FORMER England rugby player and Dancing on Ice star Kyran Bracken visited the Island in November to officially launch the temporary ice skating rink in the Villa Marina Gardens.
At the launch Kyran took to the ice with former Olympian Andrea Law and put on a faultless routine which ended in Andrea being twirled around Kyran's neck by her feet.
After the impressive performance, which the pair had only had a week to perfect, and a performance from Andrea's daughter, Anna Law, 11, the rink was declared open to the public.
Isleofman.com reporter Tessa Hawley caught up with Kyran to talk about what the ice rink means to the Isle of Man.
Since winning Dancing on Ice in 2007 ice skating has become a huge part of Kyran's life - so much so that he actually co-owns the temporary ice rink.
This winter marked the third time the rink has been brought to the Isle of Man and the third time that Sure have sponsored it. Following a successful run last winter the decision was made to bring the rink back again this year.
Kyran explained at the time: "Last year there were so many people here on the Island asking us to come back. We didn't know whether we would come back or not. We had to make sure it worked financially.
"This is a massive massive project. We didn't know what we were getting into first time around. We know better now and we want to make it bigger, better and more family orientated.
"We want to build on the success of last year. Out of all the ice rinks we've done – Jersey, Guernsey, and the Isle of Man – the Isle of Man was by far the best. I think maybe because the Isle of Man has never had an ice rink."
According to Kyran ice skating is something the whole family can get involved in. He said: "The good thing about skating is that it's the sort of thing you can do with your mum, your dad, your uncle, your brother. It's the sort of thing you can do for fitness or it's the sort of thing you can do with your mates and have a bit of a laugh at each other."
"If you can walk you can ice skate. You get a feel for it and once you start getting it you can do a little bit more and a little bit more and you think 'Oh I quite like that, I want to do more of that'. That's what happened to me. I'd never heard about Dancing on Ice so I got on the ice and couldn't do it. The more I fought the more I learnt and the more I liked it. I got the bug."
