Keeping cool under pressure

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This article was published 09/11/2021 (1672 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Eric Montford sat rinkside at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, and once again during the 2018 in Pyeongchang, South Korea watching Canadian curlers glide across the ice­ — his ice.­­

“You’re always on pins and needles … if the ice is going to do what you want it to do,” Montford said. “You’re under pressure. You got the world watching.”

The 59-year-old long time Crestview resident, who now lives in Oak Bluff, was in charge of the playing surface, from the initial flood to the upkeep and monitoring.

Montford flooded his first curling rink in the 1980s.

“I’d been working part time at the curling club for a hamburger a day maybe, and I ended up being the ice maker,” he said.

Montford moved up the national ice making ranks after joining the Manitoba Curling Association, which led to contracts for the Scotties Tournament of Hearts and the Tim Hortons Brier. Along the way,

Montford trained Greg Ewasko, a celebrated icemaker for Curling Canada.

Of all the competitions he’s been a part of, the 2010 Vancouver Olympics captivated him the most.

“I don’t think the energy will ever be matched that was in that room. It was just incredible,” Montford said.

Montford was offered a position to do the ice for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, but chose to step aside.

“I just recently decided that that’s enough — it’s time to let the young guys like Matt do it,” Montford said.

Matt Rankine is Montford’s 34-year-old nephew. Montford is a refrigeration mechanic with his uncle’s company, Northwest Ventilation, and already has almost two decades of ice-making experience behind him.

Rankine started helping out with Assiniboine Memorial Curling Club’s ice as a young teen, training under his uncle, and took over when he was 21 years old.

“As you go, you start doing more and more, start getting paid, start getting better events,” Rankine said.

Rankine has done the ice for Olympic mixed-doubles trials, as well as provincial curling championships for the last eight years. He sometimes works alongside Ewasko.

More recently, Rankine helped make ice for the 2021 World Men’s Curling Championship in Calgary, Alta.

There’s much to consider when maintaining a rink, but Rankine details the process with a casual air.

Even the humidity from the breath of a crowd can affect ice’s integrity, Montford said.

Sand rests underneath the eight layers of ice that make up Assiniboine Memorial Curling Club’s rink.

To get milkly-white ice the curlers use as their stage, Rankine must first level the surface before carefully pouring the first coat.

With the help of a few pals, and sometimes pizza and beer, Rankine places perforated vinyl decals and lines made of yarn on top of a sheet of ice that has been painted white.

Then, the job is complete — that is, until the first team takes to the ice. The surface must be pebbled before each game, a process that entails spraying drops of hot water onto the ice to give it texture, which allows the rocks to glide.  

From mid-August to April, Rankine can often be found at a rink, busy taking care of the ice, whether it be at his home club, or others across Manitoba and Canada.

“I went from 14, pushing a mop here, to this year … I’m doing the Brier,” Rankine said.