Printer friendly version | help

Skating News

Latest Skating News 2005-2006

posted March 23, 2006

Dufferin Park Rink Closed for the Season

The rink is officially closed - now we have something like a backyard ice rink - the compressors have been turned off since Monday (March 20-2006) - so its a little bumpy - but much like pond ice. Some people are still hanging on to the rink; there was one group skating on Monday night, then a couple of friends on Tuesday. Today (Wednesday) the ice is a little slushy, still hard in the middle but water at the east sideboards).

We've been experimenting with flooding (with a big black hose), scraping shell ice with green shovels, moping (a tip learned from Curling Arenas!) all so that we can learn a little about how ice acts when there is just the weather cooling it. If you have any tips and tricks, email us at skating@dufferinpark.ca or call 416-392-0913 - we'll try it out and maybe you'll drop by to show us how its done!

posted March 16, 2006

The Dufferin Park Rink is open until (and including) Sunday March 19. And we're in luck - the weather is cold enough for skating!!

For other rinks that are still open, see City Rinks Website.

Skating News 2005-2006

Extended Rink Season at Dufferin Rink

posted February 18, 2006

Monday February 27 to Sunday March 19: rink season extension. November was a cold month with low sun, and we tried hard to get the City to open selected double-pad rinks in the third week. But the decision was to open later than last year (December 10 for most rinks) and then extend the season into March. Since the ice is by now far too thick for the compressors to freeze it properly in warmer weather, and the sun is much higher, there may not be a lot of skateable days in March even with the compressors working 24/7. It will be a matter of luck. If the weather is cloudy and not too warm, there’s a fairly good chance that the rink will be skateable in the evenings. The hope is also there that the skating lessons can last through to the end – March 11. We’ll have limited rink house staffing, according to the weather, and we’ll keep the phone message updated for ice conditions. Call 416 392-0913 for up-to-date rink information.

field=SkatingSkatingNews.Events2005-2006

Campbell Family Skate

posted March 5, 2005

We though we would have a final Campbell Family Skate March 25th. When we got there though, we found the building closed. It seems the skating season has ended and altough it would have been nice to have one final hot dog roast, we think the experiment worked out quite nicely. Hopefully, next year we can do something similar. If you are interested in helping out with ideas or time for the coming season, be sure to email us and rink supervisor Tino DeCastro at Dufferin Rink or call us at 416-392-0913 and we can collaborate.

Thanks to all the staff that came out to help and all the community people who started the project and helped it continue by coming out to skate. Until next year!!

Campbell Rink Staff and Dufferin Rink Staff are putting aside a special TWO hour time for Family Skate At Campbell Park….EVERY SUNDAY : 2-4pm!!

There will be

• Drop in Skating Lessons from 3-4pm

And

• Snacks served from a barrel fire near the rink, where you can also warm up!!

DUFFERIN RINK REGULAR HOURS

posted December 22, 2005

The rink is open seven days a week, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., shinny hockey on the north pad, pleasure-skating only on the south pad until the rink house closes.

After the rink house closes, there is shinny hockey (including permits) on both sides until 11 p.m. See the shinny schedule at the centre of this newsletter. After 11 p.m. the gates are locked.

TheZamboni Cafésnack bar serves locally made snacks; the wood stove is going and the kids’ storybooks are on the shelf beside it; the zamboni’s snow hills by the basketball court are good for climbing and making snow sculptures;the campfire will be lit outside by the rink every weekend, with benches all around; the NHL Player’s Association skates are available for borrowing (bring good I.D.); the joys of winter are at the park.

School Trips and Skate Rentals:

School Trips

School Trips are encouraged to come and make use of Dufferin Rink and the skate rentals that we offer. Please contact staff at dufferinpark@gmail.com to book a time slot during the week.

Skate Rentals

Our Yellow Skates and Helmets, Red Hockey Sticks and Mitts are still available to lend out this year. Since last year, a few sticks have been brocken but but everything else is still available to be lent.

Yellow Skates and Red Hockey Sticks posted February 1, 2005

The NHL Players' Association's gift of fifty children's hockey sets arrived in the second week of January. West End park supervisor Tino DeCastro had arranged for this donation, and he then got all the skates sharpened, at McCormick Arena.

Then our park staff sprayed the (excellent quality) skates yellow, the hockey sticks red, and put markings on the hockey gloves. The park staff called and faxed all the local schools to let them know that we have helmets here now, so the teachers can bring their kids for a skate without having to drag giant bags of helmets along. A big record book was readied for recording names and I.D. of people borrowing skates, sticks, gloves, helmets. Laces were put into all the skates. In the last week of January, the word went out that the skates and other hockey gear were ready.

The first people to borrow them were girls from Argentina, Brazil, and Portugal. They told us that shinny hockey is a really fun sport. Next were several school classes and the McCormick after-school program. Some of those kids went home and told their families, so on the last weekend in January, grandparents and cousins turned up, with more kids. Even on Sunday, when there's only pleasure-skating, there were so many yellow skates on the ice. We've started gathering signatures for a giant thank-you letter to the NHL players - what a wonderful donation.

Skate Rental Guidelines:

· Fee for skate rental: $2. No charge for mitts or sticks. Why: Rink goers must take skate rental seriously. Skates cost between $150 and $250 a pair. Laces and insoles must also be replaced, plus blades sharpened. The city does not pay for this. This policy, like others at the rink, is flexible. If some cannot pay $2 and they are regular rink users, they can choose to work for half and hour chipping ice, shoveling snow, or emptying the garbages. Work must be done before skates are given out.

· We only accept ID. Valid IDs include student card, health card or driver’s license. The point is accountability – library cards don’t work because there’s no picture or contact info and they are not that valuable.

· If someone over twelve does not have ID they must go home and get it. They can get a school ID.

· If they are under twelve and do not have ID ask them to get their parents. If we know certain young kid who comes everyday, then they might not require ID. The amount of kids under twelve who are here alone and are not regulars is pretty small. This is how we get to know the rink users!

· All IDs are placed in the plastic sleeves provided.

· We require full names, phone numbers, and form of ID given, as well as numbers of all equipment given out. We need all of this inormation so please do not rush the staff!!

· Parents/caregivers can put their children’s skates under their name with their ID. Friends, on the other hand, must each provide their own info and ID. This is to avoid confusion because multiple staff are working the skate room on any given day, and because people must take responsibility for their own skate use.

Public Skating at Dufferin Park

The 2005-2006 winter rink season is from December 10, 2005 to early March, 2006. There are two skating pads: one is always for pleasure skating, (until 9:00pm, then shared with shinny), the other is always for hockey (except Sunday 10am-6pm for pleasure skating only).

Hours of clubhouse operation

Rink clubhouse (food, washrooms, and change area): Monday to Saturday: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays: 10 a.m. to 8.30 p.m.

The clubhouse is open to everyone. The wood stove is usually lit, there are toys and books for kids and adults, and tables for playing checkers and chess and cards. The "zamboni snack bar" serves hot soup, mini-pizzas, sandwiches made with park bake-oven organic bread, fruit juice and pop, coffee, hot chocolate, and various specials from the park farmers' market. Tea is always available free of charge. Suggested food prices are posted, but if adults want to pay more, or less, that's fine too. All proceeds go to park improvements. Working for food in lieu of cash is also fine and is common for kids who are hungry but don't have cash.

Permits

Seasonal permits

On Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays there are seasonal permits booked, but only after the rink house closes at 9 p.m.. One-off permits

One-off permits...

...are available (for $79 each, or free for youth) on Fridays and Saturdays after 9 and Sundays from 7.30 to 9. If the ice is snowy, the permit is free (and we lend you rink shovels if you want to clean it yourselves). Call the park at 416 392-0913 to get your name in, or e-mail mayssan@dufferinpark.ca.

Shinny hockey

Free. Same hours as the rink clubhouse except Sundays. There is a (strictly enforced) age schedule. (If you ever see the wrong age group on the shinny ice, do us a favour and notify the rink staff right away.)

On Tuesdays from 9 to 11 there is open women's shinny (free). Sundays from 5-6 pm there is the family shinny seasonal permit, and on Sundays from 6 to 7.30, Lawrence Barichello will once again offer his "learn to play shinny hockey" program for adults. For more information about this call the rink at 416 392-0913.

Pleasure-skating

Always freely available. Before 9 p.m. there is NO shinny hockey on the pleasure-skating side, EVER. After 9 p.m., skating is unsupervised. Then it's like skating on a pond: shinny hockey often swamps out the pleasure-skating, and people use the rink on their own responsibility.

The large rink lights turn off after 11 p.m., and then the rink is locked. The rink is unlocked at 8 a.m., and the rink house opens again at 9 p.m., seven days a week.

Parking

The best place to park is east of the rink on Dufferin Park Avenue (at the north boundary of the park). You have to walk west a short distance along the pedestrian walkway at the north side of the rink. Or you can park at the Dufferin Mall across the street. Their underground parking has lots of spaces and after skating, if you wish, you can go to Wal-mart, Toys R Us, No Frills, or a choice of other stores carrying the latest fads.

Learn to play shinny for adults 2005-2006:

posted December 8, 2005

There's "Learn to play shinny for adults," taught by Lawrence Barichello, at Dufferin Rink on Sundays at 6 p.m. to 7.30. Registration is on Nov.20.

From Lawrence: "All adult beginner men and women are welcome who can basically turn and stop on skates. This is for beginners only. The idea is for people who have really never played before to learn the basics. If you can already play and have skills you will not be allowed to participate. $90 per person for the whole season. (This fee goes to the City for cost of ice time only—lessons are free!) This season, we will be collecting the entire $90 fee in advance during registration night."

There will also be additional ice time for practice games, times TBA.

To contact Lawrence, call 416-530-4810.

He also has a beginners-shinny web http://www.tinyurl.com/8jjnj.

posted December 1, 2006

This program not supported by Parks and Rec. for 2006-2007.

Still - there will be a link remaining between Wallace Rink and Dufferin. When Wallace opens in January, the two rinks will be sharing one Ice Maintenance crew.

At Campbell Rink, Recreation Supervisor is working on getting a youth permit for a youth league to play, from the neighbourhood and free, every second friday night.

There are currently no plans to have a women's open hockey night at Campbell.

Wallace Rink, Dufferin Rink and Campbell Rink function as "cluster"

An experiment in the 2005 - 2006 Season

posted November 9, 2005

This winter, Wallace Rink, Dufferin Rink and Campbell Rink will function as a "cluster," thereby making shinny hockey permits easier to get. There will also be open women's shinny times at all three rinks, and for the first time, there will be all-day Sunday open shinny at Wallace Rink. (There’s very little shinny hockey available at city rinks on Sundays – a leftover of the old Toronto ban on Sunday sports?)

Wallace Rink and Campbell Rink still have seasonal permit spaces left: to book one, e-mail Manny at msilva2@toronto.ca or leave him a message at 416 392-0913. You can also contact him through rinks@dufferinpark.ca.

To know more about how the Cluster Rinks started Read here... >>

For information about, and a map to, Wallace Emerson Rink, click here; about Campbell Rink, click here.

We also have a website for the Wallace Emerson Centre and community. To see that go to WallaceEmerson.ca.

Tournament News

posted January 15, 2006

There were three tournaments in January in the three-rink cluster:

Women of Winter Shinny Hockey Tournament at Dufferin Rink

• January 6 and 7 (8 teams): which was also featured in the media

Wallace Rink Shinny Hockey Tournament (ages 8 to 13) shinny tournament

• January 7 (6 teams), so the younger kids had their own tournament at Wallace while Dufferin Rink was reserved for women’s shinny

Campbell Rink Tournament (15 and over) January 21 (6 teams).

• All the tournaments were fast and exciting and worked out really well. If it hadn’t been for Deirdre Norman getting the ball rolling with her women’s shinny tournament, we might not have copied her by having other tournaments as well. (Thanks!)

Next up (still in the planning stage) in February

• An invitation to the Jimmie Simpson Rink “hockey in the neighborhood” program (at Queen near Broadview), to bring over some younger teams to play at one or several of our three cluster rinks, maybe also with kids from Regent Park South Rink. Watch for the posters, or talk to Dufferin Rink staff.

WOMEN’S SHINNY HOCKEY AND THE FIRST ANNUAL CITY-WIDE WOMEN OF WINTER SHINNY HOCKEY TOURNAMENT

posted December 22, 2005

Shinny hockey is so much fun that it’s no longer just the sport of guys. (Actually, it never was: if you look at old archive photos of pre-World War I Toronto, you can see hockey was played by lots of women then too).

In addition to Jeannie Stiglicz’ regular Wednesday shinny permit, there is open women’s shinny for two hours on Tuesdays 9 –11 p.m. at Dufferin Rink.

And now for the first year Dufferin Park will host a City-wide women’s shinny tournament. This tournament doesn’t happen until the weekend of January 6 and 7, but now’s the time to sign up. The organizer is Deirdre Norman hockeywitchtoronto@yahoo.ca.

There’s so much women’s shinny all over town that Deirdre thought it was time for some friendly competition. Deirdre also lobbied successfully for more women’s open shinny ice time in this part of town: Thursdays 8.30 to 10 p.m. at Wallace Rink (just up the street at Dufferin and Dupont) and Sundays 6 to 8 p.m. at Campbell Rink (two blocks west of Lansdowne, one block south of Dupont). You can find the exact locations of most outdoor city rinks on the “city rinks” section of our web site at www.dufferinpark.ca (click on "city rinks.")

hosted by parkcommons.ca | powered by pmwiki-2.2.83. Content last modified on January 23, 2008, at 04:14 AM EST