The freezing temperatures that have gripped the Island in the past couple of weeks made roads impassable and walkways treacherous, but they also brought about a unique and joyous expression of winter: pond hockey.
Pond hockey has drawn families and friends from around the Island to makeshift rinks, like on Duarte’s Pond on Lambert’s Cove Road, where West Tisbury resident Brian Donnelly and other locals have turned daily upkeep into a labor of love, clearing the surface, shoveling snow to form rink boundaries, and squeegeeing the rink as the sun sets for a new sheet of smooth ice the next day.
Families come and go from ponds like Duarte’s all day for pick-up hockey, where all are welcome anytime. The rare extended freeze this season, prolonging thick and safe ice, sparks nostalgia for Islanders who remember a time when temperatures were consistently colder and pond hockey was an annual rite.
“When I was a kid, it was every year. It’s one of those things you grew up with, and you don’t get it every year now, so it’s sweet when it does come,” said Alex Avakian as he skated on Duarte’s Pond Tuesday. He’s an Island-born-and-raised Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School hockey player, and a 2006 graduate.
Kevin DeGulis, a West Tisbury resident of five years, who joined Avakian on the ice on Tuesday as they played pass and skated, said his whole family comes out for pond hockey when it freezes — including his 13-month-old daughter, Maxine, who isn’t quite ready for skates, but enjoys being guided along the ice by her father and getting familiar with the slippery surface.
For Avakian, who looks forward to the coldest and snowiest weather every year, it’s best to embrace the seasons fully. “We all like to look forward to the springtime, but hey, it’s winter, so what do they say? ‘Make hay when the sun’s shining,’” said Avakian.
The Island’s freezing temperatures have also pulled local ice fishermen onto locations like Seth’s Pond, Duarte’s Pond, Head of Pond, and Squibnocket Pond. Cameron Maciel of Edgartown and Mike O’Brien of Vineyard Haven have been out frequently since the ponds started to freeze last week.
On Tuesday, Maciel and O’Brien trekked roughly 80 yards into the center of Seth’s Pond, where they augured multiple holes, placing tip-up flags over them to indicate when a fish was biting, set up lawn chairs and a cooler, and hooked some pond shiners onto their lures before fishing for pickerel, largemouth bass, yellow perch, and bluegills.
“They stock it with trout too, but I don’t think they make it through the winter,” said Maciel on the ice Tuesday. “It’d be cool to catch one of them through the ice.” The town of West Tisbury owns Seth’s Pond, but the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife) fills it with trout every spring, said Emily Stolarski, communication director for MassWildlife.
“They can hold over, but it depends on the temperatures, and if they can find deep enough water to survive,” she said of the trout’s chances of surviving through winter.
Maciel said he usually ice-fishes a few times a week when the ponds freeze, but being blessed with the prolonged freezing temperatures this season, he’s going out every day.
“We never get ice, so when you get it, you want to fish the whole time,” said Maciel. “I’ll be going every day this month if weather permits.”
On Tuesday, Maciel shouted “Flag!” to O’Brien as he walked over to check the bait. No fish yet, but Maciel and O’Brien said despite the slow day, this ice-fishing season has been better than most.
“It feels great, because we’ve been waiting for it for a while,” said O’Brien. “There’s always this awkward stage where it’ll be too cold to go normal fishing, but the ice will be too thin to go out on. That’s where we usually find ourselves: too cold to fish regularly but not cold enough to freeze, and it just finally decided to get cold, which is great.”
