Great Park Ice & Fivepoint Arena — Attraction in Irvine

If you are not a certain look: Russian or Asian or your a skater over the age of 15 years old then you will find it hard to get any service . no one will look you in the eye and greet you and no one will answer your emails regarding coaching. Coaches are highly prejudiced and will either will not teach adults, they will try to clean your pockets and hurt you by teaching you poorly and neglectfully and they will increase the rate to teach you if your not of their own kind or favored race or age. They by all means never communicate with you. They will also try to pass you to their friends and make money off your desire to train if you have money but not the “look” while talking about you to other coaches. If you are female, the male coaches will flirt with you even when the are married. Their wives are also coaches or in the vicinity but it’s tolerated because “ they are medalists”. If you are an attractive female they will do everything to charm you and make sure it’s social time not training time. Be careful with your children, the coaches and skaters are very outright standoff and will make fun of you and harass you , they will single you out in group class, to embarrass or harass you or by not saying your name ,even if it’s simple like mine- Ann ,correctly . The “favored” skaters will dangerously skate around or in front of you, often on the direction/ advice of their coaches who I’ve seen weaponize their child skater against any “outsider”. As a child doctor who has helped children who have been groomed by predators these coaches are not to be trusted with your children as they are often talking about personal matters that are adult only topics vs teaching skating. They seem not to have much teaching skills and have more skills at trying to weed out anyone they feel is an outsider. There is never a response to complaints or any identified management who will hear your complaints and manage any situations since the rinks seem to be privately owned and managed by the inner winners circle of skaters who have unspoken desire to keep their sport to themselves or the “chosen, aka Asian and Caucasian rich families”. Yet they list themselves as a foundation and non profit for full tax benefit. They don’t offer refunds so they will take your money but if you’re not happy with service they will disappear and you will feel like “they got me!” Enter this rink at your own risk. The learn to skate program is taught very poorly here with little room to skate but lots of time to watch the multiple instructors demonstrate/ show off. Good luck!...

I played in a tournament this past weekend in the Rookie level. Our team was made up of what the criteria for the Rookie level. The players we faced on the opening night was definitely not Rookie level. As the game progressed and things escalated into a grudge match of tackling,punches thrown with targeting of our players 2 on 1. Not one player from the Reign team was ejected for their conduct. One of our players were injured and couldn't continue the tournament. After the game Allan Tiki who setup the tournament approached me and asked about the experience. I said to him no way are they beginners and have just started playing. Allen quickly referenced Miller #8 is on the Rookie level and I said "yeah ok". I learned in that brief conversation that the Reign team came from Yorba Linda Ice where Allan is from and plays. The following day in our second game I noticed as we played our game. Another player I knew from our home rink was not a Rookie. I approached him and mentioned you're not a rookie. He quickly answered no I just got back from the US Junior National Team. He quickly mentioned you may want to check the Reign team and you will be surprised at what you find. So I took that and what did we find Miller and 2 others were a Junior National player and Allen knew all about it. The rest of the team had years of experience and it was not a level playing field. So yesterday my team mate emailed Brad the Tournament Director at the Great Park. Brad denied any of it and we had photos to support our findings of the players.

So if your looking to have a great experience of playing on a true Rookie level tournament and see Brad or Allan Tiki running it stay away. Don't spend $950 to play against US National players and High Divisions of caliber in the Rookie Level.

The only thing good about this tournament was the facility. The rinks and set up...

Update after 3 years: Nothing change except for the worse. The already small practice area got smaller. And the wood bench seats on the lobby are always "Reserved" by the hockey player ( with their gear bags all line in front of it and water and drinks on the little table while they are inside the ring ). Move your bags so other can use the seats. My kid is in middle school now, earliest we can get there is 3:20. After getting the pass and put on skates that left very little time for practice. Wonder if this is part of your business model to have students keep retaking the same class to generate revenue. Another things I notice with the lower level class that have lot of students. They have to be in 2 rows because the section of ice for each class is so small. Hockey player 30 people per rink. Figure skater 300 people per rink?????? Moving from Anaheim ice. This is a huge step up in terms of facility. Brand sparking new everything. But in term of employee and how the place is run not as good. Maybe they just need more time. They need to resurface the ice more often my kid have the 6:05 class and by then the ice is very rough. And they don't do it during open skate like Anaheim either. Just like Anaheim ice they can use more seating for skaters. Yes they have lots of stadium seat but skaters can not go up on the concrete. So once again kids have to seat on the floor to put on skates. Another problem is their open skate time is 2-4 and Irvine elementary school don't get out till after 2. By the time we get there it's at lease 3. They said they have the practice area to use to offset that. But it is alway too pack to do any practice on. Looking forward to their future improvements.

Way to go d(s)ucks.

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