He writes:
"This is our rink made on an L-shaped swimming pool.  In one sense, this is the easiest rink to make: prepare your pool for winter as usual, wait for it to freeze, shovel off the snow, and you have your rink--just like that!   If there is lots of rain in the fall and no air pockets coming through the
winterizing blanket then you will have an "instant rink."  Often we have a
rink without even one single flood!!  However, while everything may work
perfectly once every five years, most winters involve some work.

The main work comes in the fall.  After winterizing the pool, we need some rain (usually not a problem in Ottawa) to cover the winterizing blanket. After some rain, we have to make sure that we remove air pockets under the winterizing blanket so that there is no blanket protruding through the water surface.  (I use the pool leaf-scoop to push the air pockets to the side of the pool; this will evacuate the air and leave us with no blanket coming through the water surface.)  If we don't remove the air pockets, the winterizing blanket will protrude through the rink surface when it freezes. If the air pockets are small we can usually patch over them with snow and water in winter, but this is an unwanted hastle.

To flood or not to flood; that is the question.  With a rink of this type,
an excellent ice surface will usually occur naturally from the fall rain,
however, sometimes we shovel off the snow to reveal the rink for the first
time that year and we find that the ice surface is rough (perhaps it was
windy when it froze).  If this is the case, a quick flood or two solves the
problem.  I find that the best way to flood is by using a hose with no
nozzle on the end of it.  I hold the hose about 4 feet from the end, let the
tip of the hose drag on the ice surface, and move slowly across the ice (the key is to keep any water splashing to a minimun).  I find that the best
floods are achived by letting the water 'puddle.'  This means that I let the
water do the work--it will find its place and puddle.  Once the water begins
to puddle I move on to another part of the rink.  Using this method, it
takes about 7 minutes to flood this rink.  If the rink gets heavy use it may
have to be flooded again to keep the smooth surface.

The primary concern with a rink of this type is protecting the pool below
from skates and pucks.  The pool walls are exposed above the ice surface, so in order to protect these walls, we leave between 6 and 12 inches of space between the side of the pool and the beginning of the rink.  We shovel as much snow as we can into this space to make "boards" and then we spray the snow "boards" down with a hose (with a spray nozzle attached) to form a layer of ice.  This will give pretty good protection to the pool sides and the pool liner.

The PROS of this type of rink: 

• Relatively little work involved; It's about as close as you can get to having an "instant" backyard rink. 
• It's always level. 
• There is satisfaction in having use and enjoyment out of your pool in winter.

The CONS of this type of rink: 

• Your rink size is limited by your pool size (obviously). 
• If the skaters are not careful there is risk to the pool liner. You MUST tell people (especially little kids) to stay away from the sides!  All of the enjoyment will be certainly taken away if someone puts a skate through the pool liner."

An important point to remember in this case is: Make sure ice will support you so you or your child won't fall through the ice.