Rink

EVERYONE SAYS: YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. WE SAY: WHAT IF YOU GOT MORE? Stainless steel hardware for timeless durability of the 'wear & tear' components. MORE Durability: MORE Strength: Concealed mechanical fasteners, for frames that are stronger than old-fashioned welded frames. Get MORE for your money, Choose the World's Best Dasher Boards www.SportSystemsCorp.com • 877.778.5911 perhaps the most sled-friendly public rink in the country. There are several things that can help make the players' and the employees' experience more enjoyable and efficient. Each should be considered by every facility considering a retrofit. First, if the bench area is multi-use and the synthetic ice floor will not remain installed at all times, use 1 /4 inch dasher facing. It's much easier to install and remove than the thicker sheets. Even better, use bike hooks in the wall of the bench area to hold the flooring in place when it's not being used. Lean the sheets against the wall and swing the hook down to hold the sheets in place. Imagine a sled hockey team as 15 young figure skaters incessantly kick the ice with their toe picks. There are little pock marks everywhere that would take days to fill with slush. When you resurface, you'll need to experiment to find the best way to fill the holes. Shaving more and laying down more ice-making water doesn't help as much as using wash water. If your resurfacer doesn't have wash water however, more ice-making water is a must. In our facility, our sled-hockey benches have tempered glass above the dashers. For games and tournaments, we remove the glass above the gates so coaches can communicate with the players. The clear plexiglass dasher facing is another issue. It tends to crack and break, and since it goes down to the floor, replacing panels while the ice is in is time- consuming and not fun. If your dasher caps and kick plates are routered to accept a 1 /4 inch lexan panel for dasher ads, put the clear lexan in to help protect the plexiglass. If your dashers are not configured this way, think about retrofitting this area the next time your ice is out. Be careful when installing new plexiglass to your dasher frames; screwing it too tight will crack the panel. Our sled-hockey-designed thresholds were a little too tall to make line changes easy so we retrofitted the one-inch plastic with 1 /4 inch and made new kickplates for the gates to account for the gap. For sled-hockey tournaments we'll freeze slush against the thresholds to make small ramps to make line changes even easier. When the event is over, the edger cuts the small ice ramps out quickly. As sled hockey and other disabled forms of hockey continue to grow, all rinks should consider ways of designing or upgrading their facilities to accommodate these groups. With a little more work, donations of time and materials can help these projects become a reality, and everyone will be able to use and enjoy our facilities without difficulty. ★ Jon Pistey is the Ice and Fields Operations Supervisor at the Park City Sports Complex in Park City, Utah. november/december 2007 R I N K M A G A Z I N E 41

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