Hey RinkWatchers, winter is finally arriving and it’s time again for our First Rink contest. We are looking for the first skateable backyard rinks in Atlantic Canada, Quebec, Ontario, western Canada and the US. We have some cool Laurier t-shirts for you and your kids if you win. If you’re new to RinkWatch, visit our site, create a username, and pin the location of your rink on our interactive map, and start entering daily skating conditions. Then, take a photo of people having fun on your rink and post it to our First Rink discussion forum or to our Facebook page. If you’re a veteran RinkWatcher, simply reactivate last year’s rink and post your photo. Don’t worry if you don’t win the first rink contest, we will have more contests throughout the year for RinkWatch participants. After last year’s mild winter, we are hoping this winter will be a great one for skating. Please help spread the news about RinkWatch, and happy skating!
Welcome to the new look-and-feel RinkWatch website, we hope you like it. We spent the past summer and fall rebuilding the site from the ground up, which will give us the ability to add more features and functionality in the future. If you have any suggestions on how to improve the site or things you would like to see, please send us an e-mail. If you are looking for the old discussion forums feature, we are developing an improved version; in the meantime, please continue to share your thoughts, photos and ideas with the RinkWatch community on our Facebook page. Let’s hope this coming winter will be a better one for outdoor skating than the last one!
On September 19 the RinkWatch team was at the Hockey Hall of Fame for a special event called HockeySense, organized by the NHL and NHLPA to discuss social responsibility and environmental sustainability. We gave a presentation on the importance of outdoor rinks, and how professional hockey can show leadership on social and environmental issues. Here’s a short video about the event, tweeted out by the NHL.