So a time honoured tradition in Canada is the playing of 'shinny.' For our American friends and/or those who are not familiar with this term shinny is where you play hockey with only your skates and a stick you do not wear full equipment at one of the outdoor rinks that are all over the place in Edmonton. Every self-respecting community should have at least one outdoor hockey rink and it is where everyone who wants to play gets together to have a game. Very similar idea to pick-up basketball except often local kids or others who are just there that you don't know join in the game. Often it is played without goalies and to score a goal you have to try to hit only the crossbar or one of the 2 posts otherwise it would be to easy to score.
Anyways, enough about explanations, I think shinny is one of the top reasons I love living in Edmonton. It seems like it's the equivalent of shopping for women or "shopping therapy." Many times I've lost myself chasing after the rubber disc for a few hours completely forgetting about the stresses of school, work and everything else. With summer comes new great opportunities to get outside but I am always a little sad to see all of the outdoor rinks melt away. Especially the in between time where it's too warm to skate on the ice but still too cold to do anything else outside.
Recently I read an article talking about how outdoor hockey is being threatened by global warming. Personally I thought it was another example of bored academics with nothing else to write about trying to create tempests in tea cups (I mean never mind that we might lose entire cites to rising sea levels or important agricultural land in Africa ... we might lose our outdoor rinks!! ... That's unacceptable). But it did make me think if the outdoor rinks were no more I think I would definitely be more inclined to get me out of Edmonton.
4 comments:
Hey sorry I had some pictures that I wanted to add but my computer is not cooperating for some reason. I will try to add them later from a different computer.
I've never play a game of shinny but i sure love knowing that its brought you such happy times. I have good memories of doing the 'spiral' and the 'flat iron' on my figure skates under the stars at Capilano rink back in the day...
sooo fun. another figure skating memory is when aunt Di taught me to spin when we were at the rink at Queen Elizabeth park, and another rink on the lawn memory is the awesome rink Dad and Jord and Beej and Ian and Rico? made in our Brander yard:) it was soooo fun to strap on our skates right on the porch and spin around in the area where the trampoline was in summer. :) fun fun fun
"Tempests in tea cups" - what a great idiom.
Getting on the ice when the sun is shining and it seems like the ice and snow around it are glowing is an amazing experience.
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