But while there were plenty of purposely goofy elements to the league, the players were still competitors, and there was incentive to win. Oddly, the PBH season lasted about two months in real-time, usually May to June, and then games were taped and broadcast on ESPN2 from June to September. They were kind of a big deal for Pro Beach Hockey, with the league even using “Ramp it up!” as a tagline. “The first year, it was easy because you’d do about two games a day. Players on each roster were a wide range of ages and had different playing backgrounds. Pro Beach Hockey had a rather large pool of players come from Southern California’s burgeoning community of hockey players involved in the movie business. McLane would actually go to local pickup roller hockey games near the California beaches to scout for talent. Pro Beach Hockey Filter Sort. The 6-foot, 200-pound Sun Devil finished his pro day averaging 4.57 seconds … Emily Kaplan and Greg Wyshynski take you around the NHL with the latest news, big questions and special guests every episode. Goalie. It made the game faster, and the yellow ball popped against the black sport court. . Even the name itself is jarring, and the words don’t sound like they belong together. It was kind of fun though, if a guy didn’t know what he was doing and got caught back there, you could just pound him into the corner.”. XX-Large. 1998 Heavy Metal Tee. Nelson was arguably the face of inline hockey at the time. He learned his lesson, and the league ownership of PBH teams allowed McLane creative control in molding the teams the way he wanted. Pro Beach Hockey burned brightly but burned out fast. Beach bums lining the bleachers. Now, it being the middle of summer and in southern California, it of course wasn’t ice, but roller hockey. There were no face-offs after the opening draw, allowing for a more free-flowing game with fewer stoppages. (Players were paid on a per-game basis, but the winners would be paid more, and there was a bonus at the end of the season for the champion. espn.com. They also made the weirdest commercials you’ve ever seen. So when the opportunity arose to try something different, McLane wanted to go bigger, louder and wilder. It has now been 20 years since the innovative inline hockey league last overtook Huntington Beach… $34.00 Quick view. That’s probably the one thing they didn’t figure out, to be smarter than to put us under the stands.”. Change ). 2020 men’s college swimming camps. Hollywood is still dotted with PBH alumni today. He had plenty of insight into what worked and what didn’t. “The excitement and newness of it, having a ramp, it was so innovative,” said Nedomansky, the captain of the Heavy Metal in the first season of PBH. In one of the few YouTube videos remaining from the era, Salsa player Ray Matz was asked to remove his false teeth to prove he was a hockey player, which he proudly obliged, showing a trademark toothless grin. Pro Beach Hockey (PBH) was a professional inline hockey league. The six teams — the Heavy Metal, the Gargoyles, the Xpress, the Salsa, the Dawg Pac and the Web Warriors — were all centrally owned by the league. Large. So you’d constantly have to clean your gear, clean out your wheels — everything had to be cleaned at all times. Pro Beach Hockey was exactly what the name says it was, “professional” hockey in that the players got paid based on how their team finished (most players were from Roller Hockey International), and played on a rink plopped right down on the beach about 100 feet from the ocean in California. Truthfully, looking at that clip, the action on the rink was pretty bad. The McSorley’s had the connections to help find players willing to give the revolutionary league a try. I could really see it coming back again.”, “I can’t tell you how many people have come up to me who know me from Pro Beach Hockey,” Nedomansky said. The founder of PBH, McLane, continues to work as a promoter and producer, too. 1998 Web Warriors Tee. Remember Pro Beach Hockey? “So I couldn’t skate in the things, but I could shoot. “I got a text the other day that someone wanted to buy my jerseys from Pro Beach Hockey, and I said, ‘Absolutely not,'” Nelson said. Having won a national championship on the ice at the University of Wisconsin and having been drafted by the New Jersey Devils in 1988, he was on track for a strong pro career on the ice and kind of fell into inline hockey as a way to stay in shape during the offseason. ( Log Out /  There was plenty more Hollywood crossover for PBH players and execs. “I’m not a purist like some guys are,” said Butters, an actor who had played for the Bullfrogs and Los Angeles Blades in RHI. “The intellect of the hockey players, whoever was a quick learner would come up with cool things,” Nedomansky said. Playing hockey on the street is challenging and dangerous because of cars and potholes. It wasn’t that simple for most players, and Koules said they actually contributed to his style of play. ( Log Out /  “They were so hard to skate in, you ended up apologizing for running into guys all the time because you weren’t trying to be a jerk,” he said. $34.00 Quick view. “When David McLane told me the concept — guys on ramps, bands playing loud music — I was like, ‘Cool, whatever it takes,'” Mike Butters said. “But it was scary. Ramps, two-point goals and sandy inline skates Twenty years later, we look back at how Pro Beach Hockey combined inline hockey with the Pacific Ocean, heavy metal music and X Games-esque ramps. How bad was the NCAA title game, and famous Twitter blocks! 1998 Dawg Pac Tee. It was an Argentinian championship polo (aka horse hockey) match. The Rockin' Rollers played at the Meadowlands. level 1. Figure skate sharpening is also available in locations offering Skate Services. This was the mid- to late-90s, and rather than fill air time with talk shows, ESPN2 would air really weird sporting events that probably cost them nothing, but filled a couple of hours in the day, especially during the summer. Major League Roller Hockey ran from 1998 to 2012 but never really stuck. So I almost always would set up wide like a three-point shooter in basketball and go for those two-point goals.”. And it was the perfect time capsule of the late 1990s. Skate Zone's youth Development Ice Hockey League, the official rec league of the Palm Beach Hawks and a USA Hockey sanctioned program, is a fun and exciting in-house recreational hockey league open to both boys and girls ages 5 to 15. But this collection of stories and inside info from Chris Peters is still a blast. “A group of us that were among the premier roller hockey players in the world signed on right away. Hockey in Hollywood. “I said, ‘We can create something new here.'”. All of the emotions were there.”, The first year of the league was a trial-and-error experience, or as Butters termed it, “loosey-goosey.”. How big of a draft need is OL? It was still pretty rare for players to actually use the ramps to pick up speed, but over time, players began to figure out how to use them strategically. “I used to take Miles with me. The Time Is Now To Bring Back Pro Beach Hockey. Quick view. 1998 Salsa Tee. When he was the marketing lead for Roller Hockey International, McLane felt team owners had a way of mucking up his strategy to better position the league for popularity. I also was a big guy who could skate like the wind and hit like a freight train,” Nelson said. Oh yeah, they used a ball and not a street hockey puck. Here’s what to know, including plans for the NHL season and how it might work.• How the NHL will look in 2020-21 »• NHL and COVID-19: What we know »• What to know for international events »• Inside minor leagues’ plans »• How COVID-19 will impact prospects ». It was the X Games meets hockey. Pro Beach Hockey. “The whole time, nothing but sand and pennies and drinks would come spilling down from the bleachers,” Nedomansky said. 1998 Gargoyles Tee. Despite putting together a rather full IMDb page, he stayed close to hockey for many years, serving as a pro scout with the Lightning for three seasons and joining Koules as a co-owner of the Bighorns. Whether it was with model-turned-correspondent Tiffany Richardson or one of the color commentators, the interviews weren’t so much about the game as they were about the players. Live bands playing during play. “But we looked at the thing and were like, ‘What the f— do you do with a ramp? But this collection of stories and inside info from Chris Peters is still a blast. Back when they tried to make hockey a little more radical . Just think about it — Huntington Beach, the Pacific Ocean, hockey, bikinis, heavy metal music. In true 90’s fashion, the teams all had terrible EXTREME names like Web Warriors, Xpress, Gargoyles, Heavy Metal, Dawg Pac, and Salsa. McSorley had been a coach with the RHI’s Anaheim Bullfrogs following a lengthy playing career in minor league hockey. It has now been 20 years since the innovative inline hockey league last overtook Huntington Beach, California. To films needing stunt men or technical advisors really bizarre thing that had consistent and TV! 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