Steinbach skaters have spent recent days clearing the park of snow and ice (photo credit: Emmett Gerbrandt). The increasingly warm weather and tiresome days of social isolation have prompted some local skateboarders to action.

Emmett Gerbrandt says he and some friends have been working almost every day this week to shovel the Steinbach skate park free of snow.

“There’s too much snow there for the sun to melt all by itself and so we’re trying to speed up the process. On the Monday, there were probably about ten people that showed up we were just shoveling and other people from the skating community would drive by, see us shoveling and then they’d come help and now it’s almost clear.”

Gerbrandt says most of the local snowboard hills stopped their seasons early due to COVID-19 and there are a lot of people eager to get onto some kind of board.

“With everyone cooped up inside because of this whole virus thing, people are more anxious to get out there.”

As for their compliance with social distancing recommendations? Gerbrandt says none of the ramps are large enough to skate close to each other anyway. "We're not really good enough to be doing that," he laughs.

Thanks to their diligent shoveling and the forecasted temperatures, Gerbrandt expects the skate park could be usable as early as this afternoon.