“The Zamboni is like magic,” says Steve Van Berckelaer. He’s the lead ice technician and Zamboni machine driver for the Honda Center in Anaheim. That’s where the Ducks play. “People see it go out on the ice, and a nice smooth sheet of ice comes out behind it,” he says. “They’re amazed at the trick, but they don’t have any idea how it’s done.”
Inventor Frank Zamboni built the first Zamboni machine in the early 1940s. Before then, workers had to scrape and wipe down ice rinks by hand. They used squeegees, sponges, and buckets of water. The job took more than an hour to finish. A Zamboni machine can clean an entire rink in less than eight minutes.
Today, more than 11,000 Zamboni machines are on the job. They resurface ice at rinks around the world. “The first time I operated a Zamboni by myself, I was hooked,” says Van Berckelaer. “And 16 years later, I’m still hooked!”