One of many reasons I stay away from public sessions. I once showed up for freestyle only to find the schedule had been wrong. A hockey game was on ice. The guy behind the counter suggested I come back for the public session in an hour. umm, no.

I'm working on a lot of MIF patterns. The middle is just not big enough. I need the full length of the ice. Plus, the brats in rentals annoy me.

A couple of 5 years old, obviously suicidal individuals suddenly deciding to have a date in the middle of the place where you´re most likely to land a jump.

A girl approaching you and asking you to get out of her way when you´re spinning (an experience of a friend of mine).

People bringing chairs on ice for support. Stay close to the barrier if you can´t stray on your legs without holding something.

"Cool" skaters with long scarves and backpacks.

People wo have *somehow* learned to move backward, but seems that noone told them they should check what´s behin their back.

Groups standing in the middle of the ice and chatting and even snacking instead of skating. Why they need to go to the rink then?

I've been to more public sessions in the past year and a half than I like to admit! The ones at my university weren't too bad, a couple of hockey players, and then basically the rest of us (maybe about 4 or 5 of us) were/are figure skaters.

So just in the past little while:

- The hockey dude with a chip on his shoulder that absolutely HATES any sort of figure skating on public sessions, god forbid you do a three-turn!! (Oh, and best part was that he came to the rink a few days after this thinking that the public skate was at the time it is the rest of the week, he was shocked to see that the figure skating club actually had that ice time - and has had it for about the last 10/15 years - and he was absolutely APPALLED to see figure skating. My friend and I made sure to do quite a few flips and lutzes in the corner where he was standing just to piss him off even more!)

- The annoying rink staff dude who gets mad when you're spinning, in the middle, not hurting anybody!

- The people that just want to talk about your skating the entire time

- The dude that decides to change the direction! (Ugh! Seriously, who goes clockwise around the ice?)

- "Can you do a spinny, twirlly, jumpy thing?"

- The (usually teenage boy) who says to his friends "Look, I can figure skate!" *does some dumba$$ thing to which it's surprising he doesn't take someone out, and his buddies proceed to laugh* (happened on Sunday, but a scratch spin was enough to shut him up!)

Uninhibited hockey kids, especially when they throw stuff (pucks, gloves, etc) on ice when it's already crowded