It’s a time-honoured tradition for anyone who enjoys being outside in the winter months -- heading out to the neighbourhood rink with family and friends, putting on the blades and enjoying a few laps of the ice or a game of shinny.
In Moose Jaw, there is no shortage of venues to do just that, with the city featuring seven rinks with heated shacks and 11 ice surfaces overall, to go along with community rinks in VLA and Westheath and the always-popular Wakamow Oval.
And making things even better this winter is the ability to simply head out and enjoy yourself, with the only restriction in place being the wearing of masks inside the shacks when warming up.
“It’s a lot different than last year, when we could have only 25 people gathering and there were no sports allowed,” said Scott Osmachenko with Moose Jaw Parks and Recreation.
“This year, with all that gone, we’re finding the rinks really well attended and something like Crokicurl, now that you can have a game with another family from another household, that’s really helped too.
“The only thing that has caused a wrench, like always, is the cold, cold weather and snowfall and that’s kind of normal. Other than that, it’s been a successful winter.”
The goal every year is to have the ice surfaces ready in time for the Christmas holidays, and with the pleasant weather leading up to the break, crews were able to get a solid jump on things prior to the brutal cold snap.
“They were able to level things out, get them all prepped, get the nets ready and make any repairs that were needed,” Osmachenko explained. “Then once we got to that freezing level, we had crews working early in the morning and late at night to use the weather to get the ice built and get them ready for Christmas.”
While the lengthy cold snap was good for keeping things frozen and ice conditions solid, it was less than ideal for the men and machines putting in time to get the rinks that way.
“If we just get that minus-10 or so for a while, that would help, but we never seem to get that for any stretch, it’s always really nice out or really, really cold,” Osmachenko said. “And the cold weather is so hard on the equipment and staff, as you’d expect with dealing with water when it’s 30-below.
“But people are excited to be back outside, and compared to last year with all the restrictions, we’re seeing a really good uptake.
One of the first priorities for the city was installing the Wakamow Oval, with the 400-metre speed skating track once again proving very popular with local patrons, especially during the nice-weather days last week.
“We’ve worked closely with Wakamow and the speed skating group so we can have access to the Oval, and we really prioritized that because that’s a really popular location, the most used and we always work on getting that one open first,” Osmachenko said. “With how much it’s used, we’re always looking to keep it maintained by scraping and flooding it twice a week, and it’s gone well this year.”
Another outdoor ice facility that’s seen increased use is the Crokicurl rink located at the Kinsmen Arena. The free-to-play game simply requires patrons to register online, pick up a key at the front desk and away you go.
“This is the third year we’ve put it there, and we’ve made a few improvements,” Osmachenko said.”We’ve levelled out the surface, the lights are there and it’s right there at the Kinsmen, so it’s easy to access and there’s somewhere to warm up.
“We promoted it the best we could last year, but the restrictions made it difficult, where this year we’re seeing a lot more usage. People are enjoying it, it’s really fun and easy to play and we have the rules on the wall right there. Then it’s easy to book a time and it doesn’t cost anything.”
For more information -- including hours of operation of the shacks, rules and regulations and anything else you might want to know, including booking the Crokicurl rink -- be sure to visit www.moosejaw.ca/parks-recreation-culture/.
