December ON THE ICE 2019

Peterborough Club - “Where Ice Matters” - Ice Team’s Newsletter

The Ice Team would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! May Inside This Edition your holiday time be spent with family and friends. Thank you for taking the time to read our newsletter, we hope you find them helpful and informative. All the Best! Rob, Dave, • A Dirty Gripper & Enzo, Emilie and Katelyn. How to clean it! Ice by The Numbers • The Pink Hat in We record, at the start of each game, temperatures of the air, outside & inside of the ice the ice - A short rink, humidity levels inside and out of the building, the brine temperatures going through story about the pipes under the ice, out (colder) to the ice and the return (warmer). We also record the surface ice temperature, scraping patterns, pebbling head types and pebbling water Shorty Jenkins temperatures. This data helps us deliver optimal playing conditions throughout the day, week, month and year. We invite you to browse through our logbook that is located on the • VIP at the Club ledge behind the glass at the north east rink entrance. If you have any questions please feel comfortable in asking any one of us. • Volunteers - thank you again! We also are mandated by the TSSA group to monitor our compressor. We record a host of data in our log book on a daily basis. TSSA inspectors inspect our refrigeration equipment annually, and look through our log. All of this data is kept for safety reasons and enables us and the equipment to do our best in providing consistent ice conditions. Black Spot Our targets for our ice and rocks are noted on the ice makers information notice board, located at the north east rink entrance. On Sheet 6 - just before the hogline They are:

• Curl in the ice, both ways in & out, approximately four to five feet We have been monitoring the area • Consistent rock speed from start to finish of approximately ~14.5 sec. (hog to hog). since ice install. It appears to be a • Rink air temperatures and humidity levels – forty degrees F and sixty percent humidity. small brine pipe • Ice temperatures targets – 23.5 to 24.5 * F leak. The brine has leaked thru a pipe Examples of a few days ...these numbers indicate averages for the time period and has contaminat- Week # of Air Temps Humidity Ice ed the sand and has migrated up thru the Dates From Days Inside /outside Inside /outside Temperatures white paint. We will 10/28 thru 11/1 5 41.2* F / 44.2* F 60.2% / 79.3% 23.9* F continue to closely monitor the brine 11/ 12 thru 11/1 7 40.7* F / 23.1* F 51.3% / 69.5% 24.2* F migration. We are 11/22 thru 11/28 7 39.1* F / 38.9* F 59.1% / 80.6 % 23.8* F hopeful that it doesn't become a Continued of page 2 bigger problem.

Peterborough Curling Club - Proud Members and

Supporters of the Canadian & Curling Association ON THE ICE

By The Numbers—Continued from page one

Brief comments - In the past, there was a fair bit of discussion regarding humidity lev- els and dehumidifiers(3) inside the rink. We are pleased to report and the numbers sup- port this fact, “ our dehumidifiers and heaters are working well”.

The large, Cimco dehumidifier has been shutdown from just after install and we doubt that we will require it until spring. The two decadent Munster 300 HC dehumidifiers are cycling on and off at the desired humidity level.

The gas fired (4) heaters are working well after a few blade adjustments. This point brings me to a last comment, please feel free to tell me or anyone of our ice team about our rocks and ice at anytime, it really helps us deliver the best possible ice conditions.

All of the dehumidifiers units require monthly maintenance, which we execute during our monthly ice maintenance routines.

“Chick”, scrubbing house brooms

Freda, her first rock of the season!

Thank you again!!!..to our many volunteers that helped at the start of the year!

It’s really made a difference! 2 ON THE ICE

The Pink Hat

I have been asked a few times by members “Why the pink cowboy hat?” in the Ice. My response, it’s in honour of Clarence W. "Shorty" Jenkins (1935 – 11 April 2013) who was a friend and was a world famous ice technician in the sport of curling. He was known for his "trademark" pink cowboy hat, pink leath- er jacket and pink cowboy boots.

I worked closely with “Shorty” at the World Curling Championship in Hamilton in 1996. It was my responsibility and pleasure as the Director of Ice and Rocks to recommend to the WCF and CCA, a Head Ice Technician. My list of recom- mendations for the job was short (no pun intended)….yes, the guy that wore all the pink stuff! As Ice Director my direct report for the World Curling champion- ship was an elderly gentleman from Scotland, who at the time was a World Curling Federation director, Mr. Sinclair. He was a straight forward no non- sense type of Scot. My main task which was put so eloquently by the Scot,....“keep him in line”! Shorty’s reputation preceded him and for those who knew him, that was a near impossible task.

A little Wikipedia info on Shorty. He was born in Hanna, Alberta and raised in an orphanage in Victoria, , Jenkins served in the Royal Canadian Air Force from the age of 17. He would be posted in Germany and in to do various military jobs. He eventually left the military to work with Sunoco. That didn't last and Jenkins convinced the curling club in Trenton, Ontario to take him on as ice maker. He wanted to be an ice maker after noting how terrible the ice was at the 1974 provincial championships he was competing in.

One trend Shorty started in curling was that of timing rocks. He used his idea to judge how good the ice was. Jenkins claimed he was the only person who could "choose and match rocks for major championships". He refused to do the ice of a tournament without choosing the rocks for it. This was a huge stumbling block for the WCF and CCA. Our committee won out in the end, due mainly to the fact that our group of volunteers went to thirty some clubs in Ontario and precisely measured rocks during the two summers leading up to the championship. Shorty was out spoken to say the least. We showed up with six sets of rocks, “to test” the curl on Shorty’s Copps Coliseum ice. Our ice committee didn’t want a repeat of the 91 brier. The CCA had the preferred Manitoba Curling Association rocks, this set of rocks were used in the Hamil- ton Brier and Canadian curling championships for years. The final score of the 91 championship game was two to one after ten ends. These rocks curled about foot, at the most! Curling fans in the stands were notably upset during that final game, and who could blame them, it was, hit, after hit, after hit! It was boring as hell. Back to the selection of the rocks, Shorty had his own set of rocks to test, they were fast and curled six feet…”too much curl” said my Scottish friend. We settled on rocks from two local clubs(Shorty secretly worked his magic on those rocks too). They curled four feet and were fast. The curlers were happy, the fans were happy and so was the WCF and CCA…”a first”! I personally think this was a turning point for World and Canadian curling. Who knew the sport could be so successful with games that the rocks actu- ally curled!

Shorty was a pioneer, his inner circle of ice technicians that he mentored here in Ontario, and for that matter throughout Canada and the World. These Ice Technician, are now the individuals making ice for all major championships in the world of curling, including the Olympics. The symbol of the hat reflects our deep respect for Shorty, he helped changed the ice makers game to ice surfaces that were a thing of art. He advanced the sport in so many ways. Notably temperature of water and the quality of the water used in flooding and pebbling. Air flow in the large arenas, humidity factors, the introduction of the nipper to curling, scraping patterns and a host of other technolo- gies.. Shorty’s desire to make the best possible ice conditions to show off world class curlers talent, was his passion. I am often asked what is the biggest change in the game? My answer is simple, ice and rocks. In large part due to Shorty Jenkins. There are lots of great “Shorty” stories out there, please share with me if you have one or two. I have a smile on my face every time I broom over that Pink Hat in the ice!

For the folks that were around in 1986 - The Ontario Curling Champion- ship, “Peterborough Nokia Cup”, Shorty was the Head Ice Technician at that championship. He also was involved here at the club putting summer ice in back a few years ago. ON THE ICE

A Very Dirty Gripper !

This is the inside of a fairly new gripper. It’s important to clean the inside too. Just a little dish soap, warm water, a scrub brush and a bit of elbow grease will get it like new!

The before and after pictures of the ladder ice door....can you see the difference!

Jim’s Bio - Jim Armstrong is a three-time world champion and two-time Paralympic gold med- allist in . Armstrong notched another feather in his cap in 2014 as he skipped Canada’s wheelchair curling team in Sochi to a third consecutive Paralympics Games gold. It was Armstrong’s second Paralympic triumph after topping the field at Vancouver 2010. Since the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Games, Armstrong was named to the 2015 and 2016 world cham- pionship teams. However, he missed the 2015 worlds after suffering a heart attack, from which he has since recovered. In 2016, Canada placed seventh at the world championship as Russia took the world title for a second straight year. Before taking up wheelchair curling, Armstrong enjoyed a successful career on British Columbia’s able-bodied curling team. He transitioned to wheelchair curling in 2007 due to knee and back injuries. Armstrong began curling in 1958 when he was only eight years old and since then he has accumulated a long record of medals and achievements.

As an able-bodied athlete, Armstrong competed in the Canadian Brier six times, including twice as a . He is the only curler to have won the Ross Harstone Award for sportsmanship and ability three times. This award is of great significance to Armstrong, as it is an award voted on by peers for his contribution to the sport.

Armstrong served as an on-ice official at various major championships and was president of the World Curling Players’ Association from 1997 to 1999.

In addition to his Paralympic feats, Armstrong helped Canada to gold at the 2009 World Wheelchair Curling Championships held in his former hometown of Richmond, B.C. He also skipped the team to gold at the 2011 World Wheelchair Curling Championships. Jim Armstrong & Jon Thurston In 2013, Armstrong once again demonstrated his masterful skill of reading the ice when he Jon & Jim pictured above, the day before skipped Team Canada to their third consecutive world title at the World Wheelchair Curling the stick, stones & wheels bonspiel. Newly Championships. medalled Jon with VIP & World Champion, Jim Armstrong. They practiced for three hours, no wonder they won the spiel!