Hockey Night in East Vancouver: CBC host builds backyard rink in cold snap
Grant Lawrence's son got his dream of skating on a backyard rink
There are some Canadian winter dreams that will never happen in Vancouver — or will they?
CBC Music host and broadcaster Grant Lawrence did the unthinkable: he was able to build and freeze his very own outdoor rink this week thanks to the current cold snap.
He says he did it for his "hockey obsessed" three-year-old son who loves a series of children's books called Brady Brady.
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"One of the stories is the kid makes an outdoor rink … I've been telling my son for a year we can't build an outdoor rink in Vancouver," Lawrence told On The Coast host Stephen Quinn.
"And then I heard Johanna Wagstaffe saying the temperature's going to plummet, so I thought: maybe, just maybe."
Lawrence says he was still skeptical, but went to work on it anyway. He watched YouTube videos from out east about how to do it.
He laid down a tarp, put a frame of two-by-six lumber over it and turned on the hose, filling the rink inch by inch.
"I don't know why, but I was shocked: within an hour of putting water into the 'rink,' it was freezing!" he said. "It was incredible."
Now, he says, his son can have his dream of skating on a backyard rink.
With files from CBC Radio One's On The Coast
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