fake ice surface for the garage

[sonsplayhockey 0]

What do you guys use for a fake ice surface to practice shots in the garage?

I'm looking for something I can use my regular ice sticks on without ruining them like the garage concrete floor.

I saw something in a magazine that you can stand on with your skates.

[indaslot 0]

I have heard of people using masonite.

[shotblock 0]

I have heird of people flipping rink board over(flat shiney smooth side) and using that. Not sure if it has to be wet and you cant use your skates on that but I would try it out.

[kovalchuk71 212]

Synthetic ice works the best. But it would be $$$$$ to do your entire garage

[gman 0]

If you are just worried about your sticks, you can buy sport-court tiles and make as much space as you want. If you want to use your ice skates, I have heard that the fake material really beats up the edges.

[kovalchuk71 212]

Actually g-man, it doesnt mess with your edges at all. In fact sharpenings last around 15x longer since the surface is more consistent.

We have a mini rink of it at the LHS I work at.

[biff44 0]

If you are just worried about your sticks, you can buy sport-court tiles and make as much space as you want. If you want to use your ice skates, I have heard that the fake material really beats up the edges.

Yeah, synthetic ice beats the pooh out of your skate edges. Anyone saying differently never skated on it! You need a pair of "rock" skates just for use on the synthetic stuff, unless you want to shave off 1/8" from your skates with every sharpening!

[Guest OSTOR]

On an episode of Viva La Bam they covered his entire house in synthetic ice.

[Alias81 0]

wow...

[hockeyplayah18 0]

ozzie ice

http://ozzieice.com/new_page_5.htm

[deadmanjolt 1]

I did a search for this awhile ago. If you haven't seen them, the NUDO skill pads may be a good bet just for shooting from. Also, HDPE (high density poly ethylene(sp)) sheets can work if they are thick enough.

HDPE is probably the cheapest option, but it depends on what you imagine you'll do with your shooting surface.

[Chiefs18 0]

If you're just looking to shoot and don't need to wear your skates, a cheap alternative is one of those clear plastic mats that go under office chairs. I got one for my son to use in the driveway and it works pretty well. The puck slides nicely on it, but I guess you could do it up with WD-40 for a really slick surface.

[swede 48]

a big whiteboard greased up with WD40/556 would do it, If your not planning to wear skates.

[Jordan6969 0]

Anybody know where to find the high density polyethylene stuff? I've been looking for something like this for a while but I've only managed to find some lexen stuff thats clear plastic which is questionable for shooting/stickhandling off of.

[Groovyname 0]

Jordan... fyi, in the US you can use a material called StarBoard (http://user1004094.wx18.registeredsite.com/board/viewtopic.php?id=1&t_id=137).

I live in Australia, and ice time is not only expensive, but rarely available - in Canberra, it can get on the ice (outside of games) maybe twice a week. Very frustrating... The problem, of course, is that it's too expensive to import synthetic ice from the US, so I've been researching the stuff on and off for a couple of years. We're almost ready to put a pile of it in our garage... we're 'testing' a section of 'synthetic ice' at the moment (and when I say testing, that means I stand on a small piece of it and push my skate around a lot... not very scientific, but the piece I got cost $70 and it's only 1m square).

HDPE (high density polyethylene) is probably the right stuff to use (the same stuff that plastic chopping boards are made from). The thicker the HDPE the better - about 1/2 inch thick should be good. There's a theory that the synthetic ice manufacturers like Ezy-Glide and Super Ice are just using HDPE, which they've infused with teflon or sillcone during the manufacturing process... thus the more you cut the surface up, the slicker and better it becomes.

The other theory is they're using UHMWPE (Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene)... we're still trying to work out which is the best for synthetic ice, but I suspect it's the HDPE.

It does blunt the skates - you need to sharpen after each session on synthetic ice. But the action is virtually identical to ice skating, you just have to work a bit harder to overcome the greater friction.

I'd love to know from Kovalchuck what it's like to skate on, because despite all the work we've done researching it, I've still never spoken to anyone whose spent much time on the stuff.

[indaslot 0]

My son skated on synthetic ice every day last summer. He just found you need to push harder than on regular ice. When he went back to regular ice,the first day he felt as if his skates were too "slippery". After that, he felt he had become much faster and stronger (probably a combination of that and all the dryland training he did.)He didn't notice a big problem with dull skates, but if you switch back and forth between synthetic and real ice, you will probably need to sharpen every time.

[phshockey53 0]

i was looking through the ozzie ice site and can't find how much each section would cost. does anybody know?

[driz86 0]

probably a sheet of linoleum would work fine.

[Groovyname 0]

You can buy sheets it of it from Boni.com (http://www.boni.com/boni/boni.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=27). Not sure though if it's cheaper direct from the manufacturers.

Swede mentioned WD-40 - it works great on a piece of MDF (what we call it in Australia - not sure what you call it overseas, but MDF is just wood shavings glued together, and for hockey get a piece with a white plastic coating). Very cheap - $40 for a 3 x 1.5 m piece.

You can also use teflon spray (expensive) and silicone spray (less expensive).

Interesting to hear about the 'slippery' feeling when you get back on real ice... figured that would be the case.

I'll post to Mod Squad Hockey when we finally install the stuff and work out the best plastic to use - should be sometime early 2007. But if anyone else has any info, would be much appreciated.