Holiday magic: Air conditioning, hard work keep downtown Â鶹¾«Ñ¡ frostastic

City of Â鶹¾«Ñ¡ staff have been hard at work creating holiday magic – and freezing temperatures – under the ice at Stuart Park. 

The iconic downtown Â鶹¾«Ñ¡ skating rink opens to the public on Nov. 30, marking the start of another holiday season. 

While setting up a rink may seem like a 'slick' task, it takes savvy engineering and hard work to keep the rink frosty and fun throughout Â鶹¾«Ñ¡'s mild winters. 

Steve Hebden, recreation facility operations supervisor with the City of Â鶹¾«Ñ¡ leads the team responsible for transforming Stuart Park into a winter wonderland. 

In an interview before the rink's opening day, Hebden shared the snowy secrets that keep the ice solid at the iconic Â鶹¾«Ñ¡ landmark â€“ even on mild Okanagan winter days. 

"We actually have a refrigeration plant over at city hall," said Hebden.

"We use the air conditioning unit that is used during the summer months for city hall to freeze our rink in the winter."

He explained that the freon and glycol-based unit pumps icy cool refrigerant from city hall, down under Water Street and into a web of tubes that underlay the concrete skating pad at Stuart Park. 

Without the cooling strategy, the ice would be too soft to skate on for much of the winter. Even with the aid of refrigeration, keeping the ice in pristine condition requires a lot of behind-the-scenes magic. 

"Anything above three degrees is a bit of a challenge when keeping the ice frozen," said Hebden. 

Ice temperatures have to be monitored throughout the day and the rink itself requires quite a bit of manual labour and high-level Zamboni driving to keep up with the thousands of skaters that use the lakeside oval.

From the specialty-trained Zamboni drivers to the snow shovellers, security guards and maintenance workers, it takes a full team of people to spread holiday cheer at Stuart Park.

People looking to glide around the ice can check the live rink-watch webcam at kelowna.ca to check conditions. 

The rink is free to use and is open for casual, drop-in use from 6 a.m. - 11 p.m. daily – other than Monday mornings for scheduled maintenance. Skate and helmet rentals are available at Stuart Park.

Check the City of Â鶹¾«Ñ¡ website for icy events that will be held on the rink.