And just snow ominously kicks up, all in unison.
"And then, all of a sudden, someone just kinda yells, like, 'Hut.' And they all stop on a dime. And they're all skating in one big circle, very, very fast," he says. "Got out on the ice and I was watching them warm up. That’s when Alex learned how out-of-date those YouTube videos had been. Not long after that revelation, the North Korean team took to the ice for warm-ups. Not only are you willing to try a new sport, OK? But you're willing to try that new sport against a national team.in North Korea." "We had one individual - I think it was his second time playing hockey ever. "In an ideal situation, I would have been the worst player on the team.
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In fact, everything went really smoothly, until Alex’s teammates arrived and 17 strangers had to figure out how to play hockey together. They didn’t even balk at the camera equipment he brought to document his trip - a gallon-sized zip-lock bag filled with his GoPro camera, extra batteries and memory cards. Alex landed in Pyongyang and breezed through customs. Alex stands rink-side in North Korea with the head coach of the men's national team, Yun Pong-chol.
"The airline I took - I believe it's called Air Koryo - is the worst rated airline in the world," Alex says. He says he didn’t have time to get nervous, until he actually boarded the plane in Beijing that would take him to Pyongyang. I am ashamed."Īlex’s days were spent researching and planning - both for the trip he was taking and for the trip he was telling people he was taking. "I could be, like, 'Oh, yeah, I'm going to see this!' It was an elaborate ruse. "I remember having to Google things to do in Shanghai and Hong Kong, just in case people asked me," Alex says. And they’re not the people you might have expected.Īs far as his family, his coworkers and his beer league teammates knew, Alex was going on a tour of China: Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. "To me, the worst-case scenario was, maybe something is said in the political arena that forces the borders to get shut and I get stuck in this country."Īlex decided to go. "As an American, there's a lot to be discussed there. "And I talked at length with Scott about that," Alex says. I think we have a good shot here.' "Īlex says he wasn’t really thinking about politics. So he looked up some videos of his would-be competition on YouTube. But, the prospect of playing against a national team, given my skill level, that opportunity is going to come around once in a lifetime."Īlex jokes a lot about his hockey skills - or lack thereof. They're not the best hockey players in the world. "Well, that's a very nice way of asking the question," Alex says, laughing. "Does the North Korean national hockey team have a reputation for being good?" I ask. On the other hand, this was the opportunity to play hockey against a national team. Be prepared to be questioned, be on-guard all the time. "But I was under the impression that humor was going to be a no-go there. And they love, you know, it's called 'chirping.' It's very playful banter," Alex explains. "So the game of hockey, a lot of people who enjoy it, they have a great sense of humor. Here's one you might not think about, unless you’re a hockey player. (Courtesy Alex Frecon)Īlex and Scott exchanged 74 emails, and Alex still had a lot of concerns. I mean, it was extensive." Alex sits fully dressed before a hockey game in North Korea. "I had questions about the hockey, questions about the travel, questions about the tourism aspect. "My first email was so overwhelming," Alex remembers. He decided to reach out to the man leading the trip. Like, I love adventure, but that to me was so foreign."īut somehow, the idea stuck. "And I x'd out of the window and I didn't think anything of it," Alex says. "I didn't even consider going. The link took Alex to a website for the Howe International Friendship League - a sports tourism organization based in Canada. "And I thought to myself, 'OK, that sounds interesting.
"And I saw this post that simply said, 'Hey, who wants to come to North Korea to play hockey with me?'" Alex says. People post stories, rants, articles and web links. "Yeah, that's a question, surprisingly enough, I get a lot," Alex says. "I was on the internet - specifically, I was on this website called Reddit." Last March, Alex took a plane to Pyongyang, North Korea, handed his passport over to his tour guides and stayed for a week.
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