‘Such a rad time!’: Here’s what goes into preparing Bend’s Pavilion for ice skating season

(Update: Adding video)

BEND, Ore (KTVZ) -- The Pavilion in Bend is officially open for the fun winter season after a weather delay pushed back its originally scheduled opening last Monday.

"We had a warm weekend, with temperatures up in the 70s, so we just wanted to wait and get more water down before we had guests come." said Drew Nordfelt, facility shift lead at The Pavilion.

This is Nordfelt's first year at The Pavilion, and he says getting the rink ready has been fun, though it’s taken a lot of hard work.

"Every day, for five or six days, we worked all the way through the night until 8 or 9e in the morning to shifts." Nordfelt said.

The process involves spraying a light mist on the ice with a six-foot-wide spray boom, putting about 56 layers down.

"We have someone holding that, then someone holding a hose, and we walk back and forth into the lake across the ice." said Pavilion Manager Clare Gordon.

Then they apply layers of white paint, using the spray boom to seal it in. Once that's complete, it's sealed with another 15 to 20 passes of the spray boom before using the Zamboni.

"We were walking probably 8 or 9 miles an hour." Nordfelt said. "It was such a rad time to be out there. Having fun and working hard!"

Ice rinks maintain the temperature of the surface ice by using a refrigeration system. It’s pumped through the pipes embedded in the concrete slab below the skating surface.

Gordon said, "Typically, we can handle days up into the 60s, but above that, it gets a little harder to hold ice."

You can check for cancellations or delays due to warmer temperatures on their website.

"We’re keeping the ice a little bit thinner, hoping to see a little bit more efficiency in our chiller system." Gordon said. "At the end of last year, we saw some positive effects from that."