While the night of Jan. 26 may have otherwise given students a chill, the Student Activities Board’s ice skating and hot chocolate event outside Short/Denney gave them a Thursday thrill.

Freshman Annalaen Walls said the iceless ice skating was actually “scary.”

Her friend, freshman Kyle Urban, struggled to teach her, but they stuck around anyway.

“For the shoes, If you move one way with one foot and one on the other, it’ll balance you out,” Urban said.

“The shoe helps you. So in theory, you should be fine,” Urban said.

Their frustration was shared by another couple of friends, junior history majors Emily Breniman and Bethany Bunting.

“I’m getting talked out of giving up right now. That’s where we’re at,” Breniman said, adding it felt harder than real ice skating.

Breniman said the skating was “fun, but frightening.” Bunting agreed.

“We needed a break from our paper writing,” Breniman said, explaining the friends saw the event advertised on Instagram.

“She’s bragging because she’s able to go across without holding onto somebody, but I had to hold onto her,” Breniman said.

Bunting said, “So, I’m the superior plastic skater.”

The 40-by-36-foot rink saw about 132 students, and it featured colorful lights, music and coolers full of free hot chocolate.

The sound of the dull blades biting synthetic ice plates lasted from 5-9 p.m., as part of SAB’s “All New” week, which also featured a karaoke night in the Ronnie Williams Student Center food court and the giving away of DIY embroidery kits.

SAB’s graduate assistant Hazel Bonilla said she most looked forward to seeing students’ reactions at the events.

“I think they are interested in it, and I think they’re excited about it. They’ve never had this before, so I think it’s been good,” Bonilla said.

Bonilla said, “We wanted to change things up with event planning. We wanted two themed weeks.”

“Next month will be Black History month, so we’ll do an art museum strictly from Black artists. We’ll do a headphone disco celebrating Black artists as well,” Bonilla said.

SAB contracted Bass-Schuler Entertainment for the iceless ice skating event, and employee Alan Ball said the company sets up at colleges up to several times a week.