What's going on with the ice at the Scotties? How crews got conditions back up to snuff
Plenty of work goes into making the surface and maintaining it for the Canadian women's championship
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The trouble with ice is that it’s so darn finicky. Curlers know that well in trying to work in tandem with it, as we’ve seen in the frustration of competitors early on at the 2025 Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Thunder Bay, Ont.
So just how do icemakers generate ideal ice, especially in an arena and for the world’s elite players?
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What's going on with the ice at the Scotties? How crews got conditions back up to snuff Back to video
Very carefully, as it turns out, with many details to consider in the process and players at that level expecting the best surface possible these days.
“The hockey ice is still here,” head ice technician Tom Leonard, Curling Canada’s choice out of Sudbury, Ont., told TBNewsWatch.com in the hours ahead of the Scotties. “What we do is we come in, we take a laser level, we cut the highs with the Zamboni, do dry cuts … and then we flood on top of the hockey ice. Then we purify the water, treat it with a jet-ice purification system, paint it, logo it, cut the circles, paint the circles, foam all the sheets out and start flooding.”
And then comes maintenance throughout the event, with so many factors contributing to that exercise.
Among them are the temperature outdoors, the heating and cooling systems inside the building, any perceived slant of the building that affects the levelness of the ice surface and — in particular for major events such as the Scotties — how many fans are in the stands.
“It’s what the rocks travel on,” Leonard told TBNewsWatch.com of the ice. “It has to be consistent. So whatever we start with at the beginning of the week, it has to be there at the end of the week to the best of our abilities. What we don’t want the players to go through is a roller-coaster of ice conditions, from fast one game to slow the next or lots of curl one game to no curl the next game.
“We want to find a nice consistency that is going to allow the players to showcase their talent.”
After all, that’s why we are tuning into the Scotties.
“Ideal ice allows for a player in a big event to expect what’s going to happen just allows them to perform better,” said five-time Olympic curling coach Paul Webster. “Our best teams and the team that’s going to win the Scotties this week is going to be the team that goes with the flow of the ice and catches any changes before their opponents do.
“And really it’s not just catching the changes but accepting them and integrating them into their game plan.”
WHAT’S BEEN THE TROUBLE IN T-BAY?
The temperature inside smallish Fort William Gardens warmed up throughout Friday’s first day, heating up the ice that created some unpredictable paths for the players in both speed and curl.
The colder the surface, the more curl there is.
Straight paths can be a players’ worst enemy, hurting the strategies that make them world-class athletes — and that issue continued throughout most of the weekend.
“It’s fairly straight just kind of everywhere, and then in some spots, it’s more straight than others,” said reigning Scotties champ and Canada skip Rachel Homan. “You have to stay on top of every shot, because it can be a bit challenging, for sure.
“Definitely it’s a lot harder (on us mentally) — things are more challenging, for sure. There’s a lot more things to think about and a lot more things to take into account. So it can be more draining, for sure.”
Then came a few other obstacles to overcome, including some sort of liquid on the ice Saturday night — perhaps leaking from overhead — that mucked up broom-heads, turning them “grubby” or black and forcing teams to have to switch out their brooms while the ice crew executed a quick clean-up.
“It just looked like oil on the ice,” Homan said. “And every time we swept it, there was just black all over everyone’s brooms. They mopped it, and most of it went away. They did a great job managing the ice.
“Things happen, and you just adapt and move on.”
HOW HAS IT CHANGED FOR THE BETTER?
Over the weekend, Leonard and his crew worked their magic to get ice conditions back up to snuff, working on the surface and stabilizing the temperature inside the arena to put the curl back into the ice.
And ahead of Monday’s draws, they sandpapered the rocks to allow for more curl, further helping to put strategy back in the hands of the curlers.
“We actually found some curl in there,” beamed Manitoba skip Kerri Einarson on Sunday night. “Speed was great. And it was curling a couple of feet more, so that’s good.”
“The ice was the best it’s been for our draw today,” agreed Québec lead Lisa Weagle on Monday. “They textured the rocks this morning, and we had more curl. I think there are some challenges with the temperature in the building, and we know the ice crew is doing everything they can to create championship conditions for the teams.”
Added Alberta skip Kayla Skrlik on Monday. “It’s definitely getting better. More curl in it, for sure, which is great.”
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