The SM Skating Experience at the Mall of Asia

  There may be no chance in my lifetime that there will be snow in Manila, so ice skating was just one of the things I dreamed of doing when I was younger, mainly because of Disney. I never really acted upon making it a reality because for one, there weren’t enough adventurous people around me to try it with. Second, I’ve always known it was pricey (I was younger then, so I didn’t have my own money). Also, I’d seen rinks when I walk around the mall and these rinks appeared crowded. Add to that the huge amount of onlookers who laugh at people who fall or didn’t appear to be doing good on the rinks. Well, I didn’t want to disgrace myself by being one of the people they laugh at.

  So I’m really thankful for having my babe Jancee who not only is good at everything, he also makes any situation comfortable for me, so it was the perfect time. But the main reason I even thought about trying it was when I saw this ad on Facebook by Metrodeal which offered discounted vouchers for a whole day of skating at the SM Malls. So, why not? In this ad, I found out that there are actually many rinks in Manila, not just the ones I visited with too many onlookers. I thought I could possibly choose one with the least number of spectators.

  So after doing some research, I found out that the one at the Mall of Asia is relatively new and the rink was big so there’s lesser chance of bumping into other skaters. Most importantly, the rink is located in an area where people could not have a chance of passing by while having a walk around the mall. You would have to look for it to see people skating. That was a big plus for me.

  So upon reaching the place, we presented our vouchers, and proceeded to the skate lounge for our skates and left our belongings in the locker area.

  It was my first time to try on skates and I was anxious! I saw kids running around the waiting area already wearing their skates and I internally screamed (How will I do that??). The blades were thin (for my southeast Asian eyes) and at that point I thought it must be virtually impossible to walk on these skates. Apparently it wasn’t so hard. Once you put them on and walked around a carpeted surface, you should be fine.

  The real scare was walking or even moving on the rink itself! One little sneeze and you could find your face smacking against the cold, hard, skating rink floor. One could hire a trainer at 150php for a half-hour or rent a polar bear (stuff for guiding you to walk around the rink) for 100php for a full hour. Jancee and I were convinced we didn’t need these and had our faith on the Youtube videos we watched on Skating for Beginners.

  Forty minutes on the rink and we found ourselves hanging for dear life as we cling onto the board, or stand beside it, watching other skaters. I thought we were pathetic. I told myself and I told Jancee that, unless we show some courage and accept that we may fall but don’t think too much of it, we were going to waste our time there. We made some progress after an hour when we walked haphazardly toward the center of the rink, but not too far from the board. I did this by doing some mincing steps, and I reached as far as four feet from the board.

  That’s pretty much the best of what I did inside the SM Skating Rink that day. Jancee’s progress was more commendable. After about an hour and a half he’s already running around the rink with other skaters. Whereas for me, I took a break for about ten minutes after falling three times. Yes, three times, twice on my butt, and once on my knees. Every fall was harder than the previous, and I started getting attention. On my third fall, I was escorted by two official rink assistants as I left the rink.

  After a while, I decided to go back in to take pictures with Jancee. So I dared to glide in there again, only to fall twice more. It was excruciating.

  But at least we had pictures. :)