How to make a lake rink

The middle child is showing she’s going to stick with hockey for awhile, so I’d better start getting into it. What better way to practice on a small lake by our house with some tipups nearby.

Question being as I’m a newb to the game in general, what’s the best way going about getting a decent sized area of a small lake very close to us ready to go? Can stop by every day if need be no problem.

There’s an abundance of water below the ice, what’s the most practical way of getting that up and spread out over an area. She’s only 8yr old so doesn’t have to be very big at all, just something to skate around on and toss a puck back and forth.

Any ideas greatly appreciated

If you get a good, even freeze with hard ice, it’s just a matter of keeping it clear of snow. If the ice is not clean and clear, you need a drill and a pump to flood the skating area with lake water.

My dad used to do this for us as kids. Getting good, clean, level ice is a lot harder than I would have thought and requires a LOT of pumping capacity to put out the water in a reasonable timeframe. A garden hose size just produces too slow of a flow to be practical.

Grouse

I have had a rink for the last 12 years just gave away my nets this week so I will not be doing one this year.

Some years I have had great ice all year with little effort and some years it has been crappy ice all year with a lot of effort. Depends on mother nature. Heavy wet snow or sleet makes it tough and cracks or heaves are the worst

Make sure to get your rink laid out before someone punches a ice fishing hole where you want to skate.

I had a friend that had a submergable pool pump that I used it worked OK but was on the slow side.

Good luck we had some great times on our rink.

When I was a kid my dad worked overtime at night and was the attendant at a couple large rinks here in town. The city had a smaller tractor with a rotary brush on it and he drove that around and swept the ice. Then he had a larger hose with a few hundred feet of hose and he walked the rink and sprayed the ice. It filled the cracks and overall put a new surface on the ice. It wasn’t perfect all the time but it worked pretty good. A sump pump for a two inch hose and generator in a wagon would work or a gas engine driven trash pump for a large hose would work too and water pumped through the ice. I remember if its cold the water freezes pretty quick and will create ripples so a large even flow is the best and the more the better.

Well looks like I have some figuring out to do. Thanks for tips

http://www.homedepot.com/catalog/productImages/1000/ca/ca4e7187-8c00-414c-80c9-2c4a85d4d155_1000.jpg

This one is only about 9,000 gallons per hour. Buddy makes a rink on the lake they live on. According to him, the key is flooding enough water on a calm night to fill the area before it freezes. He drills a 6″ hole just outside of the rink area and pumps lake water top side to have a smooth finish.

When the ice gets bad from snow/slush…., he just recoats with lake water and finished by morning

I guess I wouldn’t over think it too much, shovel an area and let her skate.
We make a hockey rink on the lake at the cabin. I use the hose from the cabin, turn it on and walk away. Many times the ice is just fine and no flooding is needed.

Unless you have a generator I assume power is out of the question and unless you run several thousand feet of garden hose from your house….well.

Shovel and skate!

First thing you need is ice!!! It’s 43 degrees now and heading for 57 degrees today and tomorrow. You got some time to get a plan together

Had a rink for many years on the lake we lived on. Maybe twice we had to flood the rink. Keep it shoveled and skate on it. If you get a wet heavy snow you will want to get out there while it’s snowing and get ahead of it or it will be a huge job. Weight is the enemy for a rink, so keep ahead of the snow and you will have no problem.

Skating with a shovel cleaning the rink is great practice for skating. If you want to improve her skating skills don’t shovel it for her. You can absolutely help, but we got a lot of skating practice shoveling the rink as kids FWIW.

sticker wrote:

If you want to improve her skating skills don’t shovel it for her. You can absolutely help, but we got a lot of skating practice shoveling the rink as kids FWIW.

Think Dad might need more practice than her at this point

Like the idea though. Looking forward to ice more ways than one now.

nhamm wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>sticker wrote:</div>
If you want to improve her skating skills don’t shovel it for her. You can absolutely help, but we got a lot of skating practice shoveling the rink as kids FWIW.

Think Dad might need more practice than her at this point

Like the idea though. Looking forward to ice more ways than one now.

Ditto on that idea… I think we got better too, skating with a shovel than we ever did with a stick and a puck. After skating an hour with a shovel and pushing snow, it makes a stick almost non-existent and the puck really light !!!

I only made ice once on a lake when we spent New Years at my GF at the time’s mom’s cabin. I think we just drilled holes and used buckets? Well first we shoveled and area to keep the water somewhat contained and make good ice not maxed with snow.

On my parents lake, we just drill a hole with the auger, then keep running the auger to bring up lots of water to flood. When done flooding, pile snow around the auger hole so the water doesn’t just run back down. Works just fine…

We use a wagon and a tank of water as a Zamboni. Works great!

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That’s just awesome!

OMG !!! Awesome idea !

Had to watch it twice!
Fantastic idea!

One other tip. After skating on an outdoor rink get her skates sharpened BEFORE skating back on the indoor rink. It’s amazing how fast an outdoor rink can take the edges off your skates. I had to get mine sharpened in between periods once or twice before I figured out what was causing it.

Take her to a local outdoor rink. Skip the lake. Let her play with the other kids there. Dad can be a male role model for the other little kids that have no dad around while watching your daughter. You might find the benifit of doing this better then ice fishing.

When the ice was right on the lake we used to skate to hockey practice. Outdoor hockey games 70% of the time. Sometimes we played in a small town hockey rink and the corners by the parking lot always had small bits of gravel blown over the ice. Funny thing when sparks would come off of the blades, there’s a reason why we had skates in the sharpening room almost every day.