Ice Skating at The Beach!

No, your eyes do not deceive and I'm not drunk (at 11 a.m.? Horrors!) Starting today at 4 p.m. one can go ice skating -- outdoors where it's 80 degrees --at the Seaside Lagoon, Redondo Beach. The rink will be open for 55 days. It's $14 for adults and $12 for kids to skate for 1 1/2 hours and includes the skates. seasideice.com

In summer Seaside Lagoon is a warmed sea water kids' lagoon. The sea water is pumped out of the electric plant where it's used to cool the generators (I think.) It's shallow water throughout and has a sand beach.

The ice rink is the brainchild of Scott Williams and Tom Kearney and it's 120 x 60 ft. The generators are rated at 800 amps each and the two refrigerator chillers weigh 11,000 and 16,000 lbs. respectively.

The engineering interested me particularly. How the hell do you create an ice rink at the beach? The Daily Breeze said that first the sand was leveled. Foam boards were laid on the sand, then covered with a plastic liner and a series of tubes put down to circulate the propylene glycol, a coolant. When all that was done, the tubes were sprayed with water to form ice to a planned depth of three inches. A temporary road of steel plates was put down so that a forklift could bring the chillers and generators across the sand.

I wonder how much noise the generators/ chillers make and how loud the "Skater's Waltz" will be because directly across from the Lagoon are several sets of condos. The residents will be out on their balconies howling like wolves if it's at all loud.

Another consideration is the fact that we've been warned repeatedly that there may be rolling blackouts due to the fires. It would seem a tad inconvenient if, when this thing is lit up, every bit of power in the South Bay goes out. The good news is that they began making ice late yesterday afternoon and nothing happened at all.

Whatever the inconveniences may turn out to be ... to get your annual Christmas photo shot while you are ice skating at the beach in a bikini? PRICELESS!