Canada it’s not. How a Queens hockey fanatic built a rink in his tiny backyard

New Yorkers can be innovative when it comes to making use of their tiny backyards. Some install swimming pools, raise chickens, build tree houses and even tend Manhattan’s only wine vineyard.

But a hockey rink in a 12-by-18 foot patch of Western Queens? That may be a new one.

The way Gino Santaguida sees it, he really had no choice. He plays on a semi-professional hockey team in the Hudson Valley and needed a place near home to work on his slapshot and hone his stickhandling.

So he turned to the patch of turf outside the window of his two-bedroom apartment in Ridgewood..

“I was like, ‘How cool would it be if I could use my backyard as a practice area?” he told Gothamist on a crisp morning earlier this week, his skates laced up and stick in hand.

First, he priced out what it would cost to lay a synthetic material known as shooting tiles over the space. The surface mimics ice and allows hockey players to train in any weather, but it’s pricey. Covering the yard would have cost well over $1,000, Santaguida said.

So he sketched another idea: an actual mini ice rink.

“ I look next door and there's a guy with a pool and I'm like, ‘You know what? It's the same thing, just frozen,’” he said.

He went to Home Depot to buy lumber, framed the perimeter of the rink, laid down a tarp, and used red duct tape for two goal lines. He filled it with water in early December. He also found a free regulation-size net on Facebook Marketplace that he kept in his apartment while he waited for the ice to freeze. He said the whole set-up cost about $180.

He added protective netting made of mesh and PVC around part of the yard, similar to a batting cage, to catch pucks that fly over the goal or ping off the crossbar before they smash into any windows.

The rink, wedged between two chain link fences, a concrete planter and the rear of his three-story apartment building, soon formed a solid sheet of ice. Santaguida now skates whenever the mercury drops.

”Basically, I'm out there so much that I developed tendinitis in my elbow because I've just been shooting so much,” he said.

The playing surface isn’t perfect. When Gothamist visited, the temperature had dipped to 25 degrees the night before. The ice was mostly solid, but creaked and cracked near the rear of the yard. Water sloshed over sneakers and skates, and pucks slipped below the surface of the slushy mess.

“ It just goes to show the reality of the situation,” Santaguida said. “This is New York City. It's not Canada. It's warm.”

The rink is just the latest creative endeavor for the 34-year-old industrial designer.

Santaguida’s $3,600-a-month duplex is filled with vintage espresso makers that he restores with new 3D-printed custom parts. He also uses the printers to make funky bike valve covers in the shape of Greek coffee cups, rocket pops and ice cream cones that he packages and sells on his website. They line a wall in the basement near a row of bicycles.

The New Jersey native documented the process of building and maintaining the rink on Instagram. Last month, an account dedicated to outdoor rinks and a popular hockey podcast both posted a video of Santaguida skating and shooting into the net just below his building’s fire escape. It garnered thousands of likes and comments, including from New Yorkers who said they want to join him.

Santaguida said he’s hoping the goalie from his hockey team, who lives on the Upper East Side, will soon visit so he can get in more shooting practice. The main obstacle is lugging his heavy goalie pads on the train.

Come springtime, Santaguida said he plans to slowly drain the water by poking holes in the tarp so it doesn’t flood the ground floor unit. He said the backyard has a long drainage system, just behind the building.

He said he doesn’t think the property owner knows about the rink, but his upstairs neighbors tell him they want to skate with him.

“I'm like, ‘Come on over,’” he said. “I strung the lights across the yard. We can do some night skating.”

Have a funky apartment set-up, or know someone who does? Share your story with David Brand at [email protected]