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Skating the A Canal
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| H&N photo by Lee Juillerat Ceridwen Purvis, left, and her mother, Mindy, help 3-year-old Bromyn get a feel for the ice on the A Canal Saturday. |
Local family makes wintery exercise a tradition
By LEE JUILLERAT
H&N Regional Editor
Pat Purvis was just a kid when he started ice skating on the A Canal.
Now age 49, he’s a big kid. And when conditions permit, he’s still gliding around on his ice skates, with wife, Mindy, and their five kids.
“When I was young ,we’d skate until dark,” Purvis said between laps on a section of the canal he’s been skating since 1975. “You can’t tell now because I don’t skate enough to be good.”
Hitting the ice
Conditions were good enough Saturday afternoon for Purvis and his family to test the canal for the first time this winter. Over the years, he’s learned the small stretch of ice they skate is 8 to 12 inches at its deepest and in a good location to prevent melting from the afternoon sun.
“When I was a kid, I’d come down here and sometimes I’d have to shovel a ton of snow,” explained Purvis, who used a shovel to groom a section of ice. “Some years we don’t enough cold, some years we get too much snow.”
The family — his wife, Mindy, 40, twin sons Tristram and Trevor, both 13, and daughters, Ceridwen, 11, Hannah, 5, and Bromyn, 3 — sometimes skates at the Bill Collier Ice Arena, “But it’s way out of town. It is nice because it is flat and groomed.”
All alone
When conditions are right, the A Canal is a short distance from the Purvis’ home and, except for occasional walkers, runners and bicyclists on the A Canal bike path, it’s all their own. They cart along chairs, extra clothing, a boom box with their favorite CDs and snacks.
“When you skate the canal you get the ripples and bumps. It’s a little rough but it’s smoothing out,” Purvis said. “It’s a lot of fun.”
Now age 49, he’s a big kid. And when conditions permit, he’s still gliding around on his ice skates, with wife, Mindy, and their five kids.
“When I was young ,we’d skate until dark,” Purvis said between laps on a section of the canal he’s been skating since 1975. “You can’t tell now because I don’t skate enough to be good.”
Hitting the ice
Conditions were good enough Saturday afternoon for Purvis and his family to test the canal for the first time this winter. Over the years, he’s learned the small stretch of ice they skate is 8 to 12 inches at its deepest and in a good location to prevent melting from the afternoon sun.
“When I was a kid, I’d come down here and sometimes I’d have to shovel a ton of snow,” explained Purvis, who used a shovel to groom a section of ice. “Some years we don’t enough cold, some years we get too much snow.”
The family — his wife, Mindy, 40, twin sons Tristram and Trevor, both 13, and daughters, Ceridwen, 11, Hannah, 5, and Bromyn, 3 — sometimes skates at the Bill Collier Ice Arena, “But it’s way out of town. It is nice because it is flat and groomed.”
All alone
When conditions are right, the A Canal is a short distance from the Purvis’ home and, except for occasional walkers, runners and bicyclists on the A Canal bike path, it’s all their own. They cart along chairs, extra clothing, a boom box with their favorite CDs and snacks.
“When you skate the canal you get the ripples and bumps. It’s a little rough but it’s smoothing out,” Purvis said. “It’s a lot of fun.”
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DL wrote on Jan 4, 2009 11:22 AM: