The Essex Skating Club, a non-profit organization for the development of figure skating, has a long and distinguished history currently counting well over 300 members. The club had its modest beginning over 60 years ago at the Shady Brook outdoor rink in Livingston, N.J. and received USFS sanction in January 1955.
Over the years the Essex Skating Club has sponsored many skating events featuring famous skaters such as Carol Heiss, Donald Jackson, Sjoukjie Dykstra, Janet Lynn, Peggy Fleming, Scott Hamilton, Oksana Baiul, Nancy Kerrigan, Elaine Zayak, and others. It has also staged elaborate shows and ice carnivals showcasing large numbers of club members, inspired and directed by the club’s coaches. In more recent years its annual competition “Winter Escapade” in January has drawn large numbers of skaters from clubs along the Northern parts of the East coast.
The club’s home base in the beautiful and recently renovated Richard J. Codey Arena, formerly known as the South Mountain Arena, surrounded by the popular Turtle Back Zoo and the recently opened Safari Mini Golf, offers its members on and off ice training for all skating disciplines with its staff of coaches, many of whom are former National and World competitors.
The club currently counts 11 highly acclaimed Synchro teams, “The Synchroettes”, an adult team “The Essex Blades”, and a very wonderful and successful “Theatre on Ice” group. Synchronized skating of course is not new to the club and many of the current adult ladies members fondly remember when they teamed in what was then known as Precision Skating, bringing home numerous laurels from their performances.
Throughout the skating year, skaters can test their skating levels at the club’s test sessions held generally on a monthly basis on condition that the required judges are available. For many years, the club has reserved ice from the arena for the skating season which can be purchased by its members to work on their skating routines under supervised conditions with or without their coaches.
We are all proud of our club and its history and welcome any new members who wish to contribute their share and potential success to its future.