By Michael Aushenker
Special to the Lookout

November 17, 2011 -- Once ICE at Santa Monica appears, the holiday season has officially arrived in the beachside city.

The 8,000-square-foot ice skating rink kicked off its fifth year on Tuesday evening with an opening ceremony that included professional ice-skating performances and welcome benedictions from local politicians. Open to the public, the rink will occupy the northwest corner of 5th and Arizona through January 16.

“This would be nothing but a parking lot if it wasn’t for everyone of you being here,” said emcee and pro figure skater Randy Gardner to an ebullient crowd of several hundred who came down for the free preview night of skating.

“It’s a positive atmosphere for the City of Santa Monica,” said Sgt. Richard Lewis, the Police department spokesman. “It’s great to see the kids have fun, it’s very family-[oriented]. We hope we can fit everyone on the ice.”

Indeed, as night fell on Santa Monica, and a DJ mixed crowd-pleasers such as AC/DC’s “You Shook Me All Night Long” and Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer,” hundreds of children lined up for the official first skating opportunity of the season.

Before the rink was turned over to the public, Downtown Santa Monica Inc. CEO Kathleen Rawson, Mayor Richard Bloom and City Council’s Bobby Shriver joined host and pro skater Randy Gardner to praise ICE. Over at the DJ’s corner, a cloud of smoke introduced Mayor Pro Tem Gleam Davis.

“It builds every year,” Bloom said, noting that 60,000 to 70,000 skaters frequented ICE last year.

The destination has become an institution in Santa Monica, Bloom said, and by bringing people to the rink, “hopefully they’ll patronize the local businesses [over the holiday season]. It’s all good.”

Figure skaters Brandon Michael Larken performed a couple’s duet around the rink with Ashleigh Cahn, who, since ICE began, has taught private and group skating lessons.

“It’s a great opportunity for kids to come and get into the holiday spirit,” Cahn said.

California Gold, a group of a dozen young girls in sapphire skirts, also flaunted their expert moves.

An event highlight: an appearance by skating champion Tara Lipinski, the youngest gold medalist in the history of the Olympic Winter Games, who engaged emcee Gardner in a choreographed “back scratch” and “spin” move that captivated the audience.

“I always bring my friends here [to ICE], it’s a great time,” Santa Monica local Lipinksi told The Lookout News after her performance. “I’m here a lot with family.”

Lipinksi introduced kids from the Santa Monica Police Activities League and from the local Boys and Girls Club, a charity she supports, onto the ice to skate. Following that introduction, ICE was officially open for the season.

In conjunction with the festivities, a pavilion area alongside the rink provided educational and business information and products from several local institutions, including the Santa Monica Police Department, Santa Monica Playhouse, and Scratch DJ Academy.

Manning the table for the latter, DJs Protonik and Red Con offered “spin art,” a splattering of paint on vinyl records. Protonik said the art was going toward raising donations to help subsidize scholarships “for students in need, students who can’t afford the buses” to attend the record-spinning school.

Located off Cotner and Pico, Scratch DJ Academy was founded by the late Jason “Jam Master Jay” Mizell, sonic backbone of the pioneer rap group Run-DMC.

“He had the idea to share his skills,” Protonik said. “It’s kind of counter-intuitive among DJs but [he reasoned], ‘If I pass away, all my secrets will die with me.'” Mizell was murdered on October 30, 2002.

“Hopefully, we’ll be out here as much as possible" throughout the season, Protonik said.

Only six months into its existence, The Misfit restaurant, off 2nd and Santa Monica Blvd., also had a presence at the fair area.

“We’re in Santa Monica so we really wanted to be a part of the community of Santa Monica,” said the restaurant’s general manager, Kate Houser, who was managing the Misfit table.

“I’m a little too scared to go on the ice,” she admitted as she and staffers readied bites of soft pretzels, cups of Arnold Palmers and servings of hot gazpacho.

However, she added that she wanted to see Bob Lynn get out there and skate since the Misfit owner is a former hockey player.

Dressed in colorful quasi-clown garb, in a purple wig with heart makeup on her cheek, Santa Monica Playhouse co-artistic director Evelyn Rudie and the young women manning the SMP table, were excited about the opening of ICE. The Playhouse has been represented at the opening of ICE since year one.

“Every year, we like to do face paint design,” Rudie said. “We have our standard hearts, our spider, our butterfly, and last year, someone said, ‘I want my face to be a zombie!’”

In addition to the joy of taking part in this community event, Rudie said that "a lot of people will come to see a show or join a workshop.”

Of course, no one was more excited about the opening of ICE than the hundreds of kids in attendance. At another booth, Orange-based Kids Play offered food-related crafts play, encouraging boys and girls such as Joy Collins of Los Angeles to create their own holiday cookies.

As a group of children (many face-painted) delighted in personalizing their desserts with icing and M & M’s, Collins, 8, said she found the opening night ceremonies “fun and exciting.”

With his parents in tow, Barron Linnekens, 3 ½, was not entering the rink on this night, but he promised that the next day “after school, I’m going to skate!”

Nearing the rink’s entrance, local mom Melanie Ladham enjoyed opening night with daughter Mia, 8, and son Nolan, 2.

“It’s so much fun,” Ladham said. “My daughter was taking skating classes here last year. She is so excited about it.”

Then she added, “We’re Canadian. We live for this!”

For more information, visit http://www.iceatsantamonica.com/