Tips on Skating at Capitol Hill’s Fake Plastic Ice Rink

It felt cold enough for real ice yesterday, at the opening of the skating rink at Capitol Hill’s Cal Anderson Park, but despite the temperature, the “ice” was fake, or more kindly, synthetic. The Capitol Hill Ice Rink is actually sheets of polymer that snap together like a giant puzzle, and while it’s reported to achieve 90 percent of the “glide” of real ice, that missing ten percent seems to stop skaters in their tracks.

The very first comment on CHS’s coverage of the rink’s opening demonstrates the dangers of over-promising with your messaging. (Manufacturers aid and abet with names like “Super-Glide” and “Extreme Glide.” UPDATE: The Super-Glide people want you to know that this isn’t their product.) If people came expecting ice–and “Capitol Hill Ice Rink” would seem to promise just that–the plastic was off-putting before they even set skate on it:

This shouldn’t be called an ice rink because it isn’t! I went with great anticipation to support my Capitol Hill community. Unfortunately, this isn’t an ice rink. It is an area of some type of plastic material that you can supposedly skate on. But, all you can do is walk on it! We got our money back after 5 minutes of trying very hard to actually skate. Couldn’t do it. The skates simply wouldn’t glide. Not at all. Sad. Felt like we were baited and switched.

They are not alone. Yelp reviews of New York’s Polar Rink are from a parade of unsatisfied “icies” complaining about the experience of plastic ice, including one with this wonderful line: “At one point, the ‘ice’ looked like a sea of dead children, with little bodies laying all over the ground.” But some people do get the hang of it, if they go in with more plastic expectations (hockey types appreciate the extra work-out). This New York Times story gives you a better idea:

No one claims it exactly replicates ice. “It feels more like a cutting board,” Ms. Briccotto said. “It is a little slower. There’s a resistance. You’re actually pushing off and stroking harder.” While that gives the surface a “stigma among competitive skaters,” she said, it is good for training because beginners become “stronger at a faster rate.” On ice, skaters can salvage slightly unbalanced spins, Mr. Boskus said, but here, “everything has to be done more precisely and better.”

The tips then, are these: Apparently your skate blade needs to heat up enough to melt the polymer slightly. Don’t try to stroke and glide out of the gate: Push off strongly as if you’re working on resistance training, and wait for your skates to heat up. And, because there’s more friction on the blade, make sure yours are sharp going in, and realize that the hour limit on skate time is because your skates will need resharpening by then.

One bonus about synthetic ice is that it’s much “softer” than actual ice, so you don’t need to be as worried about falling. However, since they will be keeping the surface wet with a mixture of water and glycol, don’t wear your Sunday best–it’s not a spotless surface.

Hours at the rink are, through December 24, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. An hour of skating is $12 for adults, and $6 for children 8 years and under (that includes skate rental, but you don’t get a discount for bringing your own). Ironically, admission is plastic only–no cash. You can buy advance tickets with cash at local retailers: Caffé Vita, Elliott Bay Book Co., and Cure. No worries if it rains: The area is tented, and of course this ice isn’t going to melt.