Ice Slanting Down Near Boards

[goblue9280 33]

If you are referring to the rink in College Station

No, I'm talking southeast Houston. Yeah, College Station is pretty rough as well.

[shotty 7]

Ok that makes sense. Probably built up over a long period of time, I doubt my rink re-does the ice very often. Lines are dull and blurry too. For $600/player per season ($700 for youth), you'd think they would have the most dialed-in rink around. Not the case apparently.

Suburban Greater Los Angeles area. Nice facility, but seems like it could be better taken care of. There's one spot on one of the rinks where the bottom of the board sticks out in one of the lower corners. If you try to wrap the puck around the boards behind the net, the puck will kick out to the face off circle on the other side. Also, there are large-ish gouges in the ice surface that the zamboni never quite fills in.

They have like 25 adult teams in 4 divisions, who knows how many youth teams, travel club, college hockey, classes and clinics, figure skating, stick time ($15/hr), pickup ($25), plus public skates ($11 plus rental), skate sharpening is $10 which from what I understand is about twice what it should be, and a slightly overpriced pro shop. Should have plenty of money. Either they hoard it or can't manage it..

I'm sure it costs a lot to keep a place like that running, but for the money we all pay, the ice should be immaculate.

dont even bother trying to wrap your head around how much money they bring in when you'll have an even harder time trying to figure out how much it costs to operate.

the league i play in has an astonishing 52 beer league teams, plus all of what you mentioned PLUS pay parking. the fact of the matter is, operating and maintaining an ice rink is an expensive endeavour and unless you want to go out and either train some guy to master the art of ice making OR pay some expert (they are not cheap), you get what you get.

one of the 3 rinks we play on is in a 5,000 seat arena with super bright lights, so not only is the ice poor quality (they claim its designed to be resurfaced every 20 minutes, which is why its so choppy after 3 13 periods without) but the lights also make it really warm in there.

[evh5150 0]

Hell I skated at a rink in LA one time where the sides slopped in towards the center and it looked as if there were big cracks in the ice on the ends of the rink. It was so ghetto.

Which rink? I'll be sure to steer clear.

[MC6694 2]

Which rink? I'll be sure to steer clear.

It was a while ago. I was there visiting the GF's family and wanted to skate so we went to a free skate at this place. I will have to look it up but I will post it when I find it.

[MC6694 2]

It was a while ago. I was there visiting the GF's family and wanted to skate so we went to a free skate at this place. I will have to look it up but I will post it when I find it.

I am pretty sure it was Culver Ice Arena in Culver City. It was terrible when I was there might not be like that all the time. Could skate it but it sucked. Boards are ghetto and don't even stand up straight.

Edit: Apparently it has always been an issue http://www.insidesoc...le-jim-fox.html lol

[evh5150 0]

Makes sense. That rink is significantly cheaper than everywhere else around here. I guess you get what you pay for. I shpuldnt complain about my rink so much lol.

[stuie7 6]

Glad to know it's not just shitty English rinks with this problem!

I echo this sentiment.

[MC6694 2]

Makes sense. That rink is significantly cheaper than everywhere else around here. I guess you get what you pay for. I shpuldnt complain about my rink so much lol.

Yeah it was pretty run down. Normally if we skate when we are out there we go to paramount or pasadena but culver city was the only one open that day.

[Aggie 9]

Although I haven't played at Sharks Ice Oakland in years, the Olympic rink had this issue at the zamboni end. The puck would get stuck there a lot!

[AlphaSierra 1]

If the ice is sloping down near the boards it is either bad pipe layout, or lack of insulation at the edge. The rink I worked at had the same problem until we replaced the boards during the yearly shutdown. The new plastic boards we put in seemed to insulate the ice edge better than the 20 year old wooden boards.

Edging will make it worse, as that takes ice off to level out the edges zamboni the cannot get.

The problem with crappy ice is mostly due to staff at the rink. Ours had some pretty bad ice until we got a night maintenance guy who actually cared. After the last game at 1AM, it is easy to turn off the lights and head home. It takes a little more dedication for someone to do the hour to two hours of preventative maintenance the ice requires. He would edge it (30 to 40 minutes), walk the ice and patch any holes (15 to 30 minutes), then Dry shave the ice to put it to bed (15 minutes). And even if you have a great guy who does that at night, if you have 16 year olds running the zamboni all day with no clue they will undo all the work the guy at night put in.

As to the money problem, most rinks barely keep their head above water. Yes, as hockey players you are shelling out the cash. Guess what, we are the only customer of the rink that truly pays for our icetime and we are probably paying more to offset lost icetime. Look at the rink at the 7am figure skating slot, they get 3 to 7 people on the ice at 5 bucks a person. 2 PM public session, 15 to 20 people at 5 bucks and they are still short to "pay" for the ice. Concessions do not make much profit. So, the only successful rink model is a 24/7 hockey model.

[chk hrd 164]

Yeah it was pretty run down. Normally if we skate when we are out there we go to paramount or pasadena but culver city was the only one open that day.

Paramount has the scariest boards of any rink I have ever seen.

[evh5150 0]

Alpha - I see your point. Last time I went to a public skate, there were about 12 people, including the 6 members of my family, two of which were small children so they were free.

I almost wish they just charged us a few extra bucks per season to cover the maintenance. I would THINK they would factor facility upkeep into their pricing/business model and charge whatever is appropriate, rather than charge just enough to keep the doors open.

Whatever... from what others have said here, I should just count my blessings.

[AlphaSierra 1]

Aside from major repairs on the pipes, boards, or machinery, it really has nothing to do with costs. From my experience, most of the rink managers I knew were not technical ice people and a majority of the staff were high schoolers. So there is a lack of technical expertise and lack of instruction from the top. In my case, after we hired someone with a bit of knowledge, he dug around the machinery room and actually found the edger that had not been used in at least 5 years.

I bring up the costs because it was mentioned above. In the case of my rink, it was city owned. As such it had to commit percentages to different areas (figure skating, public sessions, senior skates, PE school classes, etc) Most of those will not consistently meet the costs of the facility. We would actually have ice time slots not filled that hockey teams wanted, bt we could not give them the space due to the imposed breakdown of "fairness".If it was a private rink, you could run hockey 24/7 and be a better, more profitable facility. Also for Public sessions, you have to have anywhere from 5 to 8 staff on hand, during the night where games were running, we dropped to the Mgr and maintenance guy.

bit off topic, but thought I would try and answer some of the questions from above.

[IPv6Freely 2092]

As far as the rink being empty... Yea. Most of the daytime during the week there is MAYBE 5 on the ice, including a pair of figure skaters practicing.

Yet they tell me there is no time available for stick time or daytime pickup. WTF? Make it 3 hrs of public skating instead of four and have stick time. I guarantee you'd make a lot more money, even if only 10 people show up.

[MC6694 2]

Paramount has the scariest boards of any rink I have ever seen.

really I didn't think they were too bad go check culver city I think they are worse

[greyskull 21]

I echo this sentiment.

HAHa where have you been?

[SirJW 207]

What's the best way to control the puck and get it out of those ruts? One summer the puck was at least half way in the edge sideways. You had to hack at it but it would fly out and still need to chase it. This season the dip by the Zam isn't as bad but it's very unstable in that area.

[mcawesome 1]

I am pretty sure it was Culver Ice Arena in Culver City. It was terrible when I was there might not be like that all the time. Could skate it but it sucked. Boards are ghetto and don't even stand up straight.

Edit: Apparently it has always been an issue http://www.insidesoc...le-jim-fox.html lol

Haa, I played there for about a month when I was visiting LA, the ice was horrible. Although, for it being May and just starting to really heat up, I suppose it wasn't much different than any other rink in the summer. I did meet a few celebs out there, so that kind of made up for the crappy ice and rustic boards.

[ktang 34]

What's the best way to control the puck and get it out of those ruts? One summer the puck was at least half way in the edge sideways. You had to hack at it but it would fly out and still need to chase it. This season the dip by the Zam isn't as bad but it's very unstable in that area.

You could try to kick it out to your stick, shoulder against the glass for balance and safety.

[MC6694 2]

Haa, I played there for about a month when I was visiting LA, the ice was horrible. Although, for it being May and just starting to really heat up, I suppose it wasn't much different than any other rink in the summer. I did meet a few celebs out there, so that kind of made up for the crappy ice and rustic boards.

I was there in December/January of last year and the ice was still terrible lol. The have an old ghetto Zam too.

[mcawesome 1]

I was there in December/January of last year and the ice was still terrible lol. The have an old ghetto Zam too.

The best part about that rink was the pro-shop guy's name was Hans.

[MC6694 2]

The best part about that rink was the pro-shop guy's name was Hans.

Haha I didn't go to the pro-shop but that is hilarious.

[mcawesome 1]

Haha I didn't go to the pro-shop but that is hilarious.

Here's the link to their website.

http://www.amcansportsonice.com/

He even looks like Joss Ackland.

[MC6694 2]

Here's the link to their website.

http://www.amcansportsonice.com/

He even looks like Joss Ackland.

Haha there is a resemblance.

[keggertc 0]

I would also go with lack of edging. The board brush on the side of the ice resurfacer only removes the snow up along the boards. The back of the ice resurfacer (the conditioner) can only butt up so close to the boards with the blade underneath the conditioner and where the ice making water comes out and gets distributed by the spreader towel. Without going out and hitting the boards with the edger eventually this will build up. This is also why in front of where the ice resurfacer comes and goes of the ice is so built up. Lack of edging.

One of the biggest reasons arena workers don't edge is because they contribute to the CO2 content in the arena air. So the edging basically has to be done at the end of the night and the guy at the end of the night just wants to get home.

I will try to get a shot from the Zamboni resurfacer manual outlying this better.