The ice surface at the Rec Plex will be undergoing changes over the next few days as the Canadian Curling Association takes over the facility to prepare for the upcoming Capital One Canada Cup of Curling.

While home to the Kootenay Ice, the rink will be converted into five curling sheets, for the tournament, which will kick off next week on Wednesday, Nov. 30th.

Jamie Bourassa, one of the head ice technicians for the CCA, will start working away on at the Rec Plex on Friday when the organization takes possession to get the ice surface ready for the bonspiel.

"It's a nice facility," Bourassa said. "[But] until we get there and get into it, you never know what kind of issues you're going to have because the crowds play a part on it and everything; just the heat of the building and all that stuff plays a role."

Bourassa has created and maintained curling ice for over 36 years, preparing sheets for high-profile tournaments such as the Men's World Championships in Regina last year and the Tim Horton's Brier the year before.

The two biggest factors that differentiate hockey ice and curling ice are temperature and the necessity for a level playing surface, Bourassa said.

"We try to keep our surface 22 to 23 degrees Fahrenheit through the whole game," Bourassa said. "It just makes for optimum playing conditions and the other thing is the ice has to be a lot more level than it does for hockey ice. If there's a little imperfection in hockey ice, no one will ever notice it whereas in curling you will."

If the ice isn't level, the rocks won't curl smoothly down the sheet, Bourassa added.

"If it's not flat, the rocks will react to any imperfection from the ice, so they won't run through down the ice," he said.

The process begins this weekend with a flood of the ice surface, which will show Bourassa how level the ice is. Afterwards, the crew will paint everything white to hide all the lines and face-off circles used for hockey and repaint a five-sheet curling surface.

From there, each sheet will be separated with foam dividers and flooded individually, as the crew inspects each one to make sure it's ready for curling action.

The most unique feature of the ice surface are the pebbles, which are formed when Bourassa walks backwards down a sheet with a gravity-fed backpack full of water to spray the surface right before a game.

"We maintain it with the scrapper in between every match and re-pebble it and get it ready to go," he said.

Once the sheets are ready, the focus shifts to maintenance, which can be hampered by temperature and fluctuates based on air flow in the building and even the crowds, Bourassa said.

"Once we get the ice in, we can maintain it pretty well as far as the ice goes," Bourassa said. "What we have to control is the temperature in the building and air flow and that sort of thing. That's where you run into problems sometimes."