Toronto players?

[whizod 0]

I'm just curious as to how many members play in Toronto and whether you play in leagues, or just outdoor pickup. It came to my attention that with very little variety in roller hockey skates,gear and that the outdoor rinks are hardly ever used in the summer, it's never as popular as ice hockey/pickup. Me and my friends have only recently started playing last summer and just do pick up games once week or so at an outdoor rink. Is there an inline pickup scene in the GTA?

[k13 0]

There are many leagues. I myself, is looking to join one this summer.

google search for york inline, mississauga roller hockey, toronto inline (just a few leagues off the top of my head)

[althoma1 574]

Having played in a few of the Toronto leagues here are my thoughts:

York Inline: Uses a puck on Sport Court, approx $275 (tax included) per person for 14 guaranteed games (more if you go further in the playoffs). Most games are played out of Rosemount CC in Thornhill. Living in Don Mills this isn't the most convenient location, but since the games are on Sundays the traffic isn't usually too bad. This is where I've played the past couple years. The full schedule isn't posted in advance and games are sometimes changed at the last minute - the stats weren't really updated regularily or very accurately when they were last year. I don't really care about the stats as I'm just playing for fun, but not knowing when you're going to play in advance is a pain so I'd wish they'd work on scheduling.

Greater Toronto Inline: Uses a puck on Sport Court, $275 plus tax per person so it's a little more expensive than York Inline. I used to play when they used the Don Mills CC several years ago, but they've been at the Herbert Carnegie Center (North York Centennial) for a few years now. They also play games during the week - a 7:30pm Wednesday game at that location during the week would be a traffic nightmare for me. They were well organized when I played years ago so if you live near the rink and prefer weekday games this is a decent option.

Toronto Inline: I played here for 3 or 4 years as the location (Oriole arena near Fairview Mall) was the most convenient for me after Greater Toronto Inline moved, however; the price went up every year and eventually matched the price of playing on Sport Court with a puck when this league uses cement and a ball. In my opinion playing on cement with a ball should be cheaper than playing on Sport Court with a puck. I believe they also charged $275 last year.

There were no winter options last year, but I believe Toronto Inline plans to run a winter league this year, however; I also believe they plan to use a ball and am not sure if it'll be on Sport Court or cement. In addition the planned league that fell through this year would've cost more to play per game than ice - more than $20 a game.

As far as pickup goes there are usually outdoor games at Ashbridges Bay (the Beaches) on most weekends, but you end up playing posts as there are rarely goalies. The outdoor rinks are usually packed in the winter, but go underused in the summer so if you can consistently get a group together to play outdoors in the summer (at some rinks - some rinks like Broadlands are regularily booked for youth leagues) then there are several outdoor rinks to use and some even leave the nets for the summer.

[Somemeat 0]

there are winter leagues for roller..i am playing at one in the moment in Mississauga at rink city...it cost me 250...and there is one in Oshawa

the one in mississauga has two divisions an A on Thursdays and a B on Saturday, competition in the A is pretty good... got some pro players, but the competition in B is so-so..a few rec teams

http://www.hometeamsonline.com/teams/defau...INLINE%20HOCKEY

some info there...the league is almost done but it is starting up again in jan

and i know they are looking for teams

in the summer if you are interested in playing with a puck then look into GTI or yorkinline...if you like a ball then toronto inline is your only option

[k13 0]

there are winter leagues for roller..i am playing at one in the moment in Mississauga at rink city...it cost me 250...and there is one in Oshawa

the one in mississauga has two divisions an A on Thursdays and a B on Saturday, competition in the A is pretty good... got some pro players, but the competition in B is so-so..a few rec teams

http://www.hometeamsonline.com/teams/defau...INLINE%20HOCKEY

some info there...the league is almost done but it is starting up again in jan

and i know they are looking for teams

in the summer if you are interested in playing with a puck then look into GTI or yorkinline...if you like a ball then toronto inline is your only option

How is rinkcity in the summer? I literally live down the street from the arena, but i wasn't too sure about their roller leagues as they concentrate more on ball hockey.

[althoma1 574]

Somemeat Posted Today, 01:52 AM

there are winter leagues for roller..i am playing at one in the moment in Mississauga at rink city...it cost me 250...and there is one in Oshawa

the one in mississauga has two divisions an A on Thursdays and a B on Saturday, competition in the A is pretty good... got some pro players, but the competition in B is so-so..a few rec teams

http://www.hometeamsonline.com/teams/defau...INLINE%20HOCKEY

some info there...the league is almost done but it is starting up again in jan

and i know they are looking for teams

in the summer if you are interested in playing with a puck then look into GTI or yorkinline...if you like a ball then toronto inline is your only option

Thanks for the information...for me going all the way to Mississauga or Oshawa for every game would be a lot of driving since I live near the Science Centre in Don Mills...it'd be about 40 minutes each way and maybe more if the traffic was bad, but it's a consideration. The other issue would be that they're only looking for teams and not individuals - I play ice with a regular team, but usually sign up for roller as an individual. Most friends I keep in regular contact with only play ice (only a couple play roller) and while I've suggested roller to them before they just aren't that interested - I could try to do a better job of keeping in touch with the guys I play roller with on the individual teams and put together a roller team, but I really don't think I want the hassle of putting together a team, collecting the cash ect. Thankfully someone else does that for our ice team. Plus, I see the options for the Mississauga league are Thursday or Saturday - Thursday I play ice and I don't know if I really want to commit Saturdays. Great information that I didn't know though and I'm sure it'll be usueful to others on this board in the GTA, plus I can pass it on to people in those areas who ask me about winter roller.

[spor 13 0]

I've been playing in York Inline for the past few years, but I may switch to Rink City this year since all my friends play there and the league is supposed to be more organized.

If anybody is interested, my friend has started a new organization, Inline Hockey Ontario (IHO), with the aim of growing the sport and he is currently running practices/clinics every Sunday @ Rink City. They are usually early in the morning though, like starting at 9am. Its basically what's available at that time since ball hockey is after us. The sessions run 2 hours (drills for the 1st hour, and usually scrimmage for the 2nd hour) for $20. Drills are run by Dave Hammond.

I can give more info, just PM me if interested.

[k13 0]

question: where do you guys get your equipment around here? (girdles, pants, skates, wheels, etc.)

[althoma1 574]

k13 Posted Today, 03:34 PM

question: where do you guys get your equipment around here? (girdles, pants, skates, wheels, etc.)

I usually don't. The York Inline league I play in does have a store the operate out of the rink (it's not a seperate store...they just use a corner of the rink and a table or two) and do have pants, girdles, wheels, and skates, however; the prices when comparing to sites like inlinehockeywarehouse or other US sites aren't the greatest. I did get a decent deal on a pair of pants at a National Sports Clearance store a few years ago ($50 for a pair of Force pants), but other than that I haven't purchased much locally specifically for roller.

National Sports carries a some roller hockey skates so there are some options there, but most locations don't have girdles and pants - the one National location I've seen girdles and pants at is the one in Pickering. Most National Sports, Play it Again, Sport Checks ect. carry recreational wheels, but I haven't seen roller hockey specific Sport Court wheels like Rink Rats or Revisions at any of them.

This is where I've gotten some of my roller specific gear:

Mission L7's that I wore for part of last season - bought the skates off ebay, the Sprung Chassis from sprung inline, the bearings off ebay, the wheels off inlinewarehouse.com and then had them converted at National Sports (they don't do conversions anymore as I asked about this recently - I know Just Hockey does and most PIAS do as well).

The Torspo's with Sprungs and Revisions I used for the second half of last season and I will use this season I purchased via the Sprung Inline site.

Pants: One pair at a National Sports Clearance center that is now closed and the other pair off inlinewarehouse.com

Girdle: Mission Thorax off ebay

Honestly there isn't much selection in the GTA as far as roller equipment goes - that's probably caused by the fact that there's a much larger ice hockey following than roller and the fact that it's difficult to compete with the online pricing of places like inlinehockeywarehouse.com, ebay ect. The shipping to Canada isn't cheap and the exhange rate now isn't as good as it was last year, but even when you take those factors into consideration it usually still ends up cheaper than buying roller equipment locally in the GTA (if you can find it).

For wheels, pants and even girdles buying online isn't a huge risk - for wheels it's pretty straight forward and it's not that difficult to figure out your size for pants or girdles with the online charts. Skates are a different story...while the L7's are the right size for me lenghtwise the fit of the boot just doesn't work that well for me which is why I moved on to the Torspo's. Luckily for me the Torspo's are sized exactly like Kors and I already had a pair of Kors that fit perfectly so I knew the correct size to order with the Torspos and they fit great.