Thursday, January 31, 2008

Skating tonight

It's a shame only six people skated on Tuesday night, since it turned out to be a good evening. The drizzle stopped before we got on the ice, and the rink was in good shape.

Ken and Eva stopped by on Tuesday. Ken very kindly sharpened skates for Taisa, Sean and me. Eva found photos of some of our long-time members that she passed along.

Tonight should be a good night for skating, hope to see you there!

Monday, January 28, 2008

Skating on Grenadier Pond

A group of our members and friends skated Sunday afternoon at Grenadier Pond. It was a gorgeous afternoon to be out!

I arrived after the oval had already been cleared. I was doing the Dad's taxi thing; Taisa works as a rink attendant on Sunday afternoons at Martingrove Rink. Thank you to those who did the shoveling.

Annemieke said that she and her husband Gary have tomorrow off work and may slip out to skate. If you're interested in joining her, let me know and I can put you in touch to find out what time they're planning to go.

I won't be able to make it to Grenadier for the next few days, so I'll see you at Martingrove Tuesday night.

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Another chance to speed skate on Grenadier Pond

Six of us – David, Dolly, Jody, Neil, Taisa and I – skated Grenadier Pond this morning. It took 30 minutes to shovel a 350 metre oval. The ice was fine, so we were able to fly! Neil will be sending me some photos to post here.

We enjoyed it so much that we want to do it again. The plan is to meet up tomorrow afternoon (Sunday Jan 27) at 2:00 p.m. at the southwest corner of the Pond. Bring a shovel, in case we need clear away the bit of snow that the weatherman has forecasted.

Street parking is available on Ellis Gardens, one block north of The Queensway running west off Ellis Avenue. Take the Lakeshore eastbound, turn left at Ellis Avenue. Ellis Gardens is the first street left after you go through the light at The Queensway.

Friday, January 25, 2008

Join us on Grenadier Pond this Saturday

A group of us are going skating on Grenadier Pond on Saturday morning. David Ross checked out the Pond yesterday, and reports that the ice is very good under about 5 cm. of light snow.

We're meeting at 8:00 at the southwest corner of the Pond. Bring a shovel, it shouldn't take us long to clear an oval given that the snow is light.

Street parking is available on Ellis Gardens, one block north of The Queensway running west off Ellis Avenue. Take the Lakeshore eastbound, turn left at Ellis Avenue. Ellis Gardens is the first street left after you go through the light at The Queensway.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

This and that

The ice was great on Tuesday night. Everyone was saying it was a wonderful night to skate; it was a pleasure to be outside after the deep freeze on Sunday!

It should be a good night again tonight, as long as everyone dresses for the -11 temperature.

Speaking of dressing warmly, the fifth anniversary of the International Big Rideau Lake Speed Skating Marathon will be held this Saturday in Portland, Ontario.

Friday, January 11, 2008

Back on the ice last night

Twelve of us skated last night. It was mostly a free skate, with one round of asteroids at the end. Taisa spent some time coaching some of our new members, who are all showing lots of improvement.

Several people asked me how we're doing this season on our membership. So far this season, 25 people have joined the Club, of whom 15 are skating one night and 10 are skating both nights. We need a few more members to break-even, but I think we should build up our reserves so that we can continue to accommodate our growing membership (i.e., buy skates if we have to).

Eva has very kindly agreed to call a few people who skated with us last year who haven't come out yet. I hope they're able to join us again this year.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Speed skating cancelled today - Thursday should be fine

With today's weather forecast, tonight's skating is cancelled, Tuesday Jan 8th. It wouldn’t be much fun in the rain or with that much water on the ice. (Sorry Christine, I know you’d skate in spite of these conditions!)

If any of you who are Tuesday only members would like to skate this Thursday, Jan 10th instead, please join us then. Let's hope our rink attendants can restore the ice by then! Our permit is from 7:15 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. so plan on showing up a few minutes early so we can skate the full hour.

Last Thursday, we had a special guest at our practice. Adam started short track last year with Brampton Speed Skating. He chose to attend University of Calgary so that he could skate on the long track at the Olympic Oval. He showed us his brand spanking new Viking clap skates, and took a few laps on them. He was pretty fast in spite of the short track at Martingrove.

Incidentially, I enjoyed reading about Andrew Love's tour of the Viking factory, where Adam's skates were made. Check it out!