Pensacola ice skaters in middle of annual dry season without ice

Summer’s sweltering heat and rising humidity may drive some local athletes and weekend warriors scurrying for indoor activities, but they likely won’t find relief on an ice rink in Pensacola.

For fans of ice skating and hockey, the summer months are a dry period as the area’s lone public ice facility, the Pensacola Bay Center, only keeps ice during the Pensacola Ice Flyers’ season from October to March.

But as the old adage goes, champions are made in the offseason, forcing the city’s top young hockey players, figure skaters or those simply looking to skate to travel elsewhere.

“We have no ice during the summer,” said Sharon Gaubert, treasurer of the Greater Pensacola Figure Skating Club. “We have a lot of kids that will travel to Pelham (Alabama) and other places to skate because they have year-round ice. I know we have several junior hockey teams that are in Texas or Tennessee for camps because there’s ice there but not here.”

Gaubert said the club, which currently features approximately 50 members according to its website, is thrilled to have the opportunity to provide exercise and fun to local skaters, but the lack of year-round ice is inevitably limiting.

Promising youth hockey players and figure skaters often relocate from Pensacola as their talent emerges, pursuing communities with places in which they can practice all 12 months.

Ice sports also provide unique opportunities for people with physical disabilities. Adaptive programs can offer individuals who suffer from conditions like cerebral palsy and muscular dystrophy the chance for independence through sessions with ice sleds and walkers.

“There are a lot of things like that you couldn’t develop unless you had year-round ice because it takes dedicated coaches, facilities and equipment to make that happen,” Gaubert said. “It’s hard enough for us to teach skating October through March just hoping we have coaches and now knowing for sure when we’ll have ice.”

GPFSC vice president Michelle Margetta knows these benefits in a personal way.

Her 9-year-old son was diagnosed with “a ton” of outdoor allergies to common things like grasses, trees and pollen which prevent him from playing many traditional youth sports. It’s a new world once her son laces up his skates, however.  

“Doing outdoor sports like football, baseball and just running outside with other kids really winds him,” Margetta said. “He takes a long time to recover and has to take breaks, but he can skate for three hours without problem.

“When he’s in-season and skating a lot, he needs a lot less medicine. That indoor activity is so great for him.”

Margetta and her family recently moved to the Southeast from California and currently live in Theodore, Alabama.

Her daughter, Kira, also battled with cancer according to Gaubert, but overcame it to become a figure skater. She recently achieved her dream of competing in a figure-skating competition and took first prize. 

The sport has her hooked and she plans to attend Pensacola Christian College in the fall, which features an ice rink in the on-campus sports complex.

Margetta said her family inevitably becomes a bit less active in the months without ice skating in Pensacola as she said roller skating and other sports just don’t seem to have the same appeal to her family.

“I know a lot of people once they fall in love with ice sports it’s a life-long thing,” Margetta said. “My daughter said she’s going to skate until she’s 90. I just tell her never to stop because it might be hard to take it up as an adult again.

“We do have adult skaters as well, though. It’s really good exercise for adults… it’s good for balance, coordination and it’s a low-impact exercise. Skating is just fun.”

Margetta said there could be options for the growth of ice skating in Pensacola, even despite the likely demise of a new city arena. One option is a rink in Gulf Breeze that has backing from a group led by two men with ties to the Pensacola Ice Flyers.

Whether the sport’s future in Pensacola is in the Bay Center or Gulf Breeze, Margetta and Gaubert said they hope to provide ice skating essentials to kids and adults alike with whatever facilities they have available.

“When we first found out that there was figure skating in Pensacola we were just like everybody else. Totally shocked,” Gaubert said. “It’s a great sport. You get a good workout. The kids learn a lot of life skills on the ice just like they do with any team sport.”

Eric J. Wallace can be reached at ejwallace@pnj.com or 850-525-5087.