Roller Skating Rink on West Cota?

Gutierrez....currently D'Angelo's bakery.

Right, on Gutierrez. It was there for a long time, when I was a little girl and when my children were teenagers. Have no idea when it closed.

South side of the first block west, I'm thinking Gutierrez. A block away from Talk of the Town.

I recall one being behind the Staples parking lot for a long time in the early 90's. it was called The Lot. I used to play roller hockey there as a 6-8 years old.

I remember roller skating there frequently in the 1970s. Very fun memory.

Actually I think this opens up a more interesting discussion about all of the rinks & attempts at getting decent organized hockey into SB. in 1992 I was 5 years old. At that time, Gretzky was my childhood hero and hockey & the Kings were my life. When I started playing, there was a little league that played in the carp high gym, the thunderbowl was open and had a coed league there, the lot was there, and there was a legit indoor rink in goleta at what is now I think the motorsports place. I was too young to remember the Ice Patch, but grew up hearing stories of the legendary place my parents used to go to on dates. The montecito YMCA held hockey clinics weekly on like wednesday nights where 8-10 of us would go and had a coach teach us skating and stick handling, that clinic was the justification for them to build a rink, which they did, only to never get used the way it really should have. From there I played in the GHL which was a makeshift rink in the corner of San Marcos High school. I then played 1 season at the indoor roller rink, and I'll never forget going to the first practice and have the coach teach us about outlet passes, we ran that drill 40 times that day, and 2 days later before the first game he passed away from a heart attack. I think about that every time I make a good outlet pass. That rink then closed, then they built the rink at Earl Warren and that was the main rink in SB until Ice in Paradise came along a few years ago. It was always interesting to me how hard the town fought to try to sustain hockey for the kids, and all the efforts of the community to make sure we had a place to play. While they were all pretty psudo in the grand scheme, I always felt very appreciative to have the opportunity to play the sport I so much loved and still do, I play at Ice in Paradise now, and there's nothing like playing on ice, but for a beach community, we still got to play plenty of puck growing up.

Guiterrez, not Cota, right. Went there often in the late 50s in elementary school, loved it. The sound of the wheels on the wooden rink, the music, the dusty smell. Skating backwards, doing little spins, very fun times for kids.

Oh yes, we had 2 when I was a kid and also had 2 Golf & Funs!! Plus an Ice Skating rink on the mesa...

Such fond memories of that skating rink. Good old creaky wood floor, strobe lights and great music! Fun.

Yes, Gutierrez st. Am I going to be the first to mention the Hokey Pokey? “You put your right hand in, you put your right hand out, you put your right hand it and you shake it all about”. Good times.

Yes!!! I loved the skating rink on Gutierrez. In the ‘60’s they ran a special offer: a free pair of quality lace-up roller rink skates after completing a session of skating classes. I earned my skates and really enjoyed fun times there. Also, my brother & I learned to swim at the YMCA on the corner of Carrillo & Chapala - (now Ralph’s). As a special treat, we played Miniature golf somewhere around Gutierrez - still there when our kids were young. Thanks for sparking memories of the SB of my youth!

I've been there, but it was around 40 years ago when I was a teen. I don't remember the exact street and location, but I remember skating there once. At the time I was competing in artistic roller skating (roller figure skating) and mostly skated in Lompoc and Oxnard (RIP to all three of the rinks). The floor at the down town Santa Barbara rink was wood; however, it was small, slippery, uneven, and overly bouncy. I remember doing axels and double salchows out there and having to sink way down to hold the landings. Around the same time there was another roller rink in goleta on Holister. It was larger and had a coated cement floor. That floor was also slippery, but it was more level and solid. In the 90s Goleta once again tried to have an indoor roller rink in another location, but it too folded up in a short time. Roller rink businesses are very expensive and difficult to keep up. It seems the only possible future for roller rinks is the multipurpose facility concept where the rink is used for other things as well as roller skating. This may be wishful thinking, but I would love to see Santa Barbara get such a facility with a 200 by 100 foot maple floor, skate shop, cafe, and plenty of seating all around for special events. The 70s and 80s are gone, but this could be a step in the right direction towards bringing back the glory days of roller skating.