Hot Trends Lead to Thaw : Upsurge in In-Line Street Skates and Roller Hockey Promotes a Dramatic Increase in the Willingness of Southern Californians to Take Shot at Ice Hockey

Among the reasons Canadians dominate hockey is their country’s ubiquitous frozen ponds, which serve as incubators for NHL players.

Southern California, of course, has very few ponds, let alone any covered with ice, which no doubt contributes to the almost total absence of current NHL players who grew up in the Southland.

What Southern California does have in abundance, however, are outdoor basketball courts and trends. The synthesis of the two is currently producing an ironic result: Those asphalt courts, revered as NBA kindergartens, might become to the United States what frozen ponds are to Canada, a place where little kids begin the long road to the NHL.

In the late 1980s, the roller-blade craze touched off an explosion in roller hockey, which in turn has sparked a surge of interest in ice hockey among kids and adults. Three years ago, the Southern California Amateur Hockey Assn.--the largest in the Southland--had 1,800 participants; today, it has 3,000. Many insiders attribute the increase partly to the presence of the Kings and Wayne Gretzky but mostly to in-line skates.

“I keep getting phone inquiries every day that begin, ‘My son roller-blades . . . ‘ “ said Frank Wilson, president of the Thousand Oaks Youth (ice) Hockey Club, which has seen participation rise from 90 to 325 in the past four years.

Nationally, the impact of in-line skates on ice hockey is difficult to determine. USA Hockey, the U.S. Olympic Committee member overseeing ice hockey, has 15,000 teams registered in youth and adult hockey, double the number of a decade ago. Roller hockey definitely has helped create an awareness of ice hockey, a USA Hockey spokesman said, “but Wayne Gretzky has been more important.”

What is it about in-line street skates that makes a kid want to find the nearest ice rink? The mechanics and motions are virtually the same as ice skating. The only adjustment is going from blacktop to a slippery surface.

“There’s a significant parallel between roller hockey and ice hockey,” said Thousand Oaks Coach Sean McGillivray, who believes that roller blades have made it possible for Americans to “bridge the gap” between them and Canadians when it comes to playing hockey.

This is good news for American ice hockey and better news for ice rinks. “There’s a demand for ice time like never before in Southern California,” said Larry Bruyere, who owns the hockey shop at the newly opened Iceoplex in North Hills.

Iceoplex, a 50,000-square-foot building with a full-size hockey rink, is the first rink built in the Los Angeles area since the late 1970s. And if a proposed Simi Valley rink is built, Southern California will have 16 ice rinks, five in the Valley area. Only a few years ago, ice rinks were becoming extinct. Since the early ‘80s, rinks have closed in Topanga Plaza, Santa Monica, West Covina and Costa Mesa. Pickwick Ice Arena in Burbank was going to close last year until a “save the rink” citizen group came to its rescue.

Not everybody wants to give in-line skates credit for the revitalization of the rink business. At Iceoplex, which is in use about 19 hours a day, “Only 10 to 15% of our skaters start with in-line and come over,” said Brad Berman, the rink’s general partner along with Kings winger Luc Robitaille.

While it might be impossible to gauge in-line skating’s influence on ice hockey, it is apparent that asphalt basketball courts, streets and parking lots have become de facto training grounds for many ice-hockey players.

“One sport breeds the other,” said Starr McInerny, an official of the Tri-Valley Roller Hockey League, which has more than 300 players.

McInerny was watching a recent playoff game on the outdoor basketball courts at Agoura High. The 8- to 10-year-old youngsters wore helmets, uniforms and pads similar to those worn in ice hockey. The sticks were the same. The puck was the same size but a screw had been inserted to make it heavier. The only differences were rules--no checking--and the skates. To the kids who cross over from roller hockey to ice hockey, the transition is easy.

“You have to keep your balance more on the ice,” said Matt Lauer, 11, of Moorpark, who plays both. “But that’s about the only difference.”

And when roller hockey players get on the ice, “They’re really prepared,” said Nancy May, an official with the California Golden Bears, an ice-hockey club. In Southern California, roller and ice hockey seasons often overlap, creating a dilemma for some kids because, Lauer said, “Both are really fun.”