Ask a New Yorker: What’s your name and what do you do?
Ron: Good morning. My name is Ron Kraut and I’m the director of ice maintenance
here at The Pond at
Bryant Park. Also I’m a New York City representative for ice rink
events. We sell and install the ice map 2 system made by Calmac
in Fair Lawn, New Jersey. This is the state of the art temporary and seasonal
ice rink system.
Ask a New Yorker: Gotcha. I’m loving you. So, figure skates or hockey
skates?
Ron: Well, I’m an ice hockey player. I was the first general manager
at the Sky Rink at Chelsea piers.
I met the Chelsea Piers Management Inc through playing ice hockey at the old
450 West 33rd Street. Any New Yorker remembers Sky Rink which was relocated
from Madison Square Garden back in 1963 when Madison Square Garden was taken
down to build an office building on 8th Ave. And the new Madison Square Garden
was built over Penn Station. So I’m an ice hockey player, but I’ll
tell you if you’re a beginning skater or learning to skate, we always
recommend that you use figure skates to learn to skate because the blades are
a little longer. They extend behind the heel and they provide more stability
for your learning skaters. So you’ll see over here at The Pond at Bryant
Park…
Ask a New Yorker: I’m with you on that, that’s cool, that’s
cool. Who is your favorite hockey player?
Ron: You’ve got to be kidding me. Is that a joke? There’s only
one god father of soul and there’s only one great one. And that’s
Wayne Gretsky. Everybody loved Wayne Gretsky. He played here in New York City
for the New York Rangers for about three seasons. And having him and Mark Messier
on the ice for the Rangers might have been actually the greatest for ice hockey
players ever.
Ask a New Yorker: So what’s the name of that machine that polishes the
ice?
Ron: Well everybody knows that you blow your nose with a Kleenex. That’s
the generic name for a tissue. And the generic name for an ice resurfacing machine
in this country is the Zamboni. Now curiously, Zamboni was invented by Richard
Zamboni in Northern California. Now since the invention of the original Zamboni
several other manufactures have developed an ice resurfacing machine. We feature
here at Bryant Park an Olympia which is made by the Canadian Resurfix Company.
Although all the kids scream, “Look at the Zamboni! Look at the Zamboni!”
Ask a New Yorker: Where did you learn to ice skate?
Ron: I grew up in Stamford, Connecticut. We had a sand pit down at the end
of the hill at the end of the street. The sand pit in the winter would fill
up with water and freeze. I learned how to skate with all the neighborhood kids
flopping around with no instruction playing hockey with somebody else’s
equipment.
Ask a New Yorker: I was one of the kids that always needed to test the ice
before it was ready and fell in up to my waist. How about you, ever fall in?
Ron: Actually, not before, but after because in the Spring time when you pushed
the snow to the edges of the pond, what happens is the ice starts to melt. So
you had to almost wade through the water to get from the hockey rink in the
middle of the pond to go home. So, by the end of every day we would be soaked
up to our waist.
Ask a New Yorker: So what do you think of global warming?
Ron: Well, global warming, I’m going to assume it’s a real phenomenon
and that things are really warming up. I will say it positions ice rink events
perfectly. We can make an ice skating rink in the middle of the desert. We have
500 tons of refrigeration in the back making this beautiful 100 by 170 ice skating
rink here. I believe the New York Times just said that The Pond at Bryant Park
is the most beautiful rink in all of New York City.
Ask a New Yorker: And global warming?
Ron: I’m going to assume it’s a real deal. My friends who have
been to Patagonia say the glaciers are melting and that is just all part of
our population explosion world wide. I just don’t see any way around it.
We are just going to continue to warm up and warm up for the next couple of
decades and there’s not a dog-gone thing any body is going to do about
it.
Ask a New Yorker: Well on that note I wish a warm and happy 2007! Thank you.
