-Phil Bruce
The 2024/2025 season is fast approaching. Curlers are trying to remember where they put their curling equipment, starting to think about what leagues they are going to join, and are looking forward to getting back on the ice. But there are many people already at work getting things ready for the upcoming season and a small group of people that will start working on the ice long before the first rocks are delivered. Somewhere around the middle of September the ice crew will begin installing the ice for the season.
The ice-in process takes about two weeks to complete. The first step in the process is a good cleaning of the ice shed. Walls are cleaned, walkways are vacuumed and mopped, the ice pad is washed, and paint is touched up where needed.
Next, the compressors are turned on and left to run for a couple days to allow the ice pad to chill to about 200 Fahrenheit. Once the pad is chilled, the ice pad is sprayed with a fine mist multiple times. This mist quickly freezes and seals the boards all around the pad. The spray also provides a surface that future floods can adhere to.
After the sprays have been applied, the flooding process starts. The ice builds up approximately 1/8” – 1/4” at a time until all low areas are filled in and the ice is relatively flat. As soon as we get to this stage the lines are installed. The 2-4 hour process takes about 10-12 people working in teams of 3-4. Once the lines are installed, the spray process is repeated to seal the lines in place.
After a few more floods the ice is ready to be “flattened” or prepared for game play. The first step in the flattening process is what we call “grease off”. We scrape the ice multiple times to remove all the dirt and debris that has floated to the top of the ice during the ice-in process. One we are satisfied that the ice is clean we put on a new scraper blade and get to work. We pebble the ice and then scrape. We repeat this process 5 or more times until we are satisfied with the way the ice looks. We then clean the stones, texture them if needed, and move them to the ice (on top of plastic mesh) to chill. The next day we return to move the rocks to the garages. At this point the ice is ready for play.
Our group of ice volunteers put in many hours of work every year. We are always looking for help. We can always use help during the ice-in process as well as full time ice crew members. If you are interested in helping out either as one-time (ice-in) or as a full-time team member, get in touch with Phil Bruce at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
