There will be no dancing on thin ice for the people in Durham and the rest of the region if Jan Eskildsen and his wife Christine have anything to do with it.
Get ready people – something solid and permanent is in the offing just for us!
The couple aim to provide a much needed leisure facility for people of all ages who wish to learn or to revisit their ice skating techniques by building a new ice rink on the outskirts of Durham City.
The plan comes after a successful temporary rink, next to the original Durham Ice Rink, pulled in the crowds over the winter months .
Sitting in the cafe adjoining the Rink, I caught up with Jan and we chatted about how he got involved in this exciting project.
During the 1980’s, a young Danish lad not wanting to follow his father’s footsteps as a teacher, Jan decided to embark on ten-year career in the Danish Army and moved up through the ranks quickly.
And he’s had his skates on ever since, working as a career advisor for army recruitment before achieving success in sales with Xerox, helping to land multi-million pound contracts and eventually based in the north east in Washington.
But the most important contract of his life followed after meeting Christine , a former figure skater who caught the eye of the judges in the National Senior Figure Skating Championship.
Associations and friendships were made with the likes of Torville and Dean, Robin Cousins and Nicky Slater, the latter two now judging on the panel of ITV’s Dancing on Ice.
Always passionate about her skating, early in the Millennium, Christine became a key member of the County Durham Ice Foundation, a pressure group who has fought hard and raised awareness for the return of and Ice Rink in Durham that was home ground for our own Durham Wasps Ice hockey team.
Her connections with Nicky Slater gave her opportunity to produce with him, a feasibility and business plan for the idea.
Enter Jan, (above right) armed with year’s of high level business experience, and convinced that he could make his fiancé’s wish come true.
After a proposal of marriage to Christine, Jan made the promise of a wonderful wedding present, her very own ice rink. And the Durham Winter Ice Rink is just a taster for things to come in the future.
“Since opening in November, this whole project has taken on a life of its own. It feels like the ice rink project has chosen me and I know we can make it happen”
The promise of an eco-friendly ice rink, using bio fuel to help power the building, is now on the cards. “I want to exercise responsible business, looking after the people. I can provide this leisure facility for them and through this my business will grow. For me it can only ever be a two-way thing; we are all reliant upon each other.
My feet are twitchy right now at the thoughts of getting back on the blades again. Just think folks, we can all give it a whirl soon – so it’s a set of straight 6.0’s for Jan and Christine.