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14 / JANUARY.FEBRUARY.2016 RINKMAGAZINE.COM ALTHOUGH IT'S JUST 95 MILES UP THE COAST from downtown Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, California, couldn't be further removed from the glitz and glamour that's often associated with the culture of Southern California. Nestled in a narrow sliver of land between the Pacific Ocean and the Los Padres National Forest, Santa Barbara boasts a more laid- back lifestyle. It's filled with mostly subur- ban residents who have everything from the ocean to the mountains within, or just beyond, their town's borders. For the longest time, the one thing missing that kept Santa Barbara from truly having everything was the absence of its own ice rink. Since the closing of its most recent ice skating facility, the Ice Patch, more than 30 years ago, Santa Barbarians have had to drive upwards of an hour each way to reach the closest ice rink in Oxnard, California. That is until this past October, when a decade-long push for a new ice facility in Santa Barbara County finally came to fruition. The facility, located in Goleta, California, is appropriately named Ice in Paradise. It features two rinks: one rink at the standard NHL size of 200-by-85 feet, while the other smaller rink is 100-by-60 feet. At 46,500 square feet, Ice in Paradise also houses a restaurant, Zizzo's, six full- size locker rooms and a specially equipped adaptive sports locker room. "It goes back more than 15 years," Ice in Paradise general manager Larry Bruyere recently told Rink Magazine. "Initially, the land was donated and specifically ear- marked to become an ice rink. There was a After three decades, an ice facility finally returns to Santa Barbara // by DAN MARRAZZA Featured Rink Ice in Paradise | | Santa Barbara, Calif. PHOTOS: MIKE BLAKE, ICE IN PARADISE Paradise Ice in