On a sun-drenched February afternoon in Rossland, BC, the air is filled with quintessential Canadian music—the swirling serenade of chattering sticks and skates.

The clamour is emanating from a pair of homemade rinks located a couple of blocks from the town’s main drag, where various teams are battling in the 2011 Western Regional Pond Hockey Championships.

Although the game is familiar, some of the players have enlivened the proceedings with eccentric fashion sense. The Tightie Whities wear stretchy white underwear over their equipment; the Hosers don flannel lumberjack coats; and the KootenayValley Railway Gilnockie Ruttin Bucks sport long, curly wigs like those once worn by English lords.

Comical getups are just part of the event’s laid-back atmosphere, explains tournament organizer John Reed. “We’ve had players in tuxedos, crazy hats and skirts and dresses—on both men and women’s teams,” he says.

Although the Rossland shindig may look a bit different than other pond hockey tournaments, it conforms to the same rules—four players per side, competing on 75-by-150-ft. sheets of outdoor ice in 30-minute games. There are no offsides, no boards, no bodychecking, no slapshots and no goalies; the six-foot-wide nets are only eight inches high. The emphasis is on passing and skating, and there is plenty of scoring and fun. The freewheeling style of play, coupled with the sport’s back-to-roots appeal, has proved to be a formidable combination.

A decade ago, these types of tournaments didn’t even exist. But today, many are staged annually across Canada and the northern U.S. Some are massive events, with the equivalent of two-thirds of an NHL season played over a single weekend.

Although pond hockey gatherings in Western Canada are smaller in scope than their Eastern brethren, it doesn’t stop organizers from thinking big. At the 2011 Alberta Pond Hockey Championships, organizers attempted to set a world record for the largest outdoor hockey game, carving out a huge rink on frozen Lac Cardinal, where more than 100 skaters played simultaneously with multiple pucks.

North American pond hockey tournaments

Jan. 27-29, Feb. 3-5

The Canadian National Pond Hockey Championships draws more than 260 teams and some 1,600 players to Huntsville, ON.

Feb 9-12

The World Pond Hockey Championships in Plaster Rock, NB, launched the sport in 2002. The four-day event draws 8,000 players, spectators and media to 20 rinks on Roulston Lake.

Feb 25-26

At the third annual Lake Louise Pond Hockey Classic, 29 teams battle it out for the championship title on the most scenic rink in Canada.