Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Peter SchinellerFebruary 05, 2009

More than a century ago, we let nature take its course. We skated when the ice was thick enough--on a lake, a pond, a river--or possibly a human made rink. Two to three inches was more than enough. Then we put electricity to work and created artificial rinks, indoors and outdoors. Ice skating became a year round possibility, for hockey games and  fun, for figure skating and speed skating. I even recall seeing  a “patinoire” outside the five star hotel in the tropics of Africa,  in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, not  far from the Equator.

Now we have progressed one step further. Outside the American Museum of Natural History in NY City, is the Polar Rink, a rink of synthetic ice, for iceless ice skating. No water, no cold weather, very little maintenance. Is this the wave of the future?  Already on the internet are a number of businesses that supply synthetic ice for your community center or your backyard.

I had to try it. The day I went, it was actually snowing, so the plastic/synthetic ice had snow on it and that made it seem more authentic.  How was the “ice?” Twas interesting as a new first for me, but finally disappointing. One had to work at it,  much less slide and glide,  more pushing and then slowing down. It may be a good way for kids to learn, and dozens of kids were enjoying it. But alas, not up to my more traditional expectation and experience of ice skating. Yet maybe in the midst of summer, as I show up with a tee shirt and Bermuda shorts, I might give the iceless ice another try.

Peter Schineller, S.J.

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.

The latest from america

Pope Leo XIV has appointed the French archbishop of Chambéry, Thibault Verny, as the new president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. He succeeds Cardinal Seán O’Malley, 81, the emeritus archbishop of Boston.
Gerard O’ConnellJuly 05, 2025
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks with other members of the House July 3, 2025, on Capitol Hill in Washington after final passage of U.S. President Donald Trump's sweeping spending and tax bill. (OSV News photo/Jonathan Ernst, Reuters)
“Deep cuts” to SNAP and Medicaid will “inflict real suffering on these families…. SNAP and Medicaid are not luxuries, they are lifelines for millions of children across our country.”
Kevin ClarkeJuly 03, 2025
It was one of the first times Leo has spoken unscripted at length in public, responding to questions posed to him by the children.
The Vatican has named the judges that will preside over the trial of disgraced Father Marko Rupnik.