As the sky eases into perpetual gray and temperatures drop, Bostonians reclaim their favorite winter pastime: grabbing their skates and hitting the ice.
While locals may be familiar with the city’s Frog Pond skating rink, some Boston skaters take their blades through the Public Garden’s gates to skate.
Just across Charles St. in the Garden, the surface of the Garden’s pond—officially known as the Lagoon—has frozen over.
A key difference between the Common’s Frog Pond rink and the Garden’s frozen Lagoon is the Garden’s wider, expansive surface. It is also completely free of charge to use as opposed to the Frog Pond’s paid entry, albeit with the Garden’s “skate at your own risk” element.
With all this icy space—the famous swan boats have been put away, now hibernating—the lake has made for an ideal hockey location. In the last few days, a multitude of shoveled rinks have quickly covered the lake, and passersby have grown accustomed to walking by quickly arranged three-on-three games.
William Bognier, a student at Northeastern, had never skated in the Garden until this winter, having recently seen the pond’s frozen surface on Instagram. “We usually skate indoors, at arenas, training facilities, and whatnot,” he said.
He expressed excitement regarding the natural outdoor rink: “It’s not often this place freezes over. It gets cold every year but it doesn’t get this cold,” he said. “You can’t beat it. We’ve got great weather today. It’s a little cold, but it’s nice out here.”
Kiefer Morrow, a student at Fisher College, described how he was quickly able to hop into a hockey scrimmage. “Last week I got roped into one,” he said. “There were five of them, and they just yelled at me. They were like, ‘Hey wanna play?’ and I was like, ‘Sure.’” Morrow confirmed that this was emblematic of a welcoming environment on the ice. “It is very friendly out here.”
So grab your skates while the air is cold and the ice is slick, as any odd streak of warm days might sink this rink sooner than you think.
