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Well,. its no Rockefeller Center but Williamsburg’s first outdoor Skating Rink opens in  New Town, this Friday Nov 23rd at noon.

Presented by Iron-Bound Gym in partnership with James City County and New Town the synthetic rink will be open seven days a week until  January 13th, 2013.

Skating is $7/person including skate rental or $5/person with your own skates. All participants must wear ice skates. Season passes are also available for $50/person and include skates. Children under age 12 must be accompanied and supervised by an adult at all times.

See below for more specifics….

So “Does it look like real ice?”  from a distance it looks like the real thing, Up close, the plastic panels appear snapped together like puzzle pieces.

So what’s it like to skate on synthetic ice ? While I am not a skater bit it felt  hard to move your feet. It didn’t feel as slippery as real ice so you can’t go as fast. which is probably a good thing. When you stop moving your feet you stop moving, so you don’t have that overwhelming slipping feeling.

No one claims it exactly replicates ice. There’s a resistance. You’re actually pushing off and stroking harder. I am told the surface is good for training because beginners become “stronger at a faster rate.

The rink uses a plastic polymer injected with oils that are released “when the blade heats up and melts the top layer of the polymer. It should become slipperier as more people skate it.

. “You really need a large amount of people on there to get the oils worked around,” she said. “It’s not ice, obviously.”

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