San Diego hockey

[Socal Spartan]

What's up? I'm here in North San Diego county looking to get back in to hockey after not playing for a couple years (4). I know there's a couple of rinks in my area for pickup, but if you guys have opinions on the rinks I'd love to hear them. (you know, stuff like best price, condition of facilities, rather not go to a place with lots of meatheads.)

And if anyone needs an extra body for a team, I make a great pylon.

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[Clarkington III]

I tend to stay around the Kroc Center in La Mesa because it's the closest to me and definitely the best facility. Behind that, I'd say the rinks closest to you come next with the two in Escondido at Iceoplex. The have a lot of stick times throughout the week and have two rinks which is nice. I'd go there more often if it were closer because of the time slots they offer. Mira Mesa is alright and the one in La Jolla is ehhh.

I'd recommend making full use of the stick times at Iceoplex and then just talking with the people there once youre ready for a league.

 

[Socal Spartan]

Thanks man. Was also thinking about hitting up the half hour clinic thats followed by an hour of pickup. That sounds like it would be a good tune up to get me back in the flow of things.

 

[Jive Time]

The Escondido Icoplex is great for those early morning stick times ($10.00 for two hours).

Mira Mesa (SDIA) has intermediate pickup on Mon and Wed (10:10 pm - 12:00 am) that's pretty good and on Tuesdays (10:10 pm - 12:00 am) they put on a development class till 11:00 pm with pickup till midnight. Buzzer every 2 minutes. Craig Sterling puts on the clinic and usually works on breakouts and passing. Good fun ($20.00).

Kroc is nice but the pickups are packed.

 

[Socal Spartan]

Right on. Although it's too far for me, I'm glad to hear that Kroc gets a good turnout. I was concerned that there wouldn't be many players wherever I ended up. I'm definitely hitting up the development class.

 

[Socal Spartan]

Where do you guys buy your skates? I don't want to buy over internet (want a good fit) and fully expect any local pro shop to charge all kinds of convenience fees. Is the drive up to Anaheim for hockey giant worth it?

 

[Jive Time]

The last pair of skates I purchased was from the SDIA pro shop. They had pretty good selection and the guys working there seemed to know what they were talking about.

I'm guessing Hockey Giant is a good place to go for selection and price if you don't mind the drive. To be fair, I haven't been to any of the other local pro shops so they might be good as well.

 

[Clarkington III]

I actually bought mine up north in San Jose when I was home on vacation for a home stand for the Sharks.

If I did it again, I would probably go to SDIA if I didn't want to make the trip to hockey giant/ hockey monkey. If I had a free Saturday/Sunday, I would for sure just go there. I already want to for my next skate purchase. Chances are they will have better clearance deals as well.

 

[Socal Spartan]

Everyone failed to mention that the "adult" development class in mira mesa is mobbed with 10,000 kids. Anything else like this I need to look out for?

 

[KickHisAssZegrass]

Yeah any sticktime at KROC center will be the same. Your best bet is the sticktime/pickup during the day while the kids are at school.

 

[Steve55]

Just want to know about the fan demographics in San Diego, are most of the hockey fans in San Diego Ducks fans?

 

[Rickety Cricket]

Just want to know about the fan demographics in San Diego, are most of the hockey fans in San Diego Ducks fans?

I've been to San Diego ~5 times to play hockey and the vibe I got from most people is that they are Ducks fans. Also, a lot of the ads around the rinks were of the Ducks. Of course I am basing this off of a very limited exposure to the area.

As for physical rinks (only played in 2 in San Diego), I liked the Kroc Center much better than Ice Town.

 

[Clarkington III]

I've been to San Diego ~5 times to play hockey and the vibe I got from most people is that they are Ducks fans. Also, a lot of the ads around the rinks were of the Ducks. Of course I am basing this off of a very limited exposure to the area.

As for physical rinks (only played in 2 in San Diego), I liked the Kroc Center much better than Ice Town.

Ice town is horrible. Most local fans are probably duck fans with some kings fans mixed in. But the things about San Diego is most people that live here are not from here. So for the most part, fans are from all over the place. I'm a sharks fan, I have flyers, caps, red wings, bruins, ducks, kings, blackhawks, etc fans on my beer league team.

 

[Jive Time]

Everyone failed to mention that the "adult" development class in mira mesa is mobbed with 10,000 kids. Anything else like this I need to look out for?

Sorry Spartan, I should have been more clear. Like you found out, the Friday adult dev class is packed with kids. What I was trying to say is they have an adult development class before pickup on Tuesday nights 10:10 pm to midnight. It's about 40 minutes of drills and then an hour of pickup. Good mix of beginner and intermediate players.

 

[Cochese]

If you have monday afternoons off, from 3 to 4 they have stick time at Ice Town. It is always empty, so you have the ice to your self so you can do as you please without worrying of running into people.

 

[Socal Spartan]

Bump 'cause I see summer leagues are around the corner. Anyone need a couple skaters? Preferably on a team that wouldn't expect a whole lot out of us except to have fun....and some beers!

 

[Brodeur]

Bump 'cause I see summer leagues are around the corner. Anyone need a couple skaters? Preferably on a team that wouldn't expect a whole lot out of us except to have fun....and some beers!

My friend has a team that plays Wednesday nights at UTC. Not sure if they need any more skaters, but I can ask in case you're interested. They're a generally low key bunch and they usually have post-game beers on the top level of the UTC parking structure.

Just want to know about the fan demographics in San Diego, are most of the hockey fans in San Diego Ducks fans?

San Diego is a weird sports town since there's a ton of transplants. I know quite a number of northern California folks who came down here for college and settled. So naturally they're Shark fans. And then there are the natural Kings/Ducks transplants as well.

I know an inordinate amount of Canadians in the area. They even have an organization called Can Diego which does events.

One thing that handicaps the Ducks from getting any support in San Diego is simply the TV situation. I mentioned this to my friend who worked for the Ducks for a few years, but only a small percentage of households in San Diego get Fox Sports West 2 which is the primary carrier for Ducks games.

For the folks who have Center Ice, Duck games are blacked out with the assumption that we have FSW2. The only times I can watch a Ducks game is when they're not on FSW2 which maybe happens ten times a season.