A new rink, a new beginning for skating in Singapore

JCUBE Rink, a set on Flickr.

The new rink opened in Singapore at the end of March. It's Olympic size and the people hired to manage it are former skaters from the UK who have run a rink previously in Dubai. I am so happy about this new change for both the local skating scene and for me too. Finally a rink where figure skaters and hockey players can book ice and start building teams to participate in international events.

The other rink in Singapore is like a lot of the rinks in Asia –– like a carnival ride. You pay a bunch of money, you skate in a circle and you leave. These novelty ice rinks are run by corporations who discourage anyone from doing anything other than the above by imposing rules on what is or isn't allowed on the ice and charging fees of upwards of $2,000 for a two hour ice booking. There's a two hour minimum booking! The local staff aren't allowed to negotiate much and the rules appear to come from people who have never seen skating before. Terrible right? It gets worse...

The rinks don't allow freelance coaches on the public ice but they make ice too expensive for clubs to buy. All coaches have to become employees of the ice rink and their hourly wage is a fraction of what it should be. This seems to be doing a good job of choking the growth of skating. There's no way around these corporate rink entities because they control the ice and that's really the most important thing. I'm hoping the new rink at JCUBE is going to set a new standard for how things should be done.

I never realized it before but the system we have in Canada is pretty amazing. As far as I know the government funded parks boards built almost all the rinks and government money continues to heavily subsidize their running costs. It has made it possible for middle class kids to reach the Olympics. That just doesn't happen in other countries. Even in the US I think it's a little harder because there's less government funding keeping skating costs down and rinks are privately owned. It's less extreme than in Asia though.

Just in the few sessions I've helped with here I've seen lots of little kids who just took off the moment their blades hit the ice for the first time. I've seen some really raw talent from some of the Singaporean kids who flooded in from local HDBs for a free lesson when the rink opened. I couldn't help thinking about early talent ID back home and how we'd have taken these kids aside and helped them fast track into the competitive stream. [sigh] Well I guess this is just another one of those things Canadians need to really feel thankful for. As much as I complained back in the day about not having enough funding for skating in Canada I think I finally have some perspective. Our government spends millions of dollars supporting skating every year. I am eternally grateful for that.