THE DAWN OF A NEW ICE AGE : Around Here, Recreational Skating Is So Hot Its Surfaces Are Expanding

Packing mittens and change for hot chocolate, a throng of about 100 forms outside Ice Capades Chalet in Costa Mesa waiting impatiently to hit the rink.

As skating begins moments later, the place turns into a swirling Grand Central Station, although the commuters generally progress in the same direction, if not with similar speed or grace.

Boom! A girl belly-flops. Whoosh! A hotdogger zooms by, bent at the waist. Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle. . . . A stick-legged first-timer bumbles along.

A flick? Another night. Planet Hollywood? Let it wait. Everybody’s invited to “pleasure skating” at this rink, where entertainment on ice is the hot ticket, even if the temperature hovers near 30 degrees, and the decor, featuring silvery aluminum ceilings, is more Neo-Meat Locker than Victorian Yuletide.

“My toes are cold, my ears are cold, I have a red nose--I haven’t fallen yet, though--and so far, they played one good song,” said 16-year-old U2 devotee Laura Hansen of La Palma, one of 35 youths on a church outing the other night.

Four-year-old Cameron Caron of Orange had the fortitude to admit what many an adult must have been secretly thinking. “I’m afraid a little,” he said. “I might fall down, and people (would) laugh at me.” Cameron struggled to stay vertical for a good hour, however, clinging to his dad and to his dream to play professional ice hockey.

By 8 p.m., the crowd had swelled to about 175, and teen-agers clad in jeans and sweat shirts seemed to dominate. Shrieking and playing what looked like tag on ice, they even skated as a DJ spun tunes by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, INXS and other pop groups.

At least according to 15-year-old Nicole Williamson, however, this isn’t the best place to meet guys, largely because of the packaged cuisine, available only by machine.

“Skate Depot in Cerritos is better because people don’t skate; they sit down” and socialize while eating hot food, Nicole said.

Whether in it for a one-night stand or aiming for a longer association, more and more people across the nation are taking to the skating rinks, experts say.

There were 7.9 million ice skaters in the United States in 1991, up 22.3% over 1990, according to the National Sporting Goods Assn., a retail trade group based in Mt. Prospect, Ill., that represents about 18,000 sporting goods stores.

And interest in both figure skating and ice hockey is booming in Orange County, say local authorities, who tie the two sports’ rise in popularity to such factors as the recent Winter Olympics and hockey superstar Wayne Gretzky’s 1988 move to the Los Angeles Kings (even though Gretzky hasn’t played this season because of an injury). This month’s announcement of the Walt Disney Co.’s plans to bring a National Hockey League franchise to Orange County could mean even more enthusiasm for skating.

At the moment, the county has only one “surface,” as the jargon goes, at the 20-year-old Ice Capades Chalet. (Other rinks have thrived here, but during the past several years popular arenas in cities such as Anaheim and Brea have closed, leaving only Ice Capades.) However, things are looking up: Side by Side Rinks in Huntington Beach is scheduled to open in early February, and Glacial Gardens Ice Arena in Anaheim “officially” opens next month, and already has been open on a limited basis. (See Pages 16 and 17)

Ice Capades officials--who say that pleasure skating attendance is up this winter over last--say they are happy about the new rinks. And renowned coach John Nicks, who has trained such U.S. and world champion figure skaters as Tiffany Chin and Christopher Bowman at the Costa Mesa rink over the past 10 years, echoes their opinion. (Lookie-loos may watch Nicks train his charges weekdays from about 5 a.m. to 1 p.m.)

“From quantity always comes quality,” Nicks said. “The more people you have involved in figure skating, the more competitors you are going to get, and the more competitors you have, the more champions will come from that pool.”

Families with children and yuppie types typically frequent open sessions during weekend days, and mostly teens come on Friday and Saturdays evenings, Ice Capades managers say.

Other denizens there include somewhat more serious skaters. They may not have Olympic aspirations, but they enjoy the confidence boost and physical conditioning--as well as the opportunity to wear those skimpy skirts that make wavy patterns when you spin--that one gets from weekly lessons.

Katie Scott, 34, of Mission Viejo takes an adult advanced figure skating class. A former professional dancer, she quit years ago because of an injury and has been skating for the past eight months.

“This has gotten me in such good shape,” said Scott after a class session on waltz jumps, the simple airborne twirls. “When I walk my dogs, I can run around the (track) three or four times with them without getting horribly winded like before.”

Roxanne Cherry, 36, a Laguna Hills psychotherapist, has skated on and off for the past 10 years and said she can meet others around her own age in her so-called adult club class, which is somewhat like independent study. It’s a costly hobby, said Cherry, who paid $450 for her custom-fit boots and blades. Still, she finds skating therapeutic.

“You can’t think about anything other than skating; otherwise you fall,” Cherry said.

Cherry’s friend and classmate Dorrit Kirk Fitzgerald is a die-hard Ice Capades regular and skating zealot. During the day, she works as curator of exhibitions for the Irvine Fine Arts Center, but still typically skates five times a week (as does her husband) and has opened her home to 14 aspiring champions over the past four years. She took skating up nine years ago at 32 as a rank beginner.

“I signed up for a recreational class with the city of Newport Beach,” she said. “My husband come home and I said, ‘Guess what? We’re going ice skating.’ So I started out tripping and falling on my face, and I’m still here, just as passionate as before.”

One of the greatest payoffs of her persistence, she said, involves caloric intake. “I don’t have to diet as much!” she said gleefully.

Beyond that, however, it’s been full of life lessons.

“It’s taught me about slow progress, and that’s something I need to learn,” Fitzgerald said. “Sometimes success is so incremental . . . you feel it, but it doesn’t show on the exterior. It’s also helped me learn humility, because you fall and do all kinds things that adults are uncomfortable with because adults don’t like to look silly.”

Devotion such as Fitzgerald’s demands a lot. Whether it’s a pulled tendon or bruised behind, “something hurts all the time,” she said. “If you’re not particularly athletic, it can be more frightening than fun. But I think it’s great for someone who wants a constant challenge that never gets met. You never get good enough, whatever good enough means.”

About 575 ice hockey enthusiasts (children and adults) also train and play at Ice Capades.

“It’s real fast and exciting, (and) there’s always something going on, not like baseball,” said 16-year-old Kevin Smith, a goalie for White Lightning, a team in an in-house league.

Zig-zagging around the rink in cage-like helmets, knee pads and a state of frenzy, these so-called shavers know how to take a fall, skidding, sliding or spinning like break dancers before quickly resurrecting themselves.

Face-masked or puckless, professional or tyro, falling is one thing nobody can avoid, skaters agree. As 16-year-old Azure Carter of Huntington Beach put it: “You can always find little spots of blood on the ice.” She says it’s a sport for everybody, however, even those who shun the tricky stuff to leave serious blood-letting or bruises to others.

“You don’t have to do anything special to have fun,” she said.

* ICE ESCAPADE: A transplanted New Englander discovers getting back into the rink is not quite like riding a bike. Page 15