Weyburn's River Rink is back again

Free Outdoor Skating in Weyburn can be found not only at the Credit Union Spark Centre, but also on the Souris River.

For six years, Mike Manko-Bauche created a skating area using a shovel on the Souris. It's located at the southernmost part of River Park, near the sledding hill and the Weyburn Oilwomen Sled Shed.

"There's a small rink to kind of get your skates tied on and have little ones kind of toddle around, and there's a little bit larger one that you could maybe slap a puck around," he shared. "Eventually we'll probably take away more snow and make that a little larger, but for now that's what we got at the bottom of the sledding hill."

Manko-Bauche encouraged anyone who heads out there to help out with the shoveling.

"It's surprising, it doesn't take a whole lot of time, especially if it's been kind of scraped down," he noted. "Now that we've kind of exposed the surface, it's a little bit polished from the wind blowing on it, so the snow doesn't stick as hard as it does at the beginning of the year. It kind of warms your body up anyway, and then you can enjoy the skate."

He said the snow seemed to arrive all at once this year. 

"Last year there was quite a bit too. Also, last year we had so many below 40 days no one would have been skating out there anyway," Manko-Bauche said. "If it starts off rough when we clear it, sometimes you'll find that the surface of the river is a little rough, but then after a few days the wind kind of polishes and it gets kind of smooth."

When asked about possibly expanding the rink along the river, he said the groundwater seepage is a concern due to the change in the surface of the water in several spots going through town.

"So maybe heading south from the sledding hill might be the way to go. I haven't looked into that, but that would sure would be awesome. It would probably easy to use the machinery that way anyway because it's a lot more wide open. But yeah, it's kind of the dream, we'll see if we get there this year."

You can find more about the River Rink HERE.

This weekend will be a great time to check out the river rink and sledding hill, with daytime temperatures going up. Find out the weather details HERE.