The ice coating Vancouver's lakes and ponds may look sturdy enough to support skaters, but the city's icy surfaces haven't been safe for public skating since 1996.

The city's park board posted a photo Wednesday afternoon of a member of its "ice patrol" with a reminder that just because temperatures have dipped below the seasonal norm, doesn't mean residents of the city should be lacing up their skates.

A recent cold snap has turned parts of Vancouver into a winter wonderland, where streets are so icy that hundreds are lining up at fire halls to get free salt and part of the Stanley Park seawall has been closed for two days for safety.

But those thinking the temperatures are cold enough for skating in the city's parks are wrong, the park board said.

The board wrote that, in order to be safe, lakes or ponds must have an icy coating that is at least 12 centimetres thick.

"At this time, none of Vancouver's lakes and ponds are ready for ice skating," a message said. Urging residents to stay on the shorelines, it reminded would-be skaters that the ice must also be inspected by the city first.

While the board issues warnings and posts signs on its ponds, some local residents wonder whether the ban on skating is really necessary.

All day Wednesday hockey players, figure skaters and even dog walkers took advantage of the cold snap that has frozen the surface of a pond in Vanier Park.

A group of men gathered in the Kitsilano park -- which houses the Museum of Vancouver and H.R. MacMillan Space Centre -- for a game of pond hockey, and slid right past the signs warning of thin ice.

One of them, Terrance Bosco, said he'd seen a video on social media of others skating on the pond, and headed straight into the park and onto the ice in their running shoes.

He said he'd never seen conditions like this in Vancouver.

"It's nuts. It's crazy, man, it's awesome," Bosco told CTV News.

"Honestly, the city should do something like this. They should get a little arena or pond or something like that, just dump a bit of water, call it a night and just leave it there."

He said he'd seen the signs warning him to keep off the ice, but being from the Kootenays, he's used to testing the ice.

"If they really thought it was an issue they probably would have blocked the whole thing off. A couple signs aren't going to do anything," Bosco said.

A friend called them "liability signs."

Others at the park said the quality of the ice was "great" and "thick enough" to support their weight, at least at the time they tested it.

The ice on the pond was about 10 centimetres thick at the time, at least in the part where it was tested, but the city warns that conditions may not be completely safe. There may be patches where the ice is thinner, and on sunny days, the ice may melt away or crack.

"We would encourage people to go to their local ice rink for a skate," said Sean Healy, the park board's aquatic services supervisor.

The board also warned that conditions vary widely across Metro Vancouver. While there may be patches of open water in Burnaby's Deer Lake, conditions were completely different in Trout Lake in Vancouver, where the ice was thick and snow-covered in parts.

With a report from CTV Vancouver's Scott Roberts