Artic Edge Ice Arena of Canton
46615 Michigan AvenueApril is a very busy month of figure skating.
Our schedule for the month is Detroit, Nashville, Chicago back-to-back-to-back weekends. The Nashville and Chicago portions of the trip are long, weekends where we will be at the rink for several days.
The Detroit portion of the month was the easy one. It was just one kid in one event. We’d be at the rink for maybe four hours.
B is more of a freestyle skater than dancer. He still does dance because those the weekends we travel with friends and spend all weekend watching skating. He wants to be part of that world.
But he really wants to jump.
In addition to National Solo Dance, he’s competing in the Excel freestyle series this year. The goal is to make it to qualify for the National Excel Festival in July at the Skating Club of Boston. He can compete in three events and they take his two best scores for qualification.
His first competition was back in March at the Howard E. Van Camp Invitational at the Biggby Coffee Ice Cube – East Lansing. His second was at Tri-States Memorial Figure Skating Championships this past weekend in Detroit….er, Canton.
The competition was held at Artic Edge of Canton. This standalone 2-sheet ice rink in on Michigan Avenue east of South Beck Road in Canton. It’s in front of the Canton Sports Center where I’ve actually gone a couple of times to watch my nieces from Illinois play softball. The rink has 2 NHL sized sheets of ice and over the 25 years of it’s existence, has been home base for numerous Olymic ice dancers and pairs teams. Currently, it’s the home base of Michigan Ice Dance Academy and US Worlds Team Members Caroline Green and Michael Parsons. While the building sits on the very busy Michigan Avenue, the entrance is actually on the backside of the building facing the softball diamonds.
The lobby area is very simple. It’s a large room with a lot of space and the entrance to the ice sheets on either side. This is the main hub during a competition but it’s also where you would get rental skates if coming for a public skate.
The rinks are listed as East Rink and West Rink. West Rink is off to the left when you walk in.
The ice sheet is NHL standard 200×85. For this competition, the rink was used for the basic skills levels and what’s know as 6.0 events because they’re not judge on individual elements.
There is a small, three row seating section that runs the length of the ice on the side near the doors.
The seating is a concrete structure with wood benches laid on top. There are heaters above the seating section and they were turned on so it was pretty warm in the rink.
The East Rink is very similar in design. The big difference right away is the banners hanging of past Olympians who have trained in this rink. B noticed them right away and asked why they were there. He didn’t realize at the time he’d be competing on a rink where so many of the people he watches on TV and YouTube trained.
It’s the same NHL standard rink with the benches on the wall opposite of the entry doors. This rink was used for all of the IJS judged events which is the type of judging you see on TV.
The seating area is much larger but it’s the same same type of seating. This arena is where the bigger events would be held when there are tournaments and competitions like this.
The seats are the same wood bleachers on concrete risers. We actually sat at the top because it was easy to lean back on to the concrete and lean against the back wall.
We couldn’t really see it but above the bleachers there was some kind of training facility in a room between the two rinks. We could see a few machines and some turf with football markings on it. L was jealous. She really wishes we had something like this at our rink.
This rink is really unique in that it has a big figure skating skate shop attached. Detroit Custom Skate Shop is tucked in to a corner by West Rink. We actually bought L’s second pair of Edea Ice Fly’s from this shop. We had issues with the mounting though so we didn’t go back for the pair of skates we just bought B. A lot of Detroit skaters go to Detroit Custom Skates though..it’s one of the bigger shops in the country. The main shop is in Bloomfield Hills but you can get everything at this one too.
And finally, food. The rink has a concession stand in the corner near East Rink. They have a lot of the typical snack shop foods. L ordered a pizza slice at one point. I tried to order some French fries but they said they were having a problem with the fryer at the time and I just never went back. I did grab a fountain Pepsi while I was there and we also got a couple of Gatorade’s. Like I said, we only spent a few hours at the rink so we weren’t really there long enough to eat. We had planned on stopping on the way home but I got called in to work so we had to quash that too and just head back to Kalamazoo.
This was B’s first time skating in competition at Arctic Edge. He had a great looking skate but had a fall at the end and he didn’t get one of his elements called. He was the best skater in his group but he finished 2nd because of those mistakes. No big deal. He’s currently first in the Midwest in his division and 3rd in the country..and he’s got two more competitions to improve those scores.
We hear a lot about the rink in Canton because of it’s Olympic connections. B had skated at a public skate there once but this was the first time we’ve gone to a competition there. It was just so different from our usual competition days because it was such a short, easy day. The rink was great and we never felt claustrophobic. I’m sure this won’t be our last time there. It’s such an easy rink for us to get to from Kalamazoo so hoping we’ll get back in the future.
SW Michigan Dining 