In Nieuw-Buinen you can skate for the first time this year. The ice rink is open this morning.
“It was exciting for a long time to succeed,” said Monique Wessels of IJsvereniging Nieuw-Buinen. After a testing, the first skaters were able to go on the ice. There is about an inch ice on the track.
In both Nieuw-Buinen and Noordlaren, we worked hard last night to give the inhabitants a moment of skating pleasure today. A layer of water has been sprayed on the ice rinks in the villages.
Last night there was moderate prince, around -7 degrees. Reason enough for the ice master of the Hondsrug ice club in Noordlaren, just over the provincial border, to make an attempt to open today.
Volunteers were busy creating an ice layer all night. They do this with the help of a tractor.
Nieuw-Buinen now has a thin ice floor on the track on the Zuiderdiep. From this morning 4 hours a tractor with a tank with water drove over the ice floor. A total of 35,000 liters of water was sprayed on the ice rink.
When asked whether Nieuw Buinen is also participating in the battle for the NK on Natuurijs, the organization announces that this is not the approach of the skating association Nieuw-Buinen this year. “No, it is very nice that the members can do their laps on a nice smooth ice floor. Maybe if we are lucky even a few days”. Even today, around 25 volunteers are launched to get and keep the track in perfect time.
UPDATE: Both the Baan in Nieuw-Buinen and in Noordlaren will open to the public at 9 o’clock this morning. How long there can be skating depends on the quality of the ice and how quickly it will thaw.