SoCal plays it cool

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."