Pond hockey--ice thickness

[biff44 0]

What is the current wisdom about how thick the ice has to be to have 10 guys skating around on a pond?

[Oberon 0]

4 to 5 inches

[top_shelf_24 0]

Jump and listen :D

[Hidious 0]

Winter 2006 sucks for pound hockey. Raining, etc... I think it's even dangerous this winter, good thing you ask!

[gman 0]

Jump and listen    :D

I remember my first time ice fishing on a big lake. The first big settle and I had to find the outhouse to clean my drawers. Very unsettling. I would think five inches would be good for hockey if the winter has been steady and cold.

[biff44 0]

I remember coming home from college one winter day, taking the puck and stick out onto the local lake and fooling around. Well, ended up hitting the puck too hard and it went pretty far towards the center of the lake. Being a fearless teenager, I went skating after the 50 cent puck to get it back. After some time, I noticed the ice had changed color to a much blacker shade. I then, duh, realized that the ice was pretty thin. It was very thick along the shore, but maybe only 1 or 2 inches in the middle of the lake. Boy, there was some serious pucker factor carefully skating the 500 feet back to shore that day!

[gman 0]

It is amazing how many of us actually survive our teenage and early 20's. I am so glad I don't have to ever do it again......

[Jason Harris 31]

Amen to that, Gman!

[top_shelf_24 0]

actually, the midde of the water should always be thicker, since the shallow water's ground heat keeps the ice a bit thawed

[DarkStar50 679]

You haven't been pond skating until you fall in at least once. The pond is usually shallow, like 3' deep so when your feet hit bottom after falling through, you are so freaked out that your knees buckle and you get more than 3' of your legs soaked. Like maybe over your waist. Then you run down to your friend's house totally drenched and by the time you get there all your clothes are now frozen on your body. You also stink because pond water:YECH! Thanks for my annual reminder of something I did over 25 years ago, in my teens!! There is still nothing as much fun as skating outdoors on a pond or lake.

[biff44 0]

Any pond that is spring fed will have thin ice wherever the water is bubbling up, and that can easily be right in the middle.

[David13 0]

How are you supposed to know if its 4 or 5 inches deep if its all frozen.

[msander 0]

I remember coming home from college one winter day, taking the puck and stick out onto the local lake and fooling around.  Well, ended up hitting the puck too hard and it went pretty far towards the center of the lake.  Being a fearless teenager, I went skating after the 50 cent puck to get it back.  After some time, I noticed the ice had changed color to a much blacker shade.  I then, duh, realized that the ice was pretty thin.  It was very thick along the sore, but maybe only 1 or 2 inches in the middle of the lake.  Boy, there was some serious pucker factor carefully skating the 500 feet back to shore that day!

Haha, sometimes the opposite occurs. When it is cold and then a quick warm up, the edges of the pond get a lot thinner while the middle stays relatively thick. I have seen a few guys go to get pucks at the edges and their leg goes right in. No one got hurt, so it was funny.

As stated, 4-5 inches is fine, but most townships won't permit it until 6" (where I live at least).

Ahh man, this happened to me last year, what a pain in the ass this was. We're playing 2 on 2 pond hockey, and of the 4 of us there's one guy who doesn't actually play hockey...he's an awful skater, nobody has ever won a 2 on 2 game with him on their team. Well him and I are up 9-5 and we have this one in the bag...I rip to the edge of the pond to grab the puck and feed him in the "slot" and whoops, there I go through the ice. Got soaked up to about my knee...needless to say the only reason I was mad was because we had no choice but to call the damn game a draw...I was on the verge of making history!

[lando_8 0]

I remember playing in a bay off a big lake and the ice being thin enough that you could still see the fish swimming underneath, i'd guess it was probably 2-3 inches at best...probably not the smartest thing, guess it forced us to spread out at least!

[flyerman 0]

Well, I think it may have finally gotten cold enough for enough consecutive nights to try some pond hockey here in the middle of Kansas. I grew up playing on ponds in Delaware and then played outside every winter in Vermont for like the last ten years. So, I'd like to think I know what I am doing. But here in Kansas, at least where I am, it's not really done.

When I first moved here a couple years ago, after a week of single-digit nights, I went out on the ice with my kid just to check it out. Within minutes, people who lived here were honking their horns and yelling at us to get off the ice saying it wasn't safe. Then the apartment complex management people drove over and began yelling at me to get off saying we were going to fall in. Everyone freaked out. The ice was like eight inches thick where we were walking. Anyway, I didn't really want to get into it with my "landlords", esp. since I had just moved here, so we reluntantly got off the ice. Last year I almost made it out, but after a few days of very cold weather it went up to like 50 and that was it.

Now the ice is settling, groaning and cracking quite a bit, unfrozen in the middle where there is this large, cheezy fountain. I figure I am safe to skate closer to the banks where it's more shallow, but I definitely don't want to put my 4 year old at risk.

Any more ideas on making sure the ice is safe to skate on? At least so I can have some kind of rebuttle to the ignoramouses here who have never seen anyone skate outside before?

[Luckystrike 0]

that's funny flyer, I lived in KS for a short time and went and skated on a pond one winter and people stopped and watched like they had never seen that before. It was weird to say the least.

[number21 3]

with that fountain it's hard to say. is it running? from what i understand those are meant to keep the water circulating and not getting stagnant, so if the water moving it won't be safe in that area. Like you said, near the edges or far away from the fountain you'd be okay, i would guess. As long as your kid (and others) stay away from the fountain.

Maybe a big rope to divide the pond into safe and unsafe.

Either way your landlord won't want the liability.

[flyerman 0]

Yeah, that fountain is running all of the time, even in winter.

Looking outside now I notice that the ice is frozen and layered in three distinct areas. One near the lip of the "lake" farthest from the fountain, one in the middle leading up to a circle around the fountain, and then very thin ice and water closest to the fountain on the far side of this fake lake/pond.

It looks like most of the circulation must be happening on that far side, where the ice looks really smooth (freshly frozen black ice) but is most likely very thin. Too bad too because the ice that looks safe is scattered with goose crap and big, idiot-thrown rocks. Well, I guess I can practice my stickhandling and agility skating through them!

Of course, the liability is the other big issue here, although it's not officially posted (of course it isn't -- this is Kansas!), but there are signs that say you can't swim in there (who would swim in that muck?! Oh yeah, people who live here...). I guess I should try finding somewhere else to avoid the hassle. Better find that hidden nook fast because it looks like this evening will be my only shot judging by the weather forcast this week!

[flyerman 0]

Well, it's 1 AM and just got off the ice, but I had to share this....

After three years of NO skating/hockey outside here in Kansas since I moved from VT, I just skated for FIVE hours (with a dinner break in between) on the fake lake outside my apartment complex. It was simply beautiful. Spiritual. Perfect.

Black ice on much of the surface, smooth as glass. Glide forever. How I have missed this. Godly as it gets for me.

A friend came over to join me 45 minutes in. After dinner we rebundled, brought down a thermos of Baileys, attempted to make our pucks glow-in-the-dark with various spray paints and art supplies, and made a night of it. This is what hockey and skating are all about for me. It's primordial. Simple, elegant, and natural. Why I love it so much, and where it all began for me....on the pond.

Just wanted to share this with you all. I plan on going out with my daughter in the AM before the big thaw comes and takes the magic away. Something to behold and something I will never take for granted again.

[rubberduckie 0]

There is really nothing as crisp as quality pond ice. You can't beat the roots of the game. Too bad here, everytime the ice gets thick enough, it gets above freezing so you only get like 1 day every 3 weeks... :(

[flyerman 0]

Ahhhh, but that one day.

[Jason Harris 31]

...attempted to make our pucks glow-in-the-dark with various spray paints and art supplies, and made a night of it.

Neat story, Flyerman. Did the spray paints work?

[bbruins8 0]

Strap some sand bags and skates to your wife and make her skate out there to test it :lol:

[Zamboni 6]

Spray paints I tried made the pucks drag-we lose a lot on backyard rink at night into the snow.

[flyerman 0]

Just back again off the ice with my 4 year old. This time the cops came and kicked us off. Go figure....

No, the fluorescent spray paint didn't really work too well -- didn't have enough dry time and really didn't show up too well on the ice. We tried what we thought was some glow-in-the-dark paint, but it was actually this pasty-glue stuff that didn't stick. But a little smeared on one-side was good enough to pass around. I'm pretty sure they make glow-in-the-dark pucks, but never really looked before.

Anyway, the big thaw is on. It's supposed to get near 50 today. Knowing the weather here, this is probably it for the season. Well, it was great for the few hours I was out there. I miss Vermont....