Jason Stevens, ice technician at the Invermere District Curling Centre in Invermere, B.C., arranged to buy Golden Skate’s old rental roller skates for a steal last week when he learned the Vancouver rink was closing. But after discovering shipping costs would run more than $2,000, Stevens hit the road, driving all night Wednesday from Canada to pick up the skates.
On Thursday morning, Stevens, 40, and Golden Skate owner John Wainwright, 78, managed to stuff all 150 pairs of skates into Stevens’ station wagon for the 700-plus-mile journey to their new home.
Stevens wanted the skates so he can hold roller-skating events at Invermere District Curling Centre during the summers, when there’s no ice. The nonprofit organization is host of the largest outdoor curling bonspiel (tournament) in North America. (Curlers slide a fat stone across the ice, using push brooms to furiously scrub a smooth path to its target.)
John and Janie Wainwright sold Golden Skate to the city of Vancouver for a Public Works operations facility expansion.
