On Thursday, the Rideau Canal Skateway opened and Ottawa resident Jeff Beedell skated to work for the first time this season. On Thursday, the Rideau Canal Skateway opened and Ottawa resident Jeff Beedell skated to work for the first time this season. (Steve Fischer/CBC)

Happy skaters zipped across Ottawa's Rideau Canal Skateway for the first time this season.

The 40th skating season on the canal kicked off at 8 a.m. Thursday, with the opening of a 4.3-kilometre stretch from the National Arts Centre (NAC) to Bank Street. The full skateway is 7.8-kilometres long, but nearly half of it remained closed Thursday.

Mike Stewart and his two young daughters, Tegan and Natasha, were among the first people to glide across the open section of the frozen canal.

"The ice is in better shape than I've ever seen it," said Stewart, as his girls cruised alongside him in matching snowsuits. "I know we're getting some warmer weather and we're trying to get some hard ice while the going's good."

Temperatures were expected to nudge above the melting point on Friday.

Mark Vickers also hit the ice first thing in the morning, taking advantage of the opportunity to commute to work far from the rumble of rush hour traffic.

"They must have been busy flooding and plowing," he said as he made his way from the Pretoria Bridge to the National Arts Centre. "Good skate — great start to the season."

Vickers said the canal opened earlier than he expected. He hopes to commute to work this way every day while he can.

Jean-François Trépanier, executive vice president of operations for the National Capital Commission, which maintains the canal, said staff have been flooding the canal to improve ice conditions.

"We're working to open other sections of the skateway as soon as possible," he added at a news conference.

But he warned skaters and pedestrians not to venture onto closed sections of the canal, for their own safety.

In 2008, Winnipeg's 8.54-kilometre skating trail along the Assiniboine and Red Rivers surpassed the Rideau Canal Skateway as the world's longest skating rink. But the NCC still calls the Rideau as the world's "largest" skating rink, as it is wider than Winnipeg's skateway.