“It takes anywhere between 4 to 6 hours,” Chris Whittemore head of facilities management at Pegula Ice Areas said on Wednesday morning.
He and his crew began working at 7 a.m. — repainting the new sheet of ice inside the arena.
The painting and resurfacing of the arena’s major playing surface is a task that happens just once a year.
For Whittemore and his crew the task is far from an easy one. Each line must be carefully measured and accurate to the inch in order to comply to NCAA regulations, not to mention giving the rink a pleasing esthetic.
“Basically how this process starts is we come out and put four or five layers of ice down,” Whittemore said. “And we let it freeze, and then we basically paint it a white top, like glorified food colors. We put about three coats of white paint down and then we seal it with five or six more layers of water. A layer is just a mist, we want it to freeze very quickly. After we do that, after we put the white down we lay our lines and logos down. The center logo we paint because it’s a little crisper and lasts longer. The sponsor logos “float” or are “drop-ins” as we call them and they are in the ice.”
“From there were build the ice. First with misting but then we’ll bring out a glorified garden hose and again kind of misting and we continue to build up to an inch to an inch and a half of ice.”
The new ice won’t have to wait long for its first test. A USA Hockey camp will take to the surface this coming weekend.
“The ice will be really soft early on,” Whittemore said. “Getting people skating on it will be good for the surface because the more you skate on it the harder the surface gets.”
Popular Stories:
Senate Committee Approves Legislation to Reform Penn State Board of Trustees
Winter Still Being Felt in Municipal Budgets
College Avenue Construction on Schedule
Penn State, State College Replacing State Patty’s Day with Arts Festival
