Greg Ewasko in pursuit of perfect ice at curling trials

Greg Ewasko is the iceman.

What sounds like the name of a comic book villain is actually Ewasko’s unofficial job title.

The official job title is chief ice technician, a job he has spent decades working towards.

The moment SaskTel Centre was turned over to Curling Canada for the 2021 Tim Hortons Curling Trials, Ewasko was tasked with making four perfect sheets of curling ice.

“It took me a lot of years to get to where I am,” Ewasko said following one of the draws this week.

Last Saturday, during the first evening draw of the event, Ewasko’s experience and mad science-like dedication to his craft still forced him to adjust on the fly as strong winds arrived in Saskatoon.

“It’s extremely windy out, so we’re having trouble with the dampers in the building staying closed because with the amount of wind, they’re actually popping up and allowing outside cold air to come in,” he said.

“This is part of the whole job. You fine-tune the whole building, find the problem and get it fixed as soon as possible.”

Even a slight change in weather can cause the most minor changes to the pebbled ice, and that’s how perfect Ewasko needs to be.

Since major Curling Canada events like the trials are a tightly knit travelling circus of sorts, all the players know Ewasko and they aren’t shy to share their opinions.

“They let me know what’s going on out there,” he said. “(Kevin Koe lead) Ben Hebert lets me know what’s happening not in such a nice way every once in a while.”

For this event, Ewasko’s crew includes four hand-picked technicians as well as half a dozen volunteers.

Last winter, Ewasko spent three months in Calgary working in a COVID-19 bubble for the country’s biggest curling events.

“We came out of the bubble last year in May. It just so happened I was still in the bubble mode because it was a 24-hour turnaround,” Ewasko said of getting the ice down at SaskTel Centre.

Ewasko became the head ice technician a couple of years ago when lead ice-maker Jamie Bourassa left his duties with Curling Canada, but Ewasko has been working towards this since he was a teenager.

As a kid from Selkirk, Man., Ewasko was a bona fide rink-rat, spending as much of his time at the curling rink as he could, even using spares in the afternoon to run to the rink.

“(I) maybe skipped a few classes to go down to the rink to throw rocks,” he said. “That’s where it all started.”

After getting his first opportunity to put ice down, he just kept aiming higher.

“I always wanted to put ice down in a civic surrounding. I accomplished that. I wanted to be the head ice-maker for Curling Manitoba. I accomplished that and my dream of being the head ice technician for Curling Canada — well, I accomplished that,” Ewasko said.

Twenty-seven years after first trying his hand at the ice-making craft, Ewasko is now one of the most relied upon people to keep Canada’s biggest curling moments happening at a world-class level.

Just call him the iceman.