Sporting Event – Ice Hockey Grand West Casino

Welcome to one of the fastest team sports on Earth! I had never been to an Ice Hockey event in my life before, and decide to look up some information on Ice Hockey on Google.  I had no idea that we as South-Africans even played Ice Hockey, as it is most commonly associated with North America and Canada, as well as Europe and Russia. I was very surprised to learn that South Africa has a team that competes internationally! The U/18 team’s mascot is the white rhino called Rocket. They played against New Zealand and Hong Kong in Division III Group B in Cape Town in Feb 2016.

Here is the link the Facebook page for this years event and their website.

History of South-African Ice Hockey

The South African National Team was created as the South African Ice Hockey Association gained its International Ice Hockey Federation membership on February 25 1937. Despite this early admission, it took almost 25 years before a South African squad took part in the World Championships. The team made its debuts at the 1961 World Championship on March 3rd 1961, as they were beaten 12-3 by the Yugoslav National Team. The South Africans finished 5th in the Group C, and 19th overall in the world. The team was absent from competition for five years before returning for the 1966 World Championship, where they once again finished 19th in the world, and this time, third in the Group C.

South Africa would then pull out from competition until 1992, where they returned with a senior squad. Since 1992, South Africa has sent a contesting team every year in at least one of the three annual Men’s World Championships competitions, and failed only twice, 1996 and 1997, to take part in the senior World Championship.

South Africa has, so far, been able to earn promotion to a higher division of play on two distinct occasions. They first accessed Division II via promotion in 2006 after finishing second in the 2005 World Championship Division III. The journey in Division II lasted a single year, with the South Africans losing all five games and finishing sixth and last in the group stage. The second time the national team had a shot at Division II play was in 2009, following another second place finish at the 2008 World Championship Division III. There again, the adventure at the upper level only lasted one tournament before the team was back in Division III.

The Ice Hockey Teams

There are 3 provincial regions with their various teams belonging to the various associations:

• Western Province – Western Province Ice Hockey Association
• Gauteng – Gauteng Ice Hockey Association
• Kwa-Zulu Natal – Kwa-Zulu Natal Ice Hockey Association

Western Province

Under the Western Province banner there are 3 teams. These teams are listed below with details about their age divisions, players and features:

Cape Town Penguins

TEAM PHOTO

The Penguins are a local hockey team made up of players from Cape Town. They have 3 teams that take part in the divisions ranging from peewee – U/20 / intermediate – premier league.

The Premier League Penguins are majority an U/20 team with the mentoring and guidance of WPIHA coaches Marc Giot and Chris Reeves. This team is made up of various Western Province & South African U/18 and U/20 players that have represented their province or country recently.

New up and comers are introduced to this team as development players and are mentored by various of the more skilled and veteran players. The two coaches lead their respective roles (forward and defence) and this setup seems to be working well for the development of hockey athletes in Cape Town. Click here to follow them on Facebook.

Cape Storm

  The Storm team hosts teams in the 3 divisions (peewee – U/20 / intermediate – premier league) and is lead by coaches Deen Magmoed and Klyde Stevens.

Their Premier League team is made up of the senior players in Cape Town along with some internationals (Namibia, Russia, Canada, etc) and this team is lead by Deen Magmoed. Deen is a very accomplished player, plays on the National Team and is well respected by all the players and leads by his actions on the ice.

This team offers a dynamic style of play and great work ethic, they play solid hockey and are a pleasure to watch.

Click here to follow them on Facebook.

Griffin Ladies

TEAM PHOTO

The Griffins are a ladies only team that was instigated early 2013 by Sandy McClurg, former goaltender, now defenceman. The Griffins take great pride in recruiting young and keen female athletes to join their team and learn the great game of ice hockey.

This team hosts players from the ladies national team and they take part in the U/20 league, playing against the U/20 Penguins and U/20 Storm teams. Although they are still very much in a development stage, they are competitive in their league games.

WPIHA is hosting at the Grand West Casino Complex and Entertainment World situated at 1 Vanguard Drive, Goodwood – Cape Town, home of the Old Goodwood Showgrounds.

The arena is a state of the art Olympic-sized hockey rink (60m x 30m) furnished with 3 zambonis, skate sharpening facilities, hockey shop, rental skates, public sessions, figure skating, 1050 heat air conditioned seating… The arena has hosted various international competitions and shows such as Disney on Ice & IIHF World Championships. Click here to see their Facebook page.

Gauteng

GIHA hosts ice hockey at various rinks all over Gauteng, with multiple teams playing from the various rinks.

The ice rinks are located in shopping malls and this creates great interest from the masses of traffic that are able to watch the ice and activities while shopping and walking by; these being Festival Mall – The Ice Rink (Kempton Park) and Grove Mall – The Ice Rink (Pretoria).

The Gauteng Province consists of 11 teams:

• Ducks
• Forest Knights
• Forest Rats
• Grizzlies
• Ice Hawks
• Johannesburg Scorpions
• Pretoria Capitals
• Sabres
• Vipers
• Warriors
• Wild cats

Ducks Ice Hockey Club

The Ducks form part of ‘The Ice Hockey Initiative’ non-profit organization, but compete in the Gauteng provincial league. D.I.H.C is a new and exciting Ice Hockey Club based at Festival Mall in Kempton Park. The club offers coaching for players from Junior to Senior level. Founded by Farrell Foy and Andrew Rundle, Ducks Ice Hockey Club promises to offer the best coaching possible, create an environment for players to have fun but become skillful at the same time.

Click here to see their Facebook page. Their website can be found here.

Forest Knights Ice Hockey Club

The Forest Knights Ice Hockey Club resides at the Forest Hill Ice rink, Centurion, South Africa. The ice hockey club is a development club with members ranging from 4 years to 54 years. The Forest Knights Ice Hockey club practices are on Thursday nights from 17:15 to 19:15 at Forest Hill Ice Rink.

Click here to see their Facebook page. Their website can be found here.

Forest Rats Ice Hockey Club

The Forest Rats Ice Hockey Club are a fun, family oriented Ice Hockey Club, they play at Forest Hill Ice Rink.

Click here to see their Facebook page. Their website can be found here.

Grizzlies Ice Hockey Club

The Grizzlies were previously known as the Northgate Hockey Academy Sweepers and have their home at the Northgate Shopping Centre Ice Rink.

Click here to see their Facebook page. Their website can be found here.

Ice Hawks Ice Hockey Club

The Pretoria Ice Hawks Hockey Club is a family of Ice Hockey Players who enjoys the sport of Ice Hockey and wants to share their passion with others by developing new players to formally and informally participate in this exciting sport.
Club membership is open to players of any age and any level of expertise. Training will depend on the skill level of the student and can include skating training, Learn To Play training and advanced training. They are affiliated to the Gauteng Ice Hockey Association (GIHA), South African Ice Hockey Association (SAIHA). Their home is the Grove Ice Arena.

Click here to see their Facebook page. Their website can be found here.

Johannesburg Scorpions Ice Hockey Club

The Scorpions are one of the older surviving clubs in Gauteng, which was formed out of the Cr0ws, Can-Am and Blades clubs of the Carlton Sky Rink.

Click here to see their Facebook page. Their website can be found here.

Pretoria Capitals Ice Hockey Club

Pretoria Capitals Ice Hockey club was founded in January of 2013.  A large number of our players trained at the Kolonnade Ice Rink in Pretoria for another club.  Unfortunately the ice was literary pulled out from under our skates with the announcement that the rink would be closing end January 2013. The nearest ice rinks would now be Forest Hill and Kempton Park. We can also now announce the opening of the new ice rink at the Grove Shopping Centre, home of the Pretoria Capitals Ice Hockey Club.

Click here to see their Facebook page. Their website can be found here.

Sabres Ice Hockey Club

Sabres practices on a Tuesday at Festival Mall in Kempton Park.

Click here to see their Facebook page. Their website can be found here.

Vipers Ice Hockey Club

The Vipers IHC has now been running for two years, a family affair that keeps old and young entertained.
We are based at Festival Mall Ice Arena,
Practice times are on Sundays from:
07h45 to 08h45am Snr and Jnr combined
08h45 to 09h45 Snr only
Game times will be advised to members via Whatsapp, BBM, sms or e-mail.
Looking forward to continued growth from our Junior teams with the fantastic management and coaching team. They are affiliated to South African Ice Hockey Association, Gauteng Ice Hockey Association, IIHF, SASCOC.

Click here to see their Facebook page. Their website can be found here.

Warriors Ice Hockey Club

Previously known as the Pretoria North Stars. Our coaches are the best and have been involved the sport for several years and know what they are speaking about. Our head coach Alan has been involved with the sport for almost 40 years and has coached all levels including provincials and nationals.

We cater for all ages boys and girls:

• U/12
• U/14
• U/16
• U/18
• Ladies
• Seniors

Click here to see their Facebook page. Their website can be found here.

Wildcats Ice Hockey Club

Originally formed at the Krugersdorp Ice Rink.

Kwa-Zulu Natal

The KZN Province consists of 2 teams:

• Southern Storm Ice Hockey Club
• DurbaKnights Ice Hockey Club

KZNIHA hosts 2 small scale ice rinks in malls across Durban. They are currently getting a full-sized rink.

Southern Storm Ice Hockey Club

Southern Storm Ice Hockey Club was founded on January 12^th 2012 at the Galleria Ice Rink. The Southern Storm Ice Hockey Club is a close knit family of athletes, who love the sport of ice hockey and grow as individuals in an environment of positivity, enthusiasm and fun.

Click here to see their Facebook page. Their website can be found here.

DurbaKnights Ice Hockey Club

DURBAKNIGHTS© is a registered ice-hockey club operating since 2012 at the Durban Ice Rink. DURBAKNIGHTS© is a registered member of KZNIHA and SAIHA and has been the ONLY ice hockey club in KZN that has consistently maintained it’s affiliation to both KZNIHA and SAIHA.

Click here to see their Facebook page. Their website can be found here.

The Ice

Ice hockey is both a non (juniors) and contact (seniors) team sport played on an ice rink, in which two teams of 6 skaters each use their sticks to shoot a vulcanized rubber puck into their opponent’s net to score points.

Ice hockey teams usually consist of four lines of three forwards, three pairs of defencemen, and two goaltenders. Each team has five players who skate up and down the ice trying to take the puck and score a goal against the opposing team. Teams have a goaltender as their sixth on-ice player, whose job is to prevent the puck from entering the goal.

A fast-paced physical sport (leading to the nickname “The Fastest Game on Earth”), ice hockey is most popular in areas of Gauteng, Durban and Cape Town. The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) is the formal governing body for international ice hockey. The IIHF manages international tournaments and maintains the IIHF World Ranking. Worldwide, there are ice hockey federations in 73 countries that includes South Africa.

The Shoot

This was a fantastic evening for me to have been able to shoot this event, it is technically challenging from a photographic perspective. Although magazine images portray the arena as being brightly lit, they actually have poor lighting. One needs to shoot with fast lenses, ie f/2.8 using either a 14mm, 16mm, 14-24mm, 70-200mm, 300mm or a 400mm lens, depending on where you are positioned. If you are positioned behind the glass, black is a must as your reflection will be greatly reduced. The ISO needs to be in the range of 1600-3200, and you need to shoot in manual mode as well. Don’t worry about noise, most pro camera bodies deal very well with it these days. Flash is not recommended from behind the glass, as it will bounce back a horrible glare. If at all possible, clean the glass on both sides where you will be shooting from, to remove marks and scuffs. This obviously will reduced post editing work or throw away shots and autofocus issues whilst shooting. Depending on the arena, one can use remote speedlights, with radio transmitters and receivers on either a 3 or 4 point holder (like Foursquare or McNally), mounted in strategic positions on the catwalks near the roof top lighting. It would necessary to come early to set this up, more so if it is a provincial or an international game. This allows one to shoot in high speed sync mode and to freeze the puck or any other action at high speeds, and not being limited to 1/250 or 1/320 sec, depending on your camera model. It is highly recommended to not only secure your flash units to the mounts, but also a steal wire safety line attachment to say a carabiner and the mount, which should be secured to the mounting beam of the catwalk. Considering the current price of my Nikon SB-910 units, I seriously don’t want them falling from the rooftop getting destroyed or injuring players!

The Photos

Cape Storms vs Cape Town Penguins Ice Hockey, Grand West Ice Station, Cape Town, South-Africa

I thoroughly enjoyed this experience! The lighting in the arena was quite challenging, yet I was still able to produce amazing images, and some unique angles too. Taking shots from within the goal box was quite something, that puck travels at quite a speed! Being my first ice hockey event, you dont realise just how quick time flies in a game, more so when you having fun whilst working!

Information sourced from www.iskate.co.za and team respective websites and team Facebook pages.

Click on the images below to view an enlarged single image.

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Cape Storms vs Cape Town Penguins Ice Hockey, Grand West Ice Station, Cape Town, South-Africa

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Cape Storms vs Cape Town Penguins Ice Hockey, Grand West Ice Station, Cape Town, South-Africa Craig Fouché Photography ©2016