{"id":31229,"date":"2025-07-29T06:46:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T06:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/31229\/"},"modified":"2025-07-29T06:46:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T06:46:11","slug":"rainy-weather-making-life-difficult-for-seasonal-calgary-businesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/31229\/","title":{"rendered":"Rainy weather making life difficult for seasonal Calgary businesses"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s known as the Blue Sky City, so it would make sense there\u2019s no shortage of businesses in Calgary that make their hay when the sun shines.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1753129028_943_70c8fc80.png\" alt=\"\" style=\"position:absolute;width:1px;height:1px\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\"\/><\/p>\n<p>But in July, that\u2019s been tough to come by for many seasonal business owners.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think anyone wants to be out there\u2026 I don\u2019t want to be out there,\u201d Arlin Friesen laughed.<\/p>\n<p>The owner of Lazy Day Raft Rentals commented on Monday\u2019s wet weather as he gave a tour of his storage space, filled with nearly 300 inflatables, trailers full of life-jackets and more gear than you could shake a paddle at.<\/p>\n<p>Friesen estimated a typical Monday could see up to 150 different vessels of his on the Bow River. With a chance of lightning in the forecast on this day, they remained parked.<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn May and June we were actually ahead of the curve for our best year ever, but July has really kicked us,\u201d Friesen said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-blockquote__content l-article__blockquoteContent\">\u201cWe\u2019re down over 40 per cent over last July.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to Environment Canada, Calgary has seen 139.6 mm of rain since Canada Day, with a handful of days still left this month.<\/p>\n<p>The average rainfall in July for the city is 65 mm, making this month the fifth-wettest on record as of July 27, and the second-wettest in the past 50 years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve been the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tripadvisor.ca\/Attractions-g154913-Activities-c55-a_attractionType.SUPPLIERS-Calgary_Alberta.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">number one outdoor activity<\/a> on TripAdvisor for years, so we have quite a good following,\u201d Friesen said.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"170\" height=\"225\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1753128969_722_national.jpg\" alt=\"Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tGet daily National news<\/p>\n<p>Get the day&#8217;s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-blockquote__content l-article__blockquoteContent\">\u201cPeople come a long way just to do our activity. A lot of times we have to re-book them two or three times during the week when it rains like this\u2026 some days they just can\u2019t go.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It was also a quiet morning at The Winston Golf Club, just 10 minutes up the road.<\/p>\n<p>The course opened at noon for the day after an early deluge \u2014 general manager Wade Hudyma hoping for 75 golfers to come through, much lower than the usual 250 the course sees on a daily basis.<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe members have paid for the full year, so typically they\u2019ll come out, play a few holes or go practice,\u201d Hudyma said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-blockquote__content l-article__blockquoteContent\">\u201cBut as a public player, you\u2019re paying for the full experience out there\u2026 you\u2019d probably rather a real nice day than a day that\u2019s going to bring rain and hail.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-video__image\" alt=\"Click to play video: 'Extreme weather leads to wildfires, evacuations, floods across Canada'\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/250714-HEATHER.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\"   data-\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t1:37<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tExtreme weather leads to wildfires, evacuations, floods across Canada\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>While you\u2019d be hard-pressed to find a patch of brown grass on the 165-acre property, Hudyma says the grounds crew is facing challenges.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\tTrending Now\n\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/11307243\/easyjet-flight-scotland-bomb-threat-donald-trump\/\" class=\"c-posts__inner\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-posts__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1753771571_796_GettyImages-2214279207.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"336\" height=\"224\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\u2018Death to Trump\u2019: EasyJet flight to Scotland diverted after bomb threat\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/11307658\/air-canada-flight-attendants-vote-strike\/\" class=\"c-posts__inner\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-posts__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1753771571_779_Air-Canada-flight-attendants.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"336\" height=\"224\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\tAir Canada flight attendants begin strike vote amid contract talks\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur property now is so saturated there\u2019s nowhere for the water to go, so it causes a few problems \u2014 mostly with carts. You can\u2019t have carts travelling everywhere, so you try to keep them on the path.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Anyone golfing at The Winston on Monday was required to walk.<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Hudyma says that\u2019s part of life in the golf business.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s been fairly isolated. You\u2019ll find courses in the south that haven\u2019t got any rain and in the central part of Calgary like we are, a lot more. It goes back and forth, everyone\u2019s taking their turn at being closed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just got off the phone with a colleague in Toronto and they\u2019ve had the opposite (weather) \u2014 32 to 40-degree heat. They\u2019re struggling in other ways.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Both Huydma and Friesen say one aspect of the business is the most challenging.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tMore on Calgary<br \/>\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s hard on staff,\u201d Hudyma said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have about 50 students we hire every summer,\u201d Friesen said. \u201cThey want to work. And it\u2019s hard to get them work when it\u2019s rainy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One of Calgary\u2019s largest co-ed sports leagues, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.calgarysportsclub.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Calgary Sport &amp; Social Club<\/a>, is working overtime to reschedule games for their outdoor sports.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c(Rescheduling) creates both logistical challenges and financial losses,\u201d explained director of operations, Jon Diment. \u201cTypically we see worse weather in May and June but this year those months were surprisingly kind to us.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the bigger differences this year is how saturated the fields have been. Normally after a rainstorm, we\u2019re back on the fields within 24 hours.<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-blockquote__content l-article__blockquoteContent\">\u201cBut the sheer volume of rain this month has caused flooding in some areas, which can take days to recover.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>No matter the business model, Friesen said what everyone is hoping for, moving forward.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPlease, Mother Nature\u2026 work with me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t&amp;copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s known as the Blue Sky City, so it would make sense there\u2019s no shortage of businesses in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,24155,24154,48,24156,24157,44,1133],"class_list":["post-31229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ca","tag-calgary-golf","tag-calgary-weather","tag-canada","tag-city-of-calgary","tag-lazy-day-raft-rentals","tag-news","tag-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}