4 Wheelies Ottawa Roller Skating Center — Attraction in Ottawa

I found myself with some time to kill this afternoon while visiting Ottawa. Unfortunately, the local skating rink did not rent skates! And I was embarassingly, skateless. So I found myself at 4 Wheelies and vowed to give roller skates a try, my first time on them since being 10 years old growing up in Winnipeg in the late 80's. Roller skating is coming back in popularity, and people of Ottawa, I think you are lucky to have this rink! My sister in BC skates in the summer on de-iced hockey rinks or half an indoor tennis facility when available. This place has extended hours, no need to book in advance, and it has smooth solid maple floors. The rental skates were beautiful leather and very comfortable. Some pepople had light up skates or disco ball skates- totally awesome! Skating on roller skates: definitely different than ice skates, I was back to square one. I needed some time and space to figure out how they moved/turned, what you could do with them. When I fell (yes, yes, I did!), the staff were extremely attentive and demonstrated genuine concern. They were on the ball for everyone. I was worried that the space being smaller than a skating rink would impede me from really letting loose but this was not the case. I felt 10 again. In a good way! As a result, here are my observations of 4 Wheelies, different from a skating rink/public skate: You can wear ear phones and listen to your own music. Their music was excellent/modern. No tinny echoey blare. It felt more like being on a dance floor. You can skate backwards, do tricks (attempt! lol) it is not discouraged. They encourage you to have fun. The skate doesn't end in 50 minutes! You can stay as long as you like! So I stayed for hours, got the most amazing workout, and learned so much about these roller skates.

So good people of Ottawa, have your ladies night, your bachelor/bachelorette, your drag night, or just come during the day for a work out like me. This place is fun! And different than ice skating, roller skating has a fun, very musical vibe that soon feels like dancing. So, go live your Miami Vice dreams (beach boardwalk scenes, anyone?), dress up and enjoy your time! But give yourself space to learn. I note that roller skating is relatively new, so you will be in good company with others learning to rollerskate too. Kudos to the management who were on site, making sure everyone had a good, safe...

My group and I were extremely excited and had been waiting months to try out the roller rink. We planned to go as part of my bachelorette party this past Saturday. When we arrived not one employee welcomed us. We were shocked at the atmosphere at 10pm on a Saturday night. All the lights were on, there was no theme or decor to make you think you were in a roller rink. Those who were skating were all quite experienced, and it was quite intimidating. It did not seem like a place to go to learn and have fun, but more like a club of experienced skaters. We walked to the counter and they simply asked our shoe size and how we wanted to pay, then we were sent on our way. There were no rules provided, no questions on if this was our first time or not, or guides on how to begin roller skating. 2 members of our group braved the very busy/fast moving rink as the rest of us watched from the outer rail. When one of our group members fell (as first time skates do) we asked the group member if they were alright, and we’re told by staff that you can’t be falling/talking and “holding up the rink”, as well as other skaters making rude comments to group members when someone did fall down. We asked a staff for some help since we were obviously struggling and were told “yeah we’ll lessons are Saturday mornings”. Most staff was busy skating on the rink, and didn’t even help customers who fell down. With some back and forth the staff members then passive aggressively explained the basics of skating, since you are told nothing upon arrival in regards to rules/the basics, we could not believe how rude the other skaters and staff were to the members of our group. Overall a very disappointing experience that we waited months to try. I can’t even imagine how things will go once there is a bar on site and people are falling, and looking to have fun. If you’re looking for a fun atmosphere for a group activity, this is not the place. Those with a serious interest/hobby of roller skating, this would be the place for you. The 2 positives our group noted from our experience were was that the music was good, and that the...

Super helpful staff! I was at Saturday's 12-5 grand opening session & enjoyed myself greatly!! I'm sure it will be a great success & am looking forward to completion of all elements!

In addition to already stated comments by others:

1. please place several garbage cans around rink
2. implement NO CHEWING GUM policy
3. give rink staff plastic scrapers to remove wads of gum from the people ignoring above policy 😂
4. need a couple benches with a seat level at ~24" high for taller/older/beginner adult skaters to put on their skates 👉 the low benches were great for some skaters but I watched beginner/older/taller adults struggling to get up & down off the benches with their skates on.
5. have the sound system better balanced as it was difficult to make out what the DJ was announcing depending on where you were standing/skating e.g. announcement of 1/2 price BBQ food
6. have a way for skaters to request songs without having to distract/interrupt DJ. e.g. whiteboard with marker chained to it or a dedicated phone number to text song requests to Of course it's at DJ's discretion to use requests but as a former DJ myself I know it's easy to get into your own 'favorites rut'. I'd sometimes get a request for a great skating song that I didn't know or had forgotten about. Any DJ that genuinely listens to feedback/requests from a cross section of skaters is worth their weight in return customers.
7. Hopefully they plan on embracing the VERY large, baby boomer, former skaters demographic as many of us now have the time & money to commit to regular, frequent attendance. 😁

Only negative I have is the rink surface being smaller than hoped for. I worked at Studio 801 (Kingston) in late 70's & they incorporated support beams in center of floor using round, carpeted benches as skater seating around beams but it is what it is.

Better to have a smaller year round rink than no rink at all after ~40 year skating...