My young adult years entirely involved professional Figure Skating: Ice Capades, Cabaret Ice Shows, coaching, and Ice Rink employment. My career with the US Postal service began in my mid 40’s, and meant settling in NW Florida—right on the Alabama State line. Ice Skating is scarce here, with only one year-round rink: The Ice Palace in the Eastdale Mall, Montgomery AL.

Because of the 6 hour, round trip commute, I only skate there once per month. I do enjoy two other temporary, winter only rinks, but they too are long drives. To keep my muscles toned in between, I bought in-line roller skates, as there are many roller rinks here. However, none of this area’s roller rinks provide safe sessions! Wild mobs rule, going in all directions, dangerous speeders, litter on the floor: snacks, batteries that fall from skate-light clamps, coins and other debris. The roller-blading is not dangerous—THE ROLLER- RINK MOBS ARE! For personal safety, now at age 65, I had to quit roller as an ice skating substitute for muscle conditioning.

A glimmer of hope came, as I heard an ‘Ice Rink’ opened only an hour away! It was a huge disappointment! It was a synthetic surface, not real, refrigerated ice. One push from a dead stop, resulted in a short, 3 feet of glide to a dead halt! I could get the same workout walking! This surface in no way resembled Ice Skating! I left after a futile 15 minutes. When I wiped my blades, they were completely dulled from this atrocious plastic floor! I sharpened them immediately, when I got home.

If this had been my only synthetic ice experience, I probably would have assumed all synthetics are the same, useless and lousy. But I had skated on another, more than 20 years ago and remembered it had a slick, as if wet, appearance, and it skated like ice, with slightly reduced speed and glide.

I practice my skating jumps in running shoes on the ground, daily. There is NO glide in this practice, so I researched available brands of Synthetic Ice, on line. With meticulous comparison, I soon was convinced the lube-infused, sinter pressed panels of SmartRink provide the closest to real ice results. I ordered 18 panels to put a practice rink on the concrete slab that once held my swimming pool, under a carport. Installation took 30 minutes. Immediately, I was satisfied beyond my expectations. My SmartRink ProFast8000 panels are infused with glide ingredients–through the entire material–I skate, using no liquid surface enhancer. I am able to perform my entire skating repertoire, just as I do on real ice!

There are several brands of synthetic ice – and they are not the same! Most are quite disappointing, having short glide spans, and severely and quickly dull blades. SmartRink is the best surface, providing skating that virtually equals skating on real ice: the longest glide, maneuverability; and blade edges last longest on it. Sharpening is nearly the same frequency as needed on real ice. SmartRink costs only slightly more than inferior synthetic surfaces and is well worth it! Buyers who choose the cheapest price save nothing. They will spend substantially more in other ways such as endlessly adding surface enhancers, trying to get more glide. They will constantly spend for skate sharpening and replacing sharpened-away blades. My SmartRink is actually free. What I formerly spent on gas and travel to very distant rinks, will pay for my SmartRink in a year!

Sincerely, Robert L. Strong – 4/9/2015