Ho Hum we have no rink because they are doing rink maintenance. They have melted all the ice and are fixing the pipes. I had a look at today and it was pretty weird. There are also lots of sunken places in the sand which they are topping up and even one of the barriers is leaning over because the ice was holding it up . However hopefully once it is done (and I think they are determined to do a good job) we will have good ice which was deteriorating before they decided to the maintenance.

It is the first time since I have started skating they have done this and that is 11 years. But I think it was much longer than that since this has been done.

So does your rink do this and how often?

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Our rink normally melts down the ice once a year and repaints the hockey lines etc, though last year they didn't do this. However, we've been having problems with our compressor every now and then over the past couple of years and have had an involuntary melt down and loss of ice. I've never seen the rink with no ice, but my daughter did and she said it looked very strange!

Nicki

Yeah, we do it annually, too. Usually they do it in early summer when we go down from 2 ice surfaces to 1. They do the maintenance on the surface we're going to keep all summer first, then we switch over and they take the other one down to dry floor and use it for dodgeball and stuff like that. Both our surfaces are now cement-based, so all you see is the cement floor when the ice is melted. One of them used to be sand-based, though, and that looked pretty weird when there was no ice. We got to see it all when they switched it over to cement. Once, they did the ice maintenance in the spring - the river flooded and we couldn't get to the rink anyway. The staff went in by boat and did the work so everything was ready to go when the water went down. Luckily, the building itself didn't flood!

The rink where I skate at lunch time has ice from Labor Day weekend through the first week of April. By the end of April they have removed the ice and laid down a sports floor (interlocking plastic tiles) over the concrete. This is used for inline skating as well as stuff like wiffleball.

Inline is fun and keeps me in shape. It has helped me to learn, but it is limiting. I think Pik Skates look interesting & I know someone with them, but for now I use fitness skates.

The nice part about inlining there is the total lack of crowds. Many times I'm the only one. Last summer I finally got some of my figure skating friends to start inlining with me (it gets a little lonely without company!) The rink manager told me that since I effectively tripled his business (3 instead of 1 person) that I could skate the month of August for free. He even gave me a key in case he was late and showed me how to turn on the lights.

Can I post a picture here? I've got a couple that might be entertaining.

Jon

Ours did it the first year I skated there, but hasn't since. About time it did it again, if you ask me.... I'd happily skate elsewhere for a week to have better ice.

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Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

The rink I normally skate at has 2 sheets. They alternate years on doing a complete melt-down and maintenance. Usually this is done right after the summer skating program finishes, right around the USA Labor Day holiday, and the "down" period lasts for about a week.

Ours is usually down for about a week every six months or so. I'm glad they re-do so often because it means we normally have pretty good ice.

I do wish they would resurface every hour during public skates, though...

I hear that!

There is one rink I go to sometimes, but not often because it's a 45 minute drive...they have ice that is too soft and wears down quickly and dries slowly, but resurface it once an hour.

My regular rink has much better ice, and a bigger rink to boot, so it holds up longer, but they generally don't resurface at all during public sessions (but sometimes they do, on Sundays I think it is). I'd be really happy for just one resurfacing halfway through every time, but I guess you can't have everything.

My home rink melted this week because the ancient compressor failed. It was just a big swimming pool. It's cement based, used to be sand, well it used to be a barn actually, and it's used in the summer for shows and such. The ice is in from October to March. The rink guy said that the melt was a good thing because the ice was uneven, (it dips in the middle) and would have stayed that way until the end of this year, so when it froze up again it was level and it was nice to skate on a flat rink today.

We're fundraising for a new rink. Anyone have a few million dollars handy?

the rink closest to my house is closed in the summer so i guess that's when they do their maintenance. although i never really thought about it. they do resurface the ice at the midway point of the public session if there are a lot of people there.

Only if a tidal wave goes through it ....

Sorry about the incredibly bad taste but it was the first thing that came to mind. Apologies in advance if I offend anyone.

We have the same dilemma in my part of the world. We need a really good rink here in Melbourne and maybe in the next couple of years we will get it.

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