On a nice cold night with no wind and no snow you can drive down to any outdoor ice rink and have a good chance of seeing some local high school students skating outside. At the rinks you will find people from a young age up to older men skating and playing hockey. They have all different skill levels from just learning to skate to former college hockey players and playing for almost their whole lives. When trying trying to figure out why people loved skating outside, Senior Ausin Browning said, “I enjoy it because you get back to the roots of where hockey started and it’s relaxing having the wind blow through your hair.” Freshman Joe Fitka said he liked it because the ice is free and is always available. When asked what is the best outdoor ice rink to skate on most of the people said the ice rink outside of Ben Boeke. They take better care of the ice. Star defenseman Tyler Andrews of Dimond Varsity Hockey Team said, “ Well, you know you got to skate the river. It’s not all about the rinks. It’s just about you, the ice and da puck. Sometimes you use your stick and you go out there and you snap the puck around and throw some sauces(saucer pass) and you just got to shoot to score erryday.” Andrews says what he doesn’t like about it is that “ Sometimes it’s cold here in the state of Alaska and my nose gets cold and then the fingers start going numb and then you know it goes all downhill from there cuz then your toes get numb and cold and then it’s lights out from there, unless sometimes your momma brings out hot chocolate but it’s only good if it gots the marshmallows in it and then it’s really good. Then you say thanks, mommy and then go snap the puck around some more.”