Nearing its 10th anniversary, The Peaks ice arena in Provo offers BYU students and the community opportunities to learn or just have fun.

The local ice arena provides skating rinks for a variety of uses, including BYU classes, open skating, how-to classes, broomball, serious figure skaters and local hockey leagues. The Peaks is home to the BYU, UVU and seven local high school hockey teams.

"The biggest target that we have is one, families, and two, the college students," said Anne Barlow, skating director at The Peaks.

Max Rabner, owner of The Peaks, said The Peaks aims to serve the local community. He said The Peaks is the only privately owned ice arena in the state, and many other arenas only host events rather than serving the community.

Barlow said BYU will offer hockey and ice skating classes for winter semester.

The Peaks offers local families group skate and hockey classes which are designed to prepare students for whichever sport they have chosen.

"With hockey, each session they get a new thing," Barlow said. "So the first semester they get their stick, the second semester they get their shin and elbow pads. So by the end they have all their gear. With skating they get gloves and skates at the end."

Barlow said the first introductory class is $25, so if they don't like it they haven't spent too much, Barlow said.

Jacqueline Garces, 18, a figure skater and BYU student majoring in exercise science, teaches a Learn to Skate class to young children every Saturday at The Peaks.

"The kids are wonderful," Garces said. "They love to work hard and learn new things."

Tamara Hill of Provo took her children ice skating at The Peaks a little over a year ago, and her daughter Emma, 9, expressed interest in skating. Hill enrolled Emma in one of the Learn to Skate classes.

"She loves it," Hill said. "She's been at if for a year."

Hill said she is impressed with the instructors, and how they are able to connect with young children.

"What's really great is the caliber of teachers they have there," she said.

Barlow said broomball at The Peaks is popular with college students.

"Everyone loves it, the wards love it," Barlow said. "The BYU students love the broomball night. It is a BYU favorite."

Every Thursday night the ice is reserved for broomball; entrance is $4 per person.

Wards can rent the ice for open skate or broomball. They can also rent both sheets and do open skating and broomball simultaneously.

Reserving an hour of private ice costs $185.

The Peaks Futsal League just began this month. Futsal is like soccer, but played indoors. The Peaks has small indoor courts, and a large indoor court the size of a full-size outdoor soccer court.

The Peaks also offers a ballet class, as well as a core strengthening class. Anyone from the community is invited to attend these classes.

Rabner and architects began designing and building The Peaks in 1997. The entire structure was completed by July 1999.

The Peaks ice arena is located on Seven Peaks Boulevard in Provo, adjacent to the water park. However, the two are separate entities and are independently owned.

Information brochures regarding the programs available at The Peaks can be picked up at the ice arena.



Copyright Brigham Young University 27 Oct 2008