- Glide on Grove cost close to $450,000.
- Skating is available until the last Sunday in January.
- Regular ice was not considered because it was too heavy for the parking garage below.
- Skating is free as are skate rentals
(The following is a transcript from the broadcast story)
It all starts with this. A plastic surface that sort of looks like ice but its secrets are more than skin deep.
"It's like a sheeted plastic that has a lubricant built in between the layers so the more it's skated on the more it feels like real ice because more of that lubricant comes out," explained Jennifer Hensley, Executive Director of the Boise Downtown Foundation.
The great thing is this all works at a microscopic level and the lubricant lasts throughout the 10 year life span of the rink.
So can skaters tell the difference? Especially if you compare it to ice that gets all cut up like a snow cone if you don't have a zamboni?
"It's honestly a lot harder, but you know, it kinda took a while to get used to," said Britton Woolsey, a 9th grader.
"You're not skating on ice, you're skating on a different platform, which kinda helps for, like, beginners," said 6th grader Eve Wagnon.
The only way I stopped was by falling...on my face, so," added Woolsey.
3rd grade skater, Aria Nelis explained, "you don't know what's going to happen, either you're going to slip and fall, but sometimes that's a little bit fun and sometimes you like glide across and it's really fun."
3rd grader Harvey Wagnon chimed in, "that was actually, I fell like that was the best time I've ever skated, really. It'd recommend it."
There are a lot of reasons why Boise went with a plastic rink, cost, reliability, zamboni's just to name a few, but perhaps the biggest reason was weight, because this parking garage is right under the Grove.
"The plaza was built over a parking garage and just wasn't engineered to hold something as heavy as ice," said Hensley.
The rink cost close to 450 thousand dollars and will be usable for the next nine years.
Ironically, the one thing that make the rink more of a challenge to maintain, is if it snows. Because the snow will need to be removed before the skating can begin.
