Skating a family affair for owner of Dazzles

By MICHAEL BOYLAN
mboylan@TheCitizenNews.com

Though you’d never know it from the recent temperatures, we are currently in what roller skating rink owners consider their season. They call this time of year, “hard winter.” It lasts from January to April and it is when the rinks get a lot of business.

“During the winter there isn’t a lot for kids to do other than go to the movies, go bowling or go skating,” said Gina Prince, owner of Dazzles II in Fayetteville.

Prince, 42, is a Fayetteville resident who has been in the skating business for over 30 years. Prince followed her father, Carl Couey, into the family business. Couey built his first rink in 1958. He built the original Dazzles in Douglasvile in 1988 and built the Dazzles in Fayetteville in 1989. Prince started working at her father’s rink at the age of 11 and, though she was away from the family business for a few years, she has come back into the fold. She purchased the Fayetteville Dazzles from her father last October and is now the owner and operator of the rink.

The Fayetteville rink opened on January 2, 1990 and over the past 15 years it has seen hundreds of thousands of people take to the wood floor, skating counter-clockwise to music. The rink at Dazzles can fit 600 skaters comfortably and the floor, which because it is wood with no coating, needs to be dust-mopped and scraped after each session and sanded every six to nine months. In addition to the regular skating, each session features a number of special special skates like the “Hokey-Pokey,” “Reverse skate,” and “The Electric Slide.” Skating rinks like Dazzles seem to remain timeless because these particular amusements never seem to go out of style. It is certainly one of the things that kept Prince involved in skating throughout her life.

“Skating is truly family oriented,” said Prince, describing one of the draws to the sport. “It is something that the whole family can participate in together.”

Dazzles does everything it can to remain family-friendly. In addition to every Friday night being “Family Night,” meaning that with a child’s paid admission the parents admission to skate is free. The rink also refuses to play explicit or suggestive music, though some of the older kids and teenagers frequently request it. Music is a huge part of skating and Prince and Dazzles DJ Melody Kennedy, who has worked with Prince since she was a teenager, come up with the music selections. The music is always a mix of modern hits and classic skating songs (see sidebar).

There are also school nights during the week that serve as fundraisers for the school participating, special skate days during school holidays and vacations, birthday parties and much more. The school fundraisers raised a total of $20,000 one year and each school receives the money that they raise at the end of each skating night.

Prince also serves as an instructor for the skating course for beginners on Saturday mornings. The class, which runs for six weeks, starts by teaching the skaters how to put on skates properly to avoid blisters and then teaches balance and safety.

“I also teach the three S’s of skating,” said Prince. “Standing, starting and stopping, which isn’t as easy as it sounds.”

There is no advanced class offered at Dazzles but the best way to learn is to keep on skating. Prince’s son, Ian, 5, has had no formal training but because he skates nearly every day he has already taught himself how to skate backwards.

Skating seems to go in cycles. It was really popular in the 1980s and faded a little in the 1990s when in-line skating became the rage. Though skaters are allowed to bring their in-line skates, the rink no longer rents them. Skaters rent either the “brownies,” the same style skates that have been around seemingly forever, which is included in the price of admission, or speed skates for an extra $2.00.

Skating is currently enjoying a bit of a resurgence as many people are seeing the health benefits of skating. Equivalent to jogging in terms of health benefits, roller skating is a complete aerobic workout and involves all of the body’s muscles, while burning up to 350 calories in an hour.

“Along with being a great, low-impact way to exercise, skating works muscles you didn’t even know you weren’t working,” said Prince, who tries to skate every day and has seen the impact it can have personally.

2005 should be an exciting year for Dazzles. On Jan. 29, they will host a birthday party for local residents and television stars, Christopher and Kyle Massey. Kyle Massey appears on “That’s So Raven,” while Christopher appears on the new show “Zoe 101.” Admission is $6 and the party will last from 7-11 p.m. Dazzles will also host a Jam Skating competition on Saturday, Feb. 12. Jam Skating combines disco dancing, break dancing and roller skating and is amazing to watch.

The heart of Dazzles will always be a skating experience for the whole family. Prince has skating in her blood and she shares her love of the sport with the rest of her staff and their families.

For more information on Dazzles skating schedule, phone 770-460-7655 or visit www.dazzlerollersports.com.