Northshore Magazine

ne Recreation ter pastimes, largely conducted indoors. The North Shore is blessed with a number of indoor ice rinks that have transformed area ice skating from weather-dependent winter recreation to a sport that can be played year-round. In the mid-20th century, Boston's Metropolitan District Commission, now the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, built indoor ice rinks in many commonwealth cities and towns. Leased out to and operated by local community organizations, these rinks offer ice time to local clubs as well as to skaters who want to practice their skills or to simply get some exercise. "We have public skating and private rentals," says Nikki Roberts, program director at the Henry Graf, Jr., Rink in Newburyport, one of the state-owned facilities. "There are three youth hockey programs, a Graf Rink Basic Skills program, which is open to the public yearround, and the rink is the meeting place for the Merrimack Valley Skating Club, which is a figure skating organization." Other North Shore rinks of this type include the Veterans Memorial Rink in Haverhill, the Connery Memorial Rink in Lynn, Peabody's James McVann-Louis O'Keefe Memorial Rink, and the Kasabuski Memorial Rink in Saugus. Private rinks offer ice time to the public as well. At Hockey Town USA in Saugus, hockey players from ages three to 80 constitute most of the activity. But figure skaters, which make up about 10 percent of the rink's users, meet there, including the North Shore Skating Club. At Andover's Phillips Academy, the NHL-regulation size South Rink provides ice skating lessons at the Phillips Academy Skating School. Other programs include youth hockey through the Andover Hockey Association and the Phillips Academy Hockey School, figure skating and recreational skating programs via the PA Skating Club, adult hockey opportunities, and an extensive offering of summer camps and clinics. Some enthusiasts swear that nothing 144 nshoremag.com December 2013 KJ NB Dec13 Skating.indd 144 Skating Gear Gear Guy: Rob Ouellette owns Amesbury Skate & Sport Shop and knows a good bit about blades. Whether you skate indoors or out, the equipment is the same. "Ninety-nine percent of men buy hockey skates, while women use figure skates," says Rob Ouellette of Amesbury Skate & Sport Shop. This holds true even for strictly recreational skaters who do not play hockey or belong to a figure skating club, he says. "Serious figure skaters are very particular about their edges, so they get their skates sharpened constantly," Ouellette points out. "Outdoor ice is harder, and tends to be [tougher] on the edges because of bits of material in the ice. Outdoor skaters tend to be more recreational," he adds. "People often say that they are looking for wind in their face and an experience that mirrors one of Currier & Ives' 19th-century pictures." Make Your Own Rink For an increasing number of North Shore families, the way to combine the best of the outdoors with the smooth ice of a rink is to build their own private backyard ice skating facility. "In the Amesbury/Newburyport area, there are probably a hundred backyard ice rinks," says Rob Ouellette, owner and operator of Amesbury Skate & Sport Shop, who suggests picking an area of the yard that is as close to completely flat as possible. (If it's too sloped, consider leveling it.) You can simply flood a part of your yard, but rink boards made of PVC pipe or lumber, while not essential, contain the water and make hockey playing a lot more fun. They require bracing to keep the water from flowing away. Build up any reinforcement needed to make up for a slope while you frame out the borders of your rink. Place a white plastic liner directly on the ground and wrap it up and over the lumber or PVC pipe rink boards. Dark colored tarps or liners act as heat sinks in the sun, so stick with white. When the temperature drops near freezing, fill your rink with water. Applying successive layers and letting them harden works better and freezes faster than one deep filling, though it does mean more time spent standing at the end of a hose. Keep your rink clear of snow, and add water every night. For best results, the water should be hot so that it melts the top of the ice and freezes to a smooth new surface. Once your backyard ice rink has frozen to a hard surface, it will last even when temperatures rise above freezing. photographs by patrick marasco 10/25/13 3:04 PM

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