How to Maintain a Community Ice Rink During Winter

In 1961, a young man named Jens Peder Hansen lived in Vojens. He wanted to try skating again on a frozen lake. He had a natural talent for skating, it turned out, and the boys quickly flocked to him and wanted to learn too, and they started playing ice hockey on the lake. Now it was so lucky that Vojens had Brødrene Gram ~Brothers Gram – a refrigerator factory, and they needed some kind of showcase to present their abilities. They offered the municipality to pay for an outdoor artificially frozen ice rink, which the municipality gratefully accepted. An ice hockey club was formed and in October 1963 the rink was inaugurated.

In Denmark, club life in all kinds of clubs is based on volunteer work. Be it an ice hockey club, a tennis club, a stamp club, a bridge club or something else. This makes it financially possible for most people to join a club and pay an affordable membership fee. But I also see it this way: if you have received something from a club, you are more or less obligated to give something back. I have, since I was 16, and that was a few days ago.

Jens Peder Hansen became the first chairman of Vojens Ice Hockey Klub, VIK, and remained so for many years. He was the driving force – he was chairman, he was goalie for the best team and coached many of the teams, and the boys loved him. It was not considered healthy for girls to play ice hockey, and that was the case for many years. If you had not behaved properly, been a bad friend or just played badly, the punishment was at least ten push-ups. The punishment was given with a smile and, as I said, the boys loved Jens Peder for it.

An outdoor artificial ice rink is of course nice but not ideal. You are dependent on the temperature outside, rain and wind, and Denmark is a country where the temperature fluctuates around zero degrees. In 1973, an indoor arena was inaugurated, and then things progressed quickly, and VIK won the Danish championship in 1979, 1980 and 1982. There were also demands for better quality in the game with the puck and together with the other Danish clubs they began to import individual players from abroad. In 1997, Vojens Lions was formed as a semi-professional department of VIK, but it went bankrupt after just a few years. Sønderjysk Elitesport or SønderjyskE was founded, which is a fully professional superstructure for VIK, and it has been running well for many years now. In 2011, a new Arena was inaugurated with space for 5,000 spectators, and the two halls now form the framework for ice hockey, figure skating and curling. SønderjyskE is also active within Football and handball for both men and women, They also play in the top leagues Iin DenmarkWhen you go to a hockey game, you are met with a fantastic atmosphere. Our arena probably has the highest decibel level in Denmark. The spectators shout the regular battle songs and a team of up to 4 drums accompanies the songs. You boo the opponent’s fellow fans, but it is no worse than you, between 2 periods, can compete to shoot at the goal with a children’s puck, or after the game you can drink a beer with the opponent’s fans and have a nice chat. However, there are teams in Denmark where the their fans must first be put on buses and driven away before the rest of us are let out.

 

 

Use continuous autofocus mode (AF-C) to track players as they move across the ice. Anticipate action, focusing on key moments such as breakaways, goals, and fights. Investing time in understanding players’ movements and positions can lead to a higher success rate in capturing dynamic shots. 

On my Blog page, I have an article about my sport photography.