The Greater Santa Barbara Ice Skating Association (GSBISA) is a non-profit organization created with the mission to construct and operate Ice in Paradise, a public ice skating sports and recreational facility for the youth, students, families and the surrounding Santa Barbara Community. This state-of-the-art arena provides affordable, year-round ice recreation for people of all ages and abilities. Located in Goleta, near Girsh Park, the Camino Real Marketplace, and UC Santa Barbara, this award-winning, 46,500 sq. ft. arena includes two rinks - the Snider Rink, an NHL size rink (200' x 85') and the Norqual Rink, a smaller studio rink (100'x 60'). The facility includes 6 team locker rooms, a figure skating room, specially equipped adaptive sports locker room, food concessions, rental skates, a student study or small meeting room, organized programs for figure skating and ice hockey (boys, girls, adults) and daily public skating.
The GSBISA was established in 2003 and launched an $8 million capital campaign, Ice in Paradise, to invite the community to invest in this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity - to build Santa Barbara County's first state-of-the-art ice skating facility for the enjoyment people of all ages and abilities. The facility opened in 2015.
There has only been one ice skating rink in Santa Barbara. From 1975-1986 a for-profit ice rink, the Ice Patch, was located on the Mesa, and was owned by families who had personal involvement in ice skating.