Skating rink is an icy delight

Published 4:00 am Sunday, December 26, 2004

Grasping his mom’s hand, 4-year-old Caleb Jordan’s tiny figure wobbled on the sheet of ice – his body arching back then swaying forward, legs bending, feet slipping and sliding under him.

Caleb’s feet were not yet used to balancing on two blades of metal.

”It makes me mad,” Caleb told his mother, Jessy Larsen, 24, of Bend, as he tried to stay up.

”It makes me mad, too,” Larsen said in sympathy.

Caleb’s feet gave out and he fell on his backside, legs splayed in front of him. Caleb gave up at that point and sat cross-legged at the edge of the rink until his dad, Aaron Larsen, scooped him up and pushed him across the ice.

The budding ice skater also got a little help from Santa Claus – aka Caleb’s uncle, 19-year-old Jake Grubb, who remained a mystery to the little boy, even as he thanked Santa for his new bunk bed.

”C’mon Caleb,” Grubb said as he grabbed his hand and whisked him around the rink.

Long after presents were opened, holiday revelers took to the ice for family time on Christmas, burning calories of dinners already eaten or for ones yet to come.

It was Caleb’s first time to ice skate and he had the luxury of doing it at a new ice skating rink unveiled at the Inn of the Seventh Mountain Christmas day. The 8,000-square-foot circular rink replaces a smaller, older one that used to grace the resort.

A handful, then dozens of people went round in circles – some gliding, others tottering – their ice skates clicking and scratching the ice. When they tired, they rested against the rail that lined the rink, which separated friends and family members who stayed on dry ground and took pictures.

It was Larsen’s first time in years to hit the ice. She managed to stay erect, balancing herself with outstretched arms, tentative steps and a few choice words.

”I’m just about as good as I was then,” said Larsen, who last ice skated in junior high. ”I couldn’t do it then and I couldn’t do it now.”

Like many at the rink, ice skating was a family affair for Larsen, who came out with her dad and brothers to support Grubb’s debut as Santa.

Zack Yankish, 16, who was visiting from Santa Cruz, Calif., went ice skating with his dad and uncle.

Yankish sped around the rink, cutting sharp turns, his blond Mohawk standing out against the hat-wearing crowd.

He deemed ice skating as a ”better than nothing” way to spend Christmas day.

”It’s pretty cool,” Yankish said of the new rink. ”It’s not the biggest, but it’s nice.”

Jordan Pape, whose family jointly owns the resort in a partnership called INNspired, LLC, said the ice skating rink was upgraded as part of a remodeling project to renovate and add recreational and commercial facilities facilities.

Pape said the new rink’s circular design was an attempt to offer more scenic views and create a better aesthetic flow for the resort complex.

He acknowledged that the new rink isn’t conducive to hockey. But he said that the old rink, a 5,000-square foot rectangular ice field, wasn’t designed for hockey either.

Jim Kinney, the general manager of the resort, said there was more interest and demand for recreational and figure skating

To visitors like the Stuart family from Eugene, the rink was a big hit on Christmas day.

Brandt Stuart, 47, who was visiting from Eugene, brought his children to the new rink when Mother Nature didn’t bring enough snow to Mount Bachelor.

Even though it was his son’s first time on ice, 9-year-old Noah Stuart took to ice skating like a natural. His background as a roller blader helped.

”It’s really, really cool,” Noah said of ice skating, though he acknowledged that it was a harder than roller blading. ”It’s kinda relaxing just kinda gliding.”

Gliding across the ice became a good substitute for swooshing down the mountain for Noah and his sister, Alani, 12.

”Right now, I’d rather be here,” Alani said.

Ernestine Bousquet can be reached at 541-504-2336 or at ebousquet@bendbulletin.com.