After the skating association KNSB made a call last year because there was a threat of a shortage of volunteers who take care of natural ice rinks during frost, more than four hundred new ice masters have now been trained. In total there are now more than 2500 natural ice masters, the association reports.
More than 450 natural ice associations are affiliated with the association, which turn, for example, skating rinks, lakes and places with open water in the forest into natural ice rinks in the winter when it freezes. Before it starts freezing, a team of trained natural ice masters and other volunteers must be ready to turn it into an ice rink, according to the union.
‘Without ice masters, no natural ice rinks’
Due to the aging of the legion of the existing ice masters, a recruitment campaign was necessary, which was held in collaboration with Unox. According to Liane Lens of the company, the call was responded to en masse. “More than 800 people wanted to follow the training.” Rieks Poelman of the KNSB thinks it is important that the possibility to skate on natural ice is preserved. “Without ice masters, no natural ice rinks or safe ice tracks.”
In the coming days, the new ice masters can get to work preparing natural ice rinks in the Netherlands, according to the skating association. “If we can believe the predictions, we can skate in many places in the coming week.” The so-called combi jobs have the best chance of success, according to the KNSB. These are asphalt tracks that are usually used for rollerblading. Here, water is sprayed on layer by layer. This is faster than the traditional filling of a meadow.