Abstract: A dasher board system for providing a surrounding barrier for the playing surface of a hockey rink. The dasher board system includes lower dasher board sections and extended continuous transparent upper shielding elements. The lower dasher board sections are formed by pultrusion. This gives the dasher board sections a high concentration of fiberglass and a high strength-to-weight ratio. This enables the sections to be made in longer lengths and reduces assembly time. The dasher board sections include horizontal ribs formed therein during the pultrusion process. A mounting system includes supports that are mounted to the horizontal ribs to stabilize the dasher board sections. Curved dasher board sections are formed by cutting the horizontal ribs and flexing the dasher board sections in the regions of the cuts. The transparent upper shielding is formed from by unrolling an elongated length of relatively thin polycarbonate material.

Abstract: A floor system having the versatility to be used for ice or in-line skating, ice, in-line, or floor hockey, or any other of a whole host of activities. The floor system includes a number of floor elements that extend the length of the playing or skating surface. The floor elements are interlocked with its adjacent floor elements to form a completed continuous upper planar surface. Supports, having fluid channels therein, support the planar upper surface a fixed distance from a foundation. The upper planar surface has a plurality of holes therein to permit fluid communication between the passages below the upper surface and the region immediately above the upper surface. This arrangement enhances the strength of the ice surface as the water that freezes inside the holes prevents portions of the ice from shearing off. Ice level indicators are frozen within the ice to provide a visual warning when the layer of ice falls below a predetermined amount.

Abstract: The portable ice rink consists of plastic sheeting with edges overlapping a perimeter-defining sectional barrier which is on the order of a couple of inches high and clips are provided to hold the sheet in place on the barrier for formation of the ice. In one embodiment, flexible closed cell polyethylene rods are fitted into "off the shelf" straight and angled schedule #40 plastic pipe couplings so as to define a barrier for virtually any desired rink configuration. The durable and light weight polyethylene rods are sufficiently rigid to maintain the desired perimeter during ice formation and are sufficiently compressible and pliable to ease the slip fit of the ends of the rods into the couplings and to more easily accept the sheet retaining clips thereon during set-up of the rink. In the unlikely event that one of the rods should break during handling or the like, it is a simple matter to reconnect the two pieces of the rod together by means of an additional straight pipe coupling.