When to Skate

[YooperHockeydad]

I have recently finished flooding my rink last friday around 10pm. This Saturday the high was 14 and the low was 5. Sunday The high and low was 18. I have a significantly sloped rink, even though I have a excuvator come out and try to level it. I still go a slope of 8 inches. Must have been really unleveled.
Right now my deep end is 12" and the high point is 5 inches. I used pallets as boards and then slapped plywood and OSB on them to joint them together. Word of advice, don't try pushing up board once they are all connected together, it makes for a really difficult time.
Anyways I can see through one of the pallets in the deep end that there is about 7 inches of ice formed and 5 inches of water below. My liner is 6 mil, so the question I ask in this long post, is that enough to skate or will my weight push the ice down and force the water to pop the liner. Any thoughts.

Scott

[kevmac]

7" is a good amount of ice, but that is only near the boards. You may not have 7" of ice in the middle of the rink. You won't know without trying though. Get on some rubber boots and test it out. Don't put all your weight on the ice at one, go slowly and see if it will hold your weight near the boards. If so, slowly creep out to the middle, if you start hearing cracks, you may want to get off the ice.

[YooperHockeydad]

Kevin,
Could the pressure of my weight cause the water below to burst the liner? If that happens I feel like it would be disastrous. How long should it take to freeze 12" of ice? Is a week abnormal?

Scott

[Joe]

It really is an inexact science. I too do the "one foot at a time, not too much weight, gently press down, OH MY GOD IT'S GOING TO CRACK OH WAIT NO I'M OK THIS RULES" dance.

Freezing time is dependent upon temperature, but a week to freeze 12" sounds reasonable. That said, it's also not out of the question that it never freezes to the ground. Lots of folks with deep ends skate unknowingly on a floating slab. As long as you don't have too much water seeping up around the edges, you're ok.

[kevmac]

I doubt that you would 'fall' through the ice with enough force to puncture your liner. This really depends on your liner thickness as well and whether or not you have football spikes on your feet. I have walked directly on my liner amongst broken ice and never had it puncture. Like both Joe and I said, you should have plenty warning as to whether or not the ice is going to hold you.