Riverfront Park spins some fun

Warmer weather and free skate rentals filled the Riverfront Park Ice Palace with skaters Saturday.

“It’s our first time out skating for the year,” Tammie Dutton said as she and her husband, Jim, watched their two children skate.

“The weather had been too cold,” she said. “It’s above freezing a degree or two, so we thought we’d come out today.”

But the parents didn’t skate. They couldn’t risk a broken bone in the current economy.

“Kids bounce,” Jim Dutton said. “We break.”

Spokane Mayor Mary Verner took her chances, though, in observation of U.S. Figure Skating’s National Skating Month.

The U.S. Figure Skating Association will hold its 2010 national championships in Spokane, but most of Saturday’s skaters were amateurs like Verner.

“She started out on the boards, but one of our girls got her out on the center ice and gave her a little lesson,” said Dean Wiles, president of the Spokane Figure Skating Club.

Verner opened a four-hour afternoon session in which Group Health provided free skates and two local figure skating clubs – Spokane and Lilac City – offered exhibitions, quick lessons and information.

Duane Hille, a Riverfront Park marketing assistant, said 325 pairs of free skates had been handed out with about 40 minutes left to go. Many people, like Verner, brought their own skates.

“This is really great,” said Kurt Lantz, who didn’t skate himself – he’s blind – but enjoyed his children’s skating debut.

Zeke, 4, and Leona, 2, were “doing pretty well as far as I can tell,” Lantz said.

A big smile and a shake of the head confirmed Leona was having fun.

“I love figure skating,” mother Aimee said.

So do sisters Dakota Goldman, 12, and Maris Goldman, 10, who performed an exhibition.

Dakota said she was hanging with friends as well as practicing and scoping out competitors she will face in the Skate at the Park competition coming up Feb. 27-28.

After 15 years of hosting the event, Wiles said he plans to enter the competition next month.

“Watching all these kids made me think, ‘I’ve got to get out there and do this,’ ” Wiles said. “There’s too much fun to stay on this side of the boards.”

“It’s probably been 15 years since I’ve been on a pair of skates,” Patty Wright said.

“It’s more fun with the little one,” said her husband, Steve Wright, nodding toward the couple’s 6-year-old daughter, Lauren.

Kim West had an even littler one, 7-month-old Dylan. She and friends took turns watching Dylan and skating.

“We’re having fun,” West said.

The free skates were an unexpected bonus, she said.