Surfin on Ice

Carol Smiley...eat your heart out. When it comes to Changing Rooms there’s no-one faster or more professional than the team that has transformed the Riviera International Centre at Torquay from a conference centre into a superb ice skating rink!

Over 40,000 litres of water  - the equivalent of two million ice cubes – have been used to provide real ice for the 500 sq metres of rink that will excite and entertainment children and adults over the next eight weeks.

The rink has been put together by Ice Event based in Peterborough using some of the equipment which the company used in the latest Harry Potter 3 film.

Ice Events managing director Mark Nelson explained the company had been commissioned by Warner Bros to freeze a lake for a scene in the blockbuster movie and some of the equipment has been utilised in creating the rink at the Riviera Centre.

With the conference season now at an end for the summer, bosses at the Riviera International Centre decided to resurrect the ice skating promotion….but this time using real ice!

Conference and events manager Jenny Thomson explained: "In the past we have created a small synthetic rink which we accept never really worked. This time we are going for the real thing and have employed one of the country’s best known specialist company's to build and operate the rink."

The new attraction is being publicised through a dedicated website - iceskate.co.uk – which has been designed by South Devon marketing and website experts Createanet.

Managing director Kevin King has included within the website a virtual tour of the rink that incorporates a superb photographic record of the construction capturing its progress every day over a 10 day period.

“We have been privileged to work for some famous film stars and companies in recent months and have used the technical skills and information we learnt to benefit our local clients. The photographic sequence of the ice rink being constructed is an example and one that will be of benefit to so many of our local clients,” he said.

The new rink opens this weekend and, unlike previous rinks, will cover the whole of the main conference auditorium.

Mark explained: "It will equate to about a third of the size of an Olympic ice rink and we will be using a special industrial cooling system – the equivalent of some 500 household freezers – to keep the ice frozen."