First time rink builder here...so glad I stumbled upon this forum!

A little background on my rink.

Weather - I live in Winnipeg, Canada where it is very cold, water freezes very fast always below -15C this time of year and getting colder we've had -25C days already. I can flood pretty much anytime of the day and water freezes quickly (too quickly I'm thinking).

Traditional style rink - no boards no liner. First couple snow falls I pushed snow to the sides to make the border about 1 foot or so high (higher now) I sprayed the the borders very well with a spray nosel to freeze them hard (ice boards). Then slowly but surley started spraying the grass (with about 1 inch snow on it) to start the ice surface. light spray to get the snow wet then packed it all down with a yard roller - then light spray after light spray - let if freeze spray again. Built up a great base and started with heavier floods - no spray nosel right from the hose held right to the ice. My yard slopes from back to front so I always start at the back and flood to the front (high too low).

Current state of rink - plenty of ice to skate on (6-8 inches). We had our first skate last night ice held perferctly no issues with cracking, chunking or the like.

Ice Waves - The first 5 ft on the low side are is really great smooth ice. but gradually toward the high side there are definded smooth waves of ice - Not frozen snow chunks or ridges, but water that froze as it was moving (I beleive).

Any advice at all is most appreciated....How can start to work these waves out? would possibly flooding from low side to high side be a better option? that way the water is not trickling down as I flood. Any other ideas?

Thanks!

I'm not at all versed in the traditional style, but a few things I use (or have heard of) to combat ice like that:

-Floor scraper. $20 at your local hardware store.

-Weed torch. Don't laugh...a B-H.com reader uses one to melt down his high spots.

-Bucket dumps. Tougher to do if you have a slope, but if it's cold enough, it may fill in the low spots of your waves and freeze there.

-Slush bucket. Probably best for smaller areas, but work it like a ref does in the NHL. Fill in your low spots and let freeze, then resurface smooth.

-Warm water floods. If you have access, thin warm water floods can help even out your ice.

Been there - done that. For the first couple of years, my rink was the traditional packed snow rink where the low areas were flat but there was always that gradation to the high spots. There really is no way around it until you get the lower areas level with the higher area. Until you get to the point where the ice is level you are going to have some kind of slope. Spend more time flooding the lower areas than the higher areas - in other words, flood the low areas 3 times for every 1 time that you resurface the higher areas. And skate on it as much as possible to make the slope a bit more smooth.

My daughters' actually loved the slope when they were learning to skate because they could actually pick up some speed on the incline.

Thanks for the help!

kevmac I'm glad you say that, that's exatly what I started last night. We skated (I tried to work the high spots in my skates) then I brushed the ice and then dumped 2 large garbage bins of water on the low side - scraped the bumps in the high side while the bins filled with water. I'm quickly finding out there's no substitiution for time and hard work!

The good thing about living in Winnipeg is that you have -15'C weather in early December. -15'C is perfect ice making temperature in my opinion. Patience is one of the best qualities in a backyard rink owner. Take your time, don't rush it and before you know it you'll have level (or close to level) ice with hardly any slope.

Wow - I'd never thought of that. That you actually get sloped ice in a non-liner situation. That blows the mind of a liner-based builder like me, haha. Wish we had the climate to test that out, just so I could try it, but it'd last about a week before melting.