The air is dry, and a chill fills the room. A cold slab is bare, ready to be covered with 250 gallons of water. A temperature of 16 degrees must be maintained at all times to preserve the integrity of the ice, which is so fragile that if thrown off balance, it can create its own atmosphere. David “Dave” Wescott handles this beast with ease as he paints, floods, and levels the ice.
Wescott has grown with the ice from a hockey player in younger days, to a role that is a pinnacle part of the game of ice hockey that is seldom talked about: the man responsible for building the ice.
Wescott is the owner of All-Star Arenas and is the Official distributor for Jet Ice paint systems for the Southeast. His journey to becoming one of the most multifaceted ice technicians in the U.S. does not start with preparing the ice but actually playing on it. He recalls his time playing in the 80s as a young man.
“I was 17, I went to a rink in Houston, Texas, and the guy hired me to help him, and that’s when they found out I was pretty good at fixing things,” he said.
It was during Westcott’s hockey career, which would take him to play across the U.S and a season in Mexico City, when hockey would become more than just a game. It would give him the foundation to become the one who builds the ice.
This opportunity would then be the stepping stone into a career in building ice rinks and take him across the world. By 2000, Westcott would be hired by USA Hockey and U.S. Figure Skating. He would go on to create the Ice Rink Operations division within these programs, but it was what he did with this opportunity that changed the world of ice rink operations.
“I go around the country teaching ice rink operations and painting,” Wescott said.
He has traveled to all 50 states, teaching people the art of ice making. With this skill, few people can do, Wescott began to make a name for himself. Through Wescott’s consistent hard work while working with USA Hockey, he was selected to work two Olympic Games — Salt Lake City in 2002 and Torino in 2006.
“I didn’t get there as a player, but I got there as the ice guy, so I’ve been very lucky that way,” Wescott said.
For Wescott, “it’s a lot more than just freezing water.”
Building the ice is a science that requires attention to detail, outside climate, and temperature.
“An ice rink creates its own atmosphere,” he explained. “If you shut off all the air conditioning and dehumidifiers, it would start raining in here because of the ice.”
There is a science to creating the ice and the building it is housed in. Beneath the rink are seven miles of pipes filled with glycol antifreeze that chills the base to 16 degrees or lower. After Wescott explains how the layers of water mixed in with the white paint are slowly added, the next lines, logos, and the final seal are. Wescott has worked with the Macon Mayhem team’s ice for 10 years and understands the difficulty of having an outside humid climate in Georgia and perfecting an ice rink inside.
“That’s why it takes three or four days to build,” Wescott said. “You have to do it layer by layer.”
Click the link here to see the full process on how they build the ice:
Ice has not only given Wescott a profession, but also a family. In 2011, a close friend who was an NHL ice technician for the Carolina Hurricanes passed away. Westcott stepped in, moved to Raleigh, and maintained the rink for three seasons. But with wanting to move back to Florida, where he had lived for two decades, Westcott in 2013 decided to start his own business, which he then built with his wife, and is now All Star Arenas.
“Will be 12 years old this month (September), and we do 20 to 30 rinks, and it keeps us busy,” Wescott said.
After decades of work in the rink and staying busy, the two do not have children, but Wescott has created his own family through it.
“We feel like we have raised a whole lot because we work in ice rinks and are around kids all the time,” Wescott smiled and said. “We actually had parents who would come and tell us, ‘You take care of them, I can’t deal with them!’”
Today, his business has helped hundreds of ice rinks across the Southeast to maintain and build rinks for the year. For rinks in the Southeast, which are mainly for-profit and privately owned, it means they run year-round. This means non-stop work for him and his team.
Westcott has been working with ice since he was 17. He not only shapes ice, but working in ice rinks has shaped who he has become. Through his work, Wescott has thousands of memories. But one that stands above the rest is the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.
“It didn’t hit me, honestly, till the gold medal game,” he said. “It’s so much work to get ready. We had to do what we’re doing today for all eight rinks.”
He remembers the women’s ice hockey tournament, the historical moment of when Sweden beat Finland for the first time, and seeing them in the airport still partying over their win.
“It was those little memories from those kinds of things that you remember,” he said. “Once it’s over and you’ve got your group of people you’ve been working with for a month, it’s like wow, we pulled it off.”
Hard work and dedication are principles Wescott stands for. One thing that he wants people to remember is that “Someone is always watching you,” and how you maintain your facility and the people in it matters.
“Do it really good at the lowest level and then you may get your shot to work up to the Olympic Games,” Wescott said.
For Wescott, ice has been more than a surface to paint. Of everything he’s accomplished within this field, he is proudest of the certification program he created for ice technicians. For a long time, many people who worked in ice rinks would work for a rink and have nothing to show for it. Through his certification program, he changed that, and it is those students whom he cherishes deeply.
“Today, I still run across them, and it’s great to see what we started, you know, that was a dream of mine to be able to have guys say I’m a certified ice technician. So, they can actually, you know, show it’s a professional thing,” Wescott said.
Even as a lifelong teacher, Wescott continues to learn new things.
“I learned a long time ago, I’ll never say I’ve seen it all because every week somebody surprises me. People are so creative, especially when it comes to breaking things on Zambonis,” he laughed and said.
For Wescott, ice is more than just a surface for skating; it creates a rink, fosters a family, and, most importantly, builds a community.
