Ok, rink went up around Turkey Day. Filled on December 29. Skating on 1/1.

This is my first year doing this. Here's what I've learned/pro-tips:

- Those flooring scraper things (at Home Depot - used for lifting up linoleum) are fantastic!

- Shoveling powdery snow is much better than shoveling wet snow

- Skating does a great job of helping uneven ice

- Reflooding cures a lot of ills. After a bad rain/freeze, I used the scraper and then just did a nice flood (1/4 - 1/2").

- Do NOT point your hose on direct flow into the ice (I burned a hole in). Use a spraying motion and work the rink.

- Hot/warm water is heaven! I had a plumber buddy come out and put a hot water feed to my outdoor spigot and replace the faucet. Instead of a standard cold outlet, I know have hot and cold that can be mixed like a normal faucet (will also be great for summer activities for the kids). I can flood with it, rink rake or zamboni.

- Red duct tape on the top edge of the boards is great for making sure kids can see the edges and not break their ankles!

- Your slope is always more sloped than you thought. 5" in one corner. 19" in another corner. 'Nuff said!

- Skaboots are incredible! Google them. $25 and allow you to put your skates on INSIDE the house and not damage the deck/flooring/edges/etc. Much better than tying skates in 10 degree weather.

- GET THIS HOSE! . We've all been lured into those cheap flex hoses that don't work. This one does and it's the real deal! I ran it for 17 hours straight to flood the rink. No issues. Have used it a ton since (including sub zero weather). It's awesome!!

- Quick release connections for your hose/rink rake are you friend!

- Establish rules. No checking, no rough play, no helmet/no skates/no ice time! I added a couple other - if a player falls, it's an automatic stoppage of play. Rink too small and kids can get hurt. Also, if you skate, you shovel!!! Oh, and pond hockey goals are great - helps keep shots down. If you are on the rink without a cup, your testicles will thank you!

- If you use a bluetooth or outdoor speaker for music, the first songs you MUST play are 'The Good Old Hockey Game', 'I Wanna Drive the Zamboni' by The Gear Daddies and 'Fifty Mission Cap' by The Tragically Hip.

(edited post to fix link - kevmac)

Great post. First timer here as well.
Follow up question: I had heard that the Skaboots strap breaks very easily. Are you having that experience? I'd love to get a few sets as I'm currently carrying the kids to the rink from the house.

First year with a rink as well and filled/skated exactly as you did here in the middle of Michigan. A couple of questions for anyone:

Can you show me a link to what you mean with a quick release for the hose and rink rake? I struggle getting the darn thing to screw in.

I also have flex hose but no the same brand and I notice a major water flow difference when compared to a normal hose. How to you rate the flow of that hose as compared to a normal hose?

Are all you guys re-flooding by standing out there and evenly spraying? On my rink I still get pooling in the low end and I could run a hose for 5 hours and not get full ice coverage. I would love a way to "set it and forget it" until I had a good water layer but I doubt that's possible.

Thanks!

These are the quick-connects that I use:


I have gone through quite the number of plastic ones (plastic doesn't hold up well in extreme cold) so I highly recommend spending the extra $ on the premium ones that are made out of metal.

So it turns out I had one of the quick adapters sitting in my garage for some reason. I don't even know why I have it but when I saw a pic I was like "I remember seeing one of those". I had never tried to pull it apart before. That is going to make a huge difference!

A first year lesson that I learned this weekend: No games when temp is above freezing! It left huge cuts into the ice that then froze hard. I've layer water with the homboni twice and am just starting to see some progress.