For better use and better management. The UNOFFICIAL Website of Toronto's Outdoor Skating Rinks
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You are in the Sibelius Rink folder
There's nothing like outdoor skating
A project of CELOS
Comments about this rink: e-mail us at [email protected].
No evidence of any ice making (yet) this year.
Rink diaries from earlier years:
The ice went in the week of January 12th. On the evening of Jan.15, there were eight skaters, with more arriving (with hockey sticks). Ice looked good.
Message from ice maker Peter Steen: The ice is currently in the transition from "base" to "rink," yet has been skated on for several days already.
Never, in my 16 years doing this, have I seen such quick progress (and with little snow).
I think the bare ground getting so thoroughly frozen in December and early January allows us to flood with little water loss, hence the quick ice build-up.
See also: Editor's and Rink Users' blog
No rink yet...
First signs of flooding
This is the first year for the new rink arrangements at Sibelius Park. There are a few high spots with grass still showing, and the ice is still choppy, but it's getting there fast.
Temperatures are on their second day of well above freezing, in fact since the middle of last night, it's been 14 celsius. Even so, much of the ice is holding. It's very choppy but if the temperature goes back down to freezing tonight and stays down for the next week as predicted, this rink will most likely have quite good skating. Their crew must have put on a lot of water last week, to have such plentiful ice now.
The story of the rink is, I presume, much the same as the other natural rinks in the City. About 15 years ago the City stopped doing the floods for the natural rink and so we took it upon ourselves, in coordination with Brian Green, the local City Parks supervisor (to this day) to take over establishing and maintaining a community rink.
And for the past 15 years a group of volunteers has done just that. Until last year we were dependent on Brian Green to literally truck in snow (in years without it) to establish a perimeter to hold the flood waters. But with the re-design of the park (a big part of which was to make flooding and rink maintenance easier) this year flooding has been smoother than ever. And the rink is bigger than ever. The weather has unfortunately not cooperated but as your website mentions, we got such a great base last week that we should be okay this week.
I was just looking at the 'damage' this morning and have sent out an email to the volunteers saying that it looks like we can have the rink back up for another week of skating if we can get a few floods in in the next 48 hours. After that the weather looks bad for the rink.
See also: Editor's and Rink Users' blog
No rink yet...
First signs of flooding
This is the first year for the new rink arrangements at Sibelius Park. There are a few high spots with grass still showing, and the ice is still choppy, but it's getting there fast.
Temperatures are on their second day of well above freezing, in fact since the middle of last night, it's been 14 celsius. Even so, much of the ice is holding. It's very choppy but if the temperature goes back down to freezing tonight and stays down for the next week as predicted, this rink will most likely have quite good skating. Their crew must have put on a lot of water last week, to have such plentiful ice now.
The story of the rink is, I presume, much the same as the other natural rinks in the City. About 15 years ago the City stopped doing the floods for the natural rink and so we took it upon ourselves, in coordination with Brian Green, the local City Parks supervisor (to this day) to take over establishing and maintaining a community rink.
And for the past 15 years a group of volunteers has done just that. Until last year we were dependent on Brian Green to literally truck in snow (in years without it) to establish a perimeter to hold the flood waters. But with the re-design of the park (a big part of which was to make flooding and rink maintenance easier) this year flooding has been smoother than ever. And the rink is bigger than ever. The weather has unfortunately not cooperated but as your website mentions, we got such a great base last week that we should be okay this week.
I was just looking at the 'damage' this morning and have sent out an email to the volunteers saying that it looks like we can have the rink back up for another week of skating if we can get a few floods in in the next 48 hours. After that the weather looks bad for the rink.