About Rink Hopper
Every rink publishes its schedule differently. One posts a Google Calendar, one a booking site, one a PDF every month, and one says to check its Instagram. A person who wants to skate tonight has to know all of that, so most people skate at the one rink they know, on the one night they know, and the ice everywhere else goes unsold.
Rink Hopper reads every rink's schedule in a region and puts every drop-in session on one board: public skate, stick and puck, rat hockey. Say where you start from, how far you will drive and what you skate, and the board shows what you can make.
Who it is for
- Adults who play drop-in hockey: rat hockey, pickup, stick and puck.
- Families, and anyone who public skates.
- Rinks. A rink will be able to claim its listing, correct it, see how many people looked at its sessions, and post the ice it still has free.
What it is not
- Not a booking site. Every session links to the rink's own page or front desk.
- Not a league directory. League games are not listed.
- Not a review site or a forum.
Where the times come from
From each rink's own published schedule, read by a program that says who it is and never logs in. What it reads and how a rink can opt out. Every source, and when it was last read. Times change, and the rink's own page always wins.
Where it starts
Northwest Indiana and the south suburbs of Chicago come first. More regions follow, one at a time.
How it pays for itself
Rink Hopper is free to use and stays free. It pays its own way with one small ad on a page, a paid plan for rinks that want their numbers and tools, and a paid plan for skaters who want instant alerts. Session data is never sold. Neither is anything about you. Privacy.
Support it
If Rink Hopper got you on the ice, you can buy the Zamboni a coffee. The Ko-fi page is not up yet. Until it is, telling a friend who skates helps just as much.
Credits
Town and ZIP code lookups use the US Census Bureau's gazetteer, which is in the public domain, and run on this site, so nothing you type leaves it. The type is Big Shoulders Display, Public Sans and IBM Plex Mono.
Contact
Write to us about anything. A security problem goes to the address in security.txt.