This has been our second curling season as icemakers for the curling club. Hubby is the Head Ice Technician and I am the Ice Technician assistant. Except for both being pretty burnt out right now (We had our first full day off this weekend in 2 months-the club is very busy).
The job itself is unusual in that we work approx 2 times most days for 2 hours at a time, but we are walking and pushing heavy equipment the full 2 hours. As an example, my average steps for last month was 15,000 steps a day. M-Th we typically have two full draws a day for the 8 sheet curling club. If we work together we can prep the ice in about 1.5 hours, however if only one of us is working or there's extra maintenance (some things we do a few times a week, sometimes damage happens to the ice that needs to be fixed) it can take up to 2.5 hours. Fridays we usually have 1 draw in the evening but once a month there's a traveling league that goes to all the clubs in the area that we prep ice for.
We also often have ice rentals (esp since the popularity of curling at the Olympics this year) and bonspeils (tournaments) that sometimes are just fun for our club and maybe some other surrounding clubs but also competitions this year. These competitions and bonspiels make money for the club but are a ton of work for the ice and lounge staff.
As an ice team we are making amazing ice. We hear so many compliments. The ice curls, it's consistent, it is fast. As a result when we started the season we put on our calendar the bonspiels we have traditionally had as a club and then we look at the competition schedule and offer our club up. I think we offered to hold 5 of them that fit in with the schedule. I think maybe we got 3. BUT then we were asked to take a competition we did at the end of the season last year because many participants asked to come back to the club. We were also asked to hold a huge university competition. As a result of the university competition, the local university held a huge invitational as a way for teams to come try out the ice. All of this plus lots of rentals from the Olympics Surge meant a very, very busy season, a bit busier than we were expecting, esp since I'd asked that we be paid on salary.
As someone who has spent 20 years tracking every hour as an accountant and someone who is a perfectionist (hubby) I figured it would not only help our household budget but also mean we could do the job the way we wanted instead of counting every hour. In addition, most clubs have volunteers that help with ice install and maintenance but we've opted the last 2 years to not have volunteers help us. We felt that in order to figure out the job we needed to do it all ourselves and figure out a) what can be safely farmed out and b) HOW we want the job done so we can train others. Next year we are ready to add volunteers and I've already been prepping training materials and hinting to members who ask questions about the ice that we plan to have a volunteer crew next year. My hope is this will keep us from burning out. We also have a young person who has taken the Level 1 class that I'm hoping we can train more and maybe by Feb/March when we work every day without a break and always end up getting a nasty cold/sickness, we can have him do the juniors when he's already at the club and get a day off when there's not a tournament.
We also do major maintenance. 8 sheets for 2 people is a big job. We install the ice on a sand floor (see previous posts in October 2023), we do fill in floods at Christmas and in February.
One thing we have found is part of the reason the ice is amazing is that Hubby and I are decent curlers and we want good ice to curl on! We put into our contract that our memberships are included in our pay and I think it makes a huge difference in how good the ice is at our club. We know pretty quickly if something is not right and fix it. I like to joke I can do all the grunt work and Hubby works on fixing stuff, temperatures, timing as well as basic refrigeration plant and he is also the point person for installing our new ice control system (the old system is no longer being updated). Neither of us wants to do the job alone nor with anyone once so once we are done with it, we will likely both be done.
Hubby is curling 2 times a week, once with myself and two other women and once a week with a men's team. I'm curling with him as well as on a women's team (the two other women and I have one other woman to join us) as well as during the day with a ladies' league that switches teams around 3 times during the season. I'm also the president of that league and have been busy as I work with the club to allow our league to have snacks without the kitchen open (hint, it involves shopping and getting a food handler's license last summer!) I'm hoping to pass off the presidency and snack jobs next year so I can focus on the ice making and get into some of the more technical aspects that Paul has been doing. I've also been working with the club on a new club management software including a calendar scheduling that I do like because it makes communication easier, but I also want to be less involved in next year.
We have about 5 more weeks of the season and I'm really looking forward to some time out doors esp on a day like to day when the snow has melted and it's 60 degrees and sunny outside!
