there goes the outdoor rink in Canada

[DarkStar50 679]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/sports/outdoor-skating-a-joy-of-winter-in-canada-feels-effects-of-changing-climate.html?src=rechp

uh-oh...

[Monty22 833]

Just took mine down yesterday. Had about 6 hours on it this year.

[hockeymass 11]

There is a pond behind my parents' house that usually freezes enough to get some good skates in. This year it didn't freeze once.

[Davetronz 109]

I got out to the ODR about 5 times this Winter.

There's no ice at all as of yesterday.

You could play roller hockey on it today.

[pelikano 1]

Thanks for posting this article.

Had only two weekends this winter where the ice was decent. But a lot of the time it was never even frozen to the bottom. I think the ground itself never froze, which is really unnatural.

I suspect a huge business opportunity may be opening up: developing a cost-effective, portable rink refrigeration system for home use. No idea if this has been done yet. But it's going to be the only way soon to have outdoor ice.

[Joker518 0]

Thanks for posting this article.

Had only two weekends this winter where the ice was decent. But a lot of the time it was never even frozen to the bottom. I think the ground itself never froze, which is really unnatural.

I suspect a huge business opportunity may be opening up: developing a cost-effective, portable rink refrigeration system for home use. No idea if this has been done yet. But it's going to be the only way soon to have outdoor ice.

I've seen a few such systems but nothing I'd call "cost effective".

[Jordan 13]

It already exists...in a sense. energy costs are killer though, and the warmer it gets the worse it is. Know of one former NHLer that had one in a barn. One march his electric bill for the barn only was reputed to be $25,000.

[pelikano 1]

It already exists...in a sense. energy costs are killer though, and the warmer it gets the worse it is. Know of one former NHLer that had one in a barn. One march his electric bill for the barn only was reputed to be $25,000.

Still, I can't help wondering if the tech is out there in some form.

The situation is comparable to having an in-ground pool. And I've noticed for some years now that everyone I know who puts in one of those has it heated. It gives them a much longer season.

Imagine having a backyard rink you could use reliably from say mid-November till early April. I would prefer that to a pool, lol.

[jds 20]

Custom Ice Rinks (started by Dave Gagner in 2000) specializes in this sort of thing . Sam Gagner (Dave's son) always had a great backyard rink as a kid that he and Jon Tavares used to practice on.

http://customicerinks.com/residential.asp

Check out the rink gallery especially the one in Potomac MD.

We have done stories on this company and they showed me their "affordable" portable rink featuring plastic gylcol tubes and a condenser unit. It was around $15,000 for my backyard. Not affordable for me.

Apparently some folks use the condenser as their home's airconditioner in the summer so it gets some more use. I believe they even do them on top of closed swimming pools.

Cujo, Wendell Clark and Pat Lafontaine all have rinks done by this company. It is probably out of most folks' price range but I was talking to a guy recently whose neighbourhood association had a fundraiser to get one of these built in the neighbourhood for the residents to enjoy.

Either way, just check out the gallery of rinks and dream.

[Tubesteak 1]

Doubled the size of my rink from last year and got no use out of it here in Ohio. Gas bills were cheap though!

[Jordan 13]

The one that Cujo had (he has since sold it) and the one that Wendle has are both unbelievable!!!

Check out Wendle's on this link

[tmw1582 6]

In Chicago this year we only got about 4 good outdoor weekends. I was skating outside 20 days ago it's been in the 80s here for the past 7 days. Pretty crazy year here.

[hockeymass 11]

The one that Cujo had (he has since sold it) and the one that Wendle has are both unbelievable!!!

Check out Wendle's on this link

If I had something like that, I think I'd spend every waking moment on it.

[mnpucker 33]

In Minnesota here. Built my first rink ever this year. Put it up in early January. Normally our climate would dictate an early December build but warm weather delayed it. I just took it down yesterday. Had ice until 12 days ago. Even 2.5 months was worth it for my boys but the climate has definitely impacted our outdoor ice.

For reference when I was a kid, 1976-1986 there were years we were skating on the lake on Thanksgiving day.

[Chadd 916]

For reference when I was a kid, 1976-1986 there were years we were skating on the lake on Thanksgiving day.

Last year kids were skating on ponds here in PA before Thanksgiving and didn't stop until late February or March.

[Jordan 13]

Here in Toronto we have a number (dozens) of outdoor rinks operated by the city. These are generally twin pads with one side designated for pleasure skating and the other side for shinny. These are artificially cooed with chillers that can handle temperatures up to about +5degrees celcius (or 41 degrees F).

That used to guarantee that they wold run through march break...now they close all but a few at the beginning of march as costs are outrageuos to run the compressors and they had to give up prior to march break this year.

[Cams 7]

Here in Windsor, we were lucky if we had 6 inches of snow for the entire winter this year. I think there were only a handful of days where the temperature dropped below freezing at all! Not a good rink year here, that's for sure! I didn't even bother attempting.

[goblue9280 33]

I imagine it's a good time to open a business installing backyard synthetic ice rinks.

[stick9 895]

In Minnesota here. Built my first rink ever this year. Put it up in early January. Normally our climate would dictate an early December build but warm weather delayed it. I just took it down yesterday. Had ice until 12 days ago. Even 2.5 months was worth it for my boys but the climate has definitely impacted our outdoor ice.

For reference when I was a kid, 1976-1986 there were years we were skating on the lake on Thanksgiving day.

About the same here in MA. Back then we had ice well into March, sometimes even April.

This year, our biggest snowfall was in the end of October.

[ice365 0]

I imagine it's a good time to open a business installing backyard synthetic ice rinks.

We are doing this already and with the weather the country is having there has been a lot more interest. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2012/01/07/nl-appleton-plastic-rink-0107.html

[Cvwolves 0]

If you have the means, there is a house for sale with its own outdoor covered rink in Port Perry, Ontario, Canada

http://www.youronlineagents.com/randydonneral/viewallphotos.php?id=484398&office=true

[roo94 0]

Wonder if this will start opening peoples eyes about global warming...or people going to still have that mentality "Don't care..i'll be dead"

[SydNap 25]

The problem is many people in a position to do something about it, don't have the financial or political reason to do something about it.

[MN old and slow 92]

The ice is in all over MN metro area. Any MSH members from Mpls/St. Paul? I play at Sky Hill and Quarry park in Eagan MN. Here in Eagan MN we can play all day on good ice for free. Gtrew up in the 60s on the outdoor rinks in Duluth MN.

[Chadd 916]

Snow covering 65% of the lower 48 US states according to CNN today and more is on the way. This is an interesting article as well.