Having an ice time

Last Updated on 17/11/2019 by Alex Squire

On The Thursday before Christmas I thought I would go and try out the ice rink in Lincoln. They have one every year and this year it is there from 26^th of November to 1^st January.

The rink is accessible to wheelchairs and they have two “quiet” sessions a week for disabled people or children. I say “quiet” but in reality there was still quite a lot of people there. In the ticket office area where you buy tickets and rent your skates it was packed, and I could hardly move for fear of squashing a small child.

Once my carer had handed over his boots and attached his ice skates we headed onto the ice. There was a narrow walkway down the side of the rink leading to a door through which we embarked onto the ice.

It was quite easy to drive my Powerchair over the ice, as it was quite smooth. I was expecting lots of wheel spinning as the tyres struggled to get traction, but in reality this didn’t seem to be an issue. I just drove around pretty normally trying to slide and drift.

I started doing 360° spins like a figure skater, although not as graceful as one. I would drive full speed in a straight line and then my carer would pull the back of my chair sideways to send the chair into a spin. As I kept the joystick push straightforward the chair would continue to spin like a top on the spot. It was quite fun, but I had to be constantly on the lookout for other skaters.

I didn’t want to send anyone flying or injure anyone right before Christmas. That probably wouldn’t be a very good present for them. Luckily I managed to avoid everyone and there was no need for the emergency services.

I was on the ice about half an hour. Sessions last for about 45 minutes but as always at the most inopportune of moments I needed the toilet, so we had to leave early.

To be honest in a wheelchair ice skating is not as fun as I imagine it is for able-bodied people with proper ice skates on. It’s meant to be the feeling of gliding along on slivers of metal that is the thrill of it, but for me it’s not that different to driving on any other surface. Apart from the spinning which I probably wouldn’t be able to do on a normal surface. It was good to try it as I’ve never tried it before, but I probably wouldn’t pay to do it again.

I read today that the ice rink had melted overnight due to a broken pipe in the cooling system. So it is now an outdoor swimming pool! They will probably have it fixed before long though.

Thank you very much for visiting my blog! No matter whether it is your first time here, or you have read a number of my posts this year I appreciate it greatly all the same.