There is usually a weekend pickup game in a park on 6th Avenue and Houston Street, it's usually a baseball diamond but the game is regular and dependable. They use a ball some days, but they can sometimes be convinced into using a puck.
Skill level: Moderate to high. At least 16 guys every weekend, even in 90º weather and high humidity. Actor Tim Robbins occasionally plays here, as you can see.
Surface: somewhat smooth pavement, but large spots are painted where the diamond is, and occasionally you have to contend with the baseball players.

Right off the Manhattan Bridge exit, in the I.S. 131 schoolyard park, on Canal and Chrystie streets, pickup games sometimes happen on Saturdays and Sundays.
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Skill level: moderate to high.
Surface a little uneven but skateable, as it is of course, a typical NYC schoolyard.

A report from the field: Brian Kroski says: Carl Schurz Park at 84th and East End has a "sort-of" rink with lines and beat-up nets, has endboards (concrete and fence) on one side, open on the other. There is a pickup game most weeknights starting between 5:30-6pm in the summer and 4:30-5pm in the winter. The weeknight games are a mix of beginner, intermediate and advanced players. The real action is on the weekends during the Spring, Fall and most of the winter. Games start at about 1:00pm. On a nice weekend day you can see 30 players, with 3+ goalies.
Surface: Very flat without cracks, but has that rough asphalt that eats wheels.
Skill level: Very high on weekends, and the top teams usually consist of players from the D1 at Chelsea, and usually a few guys who played Junior A or in Europe. There is also a group of novice players in the morning (10:30) on weekends.

Riverbank State Park, entrance on 145th street and Riverside Drive has open hockey on Wednesdays and girls hockey clinics on Thursdays during the summer. Wednesdays is $6 (summer 2002) although no one knows about it, since the parks department seems to have no budget for advertising, or maybe too many people are intimidated about coming that far uptown. Which is a shame, because this is the best rink for skating in the entire city. The concrete is so smooth you can see the reflections of light off the surface. Enjoy it because they freeze it over for an ICE RINK in the winter, with full hockey programs. (212) 694-3642.
Skill level:The whole range. Open to everyone.
Surface:The Sistine Chapel of rinks. If your wheels are too hard, you'll go sliding in a hard turn, I'm not kidding, it's that smooth. Even dust buildup adversely affects your traction.
June 2002 photos!

On the northwest corner of Thomkins Square Park at 10th street and Avenue A, in the seldomly-used baseball park, every Tuesday and Thursday is a pickup game at 6pm during the summer. Some of the guys pitch in for an actual hockey permit to enable this.
They use a ball though.... (ed: WHAT IS WITH THE BALL??)
Skill level: Moderate and casual.
Surface: smooth pavement, with large painted smooth spots where the diamond is.

On 96th street, east of First Avenue, is Stanley Isaacs Park, one of the few actual rinks with full boards in the city. Through the efforts of Geoffrey Croft, it was recently rebuilt into a new-style aluminum-bar rink but happens to be on the small side. There are regular roller hockey clinics and league games early on weekend mornings. (212) 539-8861.
Skill level: All ages
Surface: Rough. Expect fast wear on your wheels.

In Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, there's the Betty Rappaport Rink on 53rd Street & Fort Hamilton Parkway in one of the old-style iron-pipe rinks, with old wooden boards. League games frequently take precedence as the neighborhood is an enthusiastic hockey community.
Skill level: Pretty high, even the young kids are proficient.
Surface: Medium to rough.

Underneath the Triborough Bridge on 21st Avenue in AstoriaNicknamed The Cheesebox, there is a large area enclosed by fence that almost always has a pickup game going, sometimes with a really high level of skilled players, some of them even sponsored at one point. The nets, covered in chain-link fencing, are always in some need of repair, and no boards means chasing the puck into the cobblestone areas around the trees and flagpole and occasionally even onto the street. It's the bastard child of the Parks department in terms of lack of maintenance, but the enthusiasm is always there.
The downside lately is that soccer and baseball guys have been moving in so you have to get there early.
Skill level: High, but you're always accepted.
Surface: kinda smooth, it was once painted, but that was almost 14 years ago.

Also close by on 37th Avenue and 28th Street (off Crescent Ave.) in Astoria is the Dutch Kills playground with a full-sized new-style aluminum-bar rink in excellent condition and well-maintained. It's run by the YMCA with league games on weekend mornings, and there's a number at the rink for getting in touch with them, but they are not known to respond to their messages.
Get there EARLY or risk losing it to hordes of zealous soccer players.
Surface: smooth pavement.
Skill level: I couldn't tell you, I've never gotten enough people for a pickup game yet!
Robert Biskup: "Unfortunately the YMCA shut down it's league a little over a year ago. It was a good league to play in but the guy running it was in charge of all the Y sports leagues and the hockey didn't get much attention. Even the refs had a hard time getting in touch with him."

Joseph Mafera Park at 65th Place and Catalpa Ln, also known as the 104th precinct rink and/or Farmer's Oval, hidden in the Queens/Brooklyn border off Fresh Pond Road and the Fresh Pond stop on the M line, is probably one of the best rinks anywhere. You'lll think you've died and gone to heaven if you get the chance to skate here. The concrete surface is buttery-smooth, and the rink is meticulously maintained by the Parks department with lots of pressure by the Glendale residents.
Highly competitive League games happen almost constantly here, the neighborhood is quite intense, and don't be surprised to see the youngest 3 year-olds in high-end skates funded by enthusiastic relatives.
Skill level: Extremly high, as some of the kids who play here are NATIONALLY ranked. If you're not proficient, expect to get schooled by talented 11 year olds. It's more than a little clique-y as well, so if they don't know you and you haven't proven your skills, expect to sit awhile if more than 10 kids show up.
Surface: Flawlessly paved and maintained painted concrete. but it has numerous lengthwise cracks that are anywhere from 3 to 15 feet long some as wide as 3/4 of an inch. the boards have gaps on the bottom where the puck tends to get stuck alot. Still, an ice-hockey puck will slide here without bouncing.
Robert Biskup says, "Lots of great players and the rink has lights that are on till 9:30 or 10pm. I still give it my thumbs up."

The relatively new George U. Harvey Park at 20th Avenue and the Whitestone Expressway in Whitestone can be reached by taking the Whitestone Expressway to exit 15 and staying straight on the service road. Once you pass the first light, look down to the right.
The rink seems wider than most, and is another shining example of a new-style aluminum-bar high quality rink by the Parks department.
Surface: Hard. The gravel, although paved smooth, will eat your wheels for breakfast.
Skill level: There is a league that uses it on a regular basis on set nights, during the spring and summer, dwarf-giraffe, but there are regular pickup games on Wednesday and Sunday nights, according to Robert B.:

"This is the rink we call home, I'd say it's second best in Queens only to the new one they built on 130th. The surface is blacktop and pretty smooth nowadays. Open hockey here is alive and well on Wednesday nights and Sunday nights. Wednesdays we get a pretty good showing anywhere from 8 to 15 guys. Sunday nights is usually pretty packed, two solid teams with 2 or 3 subs is normal. Skill level is very high, we have a few regular guys out here that are sponsored. The bad, we only have one net right now, the league locks theirs up. Sometimes goalies are a rare breed. The rink has lights so we start up around 6:30-7 and go till they shut off around 9:30-10."

If you took the left towards Target at the 20th Avenue exit off the Whitestone Expressway instead of going straight on the service road, and then made the first left after all the other stores ended, (at 130th street) you'll come across two rinks.. an older beat-up rink with holes in the boards, rough uneven surface, garbage-strewn at 130th Street and 22nd Avenue, and then a new one at 25th avenue. (see satellite photo right)
Robert B. says

"The best rink in Queens. Fast, smooth surface, excellent nets, lights for night games, all the bells and whistles. One problem and the reason we don't play there, The people who run the kids league there lock it up. And to make things worse the park there has its own (18ft)gates and they get locked up at 9. Us hardcore guys have done the climbing in the past but the night that NYPD gave us a warning about being in there we figured we would stick to the Whitestone rink."

Near the UN, Robert Moses Playground at First Avenue and 42nd Street is painted for rollerhockey. Check with the East End Hockey Association. Call (212) 753-0198 or e-mail pomps@gist.com for info.

How about the dilapidated rink on 48th and 10 Avenue in Hells Kitchen that doubles as a dual basketball court? No reports from there yet. Last time I was there, the ground was abysmal: cracked, uneven and deserted, and used for basketball.

How about the Martin F. Tanahey Playground at Market & Cherry & Catherine Sts., near Al Smith Recreation Center? Bueller? Bueller? Anyone? When I checked it must have been doubling as a dog-walk as I witnessed dog poop on the rough uneven surface. the rink looked like it hadn't been touched in 20 years, old wooden boards with holes and splinters.

Dyckman Fields Rink, a part of a part of Inwood Hill Park at Dyckman Street and Riverside Drive. To get there, take Dyckman St. right down to where it stops at the Hudson River, and turn right. To the north you'll find a string of riverside soccer and softball fields. Another old-style iron-pipe hockey rink, walk six fields north from the entrance.
Surface: Rough but grippy. If you skate hard, expect to go through wheels fast. Bring a ProPuck, everything else will bounce around like a fish on a line. .
Scenery: This rink has the added bonus of being right on the Hudson river. Bring your picnic gear.

There's a rink overlooking the Long Island Sound waterfront off the Cross-Island Parkway east of the Throgs Neck Bridge and west of the Fort Totten military reservation in Queens, here. Very rough surface, the usual garbage-can goals, but new boards and great view.
Occasional pick-up games on weekends.

There's also a rink on the east side of McDonald Avenue south of Avenue F in Brooklyn. here.
Peter Mione sent me this tip, "Good smooth surface with some cracks," and that the city was planning to refinish it at some point but he hasn't been there in a while to verify this.

Hiding amongst the trees next to the Belt parkway near Jamaica Bay, the Mill Basin rink in Joseph Thomas McGuire Park in Brooklyn. sandwiched between the tennis courts and baseball diamonds. Take exit 11n, Flatbush avenue, make a right at Ave U to the end and then another right at Bergen Ave.

Tucked away in Juniper Valley Park in Fresh Meadows, here, is a relatively new blacktop rink, between the soccer field and running tracks and baseball diamonds.I stumbled upon it after a job one day, and then Robert B. gave me an update:

"It's great playing there, right next to the track where all the ladies do their running and exercising :) Big thumbs up on this rink, open hockey on Sunday afternoon around 4 or 5 and sometimes on Sat. around that same time. I used to play there alot a few years ago and we would get a good showing but when they started renovating the park there the rink was locked up so the usual guys went their separate ways. No lights and no nets though."

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