Castro Valley Remembers Ice Skating

I hate ice skating. It’s torture dressed up as recreation. Ice is cold and slippery and hard, and my ankles are basically built of glass. 

But despite my ringing endorsement for the sport, I spent a ton of time at ice rinks.

While growing up one of my best friends had olympic dreams, seriously 5 days a week, hours at a time. As a friend I would go with him, not for moral support, but because back then ice rinks were in malls, and malls were awesome. What better place for a young knucklehead to get in trouble than at a mall?

You had all the great amusements: girls, arcades, movie theaters, and shoplifting. All of those distractions and despite myself, I still managed to learn about ice skating, camels and lutzes and toe loops oh my.

Actually, what I learned is to appreciate the amount of time and effort put out by anyone to achieve at a sport. Thousands of hours, thousands of dollars, workouts, diets, independent study to spend more time on the ice.

My friend never made it to the olympics, he ended up skating for the Ice Capades. Some might see that as a disappointment, a washed up athlete, but he tried, and I have to respect that.

I don’t know how I ended up going down the boulevard of broken dreams rabbit hole, I just wanted to talk about ice skating, not some crazy Freudian, free association memory pit.

Anyhow, this week on CVLegends I asked people to share their memories on ice skating, below is a sampling of some of the responses:

Kathy Culwell- Valle Vista followed by cruising E14th. There were lots of boys at the rink - we always had a good time.

Wendy Lewis Olsen- Southland.....ended up on crutches after a spill.....fun though!

Mariellen Jessop-Smolik- I lived at Valle Vista...many a boyfriend came out of there!

Rachel McHenry- Iceland in Dublin for ice skating, but it was all about Roller skating at Golden Skate in San Ramon!

Sunny Daze- back in the "old days", we had to go to berzerkeley to go ice skating.

Grant Tsugawa- Broom ball at Southland. 

Michele Wolf- Grew up on the north shore ofLake Tahoe. Skated at the Squaw Valley rink built for the 1960 winter Olympics till they tore it down to make a parking lot :(

Andrea Pederson- Ice Skated at Southland. Always fun. Loved to watch through the big windows when we went to the mall to shop. Was sad to see it close.

Suzy Selover Wingerd- Took lessons at Southland.. Roller skated at a place on A street(near BART tracks), Valle Vista, and Golden Skate

 Shannon Lund Baptista- I always wanted to ice skate at Southland. My Mom would never take me.

Heather Mellon- Dublin Iceland, and Golden Skate for roller skating! Red light, green light, one two three!

Julie Ontiveros- Yes, Fashion Island was a mall in Foster City. The ice rink was right inside the mall so you could skate, eat at the foods court, hang out. They also had long bench seating along one side of the rink, on the inside. You could take a break without leaving the ice!

Cecily Sherman LeFevre- We had a year-round covered ice rink up by our family cabin in Long Barn on the Sonora Pass. Still there but not open all year.

Onica BeeClay- Iceland in Dublin. Used to watch Southland skaters through the round widows!

Julie Farrington-Sheetz- I've only been ice skating twice, both times at Southland. The first time was in the third grade, for a friend's birthday, where I spent the entire night sliding on the ice on my butt. The second time was when I was in college, and I went with a group of friends. Spent that entire night "butt skating", too.

Peter Welborn- Used to go to southland all the time after they would go over the ice with the Zamboni we would slide all the way across the ice and get soaking wet loved that place .

If you would like to add your memories or input, please visit us and join in the conversation at www.facebook.com/CVLegends.

Also, the reason this whole discussion came up was because while internet spelunking I found a crazy t-shirt that seems to be Castro Valley related for a Palomares Figure Skating club. Does anyone remember said club and if you could provide any information that would be great. Thank you and good day.