Year of Sport 2022 Eric Salmela reveals professional secrets – this creates the shiny slippery ice of the terrible Nokia Arena

Tampere

If the quality of the water in Tampere would be even slightly worse, the Nokia arena, which will host the World Championships for the Lions next spring, could hide a water facility.

Arena master Eric Salmela says the water utility was in talk when the arena was built, but the city ‘s water was considered good enough. Salmela adds that the decision was not his.

Water quality is a key part of Salmela’s work. He is responsible for the ice both in the Tampere league games and in the Lions’ home games.

According to Salmela, the temperature of the ice, the humidity percentage, the dew point and the quality of the water decide about 90 percent of what the ice will look like. The standard for the surface temperature of the ice is -5 degrees, for the humidity point 50-55 percent and for the dew point 1-2 degrees. The dew point is the temperature at which water vapor in the air begins to condense into water.

The water, on the other hand, is different in every city. There are differences in lake water, for example chlorine may have been added to the water. Everything affects how water behaves when it freezes.

When 90 per cent of the things that affect the ice are in order, the last ten per cent of the treatment begins. And if you imagine making ice without worrying about putting large amounts of water in the trough, it’s time to update your knowledge.

In the Nokia arena, the thickness of the ice is 30-35 millimeters. When ice was first made at the turn of November-December, Salmela estimated that water was poured on the ice about a hundred times. So a dozen times per three millimeters of ice.

“In many halls in Finland, a fire hose is taken and allowed to go. Let’s go to the office waiting for it to freeze. An hour later it is stated that it is not yet ice, let’s go back for coffee. When it is finally frozen, another layer, ”says Salmela.

“Ice is much more durable when you do nothing on small layers and save nothing over time. In fact, ice can be grown faster if you make thin layers. That’s when the ice freezes faster, and you can constantly do it, ”says Salmela.

Also associated with durability is the use of water at about 60 degrees. The oxygen content of the water is then lower, which makes the ice more durable. If the ice is made with too much oxygenated water, more grooves and snow will appear on the field when skating.

The ice machines in the arena also support the icing of thin layers in Tampere. In older ice machine models, the water is drained from a pipe perforated in the ice, followed by a “rag” spread by the water. In the Nokia Arena Fast ice system, water is sprayed into the ice surface in small droplets.

“When the small droplets freeze together, the ice becomes tougher and freezes faster. Almost immediately. ”

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“I took the seat and started bustling with the plane.”

Salmelan the journey to the Nokia arena has been through coincidences on the one hand and stable design on the other.

The son of a Toian mother and a Rowan father was born in the United States, where the parents had previously moved and where they have lived for more than 50 years ever since. The connection to Finland was strong, for example, through the uncle’s farm in Ruovesi. There, Eric Salmela spent summers since he was a little boy helping with farm work.

Prior to beginning his ice rink career, Salmela repaired fighter engines for the U.S. Air Force and was a maintenance man on the transport aircraft.

Salmela got her first job at the ice rink in 1993 after filling out an application form at the ice rink, where she was applying for her little brother for training. Salmela was in need of more information at that point, and in a few weeks the phone rang. An ice machine driver’s seat was available in the hall in New York.

“I wondered why it was offered when I didn’t know anything about the machine. I said I couldn’t use one, but they promised to teach. I took the seat and started to fuss with the machine, ”says Salmela.

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“You always have to do your best.”

Quickly The idea came to Salmela that ice could be made even in brighter lights, in NHL circles. Things progressed when the workplace had to upgrade equipment. One of the acquisitions was a water treatment system from a company called Jet Ice. The company’s CEO was Doug Moore, who also served as the NHL’s ice guard.

Through Moore, Salmela got to practice making ice. To Madison Square Garden. From there, Salmela’s journey continued as an ice champion at the Philadelphia Flyers ’Spectrum Arena.

From Philadelphia, the journey continued in the heat to California. Salmela worked at the Anaheim Ducks home hall at the Honda Center from 1996 to 2003.

When she left Anaheim, Salmela already knew she wanted to move to Finland.

While looking for a job, he still worked for a year in New York for the Islanders farm team. In 2004, Salmela joined Icecat, a manufacturer of ice machines operating in Jyväskylä.

In 2011 Salmela joined Metro Arena in Espoo. At that point, a new arena was already planned for Tampere. The first plans for a hall to be built on the track were announced in 2009.

“I contacted me for the first time in 2009. It was then talked about that 2012 would be ready. I have been involved in some way all the time. At least once a year I put in an email that I’m still interested in. ”

In 2009, the arena project was led by Keskusareena oy. In 2014, the City of Tampere announced that it would also start negotiating an arena project with others that had not progressed. The current background company is KOY Tampereen Multipurpose Arena. Salmela’s interest remained unchanged after more than a decade of first acquaintances and she took office last spring. Tampere is a natural place to settle down, because in addition to the new arena, the city is the hometown of Salmela’s wife.

In addition to hockey teams, the Nokia Arena hosts concerts and other events. According to Salmela, it inevitably means making compromises at work.

“When you’re in a hurry to build the next event, you have to compromise on ice maintenance. If you have six hours to build the concert, you can’t stay for two hours to put ice on. The ice is run once and then covered.”

“Whenever the ice is covered, we try to cover it in the best possible condition, because then there is no need to do so much work when the ice is put back into use.”

Covering also requires professionalism.

The ice under the plates must not be too cold to crack or too warm to start melting.

Should a crack occur, it would be treated by melting the ice enough to catch the crack.

“The crack itself isn’t dangerous, but if it starts to come off, it’s bad.”

The arena master’s worst enemy of events that take advantage of the legacy is red wine. Most of the dirt can be removed from the ice by planing, but liquids are a separate matter.

“Red wine is probably the worst of all, coffee is bad too. Covering the ice takes some liquid, but it has cracks and the liquid always finds its way down. When there is a coin-sized western red wine inside the ice, it has to be manually dug out of it. ”

Salmela himself has not skated on the ice he made for the Nokia arena. He has a puck background in juniors and hobby series. In his previous jobs, he has occasionally pulled the hookers off his feet, but not yet in Tampere.

“It doesn’t really interest me when I spend so much time around the field. After work, he just wants to get home from there, ”says Salmela.

According to Salmela, the feedback has been commendable. The puck moves smoothly and there are strong players who can make decisions at a fast pace. The goal is to make the ice fast.

Although the start has been promising, Salmela says she is constantly working to improve. Even if the arena’s home team is a more breaking party in the match and would benefit from the difficult construction of the game on poor ice, it is not worth asking Salmela for help in creating a bounce field.

“I wouldn’t be able to. That would be difficult. This can be compared to a golf course. In the top field, one can ask the caregiver to skip the longer grass. They can’t do it either. ”

“You always have to do your best. For those with speed and disc handling skills, ice is definitely an advantage and the field is the same for everyone. ”