Making a hockey goal in China

This is part 3 of my Hockey in China series.  I want to give you a quick look at how I made the net.

PVC pipe from the local hardware store

As with most things in my life, I looked to the Internet for guidance.  I knew that people had made their own goals as a way of saving money, but as far as I can see, never out of necessity like I've had too.  The main thing that people are using is PVC pipe, and since that is commonly used here for the heating systems in most apartments, PVC pipe is easily accessible.  The store is a 5 minute walk away.

The frame

The Internet provided me with a lot of designs, but I disliked all of them since most of them were more of a triangle rather than a rectangle.  Basically, I like the depth at the top of the net that I made.  What can I say, I've got to teach these Chinese guys 'top shelf', right?

So, the above is my design.  It is regulation size (6 x 4), and it stands pretty sturdy.  That being said, it's still a little wobbly.  I probably could have gone with thicker PVC.  I think I used 1 1/2 inches.  Should have gone to 2 inches.  The PVC pipes and connectors cost me 200 RMB, or about 31 bucks.

Once again, my faithful father-in-law sent out the actual netting.  Though, I am sure that I could have used fishing net.  Either way, it's pretty easy and simple (and fun) to make a hockey goal here.

As you can see, the net takes up a lot of space in my little office space.  Thankfully, once I take it down to the University, I will have a place to store it.  It would be a pain to carry that thing back and forth every time.  Not to mention all of the curious looks I would get.

cracked

Of course, the connectors are crap.  At least one of them cracked while I was assembling things.  In the end, I used duct tape (also sent out from Canada) around all of the connections.  I figured that it made things a little less permanent than if I had used glue.  If I need to tear it down at any time I can do it pretty easily with the tape.  So, that's about it.  Pretty simple.  Lacing the netting around the pipe was tedious, but not too bad.  

This past Tuesday was a holiday here in China (Tomb Sweeping Day) so we'll have to wait until next week to use the net.  I'll be sure to let you know how it goes.

As far as the NHL playoffs go, I am going to be rooting for the Senators.  Not because they're Canadian but also because they are.  Basically, they are a rebuild team that rebuilt in 10 months.  Someone should tell the Oilers that you don't need to wait 6 years before you can actually win games.

Also, gotta love Alfredsson!

Making Hockey Sticks in Western China

This is Part 2 in the Chinese Hockey series.  Today I will go over how I made sticks*.

The main thing I needed to get cracking on was hockey sticks.  You need them to play.  Without them you are just playing some sort of miniature soccer game with a tennis ball.

I had the blades sent out a while ago, like 4 years ago when I first tried to get hockey going, as I mentioned here.  In that first attempt, 7 of the 10 sticks broke.  This was disheartening.  This time, I made a key/simple modification that I believe will allow the sticks to survive a little longer.  More on that later.

buying the wood Photo by D_Hendersen

This is me getting wood.  Okay, well that's how it is.  We went down to the outdoor hardware market and purchased 15 lengths of this crappy wood they use to make saw horses and to install doors with.  The wood cost 70 RMB, which is about 11 dollars in Mr. America.  We packed this up and lugged it home.  Buying the actual wood is one of the more annoying parts of the process as the market is far away from my apartment.  I needed to get my friend Dustin to take me over there in his new vehicle.  I felt bad about putting this dirty lumber in his new car but I'm over it now.

wood on the floor

This is the wood on my apartment floor.  Yes, that's right.  No joke.  As you can see by comparing the width of the wood with the bike tire, it is much too thick for a hockey stick.  So, I whittled away on the stuff enough to fit it into the blades.  Surprisingly, I found that an exacto-knife worked the best.  After exactoing them a bit, I used sandpaper for that soft, silky smooth finish.

This is where the modification comes into play.  Well, I guess it's more of a sacrifice in comfort than a modification.  By making the stick fatter, I hope to make it last longer.  I used to carve them down to a normal stick width, but as I said earlier, they broke.  Even though these fatter sticks are a little more awkward to hold, I am confident that they will last at least a little longer.  Here's a closer look at how much I needed to whittle away from the stick.  

The problem I have is that although our apartment is comfortably layered with carpet, cutting and carving at the wood in the apartment is a big problem involving slivers of wood and dust and the watchful eyes of this woman:

Lovely wife Barbara

Her beauty is almost equally matched by her wits, cleanliness, and comradery.  It's a good thing to keep this lady happy, so after a while I moved my little operation out into the stairwell.

The sticks in action photo by D_Hendersen

And that's about it.  I'll keep you posted on the durability of the sticks.  So far, after just one session they seem to be holding up alright.  Tomorrow is session #2, so we'll see how things go.

Tomorrow, I will show you the net I made.

*I should mention here that as I will be talking about 'wood' and 'sticks', many of you perverts will automatically come up with your own jokes, one liners and 'that's what she said' type stuff based on what I am talking about.  Please hold all of your smarty pants remarks in until the end of the article.  And then, if need be, please post them in the comments.

Hockey Afternoons in Western China

Here I am.  I am in the middle of China.  I am surrounded by Chinese people and Chinese things.  Yesterday night I saw a man try to fill up the tire of his Volkswagen with a bike pump.  He chose a speedy method, up and down really fast, but I knew that it wouldn't work.  Strawberries can be bought on the street, a long with puffed rice and milk being scooped out of an old, dirty iced tea bottle.  Although it only takes one idiot to kill a pedestrian, I must comment on the fact that the traffic light in front of our complex is getting more attention these days; cars are actually stopping at it.

Yes, here in China you mix the good with the bad.  No matter how much a guy like me tries to blend in with things, I will always be a tall, bald, white guy from Canada.

One of the ways people have figured out how to live here is to do stuff that they are familiar with.  We now have coffee shops and pizza and Thai food.  It's the little things such as these that help Westerners like me enjoy a little break every once in awhile from my imaginary life as a Chinese person.

All that to say, ladies and gentlemen, we now have street hockey!  A few years ago I tried to get hockey going and it kind of worked for a bit, but after the sticks started breaking and the interested people started leaving town, the early morning street hockey games died out.

At the first session.  Photo by D_Hendersen

These days, I have what everyone needs... a man on the inside.  My man is the basketball coach at the University I used to go to.  He saw me carrying some of my home-made hockey sticks down the road and stopped me in my tracks.  He grabbed a stick and moved around the sidewalk, sliding this way and that, and finally taking an imaginary shot at the bus stop.  He asked if we could play sometime.  I said pretty please.  Fast forward a few months and here we are.

I am now teaching street hockey every Tuesday afternoon at the University.  Last week was the first week.  We had 6 sticks, a tennis ball and 2 pylons for a goal.  6 guys showed up, representing 5 different minority groups!  It was quite a diverse group.  Yet, I know that after a few more weeks we will all share the same language... the language of love... the language of Hockey!

After our first class I knew that I needed to build a net.  So, I scavenged the Internet and found out that people make nets out of PVC pipe all day long!  So, I got some pipe and made a net.  It's a little wobbly, but it will work.  Next week I will have some foam cut to make into goalie pads.  My father-in-law is sending out some more stick blades and street hockey balls.  Things are happening.

Of course, what I would really like is real equipment.  I plan on writing in to a few companies to see if we can get some donated.  Basically, I am in a town completely ignorant on hockey.  Supporting this cause would go a long way in supporting hockey in China.

In fact, the coach told me that they used to play ice hockey down by the river on the fishing ponds.  Seriously.  He said that they started in the 1960s, but eventually all of the equipment broke and since getting hockey equipment out here is nearly impossible (it's expensive and hard to find even on the Internet) the games they were playing eventually died out.  What an opportunity we have to bring it back!

It's all quite romantic, really.  This dusty, forgotten town out on the Tibetan Plateau, full of soccer and basketball players, introduced to the sport that their hearts have loved all along without them knowing it.  The sport of dreamers.  The sport of hockey.

As of now, China's hockey team is ranked #39 in the world, just behind New Zealand.  Ladies and Gentlemen, together with me, you are about to take the first step on the way up to at least #36.  Can we make that our goal?  Together?  Dreaming?  Me and you?

During our first class the coach pointed out that hockey is great for your heart.  All that running around, with the sun shining down, is very good for you.  I agreed, being out here away from my culture, hockey is very, very good for my heart.

So, this week, with the NHL season winding down, I will be posting about the new Spring hockey class starting up here in Xining.  I'll take you through the steps that it takes to make hockey happen here in China, from collecting the supplies, to whittling away at wood to make the sticks, to walking out onto the basketball courts and asking people to play.

Stay tuned.