Posted by: Bryan Delaney
Well, the boys are at it again.
Making ice on an outdoor rink the size of a small football field is not a simple task. Sure, any hose head can throw a bunch of water down and hope for the best. Like any task completed without thought or focus the results are sloppy; in this case, cracked ice with slopes and potholes. These cracks can impale a breaking centreman with his own stick, or concuss a stalwart stay at home guy skating backwards on an odd man rush. The only solution, as any Zamboni driver will tell you, is warm water. The problem, as any Windsor hose head will tell you, is that the shack has only cold water available for flooding.
Years ago, I spent some time chasing the flooder’s holy grail of warm water. I created a PVC wand for flooding with articulating wheels, hooked an on-demand water heater to a dolly and plumbed the appropriate fittings. I wheeled it out at 1 am and tested the “Homboni,” with varying degrees of success, on the rink. The warm water works beautifully, adding a svelte creamy surface to the ice that is both pristine and completely smooth. The camp stove eventually froze and stopped working, and when I ran the cost of the propane to create near perfect ice past my wife the project came to an immediate and abrupt halt. The dream was dead. Or so I thought.
Scott Marshall, who you may recall was the “Hoser of the Year” in the February 2022 OSCAR, sent the first email out on January 10th looking for spare parts for his own ode to Zamboni. This model contemplated a 50-gallon drum affixed to a wagon with a propane stove as a heat source. By January 22nd the prototype had been built and tested. By January 24th the necessary modifications were made and the “Scottboni” was ready for liftoff. It leaked, dammit.
Lesser men may have packed it in and called it a year. But not our fabled flood crew. By February 3rd the Scottboni was fully operational and made its maiden voyage round the boards. I’m not overstating when I tell you this thing is a total beauty, and that the ice at the ODR is like glass.
Our community rink is a place where people come together. I see new skaters shuffling about in their one-piece snowsuits. I see the hockey players working on their “Michi” (hockey talk for a “Michigan Goal” when you pick the puck up on your blade and stuff it in the top of the creese). I see college kids skating on the pond, and the old guys chasing each other around at the early Saturday morning game. It really is something special.
The truth is that this kind of thing doesn’t happen without volunteers showing up, however. So, join me in a stick tap for all the flooders whose passion and commitment have created this space for everyone to enjoy.
There is more work to do. We need artists to paint the interior of the shack and the boards. We need funds to buy propane to power the Scottboni. I’ve been eyeballing the wading pool and imagining what a great toddler rink it would make. What about benches and music? If you have the time in space in your own life then I challenge you to get in there and get after it!
Bryan Delaney helps out at the Windsor Rink and plays with the Riflemen Hockey Club.