It's rough, uneven, and unkind to the slightest of missteps.

But outside is the closest to a dream-come-true the ice skater in Oklahoma gets.

"You can't do spins because the ice will break and you'll trip," Madison Brown, 11, said.

She was out of breath after skating on the frozen tennis court in her family's south Tulsa backyard.

"But you can do jumps. We might even attempt a double Salchow."

FYI: A Salchow is an ice-skating jump named after Ulrich Salchow, a skater from the early 1900s.

FYI: Madison wasn't the only ice skater using the city's "slip factor" to her benefit.

She and her Jenks schoolmate, Megan Banner, have spent the last few days skating not only on the tennis court but on the neighborhood hills, streets and driveways, too.

Lael Engstrom was stirred late one recent night by a strange noise.

"As I looked outside -- to my utter amazement -- my son Eric was ripping across the front yard with his skates," she said. "I tried to get a video of it, but it was too dark."

Engstrom had a chance Tuesday morning when 16-year-old Eric soared over the slick streets of their south Tulsa neighborhood, this time beneath the peeking sun.

It was Saturday morning when Butch Kaebel said the words his kids have awaited every snowfall.

"All right, boys, go get out your skates," said Kaebel, head coach of the Tulsa Oilers hockey team. "They took off, and now we can't get them out of their skates."

His sons, ages 5 and 7, have heard stories of Dad's childhood days of skating the streets in winter-worn Illinois.

It's a good thing Dad had most of the weekend off after the rr Oilers' games were canceled because of the ice.

"They're skating down sloping driveways and coming down at full speed," Kaebel said. "It's like a theme park out there."

The speed you pick up skating downhill is like nothing reached in an ice rink, the skaters say.

But hit a bump, and you're in trouble.

"You take off your tights and see red, bruised knees," Megan Banner said.