Is climate change killing Canada's outdoor ice rinks?

B00Mer

Keep Calm and Carry On
Sep 6, 2008
44,800
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Rent Free in Your Head
www.getafteritmedia.com
Is climate change killing Canada's outdoor ice rinks?



Hockey greats Maurice Richard, Wayne Gretzky and Sidney Crosby all started skating on outdoor rinks, and many parents today still dream of launching their kids to NHL stardom from a frozen ice sheet in the backyard. But researchers say rising global temperatures could pose a threat to the quintessential Canadian phenomenon of the outdoor ice rink.

Geographers at Wilfrid Laurier University have launched a website called RinkWatch, in an effort to track what they fear is a decline in the outdoor skating season due to climate change. The site encourages users to log the state of the ice on their community or backyard rink each day, so researchers can study that data for evidence of a warming trend. The site asks users only one question: Can you skate on your ice rink today?

RinkWatch co-founder Robert McLeman says he and his team launched the site after reading a 2012 study that suggested, due to global warming, the outdoor rink might be an "endangered species" in Canada. McLeman hopes the data gathered from RinkWatch users can paint a better picture of the effects of global warming – and the decline of the outdoor skating season.

"The very first winter that we did it, it was a terrible winter for outdoor rinks," McLeman told CTV Winnipeg on Friday. "Then you had last year, which was a fantastic winter – nice and long and cold."

Part of the problem with maintaining an outdoor rink is the possibility of warm spells, which can quickly transform a well-made rink into a splash pad in a matter of days.

RinkWatcher Barret Miller says he got involved with the website two seasons ago, after a particularly warm winter caused trouble for his rink project in Winnipeg.

"There were days where we had puddles forming on our rink because it was raining. Raining in February," he said.
RinkWatch researchers say some regions – including Wayne Gretzky's hometown of Brantford, Ont. – may someday become too warm to support outdoor rinks.

That's why they're looking for the public's help to determine how fast the climate is changing.

"The more users, the better results," the RinkWatch founders say on their site. "If we want (to) skate outside in the future, we have to find (out) what's going on today."

Read more: Is climate change killing Canada's outdoor ice rinks? | CTV News

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Ron in Regina

"Voice of the West" Party
Apr 9, 2008
22,847
7,791
113
Regina, Saskatchewan
What's killing outdoor rinks is the same thing that's killing much
of the childhood experiences most of us took for granted.

How many parents here turn their kids loose on their bicycles
in the morning in the summer & tell them to be in time for supper?

How many kids get to just get out and wander? Build forts and climb
trees and have epic neighbourhood battles with wooden & plastic
riffles down at the public park? How many kids leave the house in
the morning and head out to discover ponds and wetlands to come
home with frogs and snakes and salamanders & and tadpoles and
such? How many kids under the age of ten even get out'a their own
yards without their parents knowing exactly where they're going and
what they're doing and with whom?
 

skookumchuck

Council Member
Jan 19, 2012
2,467
0
36
Van Isle
What a crock of chit! I was skating and playing hockey on an outdoor rink in 1955 through 1980 ish, some days -30 some days +10 and slushy, only a week apart. Amazing how one can make money from idiots.
 

Twila

Nanah Potato
Mar 26, 2003
14,698
73
48
I've never skated on an outdoor rink. Only ever on groomed ice. It would be a wonderful experience.
 

#juan

Hall of Fame Member
Aug 30, 2005
18,326
119
63
There was a time when I was transferred to Winnipeg for several years. We lived out in Charleswood and we had two outdoor rinks, one a block away and the other two or three blocks away. Both had the services of a Zamboni (sp)machine that would scrape and flood the rinks at least once or twice a week. As far as I know these rinks are sill in operation. Be a shame to lose them. Both of our kids learned to skate on those rinks
 

Ron in Regina

"Voice of the West" Party
Apr 9, 2008
22,847
7,791
113
Regina, Saskatchewan
Keep it going Ron in Regina, I'm here popcorn mode


BTW, -15 outside here in Calgary today. :)

I wish, but it's coming here soon it's rumored. Got up
thismorning to -28c & windchill of about -40c again.

Anyway, if little Suzie or Tommy are at little Mary or Peter's place,
indoors, on the XBox, then their parents know they are out'a harms
way from strangers and pedo's and creativity and imagination and
character building and socialization and ingenuity and adventures of
their own creation.

Global warming isn't killing outdoor rinks. Extreme parental bubble-wrap
is killing outdoor rinks, and street hockey, and tobogganing, & bike riding,
and meeting other children outside of their already small circle, and having
to figure out how to keep themselves entertained without 110v power, and
being active, and growing up as well rounded self sufficient adults.
 

skookumchuck

Council Member
Jan 19, 2012
2,467
0
36
Van Isle
There was a time when I was transferred to Winnipeg for several years. We lived out in Charleswood and we had two outdoor rinks, one a block away and the other two or three blocks away. Both had the services of a Zamboni (sp)machine that would scrape and flood the rinks at least once or twice a week. As far as I know these rinks are sill in operation. Be a shame to lose them. Both of our kids learned to skate on those rinks


You had a Zamboni? We never heard of one, had often broken shovels.
 

lone wolf

Grossly Underrated
Nov 25, 2006
32,493
210
63
In the bush near Sudbury
What's killing ourdoor rinks is the same thing that's killing toboggan runs - CRYBABIES and don't-want-to-get-involved people. City Works doesn't have the staff. Where are the volunteers - especially the ones who'll bounce out vexatious litigants?
 

#juan

Hall of Fame Member
Aug 30, 2005
18,326
119
63
You had a Zamboni? We never heard of one, had often broken shovels.

Hey! We even had lights. We also had rink clearing by people. The Zambonis couldn't handle more than a few inches of snow so the volunteer shovel brigade would do the worst of it.
 

coldstream

on dbl secret probation
Oct 19, 2005
5,160
27
48
Chillliwack, BC
Anyone noticed that we are in the grips of brutally cold winter. You would have no problem freezing a backyard rink in almost all of Canada these days.

If anything is killing outdoor hockey its the cost of equipment, availability of indoor rinks, loss of cohesive neigbhourhood cultures.. or maybe even too much cold and snow... but it is decidely not (nonexistent) Anthropogenic Global Warming
 

Said1

Hubba Hubba
Apr 18, 2005
5,336
66
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51
Das Kapital
What's killing rinks around here is the friggin hipsters who can't take the sound of the puck hitting boards. Can you freaking believe that??
 

MHz

Time Out
Mar 16, 2007
41,030
43
48
Red Deer AB
What a crock of chit! I was skating and playing hockey on an outdoor rink in 1955 through 1980 ish, some days -30 some days +10 and slushy, only a week apart. Amazing how one can make money from idiots.
I would bet that today you would opt for an insert that connects to an 18V drill battery so your feet aren't used to keep the drinks cold after.
I' also quite sure that the effort that it took to build the rink could tirn a local hill into something that would allow skates to be worn. If I may suggest, a full barrel of water at the top be empty at the bottom as that makes getting it up the hill faster. A winch at the top is even better.

I know a few places that are real shady and a trail that was 5 miles long (4ft wide) could be created and a quad pulled zamboni would be like $100 to build. Nov-May (all at an incline or decent) (banked corners extra charge)

What's killing rinks around here is the friggin hipsters who can't take the sound of the puck hitting boards. Can you freaking believe that??
Get the city to put 2" of polystyrene on the outside and then the sound in slightly less than a gunshot. (which is why people in my neighborhood flinch)

Hey! We even had lights. We also had rink clearing by people. The Zambonis couldn't handle more than a few inches of snow so the volunteer shovel brigade would do the worst of it.
Today that would actually be the one guy with a snowblower and the rest drink till said task done right?
You could even add a shaving attachment made out of a 10' section of aluminum H-Beam that has been sharpened up. Until you can make skating as popular as golf . . . problem solve and now when putting the skake can actually be uses to help you set the path for your put that has to cross at least any two lines to count. Beer freezes, so does water, bourbon popsicles are for summer so chug-a-lug
 

MHz

Time Out
Mar 16, 2007
41,030
43
48
Red Deer AB
I can see why wearing skates would park the trampoline but ice turning to water results in something as horrible as a swimming pool. I'm not seeing any horror at all really other than the return of mosquitoes.
 

#juan

Hall of Fame Member
Aug 30, 2005
18,326
119
63
I would bet that today you would opt for an insert that connects to an 18V drill battery so your feet aren't used to keep the drinks cold after.
I' also quite sure that the effort that it took to build the rink could tirn a local hill into something that would allow skates to be worn. If I may suggest, a full barrel of water at the top be empty at the bottom as that makes getting it up the hill faster. A winch at the top is even better.

I know a few places that are real shady and a trail that was 5 miles long (4ft wide) could be created and a quad pulled zamboni would be like $100 to build. Nov-May (all at an incline or decent) (banked corners extra charge)


Get the city to put 2" of polystyrene on the outside and then the sound in slightly less than a gunshot. (which is why people in my neighborhood flinch)


Today that would actually be the one guy with a snowblower and the rest drink till said task done right?
You could even add a shaving attachment made out of a 10' section of aluminum H-Beam that has been sharpened up. Until you can make skating as popular as golf . . . problem solve and now when putting the skake can actually be uses to help you set the path for your put that has to cross at least any two lines to count. Beer freezes, so does water, bourbon popsicles are for summer so chug-a-lug

There was a time when I thought organized Ringette was hogging all the good ice times at our local rink. The problem was that Ringette is invariably organized by women who are better organizers than men. Back in early seventies Winnipeg we sure could have used a snow blower.........a snow blower and a heated change room..........By the time I laced up eighteen pairs of skates at twenty below, my hands were a couple blocks of ice.