday public sessions are pretty much unsupervised, although the kids in the day care/afterschool program have counselors who skate/chaperone during their scheduled skating.  The weekday sessions end around 3pm, so it's mainly homeschoolers and adults.

Some rinks (not mine) find that Friday nights attract a rough crowd of teenagers, so they make it "family night," where an adult has to be in the rink with the underage skaters at all times.  They can't leave and come back.

[AgnesNitt]

My rink is psychotic.

Sometimes they have a rink guard on the ice when the only person on the ice is me.

[tstop4me]

Reading back on this thread, since everyone seems to have let's say, low key rink guards- I wonder if it would be better to just have a designated first-aid person or a runner at the rink rather than a guard, or simply have people on public ice wear helmets or do a skating test.

I wouldn't draw any conclusions from such a small sample size.  I have skated at rinks in which the guards are responsible, conscientious, and diligent.  And they are not all teen hockey jock boys.  At one rink I go to, the guards during weekday morning publics are mature adult female figure skaters.  In addition to getting paid, they get free ice time for any public and freestyle.  When the kids are in school, it's usually calm.  But during school holidays and summers, the guards earn their keep.

[hellotwizzles]

I wouldn't draw any conclusions from such a small sample size.  I have skated at rinks in which the guards are responsible, conscientious, and diligent.  And they are not all teen hockey jock boys.  At one rink I go to, the guards during weekday morning publics are mature adult female figure skaters.  In addition to getting paid, they get free ice time for any public and freestyle.  When the kids are in school, it's usually calm.  But during school holidays and summers, the guards earn their keep.

I'm not saying that all the gaurds are bad- I meant low key in the slang way as in, they're not really around- so I wonder about whether skate gaurds are necessary to having a good/safe skating environment. They're not a thing at all where i am at, thought they'd be more common for other posters but that's doesnt seem to be the case.

[LunarSkater]

Of the three rinks I've regularly skated at, the answers are all different.

My first rink had skate guards during busy sessions, but not at lightly attended ones. They were all quite attentive to what was going on.

My second (current) rink has skate guards most of the time, but they tend to be of the teenage boy variety who doesn't pay attention to what's going on. Some of them skate about as well as the general public. The best one skates well, but has his earbuds in and eyes glued to his phone.

My third (seasonal) rink didn't have any guards whenever I've gone. This might be different during the busy season, but I didn't skate there then to know.

[DelMaggie]

The rink I have been going to for public skate has those teenage guards everyone else has mentioned. Typically during the busier sessions.  On Friday nights, after they resurface, this rink turns down all the lights, and turn up the disco lights and lasers, like its a dance club. It's awful, you can't see a thing.  I swore to myself I will never go back. Not to mention, food and drink all over the ice. And the last time I went  pucks were being thrown at people, I complained To the manager and was then watched like a hawk the rest of the time I was there because some teenagers were caught breaking the rules.  I have always felt as a customer, I was interrupting their day.  Customer no service. During the day sessions no guards are present. Not to mention this rink costs twice as much as the other rinks around for public. $12 no matter how long the session- anywhere from 1 hour 20 minutes to a max of 2 hours 20 minutes.My old rink is $7 for adults, $5 for kids. All sessions there are 2-4 hours in length.

[infinitespiral]

I think I'm lucky, as at my rink I've never seen obnoxious teen boys in the orange guard vest. At the Saturday afternoon public session, there's always an older adult male guard, and he's great. He keeps the shenanigans under control, but he's also very encouraging and friendly with the ice tourists when he sees them struggling. One day I even saw him very patiently helping a tiny little girl in hockey gear with her back crossovers. (Maybe I should ask him to help me with mine!)

[Arwen17]

Most of our guards are hockey teen boys or girls who may have taken figure skating lessons at some point in the past. So they can all skate better than a beginner, but not always "super great".
The hockey boys: a few pay attention, but many are just playing with their hockey friends on ice which is really annoying because they are adding to the problem instead of fixing it.
The girls: they usually don't cause problems like the boys, but they often don't get on people either because they're too timid.
The main thing the guards do is simply check on people who take a really hard fall to make sure they're OK. And to occasionally stop people if they're really climbing over things or throwing things or doing something completely crazy.
Occasionally, a real figure skater or coach or the skating director is the guard for the day. Usually happens when they just didn't have anyone else on hand and a huge crowd suddenly showed up for a normally uncrowded session. Uncrowded sessions don't have guards.
For most kids, rink guarding is an extremely boring part-time job, so I don't really expect them to put much effort into it. Same with the teenagers employed at the front desk and rental skate counter. They have ZERO knowledge about skates, clubs, or anything else. You have to find a coach or the skating director to get answers.

[ChristyRN]

What's a rink guard? 

[tstop4me]

What's a rink guard? 

Actually, I almost listed that as an option in the poll.  :-)

[ChristyRN]

Actually, I almost listed that as an option in the poll.  :-)

Ha!

Needed one at the rink yesterday. Obnoxious hockey boys at a birthday party. Completely out of control. One was the son of a hall of fame NHLer. Obnoxious brat--runs around screaming "do you know who my dad is??" He and his friends skate all over the place without paying attention to other skaters. I can usually avoid them, but there were a few other skaters that they nearly took out and did make them fall. Management's not going to do anything because his dad is still highly visible in the NHL team and it's the team practice rink.

Just one more reason to despise stinky hockey boys.

As a side note, my 4 year old granddaughter commented on it and I had to reassure her that I would skate to the inside so they didn't take her out. She was pretty scared of them.

[AgnesNitt]

Public started an hour early, unannounced. I just happened to get to the rink early and they told me I could go on the ice. There were a bunch of people sitting in the lobby with their boots on, not going on the ice.

I got on for 20 glorious minutes all alone with nice ice.

And still no one else got on.

The rink manager told them the rink didn't open up another 30 minutes--but told me to go on and get on (I think because if I was alone on the ice they didn't put a guard out).

I told them to go ahead an get on, which they did and the rink sent a guard out.

[tothepointe]

At the first rink (large facility 3 sheets of ice) they have a skate guard only on the afternoon and evening sessions. Mainly because mornings is filled with adults and plenty of staff coaches also on the ice and not that busy. Sometimes the skate guards can barely skate.

The other mall based rink with one small sheet of ice will only have skate guards on Sundays and holidays. But during holidays they often have multi skate guard with very good skating skills including this wonderful older lady who used to skate with the Ice Capades who is very active in helping the newbies.

[dlbritton]

My rink does not have guards anytime that I can see. Perhaps Friday or Saturday night with the disco ball going.

Yesterday was a zoo on the ice with at least 25 people on the ice. The local schools were closed because of tornado damage to several local schools so lots of teenagers on the ice.

In particular there was a group of about 6 hockey guys that were doing sprint races from one end to the other. Among the skaters blasting around the ice was a hockey coach and a figure skating coach. As I see it, if the coaches are going to go tearing around the ice, why should the kids think they can't as well.

[tstop4me]

Thanks for all the responses.  I'll let the poll run, but here's a snapshot of the results as of May 30, 2018.