brobible.com: If you’re a hockey fan who’s ever relied on an NHL.TV to catch a game, then you’re likely very, very, very familiar with some of the work that goes into preparing and maintaining a hockey rink courtesy of the infinitely looping clip of people doing things like laying down tape and spraying the ice that gets queued up whenever the stream cuts to commercial.
6 comments:
That clip is so much fun to watch and I love the little big of insight that it gives to a process that I'm pretty sure most people are not aware of. I am not particularly a hockey fan, I really don't know much about the sport at all. However I always appreciate a satisfying video. And this team of workers really look like they have this system down. It makes me wonder some really niche questions. Like how many times a year do they have to go through this process? Is there more paint that goes on different layers of the ice? How did they make the stencil, and how often do they have to replace it? So many questions that seemed from a very satisfying paining video. I loved this little dip into the world of Hockey and it made me curious about the "backstage" world about sports. What other little aspects about sports arenas and teams and games are rarely seen but oh so interesting?
Hockey is not my sport of choice normally but I thought this was super interesting. I've always wondered about the science and tech behind the ice creation/maintenance and honestly never even considered the painting part of it. I'm sure that is how some people feel watching theatre, that they never would have even thought about who actually paints the set or sweeps the stage. The video they included was neat to watch and made me curious about the background of the folks working on the painting. I don't know if they are trained in facilities or maintenance or even art but the upkeep seems more enjoyable than other venues I would assume. I have seen football fields painted before which is also satisfying but the added component of ice is a new skill set i wouldn't have thought about. It brought up other questions for me about how big a job all the paint and ice work these people have to do throughout the season.
Believe it or not, I got that exact video on my TikTok for you page literally this morning. I don't even watch hockey religiously, I'm just fond of it from time to time. I did watch a fair amount of hockey this summer, though (read: two games, which is more than any I had watched in my entire life before put together) because my housemate is from North Carolina and he is a big Hurricanes fan, so I watched a couple of games with him. For some reason, hockey has always had more appeal to me than a lot of other sports, so it was pretty fun. All told, I enjoyed this clip a lot! It was really satisfying to watch, though I wish they had included a version of it that was not sped up. I have always loved "the way things work" type of content, so this was both entertaining and educational in its own sense. Ten out of ten definitely recommend.
I was actually aware of the hand painting of the floor. I have family in NC who are season ticket holders for the Carolina Hurricanes, and they took me once to an event where they picked their seats for the season. Part of what was happening, was the painting of the floor and I found it very cool. It’s amazing think how much work goes into getting the floors to look the way that they do. Plus the floors don’t remain the same throughout the season. For something like the Stanley Cup they’re repainted with the logo for the Stanley Cup, and different sponsors get painted onto the floor as well. This makes me think of how in so many industries we never really get to see how something gets done, both in who does it and how much attention to detail it takes. I can’t imagine messing up and having to start over.
This was such an interesting process to watch. I would have loved to see an overall time lapse of the process. I have seen several similar videos like this one in the past, with a bird’s eye time lapse of the whole process. The interesting thing to me there is that in most of the videos of this that I have seen in the past, they usually freeze at least a couple layers of water down to the court before they do the base white layer, and then they freeze another layer of water over the white before they put down the lines and the decals, then freeze several more layers of water on top. It does make me curious as to whether or not the order in which the water and paint are added will affect the final outcome of the job. At least with putting a couple layers of ice down before the paint, I feel like it would be much easier to remove the paint for a rebranding or prepping for a new game. That being said, having concrete as a substrate, maybe the paint sticks better. I have several questions about the process, but no real way of answering them. I guess some things will stay a mystery to me forever.
The fact that the ice isn’t white to begin with was the biggest culture shock I have experienced in a LONG time. I’m still reeling from that. What I wonder is the kind of paint they’re using? I don’t know if they coat the whole rink in anything or not after painting. I would imagine that paint that has just the wrong texture could be disastrous when someone is ice skating on it. It’s truly astounding that everything is hand-painted, including all of the lines and markings. You would think it would be something akin to the way they paint road lines. The stencil for the logo is super effective - I would imagine it’s covered in some kind of graphite with a slight indentation on the front to make the marks when it’s pressed into the ice. I guess for that kind of intricacy, you would have no choice but to hand paint it. A humongous stamp is just impractical. … Also.. THE ICE ISN’T WHITE?? My best friend since childhood was a champion figure skater. And yet I never knew the ice isn't white.
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