Indoor Ice Skating

Moving on ice using skates can be done either inthanks to brothers Lester and Joe Patrick, who
indoor tracks that are specifically built for thisstarted hockey leagues in Canada. The first ever
activity, or in outdoor tracks, which can be bothindoor ice skating rink to be opened was in
man-made and naturally occurring frozen bodiesVictoria, Canada, an initiative of the two brothers,
of water like ponds, lakes, and rivers. Ice skatingand this was then cost a little more than
is a popular sports and recreational activity, as$100,000, with a capacity of 4,000 people.
well as a means for travel.Vancouver, Canada saw another ice skating rink
There are thousands of ice skating rinksdays after, doubling the cost of the previous rink,
throughout the world, but for now let us centerbut was able to seat 10,000 people. The brothers
on indoor ice skating. It is noteworthy that therethen started building ice skating arenas also in the
are many temporary ice rinks that have surfaced,United States and western Canada, and to date,
but these make use of wax instead of ice,the U.S. has more than 1,700 ice skating rinks, and
making them very difficult to skate on.cost millions of dollars to built, in contrast to the
Indoor ice skating rinks has an advantage overhundred thousand dollar arena in Victoria.
outdoor rinks in that it is more consistent in termsIndoor ice skating rinks work pretty much like air
of its surface, as opposed to outdoor rinks, whichconditioning units and refrigerators. Underneath
can have varying ice quality. Indoor conditions canthese rinks are enormous refrigeration and
be set and controlled, like for example, keepingice-making systems that maintain the ice surface
the skating surface at 24 to 26 degreesall year round. The refrigerant in this system cools
Fahrenheit, and the humidity at around 30 percent.brinewater which is actually a calcium chloride
It also permits adjustment in periods of warmsolution, and which is then pumped through pipes
outdoors, in order to adjust in turn the quality ofembedded underneath the rink. Because good ice
the ice. Indoor ice skating rinks have dehumidifiersis attained through controlling both indoor and
in the building to attain a low humidity and keepoutdoor temperatures, there can be great
the air dry, as high humidity creates fogs overvariations during temperature changes, even with
the ice.just a one-degree change. In countries with warm
As already mentioned, ice skating was used inweather, there is a possibility for the ice to
order to get across frozen waterways in Europesoften, while in the low temperature countries,
thousands of years ago. In the early 1900s,skating rinks need to be heated still to maintain
however, modern ice rinks became very popular,good ice.