So, let me tell you about this whole “Diman Hockey” thing I got myself into. It wasn’t some grand plan, you know? It just sort of happened. My kid’s been getting more into hockey, and we were practicing in the driveway. The pucks, well, they just didn’t slide right on that rough concrete. They’d stick, or flip over. Super frustrating for the little guy, and for me watching, to be honest.
Figuring Things Out
I looked at those fancy practice pucks, the ones made for off-ice. Man, they cost a bit. And I thought, there’s gotta be a way, right? I’m not an engineer or anything, but I like to tinker. So, I started thinking, what could make a regular puck slide better? This is where the “Diman” part sort of started in my head, just a silly name for my little project. Don’t ask me why “Diman,” it just popped in there.
My first few tries? Absolute disasters. Total garbage.
- I tried spraying some silicone on the bottom of an old puck. Nope. Wore off in like, two shots. Plus, made a mess.
- Then I thought, maybe glue some smooth plastic to the bottom. Found some old container lids. Cutting them to size was a pain, and the glue I used? Didn’t hold up. The plastic bit would just fly off after a good whack.
- I even tried sanding the bottom of a puck super smooth. That did next to nothing on the rough concrete.
I was close to just giving up and buying the expensive ones. My shed was looking like a puck graveyard, bits of plastic everywhere. The wife was starting to give me that look, you know the one.
The Breakthrough, Sort Of
Then, I was at the hardware store, looking for something else entirely. And I saw these little furniture slider discs. The ones you put under heavy chairs to move them on carpet? They were pretty cheap. A lightbulb went off. They were smooth, tough, and already had an adhesive side, some of them. Others were the nail-in type.
So, I grabbed a pack of the stick-on ones, the biggest I could find that were still smaller than a puck. Got home, cleaned off the bottom of an old puck really well. Slapped one of those sliders right in the middle. It wasn’t perfect, a bit raised, but what the heck.
I took it out to the driveway. Gave it a push with the stick. And whaddaya know? It slid! Not perfectly, not like ice, obviously. But way better than before. It didn’t flip over as much. It actually traveled a good distance.
This was the Diman Hockey puck, version 1.0!
It wasn’t pretty. The slider wasn’t perfectly centered on all of them I made later. And after a lot of hard shots, the adhesive would sometimes give. So, for the next batch, I got the nail-in kind of sliders, drilled a small pilot hole in the pucks, and hammered them in. Those were much tougher.
So, What’s the Point?
Well, we’ve been using these “Diman” pucks for a while now. They ain’t professional, not by a long shot. But they work for us. The kid can practice his stickhandling and shooting in the driveway without getting totally cheesed off. And I saved a few bucks, which is always nice.
It’s just a simple thing, really. Sometimes you just gotta try stuff. Most of the time it won’t work, but then you stumble on something that does, and it’s pretty satisfying. That’s my Diman Hockey story. Nothing earth-shattering, just a dad messing around in the shed, trying to make things a little bit better. And it actually worked out, for once.
