North Vancouver’s Joe Heilman doesn’t seem to have too many regrets about escaping the winters of his hometown of Moose Jaw for the milder, gentler West Coast, but there was at least one piece of the Prairie landscape that was always missed.
Missed, that is, until this year, when an unusual cold snap allowed him to bring a piece of Saskatchewan to the front yard of his Central Lonsdale home.
The last time Heilman made a hockey rink he was just a boy, working alongside his father in chilly Moose Jaw (average January temperatures: -9 C high, -17 C low). Those were conditions he wasn’t expecting to see replicated here.
“I didn’t think it was ever possible here in Vancouver,” Heilman says. But then it got cold and stayed cold in North Vancouver – not to -17, but cold enough – and Heilman couldn’t resist the opportunity to bring a great Canadian tradition to the one area of the country where it’s not normally possible.
Construction began on New Year’s Day, when Heilman was faced with some free time on his hands and a frigid forecast for the week. Step 1 was a trip to Home Depot for supplies – 2x6 wooden planks, hardware, a polyurethane sheet – and then it was time to ice the rink. He didn’t have any recollection of how things were done back on the Prairies – “It was about 30 years ago,” he says – so he winged it.
“I just kind of figured it out trial and error,” he says with a laugh. And there was some error.
Rule No. 1 was fairly straightforward: “no holes in the wood.”
The second rule he learned was not to put the water on too thick – about a quarter inch at a time is all you can do.
“If you put too much in then the top layer freezes but the underside is still water, and it maintains its temperature,” he says. “It doesn’t freeze.”
Trapped water underneath a layer of ice is great for ice fishing, but not so good for ice skating.
Rule No. 3 revealed itself as the layers started to build up.
“It’s real important to have level ground,” Heilman says, adding that he discovered one side of his rink was a few inches lower than the other. That makes for some uneven ice distribution as the water follows the force of gravity. “The one side is good and thick but the other is not so thick.”
With the rules figured out, all that was left was the tedious work of building up the ice, layer after layer. With temperatures hovering around the -6 C mark, it took Heilman about three days to get on 15 layers, with each layer taking about three hours to freeze. Once he started the process, however, Heilman was hooked.
“You’ve got to build those layers up while you’ve still got the cold,” he says. “Sometimes I’d go out in the middle of the night and put a layer on.”
After three days, the rink was ready to go, and Heilman – a former youth hockey player who now coaches his 10-year-old son Ben – was surprised by how the ice felt.
“It’s actually really good,” he says.
Ben and Joe spent a lot of time on the rink, with Ben’s 14-year-old sister Holly hitting the ice as well. Ben is a goalie on Joe’s team, so they spent a lot of time working on their skills on the small ice surface.
“We’ve got some games that we play that are short-rink games,” says Heilman. “You’re not doing any high-speed manoeuvres by any means. You’re kind of doing lots of loops and circles, short-game stuff.”
With a high profile location in the Heilman’s front yard on West 27th Street, the rink drew a lot of attention.
“The kids all walk by with eyes as big as saucers,” he says. “It’s amazing the people that are driving past. A lot of them will stop, or roll down the window and say ‘Awesome job buddy!’ It’s pretty cool.”
Sadly the rink didn’t survive the rain at the start of this week, but now that Heilman has done it once, he can’t wait for the next cold snap.
“I’d love to do it (every year),” he says. “Now that I’ve got the experience I’ve got the knowledge to build an awesome rink next year, or whenever we get this opportunity again.”
Whenever the next opportunity arrives, the great freeze of 2017 will always contain a special memory for this former Prairie boy.
“It’s just a really cool novelty to be able to have that,” he says. “Every guy wants a hockey rink in their yard at some time. Cross it off the bucket list, I guess.”
Tips for making a backyard rink
Over the past month we’ve heard from folks all over the North Shore who have taken advantage of the cold to craft a backyard rink. Here are a few more tips for making a great sheet of ice:
■ Use a light-coloured tarp or plastic liner. Light colours reflect the sun’s light, while dark colours absorb it and increase melting.
■ This may seem obvious, but make sure your hose is long enough to reach the rink!
■ Another obvious one – watch out for dryer vents. They’ll melt your ice!
■ Drain your hose completely or bring it inside when you are done flooding. In this weather, a wet hose is a frozen hose.
■ Remove snow and debris from the ice as quickly as possible, especially before flooding, to ensure a smooth surface.
■ Consider lighting sources. Having appropriate lighting helps with nighttime water applications and also greatly extends the time that you can enjoy the rink once it’s built.
With those tips, a little gumption and a lot of patience, you should be ready to go. Although if you don’t want to go through all the trouble of crafting your own frame, Costco sells a Rink-in-a-Box, currently listed at $499.
