News
We Did the Nike Speedhouse Rink
29 April 2021
We were pleased to have been a part of the Nike Speedhouse, bringing the stars of Canadian GTHL hockey league together. Twenty-four players were secretly scouted and invited to an underground 3×3 tournament, on a custom rink made for speed on the ground floor of an abandoned building.
We provided the logistics, materials and labour to create the ice, dasher boards, custom benches and locker room accessories for this one of a kind event.
A Wonderful Project!
16 October 2019
A conceptual drawing of the ice rink Center Ice Rinks will be creating for Canada’s Wonderland’s WinterFest.
Caledon’s Cathy and Emir Ishmael are about to make a backyard rink like no other, and they should have a few thousand reviews of their work.
The Ishmaels run Center Ice Rinks, a company with offices in Mississauga that creates roll out backyard rinks, inclusive of refrigeration systems that can keep the rink in pristine working condition into positive temperatures. After their clients are done with the rink, they roll it away — much like the rinks used in multi-use professional stadiums — store it in their warehouse and roll it back out for them the next season.
It’s a unique, and functional way to ensure you can enjoy one of Canada’s favourite pastimes, be it skating or hockey, in your own backyard, and get your backyard back after the skating season is concluded.
And now, the company has been contracted to provide Canada’s Wonderland’s first WinterFest with a massive skating surface at the base of the famous mountain that is the centre of the amusement park.
“We’re turning the fountain at the base of the mountain into an ice rink,” Cathy explained. “It’s a big project, the average NHL size rink is 80 feet by 200 feet and this rink is going to be 80 feet by 240 feet, but we’re really excited they contacted us.”
The Ishmael’s began Center Ice in 2007, Cathy explained. They are a small family-owned business, she said, with her husband and herself still very hands-on.
“He’s the frontman and handles all the operations, the rink building and maintaining. I’m more the back office person doing the marketing, administration, payroll, you know, the fun stuff.”
They’re a seasonal operation, she said, but have contribute their skills to the odd ball hockey tournament in the summer months.
“We’ve done some basement rinks as well, but the meat and potatoes of our business is the portable refrigeration system. It sees us start up in the beginning of November and takes us, depending on the season, all the way into April and May.”
The real specialty is their roll on and roll off rinks, which Cathy said can be used in a large yard, over the top of in-ground pools, tennis courts and more.
A spokesperson for Canada’s Wonderland said the park is being transformed into a magical, winter wonderland for WinterFest — an all-new, immersive holiday experience taking place on select dates from Nov. 22 to Dec. 31.
The event will feature ice-skating on Snow Flake Lake, more than a dozen live shows and holiday entertainment, millions of spectacular lights and hundreds of Christmas trees throughout the park, including two 15-metre Christmas trees on International Street. There will be a nightly tree-lighting ceremony, savoury and sweet holiday food, hands-on family activities like cookie decorating with Mrs. Claus, pics with St. Nick, crafts and interactions with park characters like Jack Frost, the Sugar Plum Fairy, the Ice Prince and Ice Princess.
For more on WinterFest, visit the park’s website, here.
Centennial Square Rink, Victoria BC
13 May 2013
CTV News Victoria coverage of the opening of the outdoor ice rink at Centennial Square, Victoria BC
Skating Organizers Consider Using Bigger Rink Next Time
5 January 2012
Bill Cleverley / The Victoria Times Colonist
January 5, 2012 02:00 AM
An expanded skating surface – perhaps even ringing the Centennial Square fountain – is under consideration for next Christmas season following the success of this year’s outdoor rink.
More than 5,000 people laced up the blades and took a glide around the small (56 feet by 36 feet) skating surface erected on the lower part of the square in early December by the Downtown Victoria Business Association.
“That’s brilliant – Dec. 3 to Jan. 2 – one month’s use and they came out in great numbers and with great appreciation and enthusiasm,” DVBA general manager Ken Kelly said Wednesday.
Butchart Gardens in Brentwood Bay responded to the success of its outdoor skating rink with an expansion by more than 50 per cent (72 feet by 70 feet) for this year’s 25th annual Magic of Christmas program, which ends Friday.
There is another outdoor rink at City Centre Park in Langford.
The DVBA board will hold a strategic planning session today and will consider options for next year, Kelly said.
“Do we go to a bigger ice sheet – 40 by 80 feet on the next level up, closer to the fountain? Do we do something on the 26-foot circumference around the fountain – a circular rink? These are all being looked at and we’re trying to get some costs as we speak.”
The small rink cost about $60,000 for the month.
Although the DVBA brought in some revenue through skate rentals and charged $2 for use of the rink, the demand prompted an extension of hours so those fees essentially covered the staffing costs, Kelly said.
“I would say that the board is very enthusiastic about the response of the public and how popular it was, and the public’s enthusiasm for doing something a little bit bigger,” Kelly said.
“You look at the price and you [say], ‘Well maybe we’re going to have to find some sponsors if we’re going to go for a rink around the fountain or something.’ “
The DVBA was lucky with the weather though, as December, normally Victoria’s wettest month, was relatively dry, experiencing only 55 millimetres of precipitation compared with the average of 109 mm.
“We were so fortunate. It was an extremely dry month and that played favourably for the numbers,” Kelly said.
But it wasn’t all smooth skating.
The official opening came a week later than planned as organizers had to wait while the city decamped Occupy protesters who moved in Oct. 15, turning Centennial Square into an unofficial tent city.
The skating surface was just one part of the DVBA efforts to attract people downtown during the Christmas season.
The organization has a budget of about $150,000 for Christmas promotions that included everything from providing two hours of free parking in parkades and tree light-ups to sponsoring costumed carolers wandering through the downtown, and offering free horsedrawn trolley rides.