Clock running out on outdoor rinks

“I think a lot of people have thrown in the towel already,” says Robert McLeman, a Wilfrid Laurier University environmental studies prof who heads up RinkWatch, a team of researchers studying outdoor rinks across North America.

“The two winters of the pandemic actually turned out be great for skating around here. We had cold temperatures in December, built some good rinks, the ponds froze and the timing was perfect because the arenas were closed.

“But this year we’re reverting to form, which is milder winters with up and down yo yo-ing freeze and thaw cycles in January and February and, unfortunately, this is going to be more the norm in the future.”

It’s due to climate change, he says, a phenomenon that has upended traditional weather patterns, leaving a path of destruction — and watery ice pads — in its wake.

“What you’ve seen outdoors for the last six weeks is what winters are going to look like in the future in this region,” says McLeman of the wild temperature swings.

“Some people would say ‘How is that consistent with global warming?’

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• Dec 31, 1969
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• Dec 31, 1969
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“But actually, it’s very consistent, because essentially what we’re seeing are really unstable winter weather conditions. We get this deep freeze where it drops to minus 20 and we go ‘Good heavens!’ and two weeks later its plus five and plus 10 and we go ‘What on earth happened?’

“We had a period in January where temperatures in the Yukon were milder than they were down here. And then it just flipped.”

But as those overseeing rinks mired in moosh will tell you, when it comes to Canadian winters, it’s not over until it’s over.

“This year was a little disappointing,” says Michael De Andrade, rink co-ordinator at Kitchener’s still dormant Admiral Park, one of 30 volunteer-run neighbourhood ice pads subsidized by the city, with another 35 in Waterloo and five in Cambridge, all eagerly awaiting a thumbs up from Mother Nature.

“Normally we have rinks up within the first week of the new year, but we’re a bit behind schedule and hoping we’ll have cold weather that extends right into late February or March. If we can get three or four weeks, I’d be pretty happy this year.”

It’s a far cry from his ’70s and ’80s childhood, when outdoor rinks were virtually indestructible.

“Forty years ago you could have 16 to 20 weeks of ice hockey,” notes De Andrade, who grew up skating from early December until mid-March.

“Now we’re down to less than eight.”

Not that he’s deterred. Weather patterns are shifting. It is what it is.

“I don’t look at it as ‘eight weeks,’” he insists. “I see it as an opportunity for kids in our community to go out and have fun and play in an unrestricted environment without having to pay outlandish fees.”

On a more homespun level are people like Chris Stocks, a Preston ice connoisseur who goes to great lengths to transform his side yard into a slick skating surface.

“I’m out there at 3 a.m. every morning shovelling the snow off,” says the determined Cambridge resident, whose 13-year-old son plays minor hockey.

“I filled it for 16 and a half hours in mid-December, but after Christmas we lost an inch of water. It should be hard again by this Saturday or Sunday.”

He laughs. “Every year I do it and hope for the best.”

Stocks is the classic rink enthusiast: hosing, patching, shovelling and scrutinizing the logistics of his neighbourhood jewel with the same clinical precision a nuclear physicist uses to examine an atom.

With embedded lights, a laser levelled skating surface and plastic rink liner to prevent runoff during melts, he’s spared no effort, or expense.

“They’re a few hundred bucks,” affirms RinkWatch’s McLemon, who insists liners are crucial.

“But to really survive a winter like this you need one, and the reason is because even if your rink thaws, your water doesn’t drain away.

“That’s the problem with the playground and neighbourhood rinks. They build them right on tennis or basketball courts or baseball diamonds and the first time you get rain in January or a thaw cycle, you lose all your water and have to start from scratch.”

Given the weather frustrations, is there a date beyond which rink enthusiasts — no matter how determined — will simply throw up their hands and say “That’s it, I’m done!’?

“People will build a rink if they can get at least four to six weeks out of it,” says McLemon, noting that perfect ice conditions would be “five or six really cold days with an average daily temperature of -5C.

“That’s the expectation.

“If it’s not skateable by Valentine’s Day, they just give up. But this could be one of those winters where by sticking with it, if we get a cold February, you might be able to skate into March.”

At press time, Environment Canada was forecasting daytime highs of -4C to -9C in Waterloo Region over the next six days with nightly lows between -8C to -14C — perfect for the formation of outdoor rinks.

“You’re always looking at the weather forecast, at daily temperatures, seeing if you can you flood, then waiting a day or two,” says rink organizer De Andrad, noting volunteers are in a state of “nervous expectation.”

“We cleared all those leaves off the asphalt, put up the garbage bins, had inspections by city people.

“At this point, it’s in the hands of the Gods!”