I don't think I've ever spoken to someone more excited about ice than Wayne Pansegrau. It's his life, and he's good at making it.
Pansegrau is the manager of operations for Prospera Place - the home of the Kelowna Rockets - and is often seen walking around the building during home games to make sure everything is running smoothly.
Pansegrau is so good at his job, he's one of three Kelowna residents volunteering their services for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
Pansegrau and the Prospera Place ice crew will be putting in the ice on Sunday, so I thought it would be interesting to get a perspective of what it takes to make one of the best ice surfaces in the entire WHL.
"It's a bit of a lengthy process. People think you just take the hose and throw some water out there and let it freeze and then go skating. It's about a three or four day process. It can be done quicker but we make sure we take our time and schedule it so we don't kill our staff in putting it in. We will start Sunday and then will have it ready to go by the 19th, which is a Wednesday or a day before the Rockets open camp."
So what does it take to get the ice 'hockey ready'.
"Making ice is very time consuming. It's done in very thin layers. What we do is put down 6 or 7 thin layers - what we call the bond - and it's those layers that bond the entire ice surface to the concrete. Then what we do is mix in white powdered paint with the water and so that's what we paint the whole surface with. Now we seal that in with another six or seven layers and then at this point were are approaching about a 16th of an inch to seal in the white paint. From there we put all of our hockey lines, circles and dots down. All of our lines and dots are hand painted."
I understand you are using a new process to put down the logo's on the ice?
"Traditionally what we've done in the past is we have done all the paint in logo's, but this year we are trying something that we've done in the past for World Juniors by using a lay in logo. We can actually lay a material that actually for a lack for a better word is a window screen type of material, and they print the logo right on that. We just lay that into the ice and we seal it in with water and just keep freezing it in. It saves a ton of labour. All of our logo's this season on the ice will be the lay in style and a then we will be able to use them year in and year out."
Does the +25 degree temperatures outside cause a problem for you in creating the ice?
"When it comes to the morning of the 20th - when the guys are stepping out to skate on it - that's when it becomes an issue and you are trying to maintain your surface and proper temperature. We run the floor or slab pretty cold so it's freezing fairly quickly. Obviously we have our air handlers on to cool the building as well, but when it comes time for them to skate we actually warm up the slab a little bit so it doesn't get too brittle and fractures."
Do the players let you know if the ice is poor?
"It's tough because the ice is so new. It tends to snow up a little bit more during camp then once it's been skated on for a few months. That's what actually strengthens the surface of the ice is all the skate marks and then continually putting hot water down and bonding all of those together. But in training camp it's a little weaker. We call it virgin ice or green ice so you have more opportunity for it not to be that great. Having a dry scrape halfway through the practice actually helps us quit a bit to maintain a better surface."
