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10pm - Both the hockey and pleasure sides had compressor power directed to them. In past years, West Mall has shut down power to the leisure pad, thinking it will redirect more of the compressors 200hp to the one hockey pad. It looks like the pads had been washed down, with rime building up over night.
11pm. There was ice at Westmall. Rink staff said that they had started flooding last night and were on 6pm-2am shifts. They said they were going to be aiming to lay 5 or 6 hand floods tonight.
The drivers worried about the high of 15 degrees forecast for tomorrow - And with only two days of ice building and no over night staff, it true that the ice might not hold up well. They said an easy solution to ensuring that at least the permits would have ice, was to turn off compressor power to the leisure pad.
The rink wasn't open, but the gate was ajar, and two boys were standing by the boards talking to the rink operator. He said that they were still trying to build ice, but were hoping they might be able to open this evening or tomorrow. It was still pretty easy to see the cement. The operator said they had not done overnight floods but that yesterday they put down nine floods from late afternoon until 11 pm. He said they hadn't started until Wednesday, "but we can't come in earlier than they schedule us to come in."
I wish I could show them our 6-minute video. How good the ice is depends on the amount of water you put down during the dark hours....
Later on a foreperson told me that there's no heat at West Mall because the external connections were vandalized -- and no hot water for the zamboni either.
In fact, Westmall didn't get to open on opening day. Nor the day after . By comparison, Dufferin Rink (which had over night flooding) was open on Nov 24th for the morning, and then again, in the evening.
The rink was posted on the city website as opened on the hockey side only.
Westmall rink reopens both pads