Hockey camps start at the South Cariboo Recreation Centre on Aug. 27.
While kids are dusting off their skates and getting limbered up over the next week-and-a-half, facility manager Josh Dickerson will be getting little-to-no sleep.
This is Dickerson’s 25th year making ice.
“It’s the product we sell out of this building and you’ve got to take pride in that and do a good job because it lasts eight to nine months the guys are skating on it,” he said.
If the ice is made perfectly, he said it saves him having to fix things throughout the year.
And the best way to make ice, according to Dickerson, is to layer it.
“To make really good ice you do it in little layers rather than dump a whole bunch of water on it, because then it’s just one chunk of ice,” he said.
“If a skate or something cracks it and it blows out in pieces it only blows out in layers. If it’s one solid chunk, like one ice cube, it’ll break the whole thing right down to concrete.”
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The ice-making process, which he does in the wee hours of the night, is a heck of a journey.
By Sunday, Aug. 19, Dickerson has to make about 50 layers, equalling half-an-inch of ice.
“I’ve got a long hose and I’ve got about an eight-foot boom that’s got about eight sprayers on it, and I drag that around and spray.”
It takes about half an hour to spray a layer of water and half an hour for it to freeze. Then he goes out and does it all again.
A company from Vernon will come in on Sunday to spray paint the ice white, a step most people are unaware of.
“A lot of people think that the ice isn’t painted, they think it just comes white, right. But if you fill up an ice cube tray, same thing, the ice cubes aren’t white.”
Rather than leaving the ice dull and concrete-like, he gets it painted so it will pop.
The lines and circles get hand painted on the ice and Dickerson, himself, puts on the logos.
Then, he continues the ice-layering process to build another inch of ice on top.
“It’s a big process.”
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Dickerson said a staff member comes in to watch the office in the afternoons so he can grab a few hours of sleep during the day. But he certainly won’t be getting a full eight hours of rest for a while.
He’s even put a couch in his office, so he can catch some Zs in the glorious minutes while the current layer of ice is freezing.
“I used to actually sleep on these picnic tables,” he said, referring to the log tables in the entrance of the arena. He laughed as he recalled concluding, “That doesn’t work, I’ll get a couch.”
Hockey is “probably one of the largest sports for adults and youth combined,” said Dickerson. And he takes his responsibility seriously, knowing taxpayers are paying for a beautiful facility.
“It’s my job just to make sure it stays that way and gets used.”
The best part about Dickerson’s self-sacrificing commitment to making the best ice for the hockey season is that he doesn’t play hockey. He doesn’t even watch it.
beth.audet@100milefreepress.net
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