It's already 2010 in some parts of the world, and will be shortly in the Americas. In addition to the usual festivities and football games, for the third year in a row, the NHL will play an outdoor hockey game. This year's NHL Winter Classic 2010 will feature the Boston Bruins playing the Philadelphia Flyers at historic Fenway Park. There could be snow, which would be like the Penguins - Sabres game in Buffalo a couple of years ago. Despite what can be dicey ice conditions, the game is a lot of fun to watch. By contrast, the football bowl games, mostly bereft of the top teams that play later in BCS matchups, are less interesting--only the classic Pac-10 vs. Big-10 matchup in the Rose Bowl featuring #7 Oregon vs. #8 Ohio State seems compelling to me. I'm tired of hearing the broadcasters go on and on about Tim Tebow and Florida so I'm skipping the Cincinnati / Florida Sugar Bowl.
I'm hoping that someday the NHL will feature an outdoor game in Ottawa, maybe between the Washington Capitals and the Ottawa Senators. Instead of a New Year's Day matchup, why not in February during Winterlude at Ottawa's Frank Clair Stadium in Lansdowne Park, right next to the Rideau Canal. Add to the festive atmosphere by setting up big screen televisions for people to watch the game from the canal making for a great celebration of hockey and winter activities. The stadium needs some work--an outdoor NHL game might be the catalyst for Ottawa to make some needed improvements to the facility.
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I did a quick survey of the Hennepin Canal ice on Tuesday when I was in the area. Since there was 1" - 2" of wet snow on top of the ice, that I only had the day in the area, and that the ice was unsafe in many spots, I mostly just did a survey of various locations rather than trying to skate. While the ice was strong enough that ice fisherman were out on the canal in more protected, still-water areas such as at the lagoon near the Visitor Center and Izaak Walton park north of Geneseo--in other areas there was open water (even by the Visitor Center on the canal), and especially at the eastern end of the canal. Besides patches of open water, there were other places with weak, frosty, 1"-thick ice, several places were 3" to 4" thick, while the thickest section I measured was up towards 5" of clear ice. There was a lot of randomness to the ice quality and thickness as it varied with location based on the depth and current of the canal at a specific location. Note that the slow-moving Green River, which runs in the same area, was completely open water while most of the Hennepin in the same area had ice cover of varying thickness. With warmer temperatures (and further, with rain coming), the ice will become weaker or nonexistent in some areas, but a coming cold period next week may mean better ice possibly towards New Year's. Wait and see...
While the World Cup long track speed skating series wraps up this weekend in Salt Lake City, here's a follow-up to my post a few weeks ago on the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics venues. A few world records were set this weekend on Salt Lake City's fast ice--given that Vancouver's oval is at sea level, only a superhuman effort will produce a world record there. The Richmond Olympic Oval is a gorgeous facility located in the Vancouver suburb of Richmond, which is just east of the airport and south of downtown Vancouver. I stayed in Richmond recently, near the oval, the surrounding area was full of strip malls, hotels, office parks, and apartment / condominium and further afield neighborhoods of single-family homes. As a place to stay during the Games, it benefits from its walking distance proximity to the oval as well as a short walk to the Skytrain tram, from which its an easy ride to downtown Vancouver. Not a lot of charm though. The oval is an amazing facility built for the games at a cost of nearly $200 million with Cannon Design as architect (and Glotman Simpson as structural engineering consultants). The roof is made of local woods, all of which was salvaged from forests that had been plagued with beetle-kill. The facility is a stunner, probably the nicest oval I've been to--maybe only the Viking Ship in Hamar, Norway rivals it for being the most aesthetically pleasing speedskating facility, and at some level you have to simply appreciate each facility in their own right from a design standpoint as each one has its own unique appeal. After the games, the building will be put to a variety of uses for local sports enthusiasts, but sadly, plans at this point call for the speed skating ice will be mothballed and covered over. A few quick thoughts on the Hennepin canal. It didn't freeze in some spots until after the snow. This is good in a sense, as the bitter cold should help a nice surface of ice start to form, free of snow cover. That said, it takes a while for ice to form to be adequately thick. The inspiration for this site, the Elfstedentocht, requires about 7 nights of - 10 C temperatures (about 14 degrees F) to make a layer 15 cm thick (or about 5.9"), at which they may hold the event. (With an average daily temperature of about 20 deg. F, the "formula" would indicate a fairly high parameter of about 0.65 for the Elfstedentocht, which could be about right as it is often fairly windy, no snow, and the canals there are optimized to freeze--meaning little or no current.) For that race, the ice has to be very solid to support the thousands of participants and spectators. My estimation is that the Hennepin Canal, with the culvert bridges and many locks, doesn't freeze quite as easily as the Friesland canals. No matter what, BE SAFE and practice SAFETY PROCEDURES and if you don't know what these are, don't go out on the ice!
If you have an ice report or are interested in a skate this winter, use the contact tab off the Home page. Winter has indeed arrived to the Midwest. If you have an ice or snow report, drop me a line. The canal area didn't get that much snow, and the forecasts are for cold weather towards the Christmas holiday period. In other news, California's Greg Long edged overtook Kelly Slater to win yesterday's big wave surfing competition in Hawaii (see my last post). Slater had a recurring role on the syndicated television series, Baywatch, which, say what you will about its cultural and dramatic merits, it was a huge success internationally and this eased the US' trade deficit and helped with the country's balance of payments. (ps for those of you in the freezing cold aftermath of the storm--watch the clip, think warm weather!)
Not a skating race, but winter weather systems bring on epic surfing competitions. While it was a possibility that Mavericks was going to be held this week, they opted to not attempt to hold it in this window of opportunity due to a shift in weather forecasts. But the Quicksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau at Waimea Bay is on today. The surfers had gathered in hopes of the event, with the 28 competitors having flown in (if they weren't already in Hawaii). Mavericks only gives 24 hours for the competitors to fly in from around the globe to be at the competition, which is held at a special break off the coast of California south of San Francisco. Illinoistocht should be giving more than 24 hours notice. In the meantime, here's an article about the Quiksilver in Hawaii (it's ON actually today, the article in the NYTimes was written yesterday), or check out the webcast on the link above.
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Editor - JimThis blog weighs in on topics such as long-distance skating, the Illinois canals, cycling, and a variety of related (and occasionally not-so-related) topics. I'd like to correspond with others interested in skating the Hennepin and I&M canals. Archives
November 2020
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