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Welcome to The Unofficial Website of Toronto's Outdoor Skating Rinks
There's nothing like outdoor skating
A project of CELOS
Natural Ice Rink: This rink is not operated by the City of Toronto
Sorauren Park Profile
Features:
A double pad, large and well-maintained
Opening and closing dates:
TBA
Comments about this rink: e-mail us at [email protected].
2021
Feb.5,2021
Sorauren Rink Wordpress post:'
The City of Toronto has passed the responsibility of monitoring compliance of the safe use rules onto the Hoser Crew. .....The one rule we all struggle with the most is “No Shinny”. There is nothing more enjoyable than an afternoon of Shinny with your friends and family. The Hoser Crew loves a good game too. Remember the 2019 Hoser Celebrity Shinny game? That was the most fun that we, as a collective team, have had together in the many years that we have been building this rink.
Over the last couple of days the Hoser Crew has been conversing on how to encourage the community to respect safe use of our hard work. Many of us have had to remind shinny players of the rules and have pointed to the signs outlining the City’s guidelines. Unfortunately, the shinny games continue and we now have to take some additional steps to prevent the potential for fines, rink shutdown or both.
This weekend the Hoser Crew will be redesigning the rink experience by creating snow islands in the middle of each of the two pads. These islands will create more of a skating trail to encourage physically distanced skating and discourage shinny. With the warmer weather Thursday and Friday this seems like the right time to rethink our COVID-era rink. The surface is in pretty bad shape and it will take at least 40 to 50 hrs. of labour Friday, Saturday and Sunday to get it back to where it was last weekend.
2019/2020
Feb.8,2020, from the FB page:
Rink update February 8: the west - side pad is OPEN for leisure skating. Some bumps make shinny tough, but otherwise skate-able. East-side pad closed for remediation. Sorauren Hosers working hard to lay in the ice. Watch this space for updates.
Jan.28, 2020
January 28, 2020, down to dirt. The snow shovels look forlorn
The temperature is going down to -9C tonight, and it will be cold again tomorrow night, but that's not long enough to make a rink on top of dirt. And then back up to over 0 again. So no rink this January!
Jan.24, 2020
From their Facebook page: "The Sorauren Rink is, alas, closed. After a good start we have been hit by warm weather that makes it impossible to flood and maintain ice. Please stay off the rink to protect what we have. And let's hope for below zero temperatures!"
Jan.21, 2020
Sorauren Rink status Tuesday Jan 21: skateable in parts, appropriate for small kids. Not quite ready for full-ice shinny due to protruding bare patches. #SoraurenHoser rink crew flooding daily at 9pm to build up surface.
Jan.19, 2020
After a day of digging out the snow and an afternoon flood, managed to get good night time flood with #Jarek. It’s starting to look like an ice rink!
Brilliant turn-out by Sorauren Park volunteers! Storm-hit rink cleared in 1.5 hours, then a flood by the Sorauren Hosers....Still some rough patches. Thanks all!
Dec.21, 2019, "Build day"
Sorauren Hosers Rink Crew volunteers
From the Facebook page: All we need now is consistent below zero temperatures.
The Sorauren natural ice rink is ready for flooding now that members of the all-volunteer Sorauren Hosers Rink Crew have erected the boards.
Build day was near flawless thanks to veterans and newcomers alike, of all ages. The rink is on the baseball diamond and once flooded and frozen will feature two interconnected ice pads.
Thanks to the volunteers including photographer Susan, Sunny Joe’s Coffee for warm drinks, and our returning Rink Sponsors Scooter Girl Toys, Snap Fitness High Park, and Chander Chaddah, Sutton Real Estate.
Rink diaries from earlier years:
2018
Announcement for Family Day, Feb.19, 2018
Come to Sorauren Park on Family Day, Monday February 19, for a special Farmers Market, 3 – 7 p.m. The pizza oven will be fired up, there will be free hot cider, and delicious hot chocolate will be sold from an outdoor booth.
If the weather cooperates, the natural ice rink will be open for pleasure skating and shinny. Plus, all the winter Market vendors will be open in the Fieldhouse.
The Market will also be offering a family portrait service and board games. See you at the park!
shinny hockey at the rink. Photo: Friends of Sorauren Park
clearing the snow, with helpers. Photo: Friends of Sorauren Park
Feb.8, 2018
On a school day at noon, the rink is empty but there are skate marks and the big rinks look firm and smooth.
opening in fence to get to east rink
big, smooth west rink
sign is friendly but firm
new pizza oven near the rink fence
This year there is no shortage of snow -- and as the rink makes obvious, who needs hockey boards when you have the snow piled this high?
2017
Feb.2, 2017
Three people were hosing the ice at 9.30 p.m. They said they're determined to have a rink for Family Day, plan to have a campfire too.
January, 2017
the rink on Jan.14
the "rink" on Jan.24
This has not been a good year for natural ice rinks so far -- no ice over the holidays and very little after.
2016
January 27, 2016, 11 a.m.
Despite yesterday's warm weather (up to 5 celsius), this rink is smooth and hard this morning. However, it's still cloudy -- when the sun comes out later, there may be a different story.
looking northeast
looking northwest
January 23, 2016
Saturday afternoon shinny in the hood
neighbourhood engagement
Jan.20, 2016
At 2 pm, the rink looked great and there were schoolkids on it, skating around while their teacher watched. She said she knew it was open because her husband and son are both on the flooding-volunteers list.
This double rink has short boards and a liner, since there's no natural dip in the ground.
perfect ice
sign says they flood at 9 pm
2015
January 17 2015
At 4 pm, the two rinks had lots of people and the ice looked great.
Junior A's, upcoming
he saw the shovel there and thought he'd just use it
January 8 2015, Announcement from Sorauren Park Hosers:
Join the Sorauren Rink community build this Saturday Now that we finally have some decent weather, preparations are being made for the volunteer-powered Sorauren Park natural ice rink.
You can help this Saturday morning, Jan. 10, starting at 9 a.m. on the baseball diamond. The Sorauren Hosers are looking for volunteers to help install the boards (last year’s innovation) and start flooding. The Hosers make two interconnected pads, one for shinny and one for pleasure skating.
All hands are helpful, and all ages, but especially needed are folks handy with cordless drill-drivers (please bring your charged-up tools) and hammers. We install 8”-high boards to keep in the water (see photo above).
The Hosers also need volunteers to help flood. A two- or three-person crew floods every night at 9 p.m., weather permitting. Volunteers typically pick one night per week to join that evening’s crew. We match up experienced Hosers with newcomers.
Rink Diary 2013
Saturday January 5 2013
double pad rink
snow divider with opening
some grass in the corner
January 19, 2013
big icy puddle, January 19
Rink Diary 2011-2012
Sorauren Park
2011: January
rink in two sections
lively shinny game
2011: February
Family Day, February 21 2011
From CELOS rink visitors: At 4:50pm there were still about 40 skaters at the rink, 8 playing shinny, 12 pleasure skaters, the rest around the rink and the campfire. The campfire was cozy, in a shallow metal dish raised off the ground. The market was extended today to run 2-7pm. The ice looked great, people said that it was a puddle after the warm weather, but it re-froze and they did a lot of repair on it, and now it's in good shape again.
community floods every night
the rink got rebuilt after the big thaw
getting the hang of it
the campfire station
so many families
campfire with elegant stand
hot chocolate tent
farmers' market in the field house
Link to descriptions and "home movies" from other years: http://www.soraurenpark.com/rink.html
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Rink Diary2012-2013
Saturday January 5 2013
double pad rink
snow divider with opening
some grass in the corner
January 19, 2013
big icy puddle, January 19
Rink Diary 2011-2012
Sorauren Park
2011: January
rink in two sections
lively shinny game
2011: February
Family Day, February 21 2011
From CELOS rink visitors: At 4:50pm there were still about 40 skaters at the rink, 8 playing shinny, 12 pleasure skaters, the rest around the rink and the campfire. The campfire was cozy, in a shallow metal dish raised off the ground. The market was extended today to run 2-7pm. The ice looked great, people said that it was a puddle after the warm weather, but it re-froze and they did a lot of repair on it, and now it's in good shape again.
community floods every night
the rink got rebuilt after the big thaw
getting the hang of it
the campfire station
so many families
campfire with elegant stand
hot chocolate tent
farmers' market in the field house
Link to descriptions and "home movies" from other years: http://www.soraurenpark.com/rink.html
Content last modified on February 10, 2021, at 07:03 PM EST