As winter settles in, students at Woodbridge High lace up their skates and tighten their skis to get ready for a chilly season full of challenges, camaraderie and exhilaration. Winter sports athletes choose to return to the cold every year, not just for the exercise but for the joy and excitement they feel while playing their sport. Sophomore Haran Gunabal loves the thrill of speeding down snow-covered slopes, the cold air whipping past his face as he carves his way through the winter landscape. The challenges he faces include avoiding the trees, people and other obstacles he encounters along his path. In this fast-paced sport, competitive skiers can reach astonishing speeds of up to 95 miles per hour on downhill runs.

“I enjoy the sense of going downhill and the maneuvering that it requires,” Gunabal said. “It’s overall sort of a difficult thing but once you get the hang of it, it’s extremely fun.”

Instead of returning to the slopes this winter, recreational club hockey player and senior Hugo Haase returns to the hockey rink for the excitement of competitions and the joy of playing the game.

“If it’s not competitive, it’s not going to be fun, and if it’s not fun, I’m not going to want to compete,” Haase said.

Freshman Kellen Tostenrude also continues to return to the ice rink, but for the creativity and freedom of figure skating, the most watched winter Olympic sport. The possibilities are endless when it comes to the ice, whether it be executing jumps, spins or dances.

His favorite figure skating trick is the scratch spin, a mesmerizing move where he gracefully balances on one foot, tightly pulls his arms and legs into his body and spins at a breathtaking speed.
The training, talent, equipment and events differ for each of these sports, yet one thing they all share is the ability to bring people together, creating opportunities to bond with friends and family. Haase’s favorite part of ice hockey is the time he gets to spend with his team.
“Bussing to games and staying in the hotel with them builds a really strong connection with the team,” Haase said. “[It] really makes me want to fight for them.”

As Haase thrives in the camaraderie created by ice hockey, Tostenrude also appreciates the opportunity he has to work with his ice-dancing partner. Although figure skating is often a solo sport, he found that collaborating with this partner deepened his commitment to figure skating. In addition to the teamwork, he finds his passion for figure skating in the freedom and sense of possibility it gives him.

“It’s just the possibilities of everything I can do from spins to jumps to dances [and] solos. There’s so much you can do,” Tostenrude said. “That’s what makes it so much fun.”

Many ice rinks make it easy to share the graceful sport of figure skating with friends and family by offering skate rentals, allowing them to enjoy memorable moments together on the ice. Even though skiing is also often seen as an individual sport, Gunabal chooses to share the experience with friends and family.

“I enjoy skiing because not only is it fun but [I’m able to cherish] the memories that I get with my family, especially since I see them only so often around every wintertime,” Gunabal said.

Having friends and family with him on his ski trip in Toronto made his experience more entertaining and memorable. These heartwarming times were created because of the passion and dedication of these athletes for their winter sport. Interestingly, these winter athletes began their recreational sports in a nontraditional way—they did not originally know that they wanted to play their sports. Tostenrude’s first main sport was basketball, but he lost interest in it and decided to try ice skating.

“I just started getting more interested in public skating, so I decided to keep on going,” Tostenrude said. “I thought it was really fun.”

When he realized that he enjoyed skating, he was determined to continue, and eventually the sounds of skates scraping the ice and the freezing temperature of the rink became a comfortable rhythm as he began training as a figure skater. For Haase, his father helped open his eyes to a new sport when he took him to a roller rink.

“When I was there, I saw all the older kids playing, and it seemed like a lot of fun, so I asked my dad to sign me up,” Haase said.

From that moment, his interest became a passion, inspiring him to play competitive ice hockey for his team, the Los Angeles Jr. Kings 16U AAA. Although these winter sports are engaging, like any sport, they still have their difficulties to work through. Being successful despite these roadblocks is when winter sports athletes start to see themselves improve.

In figure skating, it takes time to learn how to balance on the ice and skate confidently before learning how to do any jumps or spins.

“[The most difficult part is] if you’re starting as a beginner because it takes so long to get used to the feel of skating,” Tostenrude said. “It starts to feel a little easier as you start to progress.”

Progressing takes practice and dedication, but in the end, it is worth it to be able to skate freely and comfortably on the ice. In addition to learning how to skate, Haase has to work through the pressure of showing up for his team by playing his best.

“For me personally, the hardest part is bouncing back after a bad game,” Haase said. “It really sucks knowing I let my team down and I could’ve played better.”

Even though it was challenging not to meet his own or his team’s expectations at times, recognizing this motivates him to work harder and improve so he can play better in the next game. For skiing, Gunabal did not need to learn much about how to balance. The main difficulty for him was learning to control his speed while going downhill and figuring out how to turn right and left. During his ski trip with his family, he found it easier to learn to ski in fresh, natural snow.

“Since it was natural snow, it was really nice, it was really fluffy snow. It was easy to fall in since I didn’t really know how to ski that well at first,” Gunabal said. “It was a great place to start skiing, and I really loved it.”

Skiing in fluffy snow can help build confidence for a beginner as it makes falling less painful and intimidating. Even with all of these challenges, people continue to play these sports around the world every year. These athletes encourage Woodbridge High students to try some of these sports for themselves and bring friends and family with them.