Alright so the past few days have been hectic to say the least .... aside from work i have been taking my Argentine friends shopping for equipment and showing them around .... yesterday i finally got on the ice with them . You are all wondering can these guys skate ? yes they can ! are you surprised ? i bet you are ... i was surprised to say the least and i think their hockey instructor from World Class Hockey was totally shocked .
Most people think of Argentina and hockey and first thing that pops in their heads will be ... have these guys ever seen snow ? Yes they have some of them are actually from a city called Ushuaia which is near Antarctica ... you know that giant slab of uninhabited ice we call a continent ! yeah they see snow LOL and they see ice ... their rink is outdoors and is the only Olympic sized rink in South America . This is what i have been told , i should research it more but i do know it is biggest out of all the countries i will be visiting when i head down there at the end of June .
So yeah we had an hour and a half on the ice yesterday which might i add was hell to get to ! Yesterday we had a flash freeze and highways were closed down for safety reasons so it took me 1.5 hours to get to the arena just on time for ice , good thing the instructor was late too due to the same reasons ! When i met Jules one of the first things i wanted to talk about was getting them some press as i am still trying my darndest to get them some help with getting a zamboni or a scoreboard or some equipment shipped down ... anything ! Its really crazy , they are not looking for this stuff and are happy to continue playing the way they have to . I am the one that feels these guys should have the necessities we have !!!
Today i wrote to an old hockey acquaintance Dave Bidini to see if i can get some assistance in getting these guys some press , fingers are crossed as Dave has the same travel interests as i do ! He has travelled to a few tourneys to compete and follow up with some great books ... if you haven't read The Tropic of Hockey then head out a grab a copy . Fingers are crossed that all works out , the group went out to watch the Leafs last night and i am sure they had a good time . I will find out at the rink today :P
If anyone lives in Toronto , has the day off today and wants to see the Argentinians in action we will be at hockey school at The Rinx around noon ... i can't wait to get on the ice with these guys today again :)
Most people think of Argentina and hockey and first thing that pops in their heads will be ... have these guys ever seen snow ? Yes they have some of them are actually from a city called Ushuaia which is near Antarctica ... you know that giant slab of uninhabited ice we call a continent ! yeah they see snow LOL and they see ice ... their rink is outdoors and is the only Olympic sized rink in South America . This is what i have been told , i should research it more but i do know it is biggest out of all the countries i will be visiting when i head down there at the end of June .
So yeah we had an hour and a half on the ice yesterday which might i add was hell to get to ! Yesterday we had a flash freeze and highways were closed down for safety reasons so it took me 1.5 hours to get to the arena just on time for ice , good thing the instructor was late too due to the same reasons ! When i met Jules one of the first things i wanted to talk about was getting them some press as i am still trying my darndest to get them some help with getting a zamboni or a scoreboard or some equipment shipped down ... anything ! Its really crazy , they are not looking for this stuff and are happy to continue playing the way they have to . I am the one that feels these guys should have the necessities we have !!!
Today i wrote to an old hockey acquaintance Dave Bidini to see if i can get some assistance in getting these guys some press , fingers are crossed as Dave has the same travel interests as i do ! He has travelled to a few tourneys to compete and follow up with some great books ... if you haven't read The Tropic of Hockey then head out a grab a copy . Fingers are crossed that all works out , the group went out to watch the Leafs last night and i am sure they had a good time . I will find out at the rink today :P
If anyone lives in Toronto , has the day off today and wants to see the Argentinians in action we will be at hockey school at The Rinx around noon ... i can't wait to get on the ice with these guys today again :)
Gracias por acompañar a los chicos y ayudarlos en su estadìa en tu pais, igualmente te aclaro que no todos los jugadores de Argentina juegan como ellos, los que viajaron juegan hace varios años y están entre lo mejor que tenemos, como ya te contaron, la realidad del hockey en nuestro país es bastante distinta, pero la pasión y las ganas de jugar es la misma.
ReplyDeleteThank you for accompanying the boys and help them stay in your country, you also clarify that not all players of Argentina play like them, who traveled for several years and play are among the best we have, as I told you, the reality of hockey in our country is quite different, but the passion and desire to play is the same.