Ice-skating at one of the city’s public rinks can be annoying: schlepping your stuff on the subway, sometimes with a child in tow; lines; rental fees; and dodging speed-demon teens or stumbling first-timers. Plus, LeFrak’s hours are indecipherable. So what’s an aspiring Shane Hollander to do? Well, have you considered building your own backyard ice rink?
Lauren Collins Peterson, co-founder of the reproductive-rights organization Abortion in America and former figure skater, spent this winter figuring out how to do just that. Peterson turned a 250-square-foot plot in the backyard of the Crown Heights townhouse she lives in with her wife and two children into a tiny rink. My colleagues and I all found this so shocking that we reached out. I chatted with Peterson about how she did it and whether or not she needs to make a Zamboni to go with it.
What inspired you to build an ice rink in your backyard?
Last winter was a really tough time in our household. One of my favorite people in the world passed away from aggressive brain cancer, I was in the middle of a very complicated pregnancy, and we had a lot of family stuff going on. It was just a hard time. And so this year, I could not face the prospect of another bleak, depressing January, and I really needed something to look forward to that would make me excited about frigid weather. Hence, the idea was born.
Have you seen backyard rinks before?
I was a figure skater growing up in Wisconsin, and this was something I begged my parents to do as a kid. So I got this crazy idea that I could build myself a rink in the backyard. I started to follow the Minnesota hockey dads of YouTube and Instagram who are building these so they can get their kids out there practicing hockey at 6 a.m. before school. And I thought, Yes to all of that, but for me. I started talking about it with my parents when they came to visit. My mom noticed there’s this no-man’s-land at the back of our backyard that I haven’t really known what to do with. It’s a big rectangular area, which I had filled with pea gravel; we usually have a picnic table and a kiddie pool there in the summer. And she said, “I think that’s your rink.”
I assume you own? Or are you just a daring tenant?
Yes, we bought this townhouse two years ago, and this is the first time I’ve had a backyard since living in New York — or ever in my own adult life. As I was talking about the idea with people, they kept saying things like, “Does it really get cold enough in New York to do this?” and “Is your backyard even level?” But nobody actually said “Don’t do it.” So I took all of that as tacit encouragement.
How did you actually build it?
Once I did my landscape analysis of dads in Canada and Minnesota, I decided I could do a smaller-scale version of what they were making. My wife and I measured that back rectangle, and my dad, who is really handy, talked through a plan with me. I decided the best way was to build a PVC frame. I got pipes and connectors that were four inches in diameter because I needed to be able to account for the slope in the yard — you need about three to four inches of ice to skate. One day, I went out between some meetings and sawed the PVC pipe to the right size and fit it all together. And then I ordered two huge sheets of white plastic from a farm-supply store and did a double layer, unfolding the sheet over the piping. I cut off the extra and lined some bricks from the yard to hold it in place.
And then you just filled it with water?
I had to wait for it to get cold. I was kind of starting to lose heart — it was so cold over New Year’s and I was like, Did I miss my opportunity and it’s going to be too warm now? I should have been really ready to go. Then I saw another mom somewhere else in Brooklyn had built a tiny rink in her backyard for her kids. I commented on her Instagram to say, “What do you do now that it’s warm?” And she sort of gave me a pep talk, telling me I’ll still have my chance. We also consulted our friend who’s a climate scientist, and she looked at the weather projections and told me that it was expected to be a particularly cold winter. I was looking for three or so consecutive days with highs below freezing. When we got that, my 4-year-old son and I went out into the backyard and started to lay down an inch or so of water at a time, waited for it to freeze, and did the next layer. In this process, I realized that everyone who politely raised the fact that the backyard seemed rather sloped was correct and my rink was going to have a deep end and a shallow one. So lesson learned — next year I will probably start by actually raking all of the pea gravel into the deep end so it could be a little more even.
Were there any other unexpected issues?
I realized I was going to have a problem with water freezing in the hose before it could make it into the rink. I thought, Someone has to have solved this, because people where I’m from are always using their hoses in the winter to do stuff like this. I went online and found that there actually is such a thing as a heated garden hose. I bought one. It plugs in and has a wire that runs along the hose that keeps it warm enough to stop it from freezing. So we used that to finish the job. It took about two nights for it to fully freeze. I was in dad mode, going outside every night after dinner to check the ice and resurface it. Altogether, I would say the project took 20 hours of work.
Photo: Lauren Peterson
How much did it all cost?
The sheets of plastic were about $130, the PVC pipes were around $100, the heated garden hose was $50, and the saw was maybe $9.
Not too bad! When did you finally get to skate?
One morning when it was just bitterly cold last week, my son woke up and said, “It’s gonna be a good day for the rink.” I had actually taken the day off because it was the anniversary of my friend’s passing. So it felt like the perfect sign that the universe was like, “You really need this today.” I went outside, and it was ready.
What’s it like to actually skate on?
It was still a little bit wet on the deep end, and the shallow end started to crack a little bit, but the middle zone was perfect for skating. It’s ten feet by 25 feet, which is good for recreational skating, and for my son it feels huge. But it’s not really big enough for me to do jumps, which would be one way to really put it to the test. I have been able to do some footwork and some spins. When it gets really cold this weekend, the ice will be nice and hard. Every single day since I built it, I’ve gone out at least once. The stakes are so low now to skate, unlike the production of going to Prospect Park. My wife and I skated around out there after dinner the other night for 15 minutes, then went back in.
That sounds ideal. How do you keep it smooth?
I haven’t yet ascended to the level of creating a homemade Zamboni. But all you really need to do is take the hose and give it another layer, especially if you do it at night when it’s going to freeze. If it freezes fast enough, it’s pretty smooth.
Do you have upgrade ideas for next year?
I want to get a collection of ice skates that I can lend out to people and kids who come over. I’ve been slowly sourcing used skates. And I thought, If I have all these skates, don’t I need to know how to sharpen them? So fast-forward to me Googling how hard it is to learn how to sharpen ice skates.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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