! Alert

Stay safe in the heat: Drink plenty of water, spend time in the shade, and visit the first aid station at Soissons Landing if you feel unwell. Click here for important warm weather visitor information.

Stay safe in the heat: Drink plenty of water, spend time in the shade, and visit the first aid station at Soissons Landing if you feel unwell. Click here for important warm weather visitor information.

Sum­mer­time Skat­ing Rink Opens on May 26 on Gov­er­nors Island

The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island today announced the open­ing of a new sum­mer­time skat­ing rink along Gov­er­nors Island’s West­ern shore. Made from a syn­thet­ic mate­r­i­al designed for met­al ice skates, Mel’s Rink Gov­er­nors Island will give New York­ers the rare oppor­tu­ni­ty to skate dur­ing the sum­mer months and is the first out­door skat­ing oppor­tu­ni­ty on Gov­er­nors Island. Skate rentals will be avail­able for ages, with free skat­ing every week­day from 10AM-12PM. The rink offi­cial­ly opens to the pub­lic on Sat­ur­day, May 26.

Gov­er­nors Island is already a beloved recre­ation­al des­ti­na­tion, but what could be more fun than sum­mer­time ice skat­ing in view of the Stat­ue of Lib­er­ty?” said Michael Samuelian, Pres­i­dent of the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. Whether you’re an ama­teur skater or sea­soned-pro, we can’t wait to see New York­ers turn­ing ice skat­ing upside down on our new rink that allows for skat­ing in the sum­mer sun.”

One of the only places in New York City to skate dur­ing the sum­mer months, Gov­er­nors Island’s 8,000 square-foot skat­ing rink is built in part­ner­ship with Mel’s Rink Foun­da­tion, a Mary­land-based non-prof­it that pro­vides men­tal­ly and phys­i­cal­ly chal­lenged chil­dren and adults with skat­ing and hock­ey lessons, sports skills and spaces to play. Orig­i­nal­ly locat­ed on the rooftop of the Water­gate Hotel in Wash­ing­ton, D.C., Mel’s Rink moves to Gov­er­nors Island this sea­son, the organization’s first ven­ture in New York City.

Gov­er­nors Island is a place to dis­cov­er the unex­pect­ed, and we’re thrilled to bring an unex­pect­ed recre­ation­al oppor­tu­ni­ty to New York­ers for the first time — sum­mer­time ice skat­ing!” said Karen Brooks Hop­kins, Trust for Gov­er­nors Island Board Mem­ber and Senior Advi­sor, the Onas­sis Foun­da­tion. When I first dis­cov­ered Mel’s Rink on the roof of the Water­gate Hotel in Wash­ing­ton, D.C., I imme­di­ate­ly pic­tured a larg­er ver­sion for New York City skaters on Gov­er­nors Island, right in view of Lady Lib­er­ty. We invite vis­i­tors of all ages and abil­i­ties to enjoy a one of a kind skat­ing expe­ri­ence this summer.”

The Mel’s Rink Foun­da­tion is thrilled to be part­ner­ing with Gov­er­nors Island on such a unique and excit­ing oppor­tu­ni­ty,” said Marc Kohn, Founder of Mel’s Rink Foun­da­tion. To bring the immense joy of skat­ing fun to the NYC com­mu­ni­ty dur­ing the sum­mer is exhilarating!”

Locat­ed along the Island’s West­ern Prom­e­nade near his­toric Cas­tle Williams and in view of the Stat­ue of Lib­er­ty, Mel’s Rink Gov­er­nors Island will be open dai­ly from 10AM-5PM on week­days and from 10AM-6PM week­ends begin­ning Sat­ur­day, May 26. The rink will remain open dur­ing Gov­er­nors Island’s Late Fri­days until 9PM begin­ning Fri­day, June 1. Free skat­ing is avail­able on week­days for the first hour from 10AM-12PM.

For Skate Rentals + Rink Access, the rates are as follows:

$20 for adults

$15 for children

If you bring your own skates, rink access is:

$10 for adults

$5 for children

Mel’s Rink uti­lizes state-of-the art syn­thet­ic tech­nol­o­gy to pro­vide skaters with an ice like” feel unmatched in the indus­try. The syn­thet­ic ice is high den­si­ty plas­tic poly­mer that mim­ics the prop­er­ties of real ice, designed for use with tra­di­tion­al ice skates with sharp met­al blades. Mel’s Rink per­forms skate sharp­en­ing through­out the day, so every skater has an excep­tion­al expe­ri­ence. Skate sharp­en­ing demon­stra­tions are open to the pub­lic when­ev­er the rink is open.

Gov­er­nors Island and Mel’s Rink will announce spe­cial pro­gram­ming, on-site food and bev­er­age and spe­cial guest skaters at the rink through­out the summer.

Gov­er­nors Island is open to the pub­lic sev­en days a week from May 1 through Octo­ber 31 from

10 AM to 6 PM week­days, from 10AM-10 PM on Fri­days between May 25-Sep­tem­ber 14 and from 10 AM to 7 PM weekends.

About Mel’s Rink Foundation

The Mel’s Rink Foun­da­tion was formed after the untime­ly pass­ing of founder, Marc Kohn’s step-daugh­ter, Melanie. Mel was a huge hock­ey fan and the orig­i­nal Mel’s Rink was built in her hon­or. The Mel’s Rink Foun­da­tion is com­mit­ted to build­ing syn­thet­ic rinks open to the pub­lic, but with a focus on teach­ing kids with dif­fer­ent needs and those from dis­ad­van­taged fam­i­lies, how to skate and play the great game of hockey.