Saskatoon man's homemade Zamboni keeps hockey rink alive

Saskatoon Morning host Leisha Grebinski caught up with Basarabaat Achs Park's skating rink, at the corner of ElmStreet and McPherson Avenue in Saskatoon'sExhibition neighbourhood.

Leisha Grebinski(LG): What kind of a gathering spot is it for the community?

Dan Basaraba (DB): It's a place for people of all ages to use, all skill levels to use. We have a lot of older folks who come out but we also have a lot of kids in the neighbourhood who are starting to use it asthe exhibition seems to be in a growing stage and there's a lot of younger families coming through this area.

LG: What's your role as rink-keeper?

DB:There's a lot of hats that I wear ... its mainly maintenance, shoveling the rink, resurfacing the rink, flooding the rink with a fire hose. But there's also other things where you pick up garbage around the park, you make signs for other events, we got some hockey nets this year, keeping the snow blower running... but if we keep it in tip top shape people seem to respect that and we don't get damages or people chewing up the ice too badly.

LG: So, how dedicated are you?

DB: I would say I am a little bit over the top. You can ask my wife about that or look at my calendar where I keep my hours, but, I figure if we're going to be crazy enough to come out here in the middle of winter, we might as well do it right ... Itend to go a little bit over board to make sure it is nice and smooth for everybody to use.

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LG: What's it like here on a Friday night? You were saying you guys have a pick-up hockey game on Fridays...

DB: It's just all ages, all skill levels. If you're willing to put on your skates and you got a stick, even if you don't have a stick, we've probably got one here for you ... we just have a fun game of hockey. Sometimes we have goalies in full equipment sometimes we just shoot at cow bells.

Basaraba uses a homemade Zamboni to maintain the ice. Hisfriend and assistant at the rink built using a CanadianTire industrial garden cart to hold the 35 gallons of water in the tank, which ishooked up through PVC pipe that comes out the back of the wagon and is heated using a farming horse water heater. It keeps the water at 60-70 degrees.

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LG: So what is this?

DB:This is our makeshift Zamboni ... This has been a real game-changer for us...It really just changed everything about the ice. When we were flooding with a garden hose the ice tended to shard off, and almost turned into shale after people were skating on it. It was a lot slower ice. Now we have very fast ice and it is very smooth. It is one of our most useful tools.

LG: It's a family affair for you, right? Your very small children are out there as well?

DB: Absolutely. My oldest daughter, she is almost five-years-old now, she rides the Zamboni and has been doing that for the past couple years since she's been able to stand ... she's been riding it as I pull it a long the ice ... even my youngest daughter, who is just a year old, I have kind of attached her to myself as I shovel the ice, she's on a toboggan. They really love the park. I am a really big believer in getting your kids outside, as long as it's not too cold.

LG: What are some of your own memories of being a child, out at the outdoor rinks?

DB:We lived on an outdoor rink. I think I spent more time on skates, before I was 15, than I did not on skates...we had a really great group of guys and girls who didn't necessarily take it too seriously, it was all about having fun, and we just stuck together... we were always on the ice, all the time.

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LG: Describe the feeling that you get when you see people out on this rink that you are up-keeping here. What's that like for you?

DB: I just liked to see that our community is using the rink and its good to know that other people get that feeling.I get people telling me 'I didn't even know that people did this anymore' ... ninetimes out of 10 when somebody gets out here they don't want to leave.

LG: What does a hockey player like Gordie Howe mean to someone like you?

DB: Proud to have Mr. Hockey be from Saskatoon. I have heard a lot of stories about Gordie Howe and where he is from and you know, it just makes me proud to know that one of the best hockey players to ever play the game came from Saskatoon.I've seen him in person, I have never got to meet him. I just think he is a great person to represent Saskatoon. It says a lot about our city and our hockey and our skating and just our outdoor lifestyle because I am sure when he was growing up there was no indoor rinks. I am sure he played on an outdoor rink.

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LG: What is this memento of him?

DB: This is a keepsake I got. A friend of the family knew I was kind of a big hockey fan, and he got this print signed for me, it says 'Hello Danny, best always. Gordie Howe'. I framed it a long time ago, and its followed me all around and I have always had it and it is something very special to me because it is Gordie Howe. He is an icon, he's a legend. It is just something I am very proud to have.