Ice Addicts

Published : May 25, 2016

Bloodshot eyes open, a product of a restless sleep. Thinking only of how to get the next fix. Get dressed, wake up the brood and make coffee but it’s not quite hitting the spot. Drop the kids off to school, their hair maybe not as perfectly tied back as it usually is. Get back in the car and drive to where the ice is.

By Kylie Yacopetti

This is the daily reality for a growing number of thirty and forty something women in Perth. There are many reasons for this latest epidemic of ice addicts. Possibly in an effort to slim down, to focus on themselves a bit or to have just a little bit of the dream that they had of being an ice princess when they were young.

Yes, in case you didn’t know, Perth has ice rinks and during the weekdays you’ll find an increasing number of local ladies lacing up their boots and training hard to improve their skating skills and their waistlines.

“I brought my daughter down for the first time about four years ago and for the first year I sat and watched her learn to skate. Now I’m skating too and I’ve lost 17kg. My goal is to join the adult synchronised skating team in the next year and go to the Australian Championships” says Lisa Gliddon, an ice rink regular.

There is a growing group of skating ‘addicts’ who skate to get their minds away from work, family and the familiar. Their skills are varied but the comradeship is ever present as they help each other learn and get up when they fall. Some ladies come once or twice a week and others like Lisa, are here nearly every day.

Surrounded by the drab concrete landscape of the Cockburn industrial estate in Bibra Lake, the Cockburn Ice Arena ice rink is an oasis, just with frozen water. The temperature inside sits between 7 and 11 degrees celsius and is a welcome change in the dry Perth heat.

For those of us that aren’t too keen on the sweat, heat and machines that you need an engineering degree to use in a gym, the ice rink is a sigh of relief for our thighs and for that little voice inside that reminds us we should be exercising.

The optimum time to visit is during the weekdays when the kids are at school and only a few people on the ice. There is no disco music or teenage speed skaters just a lovely group of professional people that enjoy skating and socialising.

Cockburn Ice Arena is managed by a young business woman who has taken her love of skating and her Curtin business degree and built the ice rink into a thriving institution that has recently had a record number of enrolments in the ‘Learn to Skate’ programme.

“We now have over 450 children enrolled in the programme and there has certainly been a large number of women interested in taking up ice skating in recent months,” says Calandra Barrett, Manager.

Calandra has also introduced the ‘Parent and Child’ class for the two to six year olds.

“I wanted to accommodate the toddler and early childhood age groups but formalised lessons just would not have worked for the little ones as they need their mums or dads close by.”

The ‘Parent and Child’ classes are small group lessons where the very young ones learn the basics of skating and spend time with mum or dad. There is no assessment and children learn at their own rate.

Parent and Child classes are run Mondays and Thursday mornings and Friday afternoons. Classes cost $150 which includes entry and skates for both parent and child.

Adult ‘Learn to Skate’ classes run Thursday mornings and cost $145, which includes entry and skates. The next term classes start 2 nd May and go through to 1 st July.

If you are keen to get your skates on and work out in the cool then visit Cockburn Ice Arena between 10 - 3pm weekdays. Entry price is $15 including skates.

Family sessions are on Saturdays and Sundays 1.30 – 3.30pm and if you are feeling a little retro and in the mood for a game of tag and a big glittery mirror ball then try the disco sessions on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday nights 7.30 –10pm. Entry price is $15 including skates.

Contact Calandra for a booking form on 08 9434 4066 or visit the website

www.cockburnicearena.com.au