FAIRBANKS - Cruise around Fairbanks during the middle of a cold snap in January with two kayaks strapped to the top of your car and you’re bound to attract some attention.

“I’ve gotten a lot of weird looks driving around today,” Jolie Billings said as she dragged her snow-covered, blue-and-yellow LiquidLogic kayak into Hamme Pool on Monday night.

Billings was one of eight kayakers who showed up for the borough’s first indoor paddling session of the winter. The pool is reserved for kayakers each Monday from 7-9 p.m. from January to May.

Billings, 31, was eager to exchange her bunny boots and parka for bare feet and swimming trunks.

“I actually look forward to this every year,” said Billings, who, with husband, Matt, has been hitting Hamme Pool for the last three or four winters to satisfy their year-round passion for paddling.

Both Jolie and Matt learned how to roll in the pool when they took up kayaking about five years ago. They have graduated to running and rolling in whitewater rivers.

But in the winter, they still return to Hamme Pool to stay in shape both physically and mentally. Sitting in a kayak paddling around in a pool beats sitting at home on the couch, Jolie said, even if the water is flat and chlorinated and there’s a life guard watching over you.

“I try to encourage people,” she said. “I say, ‘C’mon, it’s nice and warm and you get to sit in a boat for a little while.’” The Billings were hoping enough paddlers would show up for a game of kayak water polo, but that unfortunately wasn’t the case. It takes a minimum of six players — three a side — to make for an interesting game, and eight or 10 is better. Even so, they spent a half-hour tossing and chasing a ball around with Les Graves, another Monday night regular at Hamme Pool.

It wasn’t the workout they were hoping for, but it was better than nothing and their muscles weren’t going to be screaming the next day like they would have been had more people showed up. “The first serious halfhour or 45-minute game, and I’ll be sore,” Matt Billings said. “We get pretty rowdy.”

This year, the indoor sessions are split in half, with the first hour from 7-8 p.m. dedicated to open boating and the second hour reserved for kayak polo from 8-9 p.m. Adam West was testing the waters at Hamme Pool for the first time on Monday in his small, blue-and-white Jackson kayak.

“This is the first year I found out about it,” he said, taking a break from practicing tricks in the deep end of the pool.

If you live in the small, frozen pond that is Fairbanks in the winter, there aren’t exactly a flood of paddling options, he said.

“The season is so short up here you gotta take what you can get,” West, a longhaired, 32-year-old construction worker, said.

West spent most of his two hours in the pool on Monday night working on different strokes and maneuvers, paddling lengths of the pool both forward and backward to work different muscles. He also practiced rolling.

“The better you are on flat water, the more proficient you will be on moving water,” West said.

Chris Behnke, 29, and Eyal Saiet, 28, were sitting in kayaks at the edge of the pool practicing hip snaps Monday night. Behnke, who works as a ranger in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve in the summer, was helping Saiet perfect his Eskimo roll.

“I have rolled, but it’s not as nice and elegant as his,” Saiet said of Behnke.

Behnke said he visited Hamme Pool “a lot” two years ago but not as much last year. This year, Behnke plans to be a regular at the indoor pool sessions.

“It’s perfect for working on skills,” he said.

The 82-degree water also is another advantage of paddling at Hamme.

“It’s really warm,” Saiet said of the water. “You don’t come out with an ice cream headache afterwards. You don’t want to practice these things in water that’s 30 or 40 degrees.”

Contact outdoors editor Tim Mowry at 459-7587.