Attempting to flood my pond for better skating (with pics)

lands11

lands11

Active member
So I have never done it before, but it has been talked about a lot between my friends. Today I decided to go for it because we have plenty of ice, but it is very crunchy and overall just really shitty. I flooded it with a sub-pump once so far and I plan on doing it again tomorrow morning. Any of you die hard hockey players ever do this before and have any tips for me? Tomorrow I'm going to make a large T out of 2X4's so I can push it while I pump water onto the ice to move any slush that forms off to the side. I'm also going to try and make some "boards" our of snow, probably about 4 to 6in high. I'm not even sure how well it is going to work in the end but I will keep you informed if you want to know. This is what I have so far.

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I have a rink in my backyard and getting it to work is both really tricky and very simple.

Basically once you establish a solid base to the ice, you just have to put thin layers of water on top (the colder the air at the time the better, harder ice you'll get) until the ice is to your liking. And compacted snow and water fills in holes much better than just water because it doesn't melt the ice around it nearly as much.

And as far as my experiences go, you'll be fine with your "snow boards" around the edges. You don't need wooden barriers but can be pretty helpful. Just remember to water down the snow around the edges to turn them into ice so all your water doesn't run off when you flood it. And with a pond as big as your's, I'm sure the way you have it now will work great. Mine's much smaller and the wood helped quite a bit, but only because a small hole makes a much bigger difference on a smaller rink.

I recommend getting some sort of ice scraper too. When shit falls on it and freezes it can make it bumpy, but an ice scraper (one that's on a long handle like a broom) does the job.

So yeah, feel free to ask me any questions you have! And good luck! Backyard rinks are a hell of a good time.
 
Fuck I wish I lived somewhere where it snowed more than one day a year/froze cold enough to make a rink. Goddamn Victoria.
 
Fuck I wish I lived somewhere where it snowed more than one day a year/froze cold enough to make a rink. Goddamn Victoria.
 
I live in the Seattle area and our next door neighbor had a very large pond that would completely freeze and we'd go out and fuck around or play ice hockey on it. It was solid as a rock. That's when I was about 11 and younger...as we got older the freeze became less and less solid and by the time I graduated high school it would barely get a thin sheet on top-- definitely not enough to walk out on or even throw a rock on. Fucking global warming.
 
It's on top of my round pond, I made it a rectangle to start but then I just made it bigger because I had more room.
 
My friend is a big hockey player and he just takes a giant tarp and uses plywood for boards but then covers them with snow and makes it a perfect sqaure and then he just fills it with water from his hose and it turns out perfect everytime. He also lives on main street so everybody that drives by sees it and it's awesome
 
Thanks for the advice, I was planning on freezing the snow boards to make them stronger. How long does it usually take for a layer to freeze completely?
 
Oh yeah up here in minnesota a few of my friends have them with boards and all. Boot hockey tournaments or just skate and shoot pucks at the pipe, endless fun.
 
This is what I'm looking to do, and I have never even played competitive hockey in my life. I can skate pretty well but my stick handeling blows and I always have to look down, so if I ever played actual hockey I would die. I kind of just did this as a fun little project in hopes of it working and me getting to practice a little.
 
It should work. They flood the pleasure rinks around here without boards. Yeah its hard to play hockey when your worse than everyone but thats when the boot game comes in handy. Grab 8 guys and play 4 vs 4, everyone is pretty even then.
 
If it's a thin layer, overnight normally does the trick.

If it's a thick layer and only in the 20's you may need a couple nights.

Just remember that the colder it is, the faster and harder the water freezes so take advantage of the coldest nights.
 
You clearly didn't look at the pictures.......because that is exactly what I did. There are like 3 pictures showing that.
 
Yeah, same here. There was some farmland that would flood in the winter and when it got cold enough would barely freeze so sometimes you broke through other times you didn't we just had to take that risk if we wanted to play hockey haha. The last time it froze enough to skate on or froze over in general was about 3 years ago.
 
I live in Northeastern PA and last year my pond never fully froze. First time in my entire life that had happened.
 
the Pond behind my house use to freeze over and we'd have some sick ice hockey tournaments. My neighbor would set up construction lights and shit so we could play at night and now it hasn't froze thick enough in like 3 or 4 years...sucks man :'(
 
I remember back a few years ago we got literally so much snow in Delaware like a few feet over a few days and since my fam shoveled our huge driveway into our backyard setting up about a 3 foot tall perimeter then pumped water from the hose in, it all froze and we had a backyard ice rink. Best snow memory because we set up lights and played all night and day. Too bad we barely have gotten a foot total in the past two years here :/
 
They look like you either didn't pump enough water and you don't have much snow built up where the rink is. Also it's always like -20 here so it's easier to do for me.
 
Haven't posted back here in a few days. It worked great, especially after flooding it for a second and third time, it's pretty much perfectly smooth now. Me and a couple of my friends got some fun games of hockey in. I'm heading out right now to do some more skating and shoot some pucks around. Overall I'm pretty surprised how it turned out and really pumped. Only problem is it's supposed to get really warm in the next few days and I head back to school thursday. It was fun while I got to use it and I will definitely make it again next winter break.
 
what did you use for a pump? growing up we had a lot of rinks both in town and at the lake. my dad got one of his city worker friends to flood it with a fire hydrant outside our house. and at the lake we had a 5hp pump with a 3 inch hose, that beast will flood a massive rink with a half inch of water and freeze perfectly smooth. aA few years the lake froze glass calm and the snow blew off, so cool
 
around the same size as yours couple bad spots on it was a little bit too warm today hopefully the little melting helps it suppose to get to like 20 degrees tonight so hopefully I can go out there with an ice chipper and smooth it out a bit then re-flood it
 
That is so sick, When I make it again next year I'm going to do it a lot better. I had limited time to do it and this was my first year trying it. I'm glad how it turned out though, what exactly is that thing in the first pic? and where can I buy one?
 
I'll get some pics of my rink up soon. My dad owns a boathouse so we always plow off a big rink on the canal. We also make various trails throughout the canal system which can be fun to skate
 
I wish it got cold where I live. Every couple years it gets cold enough to freeze the pond near my house, my friends and I will spend hours out there
 
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