skating rink in Melbourne, any left????
rabbit
Things are not looking good. I live in Moorabbin and the mordialloc rink is
not open on weekdays (nights), noble park has closed.
Whats the Dox-al rink on overseas drive noble park north???
Rabbit
Craig Hart
Witness the closing of: Moorelbark, Heidelberg, Noble Park & Frankston, to
name but a few prestiege rinks.
left are Carribbean Rolerama Scoresby, Roller City Bayswayer, Mordialloc,
Dandenong, Carrum Downs, Etham, Cambelfield & Altona (I think altona still
runs - not 100% sure).
Carribbean is the best by far, followed by eltham and bayswayer (equal
second), and the rest are just second rate pre-teenage venues.
The death of roller rinks parallels the death of the hockey, artistic and/or
speed skating teams that once every rink had. Without the support of the
"club" part, rinks have nothing left to exist for, and must rely soley on
door take for profits. Sooner or later the owners realise that $5 a head for
~100 kids to go for a few hours skate isn't enough to pay 5 staff and leave
enough to call a profit.
Gone are the days where Carribbean would pack in nearly 1000 skaters on
friday and saturday nights, and to get in the door you had to queue 1/2 an
hour before opening time. The speedskate on those nights was a sight to
behold: all the top club racers would show up and informally "compete" over
the course of the speedskate, which often lasted 15-20 minutes, and the
girls were every bit as fast and as tough as the guys. Those were the days!
Craig
PS the "rink" in overseas drive is a hockey rink, combined with an indoor
street circuit & halfpipe. It's not run like a "normal" rink, IMHO; it's
mainly a rent-a-venue to use the hockey floor for matches.
"rabbit" <rab...@iprimus.com.au> wrote in message
news:3c4e8e02$0$19277$afc3...@news.optusnet.com.au...
James & Joanne
too!
James
"Craig Hart" <bbay...@bigpond.net.au> wrote in message
news:UJG38.4035$Ni2....@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
James & Joanne
too!
James
"Craig Hart" <bbay...@bigpond.net.au> wrote in message
news:UJG38.4035$Ni2....@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
James & Joanne
too!
James
"Craig Hart" <bbay...@bigpond.net.au> wrote in message
news:UJG38.4035$Ni2....@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
James & Joanne
too!
James
"Craig Hart" <bbay...@bigpond.net.au> wrote in message
news:UJG38.4035$Ni2....@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
James & Joanne
too!
James
"Craig Hart" <bbay...@bigpond.net.au> wrote in message
news:UJG38.4035$Ni2....@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
Craig Hart
I raced at years ago folded, but darned if I can recall the name now!
Speedkate "team indys" was based in SA "I think", dunno if they're still
going either??
Craig
"James & Joanne" <we...@nottelling.com.au> wrote in message
news:mca58.17590$Ni2....@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
Corey Gibson
Good to see Heidelberg made it into your 'prestige' list of rinks!!!!
(My parents used to own it....we also had one in Epping for a while).
There was a huge drop in patronage to rinks in the late 80's. The
main causes were inline skates (much more comfortable to skate on 75A
wheels than 95A wheels down the beach....hence skating moved outdoors)
and a general shift in the culture of Australian families (rather the
parents go to the pokies and the kids hang out at the shopping centre
than have some real exercise and entertainment). Oh yeah, greedy
building owners pumping up lease prices didn't help. And of late,
public liability insurance is a worry these days... Eltham's insurance
went from $4K to $13K in one year.... and some place in Perth had
their's go up to $80K....whch is ridiculous.
Rinks, rinks, rinks.......also think about Lilydale and Resevoir (nice
rink for hockey, but I don't know of a lot of session skating
there)....and by Altona, do you mean Laverton (not sure if it's still
there but it's listed in the yellow pages)
Rabbit........check your Yellow pages, most rinks that are left should
be in there and you can ask them when they are open for public
sessions.....and the people who owned Mordiallic rebuilt another rink
somewhere in Mordy, and also in Carrum Downs (AKA new Frankston).
Most rinks won't be open for public sessions on weeknights mainly
because they aren't patronised at those times, although some do (but
most would have hockey, speed or artistic training on).
The whole Noble Park rink situation was a debarcle. The old Noble
Park rink (Elanora Rd.....good people from the original rink owners
crew running it...good friends of my family!!!) was getting pretty run
down and the main thing keeping them alive was inline hockey (games
and training), although their sessions were still pretty healthy.
Then some idiot from the VIHLA (not that there's much wrong with VIHLA
people in general...and he wasn't really affiliated with VIHLA) inline
hockey traps (he was an importer of V-lines also....dumbass) decided
that he wanted to build a permanent rink somewhere. At the time he
was running the hockey centre in Springers lesuire centre in
Springvale and he also had a hand in having a special hockey rink in
Festival Hall in the city (evetually a failed venture which nearly
killed the sport financially). Since Noble Park was an industrial
area, he found a building he could use there......he could have easily
gone to the west of Melbourne where there are practically no rinks,
plenty of industrial areas and an increasing young population. The
city council approved his permits without considering the bigger
picture.
This killed old Noble Park.....generally youth are attracted by
bright, shiny, new things, and most headed to the new rink, along with
a lot of hockey. Also, Bev, one of the owners of old Noble Park died
a bit after the new rink opened, so Mal, her husband was forced to
throw in the towel.
Recently, the guy (or one of) that owned new Noble Park ('The Centre')
got into some financial trouble apparently to do with his skate import
venture. Subsequently, the new rink closed. This has now left a huge
gap in terms of rinks the VIHLA hockey league can use.....Reservoir
and Moe (a nice 2 and a bit hour drive from where I am in Melbourne)
which had about 6 or more rinks at its disposale at its height.
Once again, I've managed to bore everyone with a long post, so I'll go
back to my lull of just looking at this news group every now and
again.
Corey Gibson
"Craig Hart" <bbay...@bigpond.net.au> wrote in message news:<UJG38.4035$Ni2....@news-server.bigpond.net.au>...
Motorblade
>back to my lull of just looking at this news group every now and
>again.
>
and I am from texas
"fritz"
<A
HREF="http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2001-05-11/xtra_featu
re4.html">The Austin Chronicle Features: A Life on Wheels</A>
www.motorblade.com
Birdy(Parker), Brazil(Gilliam),and Brewster McCloud(Altman)
Craig Hart
As a former speedskater thru the 80's and 90's, I know pretty much everyone
you're referring to. Mal was a nice bloke, sure enough...he just needs to
watch his waistline as his health fell off there a bit in the end too.
My wife cares for the children of the owners of mordialloc and carrum
downs/frankston rinks - his name is Chris, so we know all about that. The
roof fell in on the mordialloc snak bar a few years ago, and bravely they
tolerated it and rebuilt, even though it would have been easier to close up.
Craig
"Corey Gibson" <inl...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
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