Ice in Paradise

Santa Barbara enjoys a wonderful Mediterranean climate, where temperatures rarely drop below freezing, an average of less than twice a year even in the middle of the night in the dead of winter. While the mountains get a bit colder and can sport a dusting of snow a few times each winter, there’s nothing that cold sustained ever near the coast. 

Great for beach volleyball. Not so much for ice skating. 

Which is why almost 20 years ago, Jack Norqual, a dedicated hockey fan who lives at Ennisbrook in Montecito, had the idea of building the region’s first indoor ice-skating facility. Ice in Paradise, which celebrated its 10th anniversary just last weekend, was part of the deal (with Girsh Park) to allow for the development of Camino Real Marketplace, home of Costco, Home Depot, and much more. 

It was perfect timing, as the only similar facility remotely near Santa Barbara, Channel Islands Ice Center in Oxnard, closed a few months before Ice in Paradise opened.

The community has embraced the skating haven ever since. 

As its mission statement says, Ice in Paradise provides a wide variety of recreational ice-skating programs in a state-of-the-art facility for all members of our community to enjoy in a safe, friendly, and fun environment, all at affordable prices.

“It’s really something fantastic that’s different to do beyond the beach or going for a hike,” said Martha Donelan, Ice in Paradise’s development director. “Ice skating is great exercise, it’s social, and it’s a lot of fun.”

Ice in Paradise – which has two different rinks known as slates – has a wide array of programs, including its very popular Learn to Skate offerings, where Professional Level Coaching Staff train enrollees in four age groups (tots, youth, teens, and adults) through a progressive series of sessions from absolute beginners to competitive freestyle skating including jumps, spins, and choreography.

“I’m willing to bet that a large variety of people in the community have never put on a pair of skates,” Donelan said. “But that’s not a barrier at all. We can teach you. Everyone has to start somewhere, and you can get pretty far pretty quickly if you want to.”

Pretty effectively, too. 

Donelan said two of its rink-trained freestyle skaters are currently competing nationally. “And some of our adult women hockey players had never been on skates until three years ago and now they’re playing hockey.”

Hockey is a big part of Ice in Paradise, with a variety of classes, teams, leagues, and pick-up games. But Ice in Paradise also hosts multiple versions of just about any sport that can take place on frozen water, from curling and broomball (where players wearing special rubber-soled shoes instead of ice skates use a broom-shaped stick to hit a ball into the opponent’s net) and even sled hockey, also known as para ice hockey, an adapted version designed for athletes with lower-body disabilities. 

In all of the hockey varieties, safety comes first. 

“There’s no checking in any of our leagues or games,” Donelan said. “So if you are thinking it would be cool to play hockey, but don’t want to get hit, no need to worry. You’re not going to.”

There are special weekly offerings in the open skates that include college nights with different themes, Parents Night Out, and several others, including a coffee club that meets every Tuesday morning while kids are in school to socialize and skate. 

“We’re a real community resource,” Donelan said. 

You don’t even have to be a participant to enjoy Ice in Paradise. There are occasional ice shows, and lots of opportunities to simply watch someone skate for free, including the UCSB college men’s hockey team, which opens its season on Friday, October 16. 

The rare event that does charge for admission includes Ice in Paradise’s annual Holiday on Ice Show, with the two shows on December 12 carrying a holiday movie theme. Also, the brand-new Santa Barbara Islanders semi-professional hockey team makes its debut in the Mountain Hockey League – the “Senior A” full-check ice hockey league – with two home games against the Las Vegas Southwest Outcasts on October 23-24. 

“It’s the first time there’s been professional hockey at any level in Santa Barbara,” Donelan said. 

There’s something else that people probably don’t know about Ice in Paradise – that it operates a fully-certified 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Which is how they’re able to meet that part of the mission that mentions affordable prices, Donelan said. 

“The reason we are a nonprofit is because the business model makes better sense that way. Ice sports can be prohibitively expensive and rinks have a lot of built-in costs. So we intentionally keep our program fees as low as we can to help keep it more accessible to as many people as possible.”

Meaning, in order to survive, Ice in Paradise relies on grants or donations. Donelan said two current capital projects include fixing a few leaks in the roof before the rainy season, which is expected to be heavy in this El Niño winter. Also, the rubber flooring that lets skaters traverse the facility without having to take off their skates needs replacing. 

Other ways to support Ice in Paradise include sponsoring a brick for the Donor Garden, an outdoor plaza similar to the recently completely and widely praised Michael Towbes Plaza at the downtown public library. 

With winter on the way, Ice in Paradise is open to all.  

Visit www.iceinparadise.org