Kingfisher Lake’s experiment with synthetic ice halted

Two years ago Kingfisher Lake was optimistic its youth would be able to play hockey all year round. The community had invested in synthetic ice – a form of plastic ice surface that fits together like a puzzle and which proponents claim is only a little harder to skate on than real ice - and the first summer it was installed the plastic ice seemed to work exactly as everyone thought it would.
However, Kingfisher Lake’s experiment with synthetic ice is about over, at least inside the community’s arena.
An attempt to flood the synthetic ice surface a few weeks ago, so that natural ice could be made on top of the plastic, did not work. Water seeped between the synthetic sheets, and when it froze it pushed the whole synthetic surface apart.
The First Nation’s maintenance staff are now in the process of removing the entire synthetic ice sheet so they can flood the regular cement floor and have natural ice like they did two years ago.
“You win some, you lose some,” said Kingfisher Lake’s Chief James Mamakwa.
Mamakwa said the First Nation had decided to pursue synthetic ice after seeing how expensive setting up and providing power for making artificial ice would be.
“We had this idea to find a cheaper, more affordable ice to play on,” Mamakwa said.
Unfortunately, while the idea sounded good, it did not exactly work out as advertised.
The lessons from Kingfisher’s attempt to install synthetic ice are not limited to the problems with trying to flood the rink in the winter. Mamakwa also noted that the community has had a hard time with the synthetic ice, because it expands and contracts as the temperature changes.
In the summer when they installed it the ice sheets fit together nicely. But as soon as the cold Kingfisher winter hit, the sheets shrunk, leaving gaps on the surface, especially around the boards.
Mamakwa figures that the successful synthetic ice examples that they saw on television were installed and used in basically the same temperature, so that stretching and contracting was not a problem.
But all is not lost with the synthetic ice idea in Kingfisher Lake. The chief said they are planning to install the synthetic ice sheets somewhere else in the community, perhaps in the school gymnasium. That way the community can make natural ice in the arena in the winter, as usual, but still use the synthetic ice the rest of the year.