Playing, the Canadian way

The ice is rough and rutted where the pristine white snow has been cleared from the frozen lake. Shovels and hockey sticks have been stuck upright in the resulting snowbanks, and a handful of bundled skaters have taken to the slick surface to contest a lively pond hockey game. There aren't any referees or goalies - the latter of which means there are goals aplenty -
and spats are settled by gentlemen's rules.

Lovely picture, isn't it? So is the vision of a crisp winter day, when the skies above are azure and the ground beneath is blanketed by white. This is Canadiana at its best - the kinds of activities for which we are famous, and on which our culture has been defined. It's romantic and it's nostalgic, prompting thoughts of winter days of old. Except that there's nothing old about these activities in the Kamloops region. We may have become known worldwide for our golf and mountain biking, but come to Kamloops when the snow flies and there's plenty of fun to be had.

A sense of nostalgia is what prompted the creation of the Western Cup of Pond Hockey, the third edition of which will be held Jan. 14-16 at Logan Lake, about 35 minutes southwest of Kamloops. Pond hockey is a tradition held dear to Canadian children, not a few of which spent hours outdoors playing the game until their fingers and toes were frozen. The Western Cup, held on six scraped ice surfaces on Logan Lake, harkens back to those days. "That's exactly what it is," says organizer Dave Prentice. "People are all there and, despite there being a wide range of talent and ability, everybody's on the same page as to what the event's all about."

Although there are 30 teams involved - 24 in an Open Division and six in a Vintage (40-plus) Division - there are just five players allowed per team. There aren't any referees or goalies, and the "net" actually is just eight inches high and six feet wide. Despite that small window of opportunity, Prentice says high-scoring games aren't uncommon. "It's a great addition to the lineup of winter activities we have," says Prentice, noting that the Western Cup actually wraps up the 36th annual Polar Carnival, a week-long winter festival in Logan Lake that will begins with the Polarthon, a winter triathlon traditionally held by the River City Racers in which individual participants or teams combine speed skating with running and cross-country skiing. The day before that, the Racers are scheduled to play host to the Logan Lake Loop provincial long track speed skating meet on a 400-metre oval on the lake.

Folks flock to Logan Lake for the Polar Carnival, says Prentice. And the lake is a perfect venue for the festivities. "Really, it's just like looking at the front of a Christmas card when you see the rinks there and sunshine and a few snowflakes coming down, people thinking they're children again skating out there on the lake," he says.