Winnipeg Vs. Ottawa
 

Winnipeg takes aim at Ottawa's longest rink record

The Canadian Press

January 11, 2008 at 6:11 AM EST

WINNIPEG — In the 2008 edition of the race to be home to the world's longest skating rink, Winnipeg is about to take an early lead on Ottawa.

And yet, both cities face challenges before either can officially declare itself the champion.

At 6 p.m. Friday, a 1.5-kilometre stretch of the Assiniboine River between The Forks and the Osborne Street bridge will open for public skating, complete with skate-change areas, benches and fire pots for warmth.

It is the first section of a trail officials hope will be, by season's end, an eight-kilometre ribbon of properly flooded and smoothed ice, stretching along the Assiniboine from Omand's Creek to The Forks and then about two kilometres north on the Red River to Voyageur Park.

This winter marks the first time in the 20-year history of public skating on Winnipeg's rivers that the city will make a concerted effort to produce a longer skating rink than the Rideau Canal Skateway in the national capital, officials say.

With its views of the Chateau Laurier hotel and Parliament Hill, the 7.8-kilometre Rideau skateway, registered as the world's largest naturally frozen ice surface by Guinness World Records, is better-known by Canadians as a winter attraction than Winnipeg's trail.

I have had the opportunity to skate on both and I think they are both very unique with respect to winter attractions. One thing I am very impressed about the set up in Winnipeg is at the Forks on the Assiniboine there is also a large hockey rink (with lines and nets, but on snow around the edge), a couple of curling lanes, and an expanded skating area. All of this in addition to skating rink and paths on land around the forks buildings.

WOW were did this come from? this belongs in the canada section...

But the Rideau Canal has BeaverTail stands!

?

I think this is long overdue. The Canal in Ottawa is very well known. Hopefully this will give the River Trail a much needed marketing boost. If it does surpass Ottawa, let's hope Canada AM etc. run a story or two, for some national coverage. I suppose making Guinness would help greatly.

I've been to the canal as well, and it certainly has the advantage of more build up, and I can't recall if they have room for expansion. Do they not have a lock system at one end to eliminate expansion?

One potential advantage of global warming...just kidding!

Is an outdoor body of water that freezes naturally really a "rink"?

Thunder Bay so has to paint a gigantic hockey rink on Thunder Bay. :)

(The folly of naming your town after the body of water beside which it sits.)

maybe not "per se", but this surface on the river is groomed and flooded for a smooth skating surface...

There's locks at both ends. The canal didn't open until late January last year, and closed in March. This year, it looks like the same thing's going to happen.. it's still not open yet.

Winnipeg should have the Beavertail pastry shacks posted on the river... those places make a killing.

BeaverTail stands :shrug:

Beavertail pastry shacks, hmmm....

http://wikitravel.org/upload/en/thum...Beavertail.JPG
Source

http://www.tdc.ca/beavertails.jpg
Source

Yeah Winnipeg, you guys need some beavertail stands.

Elephant Ears are better. :frog:

Can't argue with that logic...

I know. :)

:) :)

Here are some pictures of the Forks last winter where they have the hockey and curling along the skating trail.

http://www.ualberta.ca/~drogge/images/DSC02840.JPG
http://www.ualberta.ca/~drogge/images/DSC02841.JPG
http://www.ualberta.ca/~drogge/images/DSC02843.JPG

AMEN:notacrook: :banana:

some from last year :P

http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/420/hocky16lc.jpg


http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/2103/waterfun6qe.jpg


http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/7843/voya0kq.jpg


http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/3616/hocky48zf.jpg

http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/8213/board94yl.jpg

There used to be a place that sold Beavertails at the Forks Market that didn't do to well.

Maybe Winnipeg's new catch phrase could be:

"Our rivers freeze!"