DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM One of John Beck's responsibilities as general manager of Ice Palace is to make sure the ice skating rink is resurfaced regularly. Above, he rode on the outside of his Zamboni on Wednesday while teaching Chris Colleran how to operate it. The Zamboni shaves the surface of the ice and puts down a new ice coating.

Ice Man Cometh

John Beck keeps a cool
head as general manager
of the Ice Palace

Who: John Beck Title: General Manager Job: Manages the daily operations of Ice Palace at Stadium Mall in Halawa

John Beck grew up in Indiana and Oklahoma, finished high school and attended a bit of college, then traveled around a bit before deciding he'd like to live in Hawaii. He said last week he didn't know anybody here. "I just packed up and moved. I was young," he said with a chuckle. These days Beck is 49 and works as general manager of Ice Palace -- "Hawaii's only ice skating arena" -- which he's been doing ever since the popular attraction opened at Stadium Mall in Halawa almost 23 years ago.

He is married to the former Corinne Gomes, also a manager at Ice Palace, with whom he has one adult stepson, a daughter age 13 and a son age 11. They live in the Aliamanu area.

Question: I was told you're one of five managers at Ice Palace?

Answer: Let me see here ... (Counts off the names of the various managers to himself.) Yeah.

Q: So how come there are five managers?

A: 'Cause we're busy. We have a lot of things going on. The rink's in use from about 5:30 in the morning to about midnight.

Q: Who comes in at 5:30?

A: It's what's called session ice. That's the serious figure skaters. Sometimes they're in at 5, and they're on the ice until about 8:30.

Q: So what do your duties encompass?

A: Well I'm the general manager, so mine are a little different than the others.

Q: Whom do you report to?

A: The owner, which would be Doug Taylor.

Q: Doesn't he have a boat called the Zamboni?

A: Yep. He also had one called the Ice Breaker, but I don't think he has that anymore.

Q: Does he still race them?

A: I don't think he's racing anymore but, yeah, he was really big into that a few years back.

Q: Does he come in to the Ice Palace very often?

A: Yeah. His office is, like, four doors down from the Ice Palace. We're in Stadium Mall and he's the mall manager. (Taylor also is part owner of the mall.)

Q: So, do you drive the Zamboni at Ice Palace?

A: Do I? Yeah. Quite often, as a matter of fact.

Actually, we have two Zambonis, and they're both electric. Sometimes you read about places on the mainland that have gas Zambonis and people get overcome by the fumes. But we don't have to worry about that here.

DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM John Beck on Wednesday showed off the ice skating rink at Ice Palace, which he said is kept frozen by 10 miles of tubing flowing with antifreeze. Beck has been working at the popular attraction for almost 23 years.

A: We resurface the ice about once every hour and 15 minutes. Like at 9, 10:30, noon, 1:30.

Q: How long does it take to do that?

A: Ten to 15 minutes.

Q: Besides that, what do you do during the day?

A: I oversee the operation of the Ice Palace.

Q: How many people do you supervise?

A: Total, we probably have about 60 people working here, but at any one time, we have 10 to 12 people. Depends how many groups are scheduled, the time of the week. ...

Q: Do you have to do a lot of paperwork?

A: Me personally, no. We have a bookkeeper -- actually a couple of them. So, do I have stuff to do? Yeah. But they have to do more of that kind of work than what I have to do.

Q: What kind of safety rules do you enforce at the rink?

A: Oh, we have a long list.

Q: So the Ice Palace is kind of like a bowling alley, where you rent the shoes and stuff like that?

A: Yeah, except the admission price includes the skates. And once you're in, you could stay all day.

Q: What kind of activities go on at the Ice Palace?

A: We have the session ice, as I mentioned, and we also have that in the afternoon. Then we have our public skating. It's every day at various times. Then we have classes. And then we have a youth hockey program and two adult hockey leagues.

DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM John Beck put away some skates Wednesday after elementary school students on a field trip returned them. Behind him is Ken Quero.

A: Different days are different amounts. Like right now, I have school groups for end-of-the year activities. The kids love to come here.

Q: How long have you been working at the Ice Palace?

A: From the very first day, Sept. 22, 1982, so that's, what, three months shy of 23 years.

Q: Where did you get the experience to manage a place such as Ice Palace?

A: Well, I'd been managing restaurants for three or four years when the rink opened, and I'd been an assistant manager of a communications company back when I was, like, 19.

Q: Do you like to watch figure skating competitions, like on TV?

A: Oh, sure. That's something we have here. We have skating competitions several times a year.

Q: How about ice hockey?

A: Oh yeah, I've played that since I was 6 or 8, so for, like, 40 years.

Q: Are you a pretty good ice skater yourself?

A: I do OK.

Q: What's your favorite part of the job -- driving the Zamboni?

A: I can't say there's one favorite. I enjoy working for Doug, working with the people we have working here. It's great. We've got some really great people here. Some have been here a short time, others 10 to 15 years. And we stay in touch with some of the people who worked here in the beginning.

Q: Why is the ice-resurfacing machine called a Zamboni?

A: It's named after Frank J. Zamboni, the guy who invented it (in 1949). His family still runs and operates the Zamboni company (Frank J. Zamboni & Co.). Until he invented that, it used to take a couple hours with a lot of people to resurface a rink.