Regina neighbourhood transforms Wascana Creek into ice rink

One Regina neighbourhood is doing all it can to have wintertime fun during the pandemic.

People living on Regina Avenue on the bank of Wascana Creek have transformed it into a skating rink.

Craik Wotherspoon lives just a couple of blocks away from the lake. He started shovelling and flooding the ice last year as a way to have fun with his seven grandsons. While this year’s ice has only been thick enough for about a week, he already has got plenty of use out of it.

“This has been used almost daily, sometimes twice a day,” he said.

Wotherspoon sees it as a great opportunity to keep in touch with his family.

“We used to get together on a regular basis,” he said. “Well, we haven’t had anybody to the house since August. How do you maintain connections and relations?'”

It also has been a good way to meet his neighbours from a safe distance.

Many other people along the same stretch of the creek have also shovelled snow off the ice and used it as a skating rink. There is even an area where pathways are shovelled into the snow, made to guide the skater along a set path.

“It’s a credit to the community here that they’ve gone and done that,” Wotherspoon said. “You’re meeting so many people when you come down, (even though) everybody’s still distancing.”

Of course, safety is always at the top of mind. He limits his stretch of ice to only eight people on at a time, and makes sure people from different households stay apart.

COVID isn’t the only thing to consider when it comes to safety: Ice can be dangerous if it isn’t thick enough.

However, Wotherspoon regularly tests the ice. On Friday, the high temperature was 1 C, but the ice was still five inches thick.