What's The Difference Between Glice And Real Ice? - KOTA

If you want to spend some quality time with family and friends, experiencing everything winter has to offer, heading to an outdoor rink might be on the list.

Outlaw Square in Deadwood recently opened up and it's using synthetic ice, called Glice, instead of real ice. The latter is what you can find at Main Street Square in Rapid City. We decided to take a closer look at the difference between the two surfaces.

Nearly 10 years in the making, Main Street Square is a staple throughout the year with fountains in the summer and an outdoor rink in the winter.

"It all starts with getting the oval shape of the dasher boards set up. Everything has to be screwed together and connected. From there, then they apply the glass and the hand railings, and once temperatures start to drop, we can lay down our glycol lines, get our chiller delivered," said Main Street Square Ice Rink Manager Amanda Estrada.

The natural ice surface is put down overnight with a simple tool everyone has: a garden hose.

"As soon as those temperatures have really dropped, he'll just come out, spray one layer at a time, wait until it freezes and build the ice that way," said Estrada.

Before the ice was laid down this year, a subsurface project took place to make things run a little smoother.

"We took the sand out, replaced it with rock, got it all leveled out," said Estrada. "It's helped with as far as the laying of the ice. It's been nice to not really have to put water in one area of the rink more than the other."

The president and CEO of Main Street Square plans on keeping things natural.

"We were encouraged by quite a few people at the time that said, 'boy Dan, we want natural ice. We really want an ice rink, that's what we grew up on. It's back on the family pond,'" said Main Street Square President/CEO Dan Senfthner. "So we had a lot of encouragement to stay with natural ice. The synthetic has a place for it, it's just a different product."

Real ice has its disadvantages, though. Weather can be an issue, especially with some of the recent warm temperatures the area has seen. Wind and sunshine can melt away the top layer.

"Sometimes we deal with the double-edged sword. Do we open up despite the high temperatures or do we keep it closed to try and maintain the ice?" said Estrada.

Luckily, at night, Main Street Square crews are able to repair the wear and tear happening throughout the day with below-freezing temperatures.

"So, once the ice hardens up, that's when we'll actually start laying water down. When it's a little softer, we might do a dry cut as long as the ice is a little bit harder, but as soon as the sun sets, we can go ahead and do a cut with the Zamboni and also lay water down at the same time," said Estrada.

Now let's head to the latest addition in the Black Hills: Outlaw Square in Deadwood. The rink is made up of synthetic ice called

Glice

. It's made in Switzerland and a substitute for real ice as well as a less expensive option.

"For this system to be installed with the dasher boards and everything was about $150,000. To get a regular ice system going for an ice rink, average cost is around anywhere from $250,000 to $300,000 or more because there's so much that has to go into it," said Outlaw Square Director Bobby Rock.

It's a product used by NHL players to train on, national skating shows, and of course, towns around the world.

"We don't need to have everything that goes into real ice. We don't need the water. We don't need the chillers. We don't need the piping underneath. We don't have that huge electric bill that goes into making real ice, so this gives us an advantage of using it basically whenever we want," said Rock.

So, the weather has zero effect on Glice. It can be used in the middle of the summer or even during a blizzard.

"We've got a snowblower that has rubber tracks on it and lifts it up and we can blow the snow off it, shovel it off," said Rock.

If you think of Deadwood as just a gaming town, think again. This new addition is hoping to change that.

"We wanna provide something for the families to do in Deadwood, in Lead. We have it right here with our gathering place. We're gonna have different events going on, so it's an all-around facility that's gonna be used year-round. It's not gonna sit empty at all," said Rock.

Either way, it's up to you to decide what you like between real ice at

Main Street Square

or synthetic at

Outlaw Square

.