Tag: Canada

Mats Come to Speed Skating

While speed skaters already wear helmets for protection from concussions, the Cambridge Speed Skating Club in Canada installed a special mat system this year to further protect skaters should they have a spill in races. All speed skating clubs in Canada will eventually be required to fit rinks with a mat system within the next two years.

The new mat system reportedly consists of three layers and a total of 28 inches of foam. The new mats cover the boards in all of the “red zones” – the areas where high-impact crashes might occur, including behind the nets and at the left-turn walls. The layers include nine inches of highly compressible foam, with an additional nine layers of firmer cushioning, along with a final 10-inch mat with a honeycomb-style interior designed to reduce impact with the boards. A total of 36 mats are used during practice and 112 during competitions. Continue reading Mats Come to Speed Skating

Weekend Reading List (01.05.2013): Kid Boarder, Drive Test, BMC Story

Kid Boarder

From The New York Daily News: 18-month-old shreds snow on the slopes in Canada
Little Nevek hasn’t even put down his pacifier yet, but the tyke has already picked up a snowboard. The 18-month-old boy was spotted gliding down the slopes of a mountain in Canada recently. Continue reading Weekend Reading List (01.05.2013): Kid Boarder, Drive Test, BMC Story

Composite Repair Coming to Hockey Sticks

A good hockey stick – especially one made of composite materials – isn’t cheap, and unfortunately it isn’t the sort of the thing that is treated with the utmost care and respect. It is in fact a tool that can be beat around pretty hard, and this in turn can get expensive when it breaks. One-piece composite sticks, made of layers of carbon fiber, can cost $300 or more, so not exactly cheap to replace.

But Randy Langille of Vancouver just sees this as an opportunity. He’s been repairing composite sticks since 2009 and now has 23 locations across Canada. His company Integral Hockey has adopted a process and special tools used in the manufacture of aerospace components to repair composite hockey sticks. Continue reading Composite Repair Coming to Hockey Sticks

Hockey Season Washed Out Due to Mild Winter

It's melting, melting, melting...

The sky isn’t falling, but the ice on the ground is melting. That’s the findings of a new study by scientists at McGill and Concordia universities and it is essentially ruining this year’s outdoor hockey season. As CNN.com noted this week in a story titled, “Study claims possible end to Canada’s outdoor pastime,” several headlines from around Canada predicted an ominous future including: “Thin Ice: Canada’s outdoor rinks face meltdown,” “Global warming could spell the end of Canada’s outdoor hockey rink” and even “Climate change melting backyard hockey rinks.” Continue reading Hockey Season Washed Out Due to Mild Winter

Will the Machines Take Over… the Ice?

We continue to have fears that our reliance on technology could lead to the machines taking over, but maybe that is because we watch too many Terminator and The Matrix films (even the bad ones). Now there is news that the machines might not actually be in the process of taking over all mankind, maybe they’re just focused on the ice. Hockey Robotics is a newly created company born out of the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, and they specialize in hockey stick design, performance and durability testing.

Thus they haven’t actually created a robot hockey player, but rather the first very dynamic hockey stick testing robot, which is reportedly capable of properly mimicking the professional hockey slap shot. The company plans to launch this robot testing tool this summer.

So far Hockey Robotics has garnered the support of SBK Hockey, a leading Quebec-based hockey brand, and the company offers standardized hockey testing services to other brands, manufacturers, leagues and teams. But hockey players should worry that the robots will take them off the ice… at least for now!

Hockey Robotics Official Website

Sprung Loaded Hockey Arenas

Soon there might be the headlines that say “spring has sprung,” but that’s actually a problem in the Great White North, where there is actually a shortage of hockey arenas. While it might be hard to believe given the winter we’ve had in much of the country, in Canada there is actually a need for more places to skate. A lack of ice facilities or even no facilities at all are actually an issue that is currently plaguing many cities across Canada. In fact, of the nearly 2,500 ice arenas, nearly 50 percent are more than 26 years old and 32 percent are more than 36 years old.

These buildings will need seriously renovations or need to be replaced. Where there is a need, there is opportunity. Taking a cue from the Field of Dreams, if you build it they will come, Calgary-based Sprung Instant Structures Ltd. has launched Sprung Performance Arenas and even earned an endorsement from Hockey Canada for their efforts to address the issue. The Sprung Performance Arenas can be built quickly and more importantly economically, as a long-term solution to the so-called “ice crisis” in Canada.

“Traditional single arenas can cost anywhere from 8.5 million to 20 million, and take over a year to build, whereas Sprung arenas can be built for less than 6 million, and are constructed in around 6 months,” said Sprung, “Sprung Arenas are safe, reliable, long-lasting, have a high quality ice surface, and make ice sports more accessible in our country.”

The arenas have already earned support and endorsement from Hockey Canada and the Hockey Canada Foundation. Thus when spring comes, or winter isn’t quite as harsh there will still be ice, ice baby.

Sprung Instant Structures Official Website