Indoor skating and hockey are now available year round in Wiscasset, but Zamboni operators need not apply.
Wiscasset Skating Center, which opened on Dec. 1, is home to Maine’s only synthetic ice rink, according to Roland Lacombe.
Lacombe is an officer within the adventure park Monkey C Monkey Do, which runs the new skating center.
The skating rink requires no refrigeration and is made up of a polymer called Xtraice, Lacombe said.
It’s like a Lexan cutting board, he said. “As the skates scratch it … it actually releases silicone to make the skates glide.”
The surface has an expected lifespan of about 10 years, Lacombe said.
“We found out about [Xtraice rinks] when we heard the Florida Panthers had purchased two of them for off-season practice,” Lacombe said.
Monkey C Monkey Do was the original home to the rink, where it was setup outdoors. But when they added it to the park in 2011, an unanticipated amount of dust from nearby Route 1 caused problems on the surface, he said.
Lacombe said they had to to hose down and squeegee off the rink regularly, and wouldn’t be able to do that in the winter because the water would freeze.
Most other outdoor Xtraice rinks Lacombe has heard of have operated fine because they’re not so close to a roadway, he said.
The Wiscasset Skating Center is located down the street from Monkey C Monkey Do, , in the shopping plaza at 681 Bath Road (Route 1).
“You don’t even realize you’re not on real ice,” Lacombe said. “It’s a little slower than real ice but it handles the same as far as turning, stopping, and so forth.”
“A lot of hockey coaches like it, and skating teachers, because it builds up a little more endurance.”
The center’s rink is “almost as long as traditional hockey rink is wide, and it’s the same proportions,” Lacombe said.
The center will offer open skating, pick-up hockey, times for private rentals or parties, and times set aside for youth hockey practice, according to their website. Skate rentals and sharpening services are available, Lacombe said.
The purpose of the center “is really just for people to come and skate and fun, or to learn to skate or play hockey and practice,” Lacombe said.
The management will be listening to requests from the public in deciding when different types of skating are available in the future, Lacombe said. “We’re going to do whatever the public wants, because [it’s] really a service that we’re offering.”
“It’s such a new concept … We’re really not sure what the demand is going to be,” he said.
For more information on times and prices, visit www.wiscassetskating.com.
