by Brett Jamieson

Created on: February 04, 2009

There are two main types of hockey rinks in the world: indoor and outdoor. When talking about how to build a hockey rink, an indoor hockey requires engineering, architectural structures and electrical equipment. I am not an engineer, so I will stick with the outdoor rinks.

Outdoor rinks are part of the culture in my home country of Canada. It is where hockey icons like Wayne Gretzky and Sidney Crosby learned to skate. It is also where lasting friendships and bitter enemies are created. In a sport that has been called the backbone of the culture in Canada, the outdoor rink is where this game was born.

In order to build an outdoor rink, your materials are going to depend on how elaborate you want it, or how high you want the quality to be. For a simple backyard rink, you simply need wood (including plywood), a hammer, nails, a water hose, and blue and red spray paint if you want a bit of authenticity.

Fist thing you need to figure out is your measurements. A standard Olympic sized ice surface measures 210 feet long and 98 feet wide. This is probably a bit much, unless you live on a farm. Even half that size is enough for a personal hockey rink. For a 4-on-4 game of pick-up hockey, this can be a bit small, but still usable. A rink with measurements of about 100 feet long and 60 feet wide will give you about 6000 square feet, which is certainly smaller, but doesn't seem awkward in dimensions and is definitely enough to hone your skills with!

Your next move is to find the right setting for the legends-to-be! Find a nice flat area of grass or pavement, or whatever you have available to you. The important thing is that it is as flat as possible. Once you have found it, mark out your measurements so that you create a square. This will create sharp corners, instead of round ones, but hey...I'm cheap!

You then have to determine how high you want the boards to be. I would recommend approximately one to one-and-a-half feet high. This way you have enough room for the puck to bounce off the boards, but it is still low enough that anyone can step over it to get on or off the ice. Build a frame for your boards by driving wooden stakes into the ground. If on pavement, use wooden blocks that mark the edges and can be used as supports for the boards. Cut your plywood in 1.5 foot (for example) strips and build the frame for your rink by nailing these to the stakes or supports you have established already. After that, cut 2X2 boards at a 45 degree angle so as to create many diagonal

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