On the Zamboni

Zambonies really deserve their own picture. A Zamboni is a big machine that smoothes the ice between periods in a hockey game or after the skaters have really roughed it up after a long practice or whatever. It looks like a big box with wheels but underneath it has a heating element that melts the surface and a brush to even out the rough spots. The ice re-freezes in about five minutes into a perfect mirror finish. This particularly important for indoor rinks, but I’ve seen them used outside as well. Hockey players are particularly hard on ice, and they often leave huge ruts when they stop or turn. A two hundred and fifty pound player can leave enormous gauges in the ice. Playing or skating on bad ice is no fun. What is so interesting about the Zamboni is how quiet and peaceful they are as they make their way across the ice, and the beautiful arcing turns they make at the end of the ice. They can turn on a dime and seem to lightly glide over the ice as they spin on their axis. The Zamboni drivers take their seemingly existential task so seriously, but they drive so serenely, covering every inch of ice, calmly overlapping the previous pass just a little so they won’t miss even the smallest wedge of ice. Of course, Zamboni driver is a thankless task because everyone has to wait for you to finish. You make the surface better, and it is one of life’s little pleasures to be one of the first skaters to glide over that mirror-like surface before it gets all messed up again. So this is an endless task: just as you finish, the skaters take to the ice to mess it up all over again. So if you watch figure skating and the ice is perfect, just remember, there is an unthanked Zamboni driver somewhere in the building.