Synthetic Ice - Anyone skate on it?

[Dante2004 0]

I was reading through the USA Hockey magazine and saw an advertisement for "Synthetic Ice".

Synthetic Ice

I have heard about this before, but I have never skated on it...or talked to anyone who has. Anyone out there have any experience? How realistic does it feel? Would it feel similar to roller hockey skates on sport court? What does it feel like if you walk on it? Is it slick?

Thanks!

[tsiarls79 0]

Is it the same as plastic ice? i saw this documentary on Czech NHL players doing demos in the Czech Republic and Patrick Elias was saying that he was having difficulty skating on it eventhough other people say its almost the same, the documentary even showed him trying to balance on one leg since he's slipping.

Heven't tried it though.

documentary can be found in the Detroit Red Wings DVD box set

[Dante2004 0]

Does the Red Wings box set include the annual MAY golf outing?

Still pissed at their play-off performance. Not the way I wanted to watch Stevie go out.

[BK 0]

Theres been a number of threads on this already, but to sum them up.. its expensive, eats your blade edges, loud, but if you have the money for it.. go for it.

[tsiarls79 0]

Nope, it has 4 back-to-back DVD's

DVD-1 has 97 playoff documentary and 98 playoff documentary

DVD2 has 02 playoff documantary and Redwing History, and some extra footage and documentaries including the one i was talking about in my previous post.

DVD 3 and 4 has top 5 favorite redwing games voted on by fans.

worth th USD$45! :)

[BK 0]

.....wow......

this one only took 3 posts to get on an entirely different topic.. :?

BTW, the ice isnt slick with normal shoes..

[tsiarls79 0]

sorry about that bud :)

[devilsrule711 0]

its nothing like real ice you cant dig in to turn 2 skates on it will completely take off your entire edge and gets all over your skates and stuff and is a bitch to get off

dont buy it, its too expensive and not even worth it

[Patrick67 1]

ewwwh just as compelling as synthetic plastic.

[David13 0]

Does a puck slide on it well?

[analog999 0]

Does a puck slide on it well?

from the videos I have seen it can. they treat it with some kind of non-stick spray as well to help the puck.

I have a small chunk of the stuff that I was sent as a sample from Viking Ice. I can see how it works but I don't think that it would be worth making a whole rink out of it... maybe a small garage area.

[Fire0nIce228 1]

They made a rink in downtown pittsburgh around a big huge tree for christmas that was synthetic ice with I believe a little layer of real ice on top of it, cause there was some water and stuff. I just remember thinking how weird it felt the whole time.

[biff44 0]

they treat it with a glycerin/water spray to help the skates glide better. Unfortunately, the stuff is actually sticky and you can no longer stickhandle a puck with it on. Learned that one the hard way.

[AlGiballa23 0]

they treat it with a glycerin/water spray to help the skates glide better. Unfortunately, the stuff is actually sticky and you can no longer stickhandle a puck with it on. Learned that one the hard way.

http://www.kwikrink.com/hockey.mpeg

there is a vid of a guy stickhandling/skating on it. seems pretty cool, he stops like its on ice and everything. But he kinda loses balance at one point, and seems like you can't get going very fast, gives me the impression that there is some sort of friction.

[devilsrule711 0]

dont let that fool you its way different its nothing like skating on ice but it is easier to stop on it but chews up the edge twice as fast

stickhandling is fine little bit slower than on ice but for shooting you wont notice

also you cant glide very fast either since there is just so much more friction on the synthetic than real and its a lot easier to lose your balance ( i know from a first hadn account)

[Edge 0]

there is a place here in phoenix called Ozzie Ice that makes it and had a mini rink with it, but later changed it to a regular sheet of ice. Yeah it does make your edges last much less. Stickhandling isn't bad on it, but you can skate on it okay. It is slower and much less smooth for skating but it works. btw the place here is www.ozzieice.com

[biff44 0]

It really does chew up the edges! It rounds them over, so you have to take many passes on the sharpener to be able to restore a proper hollow with an edge. If you just go to your local sharpening guy, and he does not actually check the blades carefully, you might get the blades back still missing an edge! My solution was to use a cheap pair of skates on the synthetic ice, and use the real skates only on real ice.

[JMart10 0]

My friend went to some hockey camp and they had a synthetic ice treadmill. Not quite sure how it works but ive heard about them before. He told me after skating on that stuff it just beats the crap out of your edges in a short amount of time. It also makes the steel incredibly hot.