Tom Snoek, lead hand at the Sun Bowl Arena, places a vinyl sheet with the KIJHL logo on the ice in this file photo from last summer. After it’s in place, another inch and a quarter of ice goes on top. The arena reopened on July 17, providing a cool retreat from the hot summer sun. (Richard McGuire file photo)
The Sun Bowl Arena in Osoyoos is back in operation after being closed in May to conduct annual maintenance upgrades and to get ready for a busy summer season.
Town of Osoyoos personnel were still flooding the rink last week getting ready for Friday’s opening.
“The rink is open, all the logos are on there, all that fun stuff, and it looks really good,” said Gerald Davis, director of community services.
Osoyoos is one of the few smaller communities to open its ice surface during the summer. This results in a number of sports training camps and activities bringing people from out of town to use the ice surface.
Kelowna, Penticton and Summerland also open their arenas during the summer, but Oliver and other smaller communities do not, Davis said.
“There’s been a long history of summer programs,” said Davis. “I think people come here for their holidays and they come to the lake and their child is in a hockey camp or something. That’s been the history. You can’t go to too many places and go skating in the morning or the afternoon and go jump in the lake, especially when it’s so nice and beautiful.”
The Sun Bowl Arena first opened in October 1974.
In addition to the summer camps, public skating and stick ‘n puck for children aged six to 16 have also resumed, mainly on weekends.
A schedule is available on the Town of Osoyoos website at http://www.osoyoos.ca/content/sun-bowl-arena.
Public skating is sponsored by the Rotary Club of Osoyoos.
Davis said there was regular maintenance, including an overhaul of the compressors, during the shutdown, but there were no major upgrades.
The town still has $25,000 for arena upgrades received from Kraft Hockeyville for placing among the finalists last year, but Davis said the town has another year to determine how the money can best be spent. A new recreation board will consider the options.
“There’s a ton of little things that we can do,” he said. “But right now there’s the sound system that is in great working order, we did some minor repairs on our clock and it still is a really good clock, so right now there’s nothing major.”
Most of the camps operating this year are the same as previous years except that the Audrey Bakewell Power Skating Camp won’t operate here this year.
New this year are:
- Coyotes Summer Camp – July 17-19
- Nighthawks Mini Camp – Aug. 19-21
- Xcel Camp – July 20-30, Aug. 4 and 6, Aug 10-15, Aug. 17-21 and Aug. 24-28
Returning camps are:
- The West Coast All-Stars – July 18-24, July 27, 29 and 31
- Osoyoos Hockey Camp – July 27-31
- Ringette Camp – Aug. 10-14
- BCAHA Referee Camp – Aug. 8 – 11
- Coyotes Prep Camp – Aug. 12-16
- Sun Bowl Figure Skating Club Summer School – Aug. 24-27
- Coyotes Main Camp – Aug. 27-30
- Minor Hockey Conditioning Camp – Aug. 24-27.
RICHARD McGUIRE
Osoyoos Times
