Is synthetic ice training really what you or your child needs? This post is going to attempt to help you answer that question. First of all you have to ask yourself what it is that you are trying to achieve. Are you focused on getting a better shot? Is it skating you are looking to improve? Perhaps it’s puck handling. Maybe it’s all of those things. Regardless, you have to try to decide what your priorities are and whether a synthetic ice surface will help.

There are a lot of misconceptions about synthetic ice in general. There are a great many products around now and some are good and some are poor. In very general terms you can pretty well do anything on the better quality synthetic ice training products. The low end products can be fine for shooting but bad for skating. It’s really worthwhile to understand what you are buying. If your goal is to be able to work on your stride mechanics for example then make sure you look at the best quality products or you will be disappointed. I often hear hockey dads and moms complaining that the synthetic ice is bad or too difficult to skate on. In some cases they are correct. But to be fair in a lot of cases their child is simply a poor skater mechanically. A choppy stride on real ice will not mysteriously translate into a smoother stride on synthetic ice. It will likely look even worse! If a kid has never been taught about how to take a full stride and then a full recovery of that stride then they will struggle on synthetic ice. Sorry parents, I know its not what you want to hear but its a fact. Most kids are never taught to run either, and therefore some can run smoothly naturally, and others are poor runners. Skating is much more complex. Real ice can hide those flaws because the child can glide and therefore get away with their stride flaws. But skating on the right synthetic ice surface can be easy!

As far as shooting and puck skills improvement go – there is probably no better tool than synthetic ice training. That being said, they still need to have the basic instruction as a foundation to improvement. I have certainly seen first hand how my oldest child went from a below average shooter to a consistently top point player on whatever team he played on. His “big breakthrough” came one summer when he literally took 10,000 shots with his skates on training on synthetic ice. This gave him tremendous confidence in his game, and he’s now 20 years old and still plays junior hockey and is in love with the game. For him synthetic ice training at home was a tremendous investment in his skill that will be with him for life.

If your child is one who might be described as a timid player – then synthetic ice training can be used to develop his “competitive spirit or drive”. Hockey dads get your skates on too and work on angling, rubbing out, small body contact, driving the net and so on. There are dozens of fun little drills you can dream up. Stop saying “I wish my kid could do this or that”. They can do it. I’ve seen it myself. I have seen kids transform from mild mannered kids off ice to super competitive players on ice. But they have to put the time in, and there has to be a lot of patience at times (I’m talking to you hockey parents).

Synthetic ice training is no magic trick. It’s a training tool that allows you the flexibility for your child to train when they want, in the privacy of your home. It allows hockey dad to have countless hours of fun with your kids and to help them with all those little subtle things that will make them better players.

So in summary, decide first what skills you will like to work on most, and then decide on the quality of product you can afford. The best product ARE the most expensive – regardless of what the suppliers all say. If you are not 100% sure how much to get – then buy a smaller amount now and then once you get it you can always buy more later. Have fun and enjoy your synthetic ice training!!

Check out these hockey drills you can try on your synthetic ice surface.

• Hockey Drill – Pass and Shoot
• Hockey Drill – Excellent Passes Every Time

How to Prepare for Backyard Synthetic Ice Rink

Had a great discussion today with a Montreal homeowner looking to create a backyard synthetic ice rink using our SmartSkate8000 product which is a dovetail connection system. He currently has a grass surface so we talked about what he would require to do to prepare the surface for that product type. Montreal is obviously a winter climate with lots of snow and freezing wet weather, so its important to do it right.

He was thinking that he would create a crib frame using framed lumber – likely 2×6. He wanted a size that was approximately 10 ft x 16.5 ft. It was suggested that the lumber frame could be mounted on some concrete patio stones that would allow easy leveling of the frame. Inside the frame a landscaping cloth should be stapled to the wood frame to hold it in place. Then either sand or crushed stone would make a great base that would allow any water to easily drain.

The client did some research on what could be used as a solid base on top of the levelled and compacted sand or crushed stone base. The product he came up with is called EZ Base and its a polypropylene material with drainage holes. Looks like it should work really well. Plywood could be used as well but I’d like it to be a marine grade product and then drainage holes should be drilled in the plywood to allow water to drain. You can learn more about backyard synthetic ice rink boards our clients have used.

After all this is done the building the backyard synthetic ice rink is pretty well done other than to install the synthetic ice itself. That will be the easiest part! Simply take a rubber mallet and bang the joints together tightly, and away you go for a skate.

Want Help Building a Synthetic Hockey Rink?

Having a synthetic hockey rink in your backyard doesn’t have to be just a dream! Learn more about our financing options to help you get started, or contact us here for any questions you have about our synthetic ice products.

I hope this post might help a few folks with building a simplistic base for building the backyard synthetic ice rink.

-Tim

Finally a new synthetic ice product…

ProFast1500-SG Synthetic ice with permanent glide

It’s really been sometime since something truly innovative has come along with the synthetic ice industry – until now! SmartRink is extremely pleased to announce the newest material in their impressive lineup. It’s a brand new synthetic ice product and we call it ProFast-SG. The “SG” stands for “SmartGlide”. SmartGlide refers to the permanent glide material that has been thoroughly mixed and infused with the dry resin prior to being sinter pressed. The reason this technology is “smart” is because the glide material is found completely throughout the pressed sheet material. It’s not just a patch here and a patch there as other material makers have. It’s not “dripping” out at the “pores” of the material as some well known products are known to be like. This material is “smart” because it actually feels “dry” to the touch. It’s not greasy, it does not drip, it does not leach out or evaporate. It just stays there and does it’s job – for the life of the panel – just like you would expect.

Truly a heavy duty synthetic ice connection system

The commercial synthetic ice rink panel shown in this image is the ProFast1500-SG. This is a heavy duty commercial synthetic ice panel that is 15mm (0.60 inch) thick that uses our “hybrid” connection system – a combination of male and female machined perimeter edges and H-Tongues for connecting the solid synthetic ice line markings and creases. This is a rink that will not fail due to expansion, contraction, or severe temperature changes. This product has it all!

A happy synthetic ice owner

The owner of this new synthetic ice rink certainly thought so when his son saw it for the first time and spent 2 straight hours on it – after just playing 8 hockey games over the past 3 days!

Enjoy your new rink!

Tis the Season! Then again it seems it’s always the season for hockey training these days! It’s become a year around sport for training, and what better way than to have sales of synthetic ice year round as well. Players want to be able to train when they want, where they want. More importantly – so do their parents! I can tell you first hand how awesome it really is to have your kids grab their skates and head down to the garage rink and take a few hundred shots.

When I decided to get into sale of synthetic ice I knew that it was going to have to be a better product than what my kids had been paying to practice on at a private training facility. Whatever it was it was extremely difficult to turn on and forget about doing a nice smooth pivot. Basically it was only good enough to takes shots with skates.

I discovered a company in Europe that manufactured sinter pressed synthetic ice and once we tried that it was all the difference. When people skate on our panels they notice right away that something is different from the typical EXTRUDED panel material. Not only are they gliding better but there is no tell tale white dusty powdery residue coming off the surface. In our home rink that’s been skated on for years there is nothing to clean up on the synthetic ice surface – except dirt. Sales of synthetic ice proved to be a rewarding experience as well because not only did our clients really love our product, but it got my kids involved in the business from time to time doing exhibitions, skating demos, and taking care of the home practice rink.

SmartRink is a Canadian company that started sales of synthetic ice from scratch back in 2007. Since then we have become the largest Distributor and reseller of OKULEN and NOICEONE in the world. We have sales of synthetic ice all over the world and have successfully built hundreds of rinks during this time. Our biggest sale of synthetic ice was a full sized surface including all the hockey lines and markings. Its located at the Horizon Camp outside of Fort McMurray Canada. We believe it to be the largest permanent synthetic ice rink in the world. Others have tried where we have succeeded.

Sales of synthetic ice is not always easy. There are significant technical challenges especially in climates where the temperature variance between winter and summer can be a swing of 70 degrees centigrade. We compete and have sales of synthetic ice in these climates because we understand the value of a proper application based joint connection system. Other synthetic ice companies attempt to say that their system is “heavy duty” – but ours truly is and we have the data to back up this claim. Heavy duty synthetic ice is not a term describing the thickness of the material – but it refers to the material in combination with the connection system. If you are interested in sales of synthetic ice and a company suggests their “heavy duty” system – simply ask them to show you their test results for “sheer pull out strength”. Those test refer to horizontal AND vertical pull out strength tests. I certainly know of several rink failures that wished they had understood what these terms meant! They would would have selected a different product. But life is a lesson and we try to educate the industry one application at a time. We love sales of synthetic ice as much as our competitors do but we do not compromise skater safety and our success rate by sales of synthetic ice that are less than what a client deserves.

Some of my competitors in sales of synthetic ice say they have been in the business for over 30 years and that if not for them there would not be a synthetic ice industry!! Well, to them I say then they should know better and learned more! How can they still be selling panels that come apart with a temperature change? When it comes to sales of synthetic ice – please do your homework!

SmartRink Synthetic Ice…how can synthetic ice be so different?

You keep reading about all these synthetic ice products – so what about SmartRink Synthetic Ice? What makes it different? Why do we claim SmartRink Synthetic Ice is unique?  Is it really a better performing product?

The fact is that SmartRink Synthetic Ice is different from all other synthetic ice products. I recently attended a sports trade show in Germany – the biggest show of it’s kind every two years. There were four suppliers of synthetic ice at this show – mine was not on display at this show. For the record none of these suppliers are the actual manufacturer of the material – some suppliers would have their clients believe this is an important factor when it comes to synthetic ice but frankly it’s mostly irrelevant in my opinion. I skated on all four products using the same borrowed skates. I am not going to mention any brands here in this post but one of them was clearly a superior product in terms of it’s glide performance.

There was also one product that in my opinion was at the bottom of my list in terms of performance. The other two companies I would say were very close – and also quite good in terms of performance. What was really ironic I thought was that the product on the bottom of my list was also the only one I was familiar with competitively. They are an aggressive, slick marketing company and they appear to be well financed also. But now after skating on this product I can confidently say they do not have the best product, in fact not even close to it. So what was the value in skating on these synthetic ice products? It confirmed to me that SmartRink synthetic ice is in fact different and unique.

So what makes SmartRink synthetic ice so unique?

SmartRink uses sinter pressed synthetic ice panels. I believe that at least two possibly even three of the products I skated on were also sinter pressed. The fourth one may have been but it was so obviously a lower quality material. The tell tale sign of a higher molecular weight sinter pressed material is how much residue comes off the surface and sticks to your skate blades. I used this test on each of the four products. In the case of the “worst” product at this show I wiped off a significant amount of plastic residue off the blades. With the “best” product there was almost none.  The two other products that were fairly close in performance there was minimal residue. In comparison when you skate on SmartRink sinter pressed synthetic ice panels there is also almost no residue to wipe off the skate blade.

So what is so special about sinter pressed synthetic ice panels?

From a North American perspective sinter pressing is practically non existent when it comes to synthetic ice. Of the products I tested at this show the “worst” product may indeed be sinter pressed but if it is the material is almost certainly pressed using a low molecular weight resin. By comparison the SmartRink synthetic ice material has several grades of popular skating material – neither of which sheds residue like the one I skated on in Germany. The vast majority of products offered in North America are extruded material. By the nature of the extrusion process the material used in extruded synthetic ice material is a lower molecular weight as a higher molecular weight resin will not work with this process. Sinter pressing on the other hand is not restricted in this way.

So suffice to say, SmartRink synthetic ice is likely not the only product in the world that uses sinter pressed material. To the best of my knowledge however, it may be the only one offered in North America. At very least, the only one using an optimal molecular weight resin that results in a superior skating performance. So performance is certainly important to the skater, but so it abrasion resistance. That means the material will stand up to skating over a longer period of time – it will last longer. North American producers claim that their products are superior. Well I would challenge any North American seller of synthetic ice to take their standard offered panels to a third party lab. we will do the same and run standard tests that will prove my points on both skating performance and abrasion resistance.

Why is SmartRink so Unique?

So is there something else that makes SmartRink synthetic ice a unique product? Absolutely. Our ProFast line of engineered material is not off the rack polyethylene sheet simply machined into synthetic ice panels. This trademarked ice-y-blue700 material is unique. This is a Very High Molecular Weight Pe resin mixed with slip additives that improve the overall glide and efficiency of this skating material. We have tested this material to be significantly less effort to skate on. The factory actually developed a standard testing method using a weighted skate. You can see an image of this test on the home page of our SmartRink synthetic ice website. Using a weighted skate test the factory lab measures the force or “skating effort” required to move the weighted skate blade across certain material.

Our competitors do not like this test because most of them use extruded material and this test could make products look bad. From our perspective however, it is the only fair test to measure a products performance. There are standard industry tests for material abrasion resistance, notched impact resistance, and coefficient of friction. Unfortunately these are not as relevant directly to skating performance. These tests were developed for non-skating, standard industrial specifications where this type of material is frequently utilized.

SmartRink Difference

At SmartRink synthetic ice we want our potential customers to understand what it is they are buying. We want people to clearly understand the difference between a sinter pressed product and an extruded product. You may still buy someone else’s product, but at least we hope you understand the trade off.

I will end this post on a humorous note from the sport show in Germany. One of my competitors said the material was “secret”. I chuckled because I knew that response was coming. That’s what they always say.

Good luck in your research, and as always. If you need help with your decision on what product will work best for you please call us. Toll free at 1-855-461-7465 or send us an email at info@smartrink.com