Ice Skating and Other Winter Sports
In The Lake Winnipesaukee Area
"Figure skating is a mixture of art and sport." ~ Katarina Witt
Ice skating, Hockey and Sledding are other winter sports you can do in the Lake Winnipesaukee region. If you lead an active lifestyle, you can be busy doing a variety of sports.
Ice Skating
Skating is a popular sport these days. There are local rinks available for fun or for lessons.  Many kids are on hockey teams and so are adults. For the younger kids you can join a learn to skate program. These usually gear the kids towards hockey.
There are also figure skating programs in the area. These teach basic skills for the beginners to more advanced. There are two figure skating clubs in the Lakes region.
Magic Blades
runs the ice skating program at the Tilton Academy ice rink. This program teaches basic skills and has an end of the season performance. In addition, Magic Blades has a skating program at the Waterville Valley ice rink.
Central NH Skating Academy
runs the program at the Laconia Ice Arena. They have two programs. These include basic learn to skate skills on Saturday mornings and Ice Theatre on Thursday evenings. The Ice Theatre holds performances throughout the skating season.
Speed skating is also available as a winter sport in the lakes region. You can practice at the local rinks or become a member of a speed skating club. For more information, call (603) 366-5708.
One Christmas vacation, we went ice skating and my girls loved it. So, I signed them up for lessons. They've both become quite good and tell me I should take lessons. I've provided a list of a ice rinks in the Lake Winnipesaukee area. There are others but they're further away.
Ice Skating Rinks There are a variety of places to practice skating. If you're into figure skating, hockey or speed skating, you'll want to find out what is available at the local
ice skating rinks.
You can find many places to skate, both indoor and outdoors.
Snowshoeing Snowshoeing is a sport where you don't need much equipment. Just the snowshoes. If you're really serious, you can use cross country ski poles as well.
What I like is that the snowshoes strap right to your snow boots and you can go through the woods without having to maneuver between the trees like you do with long cross country skis. It's also a good way to keep kids active for a short time. Because you can snowshoe anywhere, it's easy to follow a lot of hiking trails.
Sledding Everyone loves to sled. All you need is a sled and a hill. We happen to have a great hill near our house. The kids go down the hill and try to reach the pond. We don't even get close because the sled veers off to the side.
 Many towns have great sledding hills. Some are setup just for that purpose. You can call the town Parks and Recreation department to see if they have a sledding hill nearby. I do know Gilford has a big sledding hill set up with nets to catch you. It's located at the junction of Route 11A and 11B.
Tubing
Gunstock Mountain
has a tubing park. It's almost like a waterslide but it's on snow instead. You're pulled up by a tow rope and you go down one of four snow packed slides. It's really ice. Everyone hopes they can make it part way up the hill at the end. Every once in awhile someone goes over the hill and everyone cheers, but there are nets to catch you. It is one of the fun winter sports. You do have to wait in line and a lot of younger kids aren't good at that.
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