WPCNR Ebersole Penguin. By John F. Bailey. December 29, 2012:
So you’re a slightly older guy or gal feeling guilty about the poundage acquired over the last week, or you’re a parent wondering what in the world to do with children on weekends as the dreary winter unwinds to spring. (Going to two kids’ movies a weekend cost a fortune!)
Figure Skating School Graduates, 2004 — Many now teach at the Ebersole Rink eight years later. WPCNR PHOTO ARCHIVE
Who you going to call? Ebersole Skating School Of course. 914-948-6696
Ebersole Rink is the winter recreation answer for young and old!
Classes for all ages from Kids to Curmudgeons are still open for registration before the winter season starts January 4 at the friendliest, safest rink in Westchester County.
Young skaters (or children who have never skated) immediately identify with the personable,friendly expert instructors at the rink, many of whom took lessons themselves and learned to skate at the 50 year old rink.
No matter what the level of your skater, or (if you’re even an adult), the instructors have keen diagnostic eyes for the mechanics of skating, the acumen to identify mistakes in your execution, and the effortless solutions to clearly correct technical problems holding back the Oksana Bayul or Gordie Howe in you and raise the levels of skaters of all ages.
Friendly smiles and endless patience of Figure Skating School Director Kristen Fuerst’s Skating Stars (who are treated like idols by the young girls and boys who come back for these lessons every year) deliver a warm, confidence-building lesson week to week.
The $135 (less than the cost of six movies for kids over 6 weekends) or so invested in a series of Ebersole Skating instruction classes (just long enough for the little guys and gals and the big guys and gals, too) topped by participation in the annual sping skating show, can be the start a lifetime of skating comaraderie and friendships for your youngsters. (And who knows, it might give parents who skate together a brand new activity if they take lessons, too. Couples might want to consider ice-dancing — just kidding.)
Longing to skate like Kristie Yamaguchi,Victor Petrenko,Jane Torvill and Christopher Dean, Sarah Hughes or Sasha Cohen? Want to learn to skate backwards after all these years, or simply stop on ice without grabbing a wall?
Ebersole has adult classes, with instructors who will not laugh at you, will techincally explain the subtle adjustments you need to do to stop on a dime, improve your speed without fear, and (My God!), skate backwards like hockey players! Adult classes are still open for registration and offered on Sunday mornings (right after church) from 11:15 A.M. to 11:45 A.M.
For those of us working on our left-crossovers in their slightly older years, these adult group classes rekindle dreams of skating like Rocket Richard in the old Montreal Forum.
In the three years this reporter has skated adult classes, the instructors, Mark, Robin, Jen and Nora have taught me to stop without using sideboards, skate backwards, balance my ballast and turn by shifting my weight, and skate with confidence. Soon, I am going to put my Montreal Canadiens jersey.
No longer do I have to watch figure skating on television and wish I could skate better. And neither do you.
As far as I know no other rink offers adult group classes with mentors as empathetic, uncritical, and dedicated as these professionals. They rejoice in your success and are not mere instructors without enthusiasm. They are skating therapists, getting you past your fears of falling and mistrust of your muscles with adjustments that work! They turn inferiority complexes into mind-freeing triumphs.
They compassionately identify your bad skating habits you’ve learned over a lifetime, and in an adult who has never learned to skate, they patiently build your tools one by one, effortlessly, build your self-confidence and self-esteem in the process.
And for you younger guys — a little skating prowess — gives you an extra thing to do with the ladies in a completely innocent, neutral recreational setting. (A hard place to find these days!)
As I once told my daughter about her skating, when you grow up and you’re out on your own and feeling bad about yourself, you can always go to any rink, whip around the ice a few times, do a couple of cross-overs (or axels) and feel really good about yourself.
The winter season of lessons for “children of all ages,” starts January 4. There is still time to register for classes.
Ebersole Rink, that I have dubbed “The Happy Rink,” is not the impersonal, overcrowded, lumpy iced, long-time-between-ice-cuts typiucal professional rink with ice so crowded it is dangerous.
Ebersole is a uniquely White Plains treasure, as is Murrays Rink in Yonkers, Hommocks in Mamaroneck and Ice Hutch in Mount Vernon.
Ebersole is the rink where everybody knows you, and those from out of White Plains are welcomed and treated like family.
Ebersole Rink is looking for more skaters in all classes, beginning January 4. Contact the Figure Skating School at 914-948-6696, leave your number to begin the registration process.
Ebersole is a good place to drop your children to. Its ice house is complete with Wi-Fi, big screen television and the Slap Happy Snack Bar delivering coffe, hot dogs and burgers (best in the county). The ice house is warm and friendly and the rink is open air with The Joseph Nicoletti Roof protecting the skaters from the elements. It gives you the skating pond feel without the precipitation.
And it has the best skating surface in the county. Never a rut, or a bump!
Drop on by this weekend and get the feel of the rink yourself on Saturday and Sunday afternoon!
Skating and learning to skate at any age at Ebersole makes you feel good.