SoCal plays it cool

ICE rinks have never had it very easy in Southern California. They’re expensive, difficult to maintain and generally a hard sell -- after all, who wants to go inside a cold, dank building when it’s sunny and 72 outside?

But for the next few weeks, ice rinks have a certain cachet among those who might otherwise spend their weekends at the beach. This is, after all, a time when Southern Californians search for a touch of winter in their lives, even if they drive with the car top down on their way to experience it.

And that search often brings them to the ice.

The most novel rinks are outdoors, those set up usually from early November through mid-January. Downtown on Ice at Pershing Square in Los Angeles is in its eighth year, and malls in Irvine and Thousand Oaks have skating surfaces as well. (Universal CityWalk did not install a rink this season because of construction on a new attraction.) But novelty has its drawbacks: In prime hours, the outdoor rinks can get packed, sometimes making it tough to skate.

Less attention-grabbing are the 20 or so indoor rinks in L.A., Orange and Ventura counties. They, too, tap into the winter spirit, offering extended public skating hours. And though they may be in industrial areas or other places off the beaten path, in many ways they better reflect the quirky essence -- or at least the history -- of ice skating here.

To the untrained eye, a rink is a rink is a rink. Spend enough time in them, though, and the unique character of each will emerge. You will also discover that there are two basic types: Just as the calendar distinguishes between BC and AD, some savvy rink-rats differentiate between those that were built Before Gretzky and those that arose After Gretzky -- as in Wayne Gretzky, the superstar hockey player whose trade to the Los Angeles Kings in 1988 fueled an interest in hockey and skating that went far beyond the reaches of Minnesota, Massachusetts and Maine. It even encouraged the Walt Disney Co. to found a new team, the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, which it owned from 1993 until June.

“In the mid-’90s, Wayne Gretzky and Disney were the big factors in growth in nontraditional markets such as Southern California, Florida and Texas,” says Pat Kelleher, head of Serving the American Rinks (STAR), a joint program between USA Hockey and U.S. Figure Skating that provides support and education for rink management and employees. “Up until then, rinks there were kind of an underground movement.”

Now skaters can hit the same ice the pros use -- either at the Mighty Ducks practice facility in Anaheim, designed by architect (and amateur hockey player) Frank Gehry, or the Kings’ compound in El Segundo, which also draws the likes of actors such as Kiefer Sutherland, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Alan Thicke. Both of the rinks were built in the go-go ‘90s and are kept in relatively pristine condition.

Or skaters can twirl around where five-time world champion Michelle Kwan does: at Artesia’s East West Ice Palace, the latest addition to the scene. Kwan co-owns the rink, which opened in May, and trains there.

As slick as these After Gretzky rinks are, the Before Gretzky rinks still pack in the hockey players, figure skaters and newbies -- and they played a significant role in the skating industry.

For proof, head to Paramount Iceland, which is one of the oldest continuously operating rinks in the U.S. and contains the first ice resurfacing machine, the Zamboni Model A. That’s because Frank Zamboni, who helped open the place, invented his now-famous device there in 1949. On Tuesday, the rink will quietly mark its 66th anniversary.

Paramount may be the most significant of the bunch, but the old rinks all have some hidden history to tell. Though there is no sign of it today, the Culver Ice Arena was the practice facility for the Los Angeles Kings, and in his autobiography Gretzky called it “one of the coldest I’d been in.” The otherwise humble Skating Edge in Harbor City has been used for numerous movie and television shoots. The small Pasadena Ice Skating Center used to be a ballroom.

Despite various remodels and updates, a lot of the older rinks look more or less the way they have for decades -- with the occasional quirk thrown in. At the Harbor City rink, even the video game machines are in their same 1980s spot and some of the titles, such as Ms. Pac-Man and Star Wars, haven’t changed. Outside there’s fake snow on concrete boulders, an attempt to establish an alpine feeling. At Paramount, there’s a vintage Wurlitzer pipe organ to accompany skating sessions. At Van Nuys Iceland, they offer bumper cars on ice.

Of course, those are the places that have survived. Southern California is riddled with ones that haven’t, sometimes in surprising places.

Joe Nix, a former aerospace employee, keeps a list of bygone rinks on his website (users.mo-net.com/nixit/scalrin1.html). He started it because he wanted to introduce new skaters and hockey players to Southern California’s rich rink history. Otherwise, “the oncoming generation of parents and players would not be aware there was a rink there before,” he says.

Among his obituaries are the Polar Palace on Melrose (which burned down in 1963 and is now the site of Raleigh Studios), the Sonja Henie Westwood Palace of Ice (razed in 1949 to make way for expansion at UCLA) and the Santa Monica Ice Capades Chalet (closed in 1983 and now the home of Fred Segal).

In the last five years alone, he has had to update his list with facilities in Irvine, North Hills, Costa Mesa and Sylmar. The closures represent a slight contraction after the influx of new facilities.

“It’s tough to make money,” says Art Trottier, general manager of Anaheim Ice, the Mighty Ducks’ practice facility. “The energy costs are not pretty.”

Refrigeration can make up about 30% of a rink’s total expenses and be crippling during the summer months, the STAR program’s Kelleher says. And as in many industries, the pressure to meet the bottom line is as great as it has ever been; nationwide, more and more of the U.S.’ 1,800 rinks are dealing with private ownership, Kelleher adds. In that respect, Southern California has more experience because rinks here have traditionally been private rather than public ventures.

Despite the difficulties, it’s not all gloom and doom. Sandy Lansdell, who’s been skating, coaching and working in local rinks for about three decades, says that rinks have in some ways never been more vital than today.

“We’ve seen more interest in hockey, more interest in figure skating, as well as things like birthday parties and broomball,” says Lansdell, the special events coordinator at Westminster Ice Arena, a onetime supermarket. “And any time there’s a movie about skating, we always see a jump in people coming out.”

Well, we are in Southern California, after all.

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A rink sampler

Year-round rinks

Aliso Viejo Ice Palace, 9 Journey, Aliso Viejo, (949) 643-9648

Anaheim Ice, 300 W. Lincoln Ave., Anaheim, (714) 535-7465

Culver Ice Arena, 4545 Sepulveda Blvd., Culver City, (310) 398-5718

East West Ice Palace, 11446 Artesia Blvd., Artesia, (562) 809-6200

Glacial Gardens, 3975 Pixie St., Lakewood, (562) 429-1805. Also: 1000 E. Cerritos Ave., Anaheim, (714) 502-9023

Paramount Iceland, 8041 Jackson St., Paramount, (562) 633-1171

Pasadena Ice Skating Center, 310 E. Green St., Pasadena, (626) 578-0800

Pickwick Ice Center, 1001 Riverside Drive, Burbank, (818) 845-5300

The Skating Edge, 23770 S. Western Ave., Harbor City, (310) 325-4475

Toyota Sports Center, 555 N. Nash St., El Segundo, (310) 535-4510

Van Nuys Iceland, 14318 Calvert St., Van Nuys, (818) 785-2172

Westminster Ice Arena, 13071 Springdale Blvd., Westminster, (714) 899-7900

Temporary rinks

Downtown on Ice, 532 S. Olive St., L.A., (213) 847-4970. Through Jan. 16.

Irvine Spectrum Center, 71 Fortune Drive, Irvine, (949) 387-2419. Through Jan. 16.

The Lakes, 2200 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd., Thousand Oaks, (805) 494-0514. Through Jan. 8.

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Skating tips

Ice skating can be a lot of fun or a traumatic experience. Here are some tips to get you gliding.

* Wear thin socks. Thick socks don’t necessarily keep you any warmer, and they make for an awkward fit that will cut off blood circulation and make you wobbly.

* Pick snug skates. Unlike regular ice skates, rental skates are sized the same as shoes, but you might try a half-size smaller. Avoid skate boots that are badly worn.

* Lace ‘em up. The art to lacing is: Use medium tightness on the first few eyelets, go tightest across the top of the instep, then ease up as you get toward the top of the skate. The cure for “weak ankles” is a firmer skate boot.

* Bend your knees. Think of your legs as shock absorbers when you skate.

* Keep your weight forward. If you fall, it’s much better to fall forward than backward -- you’ll be less likely to hit your head.

* Stay in control. You might be a speed demon, but once you get going, can you stop without running into the wall?

* Listen to the skate guards. They may act superior, but generally they have good advice -- such as, “Get off the ice or this 12,000-pound Zamboni will hit you.”

* Watch out below. Off the ice, those black rubber mats are there to protect your blades. Step off them, or into one of the gaps between them, and you won’t have an edge to skate on.

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-- Scott Sandell