Backyard Rink Dad Hats

Every December a certain kind of dad stands at the kitchen window checking the forecast, then goes outside to flood the yard in thin layers, sometimes from 3:30pm until 3:00am. Backyard rinks are a real movement: NiceRink says it has built tens of thousands of them since 1991, and one Backyard Ice Rinks Facebook group counted about 12,000 members in 2020. The builders are candid about the cost. One Pennsylvania dad spent $6,000 on a kit and gets ten to fifteen skating days a year; a Maine builder hauled in 20 dump truck loads of fill and puts in about 120 hours a season. Another rink grew from 16 by 32 feet to 32 by 50 over the years, and a Downers Grove, Illinois dad added full-height boards, lights and a warming shed. The standing promise is that this is the last year, and it never is. These Backyard Rink Dad hats are for the builder, not the player: the head-term badges, the 2am flood, the grass that did not make it, the rink that got lights before the kitchen did, the driveway that waits while the ice gets shoveled first. The sign-off on every one of them is the quiet pride of a man who traded a lawn for a sheet of ice and would do it again. Each design is custom embroidered on an unstructured dad hat. Pick the one that matches your rink, or give one to the dad who has already bought the liner.