Posted by: Logan and Redmond Scullion, Logan and Redmond Scullion
Hi guys! Sorry we missed you last month – we were pretty busy with a basketball tournament but we’re glad to be back and bringing you an interview with Greg Alexander, who we have to thank for the skating rink at Windsor Park! If you’ve ever spent any time skating there, or even walked by and seen all the hockey players zooming by on the ice, you’ve probably wondered, like we have, who goes to all the work to keep the ice in good shape. Greg is one of the awesome volunteers who gives their time and energy to making sure the rink is good to go for all of us.
Redmond: Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
Greg Alexander: Sure! So, I live in Old Ottawa South and I have two girls who are now in university, and they played hockey growing up, and somebody talked me into helping out with the rink ten years ago, and here I still am! So, the city puts the boards up for us, they do that mid-October some time and they’ll leave the rink up until end of February, but we’ll always ask for them to keep it longer if we still have the ice. And that mesh up there looks new this year – that’s super important so the pucks don’t go flying!
Logan: How about the little rink off to the side?
Yes, so that rink is generally for younger kids who don’t play hockey or are just learning. People generally follow the rules! It’s actually quite a bit bigger this year, but it does shrink over the year as we plough it.
Logan: Who does all the shoveling? And how do you know when to come out to flood the ice?
Social media is really important for us to get the word out. We’ll get a message saying we need to come out; we’ve got an email distribution list of about 30 people. So, the way we run it is we have about 6-7 guys and everyone has a night. We generally stick with the same night, and we have teams. We’ll come sometime after 9 pm. The rink officially closes then so any time after that. Really cold nights are the best.
Greg opened up the shed and showed us the snow blower, the Zamboni and the hoses, and told us how important it is not to let a hockey puck get sucked up into the snow blower as they get spat out and could hit someone – though apparently the dogs in the park LOVE this because they get to chase them!
Redmond: When it is a good time to start flooding?
It has to be after 9 pm but I like to come around 11:30 pm – it’s so peaceful. I think someone actually wrote a book about the Zen of flooding a rink!
Greg spent some time explaining the home-made Zamboni to us and how it works. It’s a contraption that sits on what looks like a wagon and uses an immersion heater. Greg also explained that the Zamboni design went through many, many different iterations. We also got a chance to roll out the hose – it is SO heavy and Greg said that there are 9 inches of ice on the rink, so across the whole area of the two rinks, it’s a lot of water that goes out!
Heather: Who’s responsible for shovelling off the snow before you flood?
The most important thing we have to do is make sure that whoever is playing, scrapes off the rink. If it’s not scraped properly, you can’t make good ice. There’s a rink attendant, usually a Firehall kid, and they’re really great about making sure it gets done. And if the ice has been well scraped, you can get the whole job done in about an hour. If it’s not well scraped it takes a lot longer. So, guys – that’s a key thing for this story – we love people using the rink, but we really need people to do the scraping off!
Logan and Redmond: Last year we remember seeing a whole bunch of people here stomping down the snow to get the rink ready. We helped! Do you do it that way every year?
So, this year we used a machine!
Heather: So, we’ve often wondered if all the hockey games we see being played on this rink are organized into teams?
It’s all pick up! And it’s all ages. The smaller rink isn’t supposed to be for hockey, but the rink attendant helps manage some of that and they do a great job. Darcy even designed a jersey for the role!
Redmond: Are you a hockey player? Do you use the rink?
(With a hearty laugh) I don’t! I don’t use the rink for skating nearly as much as I do volunteering here! But there’s a big group who come and play here Saturday morning, and they’re here early! Often at 8 am.
Heather: Yes – probably all the parents trying to get out before they have to take their kids to basketball!
What are your thoughts on refrigerated rinks?
My thoughts are they must be really expensive! But, for natural ice you need lots of cold weather, and little snow. Luckily a lot of us cross country ski around here too, so the snow is good for that!
Logan, Redmond and Heather: So, when do you think the rink will officially open?
Well, the cold weather this week is going to help us, so we’ll see! Crossing our fingers for a great season!
Logan and Redmond Scullion live in OOS.
For information on Windsor Rink ice conditions go to: facebook.com/windsorparkrink
Featured in the January 2025 OSCAR.