Game on for backyard hockey rinks

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This article was published 17/12/2021 (1409 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A front yard hockey rink is stopping traffic on a River Heights street.

Sara Epp and her husband, Jonathan, are one of three families volunteering their front yard on Harvard Ave. for the DIY project, which has been a winter fixture in the community for the past four years.

The family moved to River Heights in 2018 and was “all over” the idea of hosting the homemade rink each year.

“The neighbourhood’s getting more used to it, so they just kind of come by now,” Epp said. “I’ve started introducing myself as living at the three-house ice rink. Everybody seems to kind of know now.”

“If we put a rink in our backyard instead of our fronr, it would be too small,” Jonathan added. “But there’s also so much community that happens. Every year it’s gotten bigger and just a little bit better as we learn.”

The families purchased new boards to enclose the ice this year. Previously, the boards had all come from salvage and other projects, like a fence that got torn down or a nearby house that was demolished.

“There’s a lot of weekend projects,” Epp said. “On Saturdays, the dads are outside fixing, nailing or screwing.”

It takes a week or two to flood the entire rink, which this year boasts an impressive 120 by 30-foot size — only 20 feet short of a curling rink.

The neighbours all have hoses connected to their basement water supply and they take turns flooding for an hour or two.

“There may also be a few points of contention over sidewalk flooding, so we’re also out there chipping ice,” Epp said.

The communal space is maintained by the three homes and families. The group jointly purchased a snow blower to keep the rink clean and built a slide leading onto the ice from a homemade play structure nestled between two of the houses.

A local artist even reached out to the families to create a painting of the rink.

“There’s one hanging at Falafel Place, which makes me feel like we’ve hit some sort of neighbourhood fame,” Epp said.

A few blocks away on Kingsway Ave., another River Heights resident has made the icy addition to his front yard for the fourth year in a row.

Greg Gahn said homemade rinks in River Heights “all get a bit bigger” each year.

“The kids have a great time, and it keeps them busy,” he added. “They’re out here all evening, sometimes from 4 to 8:30 p.m.”

The family started building the rink before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, but last year he added a warming hut around his firepit since public health guidelines restricted in-home gatherings.

Gahn said his five-year-old started playing hockey this year and securing ice time has been difficult with the nearby Corydon Community Centre’s rink currently undergoing repair.

The in-yard rink has helped bridge that gap.

“At the beginning of the season she was falling all over the place, but now she’s just as fast as my 10-year-old,” Gahn said. “They’re actually chasing the puck together.”