Ice rink to skate in Bay area

[DestinationFw]

Hi all,

I'm new to this forum and also I just moved to Bay Area from Japan.
I learned to figure skate 4 years ago as an adult, took a break, and I finally decided to restart again now.
I am still waiting for my skates to be delivered next week but I am currently looking for a good ice rink around Bay area, especially East Bay.
Does anyone have any recommendation?
I went to Solar4America at Fremont before and found that it was very empty - which is good and scary at the same time, but I will be happier if I can meet any fellow skaters on the rink since I am very new to this place.

Thanks!

 

[Sylvia]

Paging @Willin!

ETA:

http://www.oaklandice.com/

 

[Willin]

@Sylvia Thanks for the page!

What part of the East Bay?

Fremont used to be a good rink, but they've taken a lot of the figure skating ice for hockey in the last 10 years, so most skaters/coaches from there now go to San Jose or Oakland.

Dublin is really run down and the ice quality is poor, but they have a very good adult skating community. If you want to go, going for Thursday adult coffee club or a public during school hours is the way to go.

Oakland also has a lot of adult skaters! I really like it there, but since there's a ton of high level skaters freestyle sessions can be scary and overly intense. There are adult coffee club sessions (Tuesday and Thursdays IIRC) and dance sessions through the local skating club on Monday mornings and Thursday evenings. The adult skaters there are nice, but a little less casual than those in Dublin. The publics are too crowded to practice anything.
If you want to there's adult synchro teams at this rink to participate in. I think their season's already started (based on the synchro competition schedule), but you can see if you want to join next season.

If you're in for a drive, Vacaville is a nice rink and the adult skaters there are even nicer.

Some people choose to go across the bay to San Francisco, and some go down to San Jose. I haven't been to San Francisco ever (I don't know why), but San Jose is a very nice rink. San Jose is more intense than either Dublin or Oakland. I don't know too much else about either place.

There's a "rink" with three small sheets of ice in Livermore, but I think it's almost all hockey. I don't know any figure skaters or coaches that go there to skate.

 

[DestinationFw]

@Willin wow thanks a lot of the details explanation!

I am looking for anything around Berkeley-Hayward area.
Actually, I was looking into Oakland Ice too but heard that it is pretty crowded. I saw that they have a Tuesday night cheap skate but according to your explanation, it can only get worst to go during those hours I bet.. :S
I might try to go and ask about their adult coffee club for now.

I've never heard about Dublin's ice rink actually so I might go check it out.

Just wondering if you are also a skater by any chance?

 

[Willin]

@DestinationFw Yes! I am I'm not skating too much right now due to the lack of a job, but hopefully I'll be around more once something comes up. (ice time is expensive!)

 

[DestinationFw]

@Willin aww that's too bad! but hopefully, you can skate more soon! thanks for the help again

 

[Willin]

No problem! Maybe I'll run into you somewhere.

 

[myhoneyhoney]

There’s also Nazareth Ice Oasis in San Mateo/Foster City, right off the San Mateo Bridge. http://nazarethice.com/

I used to skate in Dublin, the Adult Coffee is filled with nice people. I hope to go back when work eases up.

 

[DestinationFw]

@myhoneyhoney oh right! I heard that the skating club there is pretty good, although I think it's more for the amateur skater. San Mateo is a little bit far from my place but it's a good one to consider.

I'm actually amazed that there are so many rinks here in such close proximity.. When I was in Tokyo, they only have 2 rinks within the city and everywhere is super crowded all the time.

 

[MIsty Blades/Skate Mom]

Oakland is the best rink in the East Bay from what I've seen. Dublin is closest to my house.

 

[MacMadame]

St. Moritz ISC (the club of current US Nationals Ladies champion Alysa Liu and my former club back when I skated) runs sessions at Oakland and Dublin. They used to be based at the Berkeley rink but that rink is no more. They are a fairly big club but aren't as intense as Peninsula (based in San Jose) or the Skating Club of SF (based in SF, of course) IME. They have a ton of adult skaters and are very friendly towards adult skaters.

Yerba Buena in SF is a nice rink but small. Also, car break-ins if you park on the street are common. Nazareth Ice Oasis in Redwood City is also small and they keep it FREEZING so the ice is nice for hockey. But it's empty during the day if you want skate at lunchtime.

This time of year, there is a Winter-only rink on the Peninsula --- Winter Lodge in Palo Alto. It should be closing soon though. There are some other winter-only rinks in the East Bay but I can't comment on them as they all opened up after I was done skating.

There are also some adult ice dancers who belong to various clubs who are part of an informal club that puts on a dance weekend in SJ in Oct. BAID (Bay Area Ice Dancers) have a weekly email that lists all the adult and dance oriented sessions for the week. I unsubbed from it recently but from memory: There is a Social Ice Dance session in Fremont during the day and sessions in SJ, Oakland and Dublin -- either coffee clubs or social ice dance. There is a long running Sunday morning Social Ice Dance session that I used to skate at when I still skated. It's followed by a Speed Skating session which can be fun to stay and watch.