I used to end up at Stick Time by myself for hours because my school had the rink from 5-7am four mornings a week, but we only used it officially twice at that time. Outside of actual gameplay, there is nothing better.  I'd have a big ole pickle bucket full of pucks, no more equipment but gloves, skates and a stick.
Posted by Not-A-Shot

On second thought... I'd like to get in a fight with my old man, just like Dean Youngblood.
Posted by stanjonathan17

. Of course, if I was at Sandog's rink, I'd be sitting on the bench stuffing down Chipotle too.  When I leave this world, I'd be okay with arriving at an ice rink with a Chipotle next to it...the stuff of legend...Posted by Fletcher1

In Response to Re: Ever have the rink to yourself? What to do? : What do you mean specifically? I get the rink to myself now by knowing someone who can tell me when there's a cancellation or empty ice, so you have to have an "in." When I was a kid my friends and I were rink rats at BU and the Boston skating club.  We would just hang out and get on the ice if no one was around and skate until we got thrown out.  And finally ended up getting barred from the rink altogether. Just about every rink has stick and puck times, just google the rinks near you to find out when, usually lunch time when everyone is at work/school.  And every so often it just so happens I end up being the only one there. Or build a rink in the back yard and you're sure to always have ice time.
Posted by BadHabitude

Naked skating: You're in the rink by yourself, so I highly recommend you try a few wind-sprints in the nude. As someone who has done this myself, I can tell you that it is one of the greatest feelings you will ever experience. Your natural set of equiptment will feel free, your mind will feel liberated, you'll wonder why this is your first time doing it. Just try not to get too excited and don't fall.
Posted by Olsonic

In Response to Re: Ever have the rink to yourself? What to do? : Thanks, BadHab... I used to do that a few years ago at Walter Brown Arena at BU as well... Skated with Matt Gilroy once...it was pretty cool... They kick you out so quick these days though...its too bad... But do any of you guys build rinks in the back yard?  Is it easy?
Posted by mannyortez3424

In Response to Re: Ever have the rink to yourself? What to do? : Check out my pics on my home page. You might make some mistakes first 2 seasons, but then you'll have it down. First and most imporant is LEVEL ground, not to be confused with FLAT. FLAT may not be level. I was surprised to see that one edge over 20 feet was 5 inches lower, (I was sure my yard was level) that means 5 inches of water before the other end gets any. Levelling my yard was no big deal.  I have a pickup and loading it with loam was like $15 or $20 - dirt cheap!  Even paying a landscaper to do it couldn't cost that much. Liner - you must use white or light colors, the colors absord the sun and you get melting much faster.  For starters you could go to home depot or lowes and get one of their tarps with the silver side. I don't have boards, just enough to hold the water in.  I just have 12 inch high plywood.  Whatever you have is fine.  I made a backstop to shoot pucks at out of pipe and bought netting off ebay, get small mesh, my first one it could stop pucks, but I found they could get through with a hard enough shot or get stuck. Then comes the recipe for ice, since I'm Polish we have a family recipe that's been passed down from generation to generation.  We combine water and cold! This year I'm not so sure, we haven't had consistent freezing temps yet.  3 days of freezing weather should do it. Bring the hose in or somehow get the water out or it freezes inside the hose and that's a problem.  Make sure to disconnect the hose and make sure you keep aware of potential frozen pipes. And then you skate to your heart's content, even to the point where you get bored.  There's a million drills out there, but how to remember them all? Yah, there's a million videos on stick handling drills, and power skating, but the stick handling drills aren't in book form that I can find. I should start a thread asking if anyone ever found they had the rink to themselves and if they know of any books.  But probably what will happen is that people will talk about all kinds of other stuff and never answer my question.
Posted by BadHabitude