skatingforums
On the Ice => Sitting on the Boards Rink Side => Topic started by: sk8great on December 18, 2012, 06:42:50 PM
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So whats the reason and background on why you started skating? :)
I started skating because I really wanted to be a part of Disney on Ice! Started at around the age of 6. But just after passing pre alpha I quitted because of school and got discouraged that I couldn't do forward crossovers. 6 years passed and I decided that I want to figure skate again. I pretty much skipped pre alpha this time, on the first day of lessons my coach asked "What are you struggling on?" I said with forward crossovers. She was surprised. Throughout the lesson she asked me about twice if I was sure I was suppose to be in pre alpha, she said she felt like I didn't need to do pre alpha. I was solid on swizzles, 1 foot glide, etc. At the end of the class, she decided to move to alpha, Great! Forward crossovers, we meet again! ::>) Lessons passed, I still couldn't really do a "decent" crossover (only felt comfortable on doing R over L). This time, I just siad to myself that skating takes time and that forward crossovers won't cause me to quit again. Looking for advice on the web, I came across this forum :D :) And Im glad I came across this! The replies to my topic just got me more motivated! ;D
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In my fifties, having hot flashes, wanted a sport where I could stay cool.
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My daughter fell in love with skating at a friend's party. When gymnastics became too much for her (she was really young and on pre-team), I put her in community ice class so she would continue to have a physical sport. She loves skating. She said it's the closest feeling to flying.
I learned how to skate to use up "extra" passes. I guess I'm pre-alpha. :D
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I started when I was 5 because my friend was starting lessons. She quit after a year or so and I progressed quickly and I am still at it. I started when I was 5, started ice dancing competitively when I was about 11, gave it up for a year or so when I was in my latest teens, started coaching (it is awesome money when you are around 20), quit coaching and took 2 maybe 3 years off then decided skating is just as good a workout as the gym so took it up as an adult. As an adult I competed in adult Nationals a few times, started skating synchro on a team and recently took a test. Only one more to go and I have all my dances.
And that is my skating career in a nutshell.
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My youngest daughter wanted to skate for years, but the rink was what we considered too far away for something that she'd do a couple of months, then quit. A sign went up for a rink opening closer to home and we told her we would take her when the rink opened. Little did we know that it would take TWO years. They were retrofitting an old soda bottling plant and ran into environmental concerns (now solved)
She was in the first group of LTS. I was in the second. I figured if I was going to be there with her, I might as well get some exercise. She switched over to hockey. That fall, going into high school, she wanted to do color guard/marching band and hockey. As a social butterfly, we thought if she did both, that school work would suffer and made her choose--she picked colorguard (wanted to quit two weeks in--we made her stick out the season and she did four years, plus four years of winterguard) I kept skating.
I got up to three days a week, then life got in the way. I quit a while, but got started again about two years ago. I'm back up to two days a week during the school year.
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We went to public skating occasionally when I was growing up. My mom says the first time we ever went was with my Brownie troop, which would make skating perhaps the only good thing I ever got out of Girl Scouts. Anyway, I loved skating but knew better than to ask for lessons because the rink was too far from our house. After I graduated college, I moved to a town with an ice rink 10 minutes from my apartment, picked up a brochure and saw they had adult classes, and signed up thinking, "Oh, this'll be fun."
Six years later, my life and my bank account are forever changed. :love:
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Six years later, my life and my bank account are forever changed. :love:
I think my mom will agree with you :D
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I don't know, I've just always wanted to figure skate. The grace, the beauty, the power of the jumps all mesmerized me, even though I don't really watch skating as a spectator that much either. I wanted to do it myself. The fact that my mother had learned a bit of figure skating when she was young (I have no idea to what level, she's kind of vague about it) probably pushed me even more.
When I moved to where I am now, I found there was a rink 15 minutes drive away. And there were group classes available at a time I could go. So I went, and am now hooked. I'm gradually deserting my past hobby of volleyball in lieu of more time for skating.
my life and my bank account are forever changed. :love:
lol so true
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I had wanted to skate since as long as I could remember... I remember having roller skates and trying to figure out how to spin like the skaters on TV. I was always told no, I couldn't skate, with the reasons being "it's too expensive" and "I don't want you involved in highly competitive sports". (neither of which are fundamentally true - I spent more on gymnastics for my daughter when she did that, and competitions are optional).
When I was 13 though, I went to school across the street from the rink. A friend of mine skated recreationally and convinced me to get a pair of used skates so I could go skate with her after school. "Don't worry mom, I'm not asking for lessons, I'm just having fun" was my excuse at the time, and she went along with it. Within just a few months I was hooked - for my birthday my dad got me my first "real" pair of skates and also agreed to pay for lessons... she HATED the idea, so I kept skating, despite her reservations about it. (my friend did not keep skating though - we went to different schools the next year and didn't really keep in touch). Eventually she started to come around when she realized that apart from the cost of skates, taking classes and private lessons didn't need to be as insanely expensive as she had though.
Despite a serious injury at 15, I skated seriously until I was 17, at which point I stopped taking lessons (beginning with minor falling out with my coach, then she was forced to relocate across the state when new rink management wouldn't offer her a coaching contract.. and I just never found a replacement). I continued to skate increasingly more part time until I was 19 when I got pregnant with my oldest and going to school, working, and skating were just too much to keep up with :) I wish I had kept skating through that pregnancy and beyond, but it just didn't seem feasible. I started back almost 3 years ago a few months after my mom retired, but I was only skating once a week or so for almost a year. I started skating regularly about 2 years ago (and taking lessons again), and I'm more than hooked now :)
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My mom was always a big figure skating fan - she never skated, but she loved to watch. In 1988 I saw Brian Boitano at the Winter Olympics and was hooked. I begged my mom for quite some time to get skating lessons!
I skated until about mid high school, then quit for a lot of reasons. I skated here and there, then went years without even going into a rink. About two years ago I told my husband (who knew nothing about skating) that I wanted to get on the ice 'for fun'. He was all for it (famous last words!).
I'm now 30, and much to the chagrin of my husband, my bank account, and my knees, I'm skating as much as I possibly can. I love it, I missed it, and I feel like I filled an empty hole in my life when I got on the ice again.
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It was really quite simple and even has a name: Evgeni Plushenko.
Didn't know anything about the sport before I saw him on TV that night during the Vancouver Games. Couldn't tell apart the jumps, didn't know what any of it was. But I knew he was magic. I was :love: instantly. (Youtube only helped to encourage it!)
Then I decided to go skating laps round our rink for fitness. Then I thought, "I wonder...?"
Two years later, I'm still as unco-ordinated as I was then, but I'm having a whole lot more fun than I ever have.
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I skated as a kid, but had a bad accident and quit. My little sisters skated ISI for a summer so I spent some time at the rink during my first year of college, but wasn't interested in skating. Then a little over 2 years ago my Goddaughter wanted to take lessons, so I rushed to the rink and signed her up, only to find out that her parents didnt want to commit to driving 2 hours + weekly to bring her to the rink. Of course the fees were non-refundable, since the rink had a thriving adult program, I decided to go ahead and take the lessons rather than lose the $$$. I'm so glad I did, I realized how much I love skating and love the rink. I wish my grandparents wouldn't have let me quit as a kid.
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I started skating age 6, and carried on til I was around 7 1/2. I am visually impaired and taking group classes, I struggled to pick things up, I was doing in 6 MONTHS what the rest of the class did in 6 WEEKS!
But I loved skating, and I moved 160 miles from that rink, to a place with no local ice except a seasonal rink each Christmastime. In October of this year, a rink opened in a town 30 minutes from my house by bus. I'd been able to skate at a rink in another city a few times thanks to some friends I went to watch hockey with, having to be there early to help out with things. I realized I missed skating in my life, so when this new rink opened near me, I went down for a look-see.
I got talking to the head coach, she said she'd happily teach me in my hockey skates, and I started lessons. About 2 lessons in, I realized my ill fitting hockey skates were going to hold me back, and my parents kindly got me my figure skates as a birthday present. The rest, as they say, is history, I now skate at least once a week, sometimes twice if I can afford it.
I love it so, so much and by starting at a brand new facility, the rink and its community are growing with me as a skater :) :love: :love:
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I skated recreationally as a kid, but was too busy with ballet, piano, swimming, karate, girl guides (scouts), etc., to fit any lessons in. When I was 17, and with a much less crowded schedule, I decided I wanted to try skating "for real" so I found a coach and started lessons. :)
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Short answer: the yoga class was full. :)
Long answer: I'd skated on ponds and the swamp behind my house as a kid because everybody did in the winter, just for fun. Decades later, a co-worker and I were looking for an exercise class to take after work, through the city-run Adult Education program. The only two classes offered that we could both attend were yoga and ice skating. The yoga class was full, so we signed up for the ten-week ice skating class at a run-down rink. My co-worker stuck it out for 10 weeks then quit. I liked it and I was pretty decent at the basics, so I signed up for the next session the rink offered... and the next ....
Thirty-odd years later, I'm still there. :)
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Here because my middle son (5 years old) skates :) I started skating in MI when I was around 3, but it was just the pond in our back yard. He decided he wanted to skate around last January/February when we were in the middle of a move and ended up watching male figure skating championships of some sort and he looked at us and said: "I want to do that" and couldn't stop talking about it :) It's been an interesting year...we were only in GA for 6ish months and then military luck transferred us to Colorado where there are more guys on the rink :)
As for me, I'm here because with a young kid, the Momma gets thrown "on the ice" too in a way...I'm actually debating taking an adult class later just so I know what he's talking about!!!!
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A friend and I went skating with our Mums... I was 5. :D My friend hated it but I absolutely loved it and was hooked and I skated for ~5 years then.
Fast-forwards years of only skating once every year or 2, to when I was at Uni. I switched the TV on one day and accidentally caught one of the people I used to skate with competing at either European championships or Worlds (can't remember which). It inspired me to start skating again, but there was no rink close to where I lived. I could only get to a weekend (horrendously busy) public session at a curling rink over an hour's travel each way away. It wasn't ideal and by the time I added in exams, holidays and illness etc I didn't continue for all that long - just a few months.
Fast-forwards years of only skating once every couple of years. A friend mentioned she was doing drop in skating lessons with her daughter at our local rink. Months later, I decided that I needed to do some kind of exercise as I was embarassingly unfit. I hate the gym, didn't fancy exercise classes and I've never managed to beat that amazing feeling of "flying" I get from skating when doing any other sport. The fact my rink is the nearest sports/fitness place to my home and I still enjoyed being on the ice on the rare occasions I went, meant I headed to the rink! ;) I went to a public session and talked to one of the coaches about the drop in sessions my friend had mentioned. She confirmed there were lots of adults at them... so that week I went to it and loved every second! That was 2.5 years ago and I'm completely hooked again! ;D
I love that skating sometimes makes me feel like that excited wee kid again... the one who wants to jump up and down with joy about managing a move I've been stuck on for ages and who can grin all day long after a session where I have felt that "flying" freedom feeling on the ice. I skate at the same rink I started at and am coached by someone who 1st taught me in group lessons 30 odd years ago which just adds to that feeling too!
:love:
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My Dad taught me (and my 3 other siblings) to skate. He took us skating Mon, Weds, Fri, Sat, and Sun to get us out of our mom's hair. As a teen, I went to the ice rink with friends in the winter as a social activity. It was probably 25 years I was off ice. My DDs started skating when they were little. I took lessons for 2 years and then quit. One DD quit skating and the other dialed it way back (was more into soccer). When the DD that was into soccer changed her focus to skating, I was at the rink a lot. I was getting really stiff sitting there for hours. Decided to skate too. That DD is off to college now, but I still go 3x a week and help out at a seasonal rink on Sats. I really enjoy skating.
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My parents would take me every year when we went to Chicago for Christmas. And they would always put it on TV for me growing up. In 4th grade I found out a few friends were learning to skate, so I asked mom if I could, too. I abandoned piano lessons for skating lessons and then quit when I got to high school due to chorus. I didn't get past waltz jump when I was little. In college I realized I needed something that wasn't graphic design related to destress me so I turned to skating again and haven't looked back. I am at a point that I don't know what I would do without skating. :)
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I switched the TV on one day and accidentally caught one of the people I used to skate with competing at either European championships or Worlds (can't remember which). It inspired me to start skating again...
WOW that's really neat!
My first figure skating memory is seeing CHEN Lu's Worlds winning performance on TV. Took me years to start recreational outdoor skating. Then some more years to sign up for group lessons on indoor ice. AOSS beyond remedy.
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WOW that's really neat!
It was pretty cool! :D We stared skating a couple of months apart and were pretty friendly as kids. It was clear that she would do well with her skating when we were wee, but I had no idea she had got that far with it! :)
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After signing out of my email account I saw this article on Kim Yu Na on how she SHOULD get the gold medal or she could lose all. Days later, I saw Mao Asada doing her exhibition gala. But I missed the performance of the gold medalist. Thus began an obsession with finding Yu Na's Olympic SP and LP (which during that time were blocked!), which soon became a skating obsession.
Went to the US, found a brochure for free classes. Had my first lessons, then formally enrolled for the paid version. And so it began. :)
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Had my first lessons, then formally enrolled for the paid version. And so it began. :)
Do you skate at SM Mall of Asia? isn't hard to skate there? Like its always public skate, no freestyle sessions/private skate times for skaters who figure skate.
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Had one 6 week session of lessons at 15 in Chicago area (passed ISI through Beta) and a few weeks in high school gym with a gym teacher and always wanted to try it again. Didn't get back to it till I was almost 30 and married. Took group lessons and taught in the old Skate with US program, then took private lessons with someone who had never given lessons before and mostly wanted to chat till I got pregnant, then quit for a while, then took a few more lessons, then with increasingly better coaches. Coached Basic Skills and private lessons for years, then quit club and coaching at the end of last year and am working on Pre-Silver dances, Silver free, and getting back into competition. Getting to practice ice and test sessions is practically a full-time job since our regular ice goes out in March and doesn't come in until November so the rest has to be pieced together in various rinks, from a 30 minute drive to 150+ miles away! Ice dance coach is 150+ miles away and freestyle coach didn't have time to coach me last summer so it's always a struggle--but worth it.
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Through my kids-I signed them up and then realized that I was spending about as much to skate with them during their practice (you get one free session a week with lessons) as I would just taking lessons. Then another mom pointed out that she had started and it was fun plus great exercise. 2 1/2 years later-my son no longer skates, my daughter doesn't like to practice at the same time I do but I still love skating.
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guess this is as good a discussion as any to introduce myself! Long time lurker, I've been "really" skating for a little over 6 years and am in my 20's. I took a season of learn-to-skate as a child, then quit since I didn't absolutely love it; all I really wanted to do was be able to skate around at public skate with friends. One summer on vacation, I watched a Disney movie featuring a figure skater as the main protagonist ("Go Figure") and thought it might be fun to learn to figure skate - maybe be able to do a 1-foot spin and some kind of jump. Well, here I am now, working on senior bronze/junior silver dances and skills since an injury a year and a half ago ended my freestyle fun.
Mod note: edited at poster's request
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Welcome to skatingforums!
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My older sister took me ice skating for the first time when I was about 6yo. I didn't have another opportunity to ice skate until I was 12yo when the junior HS gym teacher took a group of use once a week for 5 weeks (roller skated a lot around the neighborhood alot, but not ice skating). I couldn't stop skating after that because it felt so "free"! I had no way to get there other than walk, so once or twice a week I walked 1.5 miles to the rink and walked 1.5 miles back home in the dark. We only had an outdoor rink, so there was only skating for 5 months a year. I took group lessons at that rink through Delta, but the group lessons moved too slow and I ended up teaching myself basic freestyle stuff. Then when I was 15 or 16 an indoor rink opened that took me over 2.5 hours to get to on the bus. I went there, spending basically 5 hours on the bus 2 or 3 times a week to skate, but skated for between 4 to 6 hours each time. My parents wouldn't take me there and would not pay for lessons, so I used all my babysitting money to pay for private lessons and equipment myself, sewed my own skating outfits, and made money by making skating skirts for other skaters. I had to quit at 19 for a health reason. Then at about 22 or 23yo I went to work at a small outdoor rink that opened nearby, and ended up being their only instructor for a couple of years (there was no program, so I started an ISI lesson program). About 3 years later I had to quit again for health reasons. I couldn't go back to skating again until my late 30s. 3 months later I suffered 2 spiral fractures in my right leg. I then couldn't skate for a couple years. I went back to skating but developed a horrifying skating phobia (a "true" phobia, not just fear), so after a year of that nightmare I quit, with a plan to go back after I felt like I could try it again. After 4 years I finally decided it was time to go back, which was a year ago. I was worried that if I pushed myself, the phobia would come back, so at first I only skated like half an hour at a time. When I felt confident that the phobia really was not going to come back and that I wasn't going to quit again, I bought a better pair of skates, which was last spring. I'm serious enough that I recently got a PT skate guard job to keep my budget from my "real" job from suffering. I'm nowhere near my old skating ability at this point, and at 50yo now, I doubt that I'll ever be able to get it all back, but I can certainly try!
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Wow treesprite, what an inspiring story. Enjoy every minute on ice!!
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Was searching for something on Youtube when I mistakenly came across a video of a figure skater performing. I was mesmerized by the beauty, grace and elegance of the moves. So I was intrigued to try out skating, possibly to correct my clumsy body movements.
I started in March this year without taking lessons or getting a coach. I just went to the local library and found the only skating book available, authored by a John Misha Petrevich entitled "Figure Skating Championship Techniques". It was very hard to understand but had pictures. From it, I learnt the basics of stroking, how to fall & get up, how to put on and take off skate guards, how to stop. Then I went to Youtube and downloaded demo videos by skating instructors from US, UK, Russia and even Hungary. I watched them over and over slowly and tried to replicate the movements on ice.
9 months later, still without lessons or a coach, I can skate forwards, backwards, change direction, do forward crossovers (stronger on anticlockwise direction; weaker the other way round), and forward arabesque spiral. Am still clumsy with 3 turns and Mohawks. Crazily trying out 1 foot spin without falling and tempted by jumps.
After months relying on rental Risport skates, I recently got my own pair of Jackson Marquis with Mirage blade while on holiday in Anaheim, USA. Told the owner beforehand I was a size 6 "E" width according to the Jackson chart, but she went ahead and ordered a size 5.5 with medium width for me. My toes and ball area hurt like hell when I first tested the skates in Anaheim Ice and then San Francisco Yerba Buena Gardens. I was having to stop every 20mins and take off my skates. After returning home, I eventually found the solution. Took off the foam insoles and wear thin socks. Now the skates feel better and I feel no pain. Current problem now is adapting my skating style & posture to the Mirage blade. Super big toepick had me scrapping the surface when I first tried to skate backwards. Almost tripped me into a fall last week when I was attempting a forward spiral.
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Super big toepick had me scrapping the surface when I first tried to skate backwards. Almost tripped me into a fall last week when I was attempting a forward spiral.
Experienced that too during my 2nd-3rd time on the ice with it. 8)
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When I was a kid, I loved watching skating on TV and had convinced myself I could do everything I saw if only I had the opportunity. A handful of times I was even lucky enough to get to go to a public skate, and I enjoyed every excursion no matter what spills I suffered. However, we were very poor, and skating as a child was absolutely, unequivocally out of the cards. It remained for me, as a child, a dream that could not be disproven. As an adult I dismissed the idea of taking up skating for many years because it is expensive, and I reasoned, purposeless without the potential for what I perceived as the kind of meaningful achievement enjoyed by elite skaters who began at an early age. By the time I'd turned 28 I realized it's OK to do things for fun, so I signed up for an adult group class and the rest was history. That was four years ago, and in spite of many setbacks I always find myself back at the rink. I absolutely relish every challenge and every achievement. Even at it's most strenuous, it feels effortless in way that no other exercise does. Skating has taught me not to say that "I can't" but instead that "I haven't learned that yet." I love it. :love:
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Oh now I remembered... when I was little, I quite liked a Japanese comic series about figure skating - "One More Jump" (http://cdn.myanimelist.net/images/manga/2/8060.jpg) by Michiyo Akaishi. That was before I saw figure skating on TV, lol!! :) Japanese wiki (http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%AF%E3%83%B3%E3%83%BB%E3%83%A2%E3%82%A2%E3%83%BB%E3%82%B8%E3%83%A3%E3%83%B3%E3%83%97)
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Oh now I remembered... when I was little, I quite liked a Japanese comic series about figure skating - "One More Jump" (http://cdn.myanimelist.net/images/manga/2/8060.jpg) by Michiyo Akaishi. That was before I saw figure skating on TV, lol!! :) Japanese wiki (http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%AF%E3%83%B3%E3%83%BB%E3%83%A2%E3%82%A2%E3%83%BB%E3%82%B8%E3%83%A3%E3%83%B3%E3%83%97)
I just found and read this last month lol!
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I started ballet my last year of college, after 3 years I had sprained my ankles too many times to continue (not necessarily dancing).
I took up skating because it wasn't hard on my ankles.
(As a little girl I took a LTS class because I wanted to be Kristi Yamaguchi. My parents weren't interested in taking me to Patch at 5 a.m., so that only lasted about 3 months.)
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I had been skating recreationally with a friend a few times from the age of 9 (funnily enough at the rink where we now skate) but never got past clinging to the boards. Then I did skating for school sport for a year before the school canned it, but by that time the 1984 Winter Olympics had been on TV and many Australians were inspired by Torvill and Dean. At age 13, one of my school friends and I decided to take group classes. Got through what was then the ISIAustralia Learn to Skate which was based on the US ISI levels (Pre-Alpha thru Delta). Part way through Delta the new Aussie Skate syllabus was introduced and I got up to passing Figure 1, Ballet 1 and Jump 1 (bunny hop, tap toe, 3 jump). I was a week off taking the Ballet 2 and Jump 2 (half flip, ballet jump, toe loop) tests when the rink closed down through lack of money. There were rumours of it reopening for several months, but it never did. There were only two other rinks in the Sydney area at the time, and neither was easily accessible by public transport from where I lived (annoyingly, nowadays there's a train station right outside one of them), so I was pretty much forced to stop taking classes, and only skated recreationally once in a while for the next several years.
Fast forward about twenty years, and my husband and I, now living in the UK, were looking for a sport we could do together. I'd taken him skating a couple of times in Sydney before we were married but the rental skates hurt his feet and I'd ended up with a sore arm holding him up. Anyway, he bought himself some skates whilst on a business trip to the US, and when he got back we went to one of the seasonal Christmas rinks, at Hampton Court Palace. When I was completely unable to teach him swizzles I suggested he take a few lessons to learn the basics (n.b. coach also had trouble with those swizzles, so it wasn't just me!). Then I started taking private lessons as well, for the first time, aiming to get back to the point where I'd been when I stopped at 16 (never quite got back to that point though). Husband started to learn ice dance on one of his US trips, and taught me Dutch Waltz. Then a dance coach started teaching at our rink and we started learning ice dance together. Anyway, he's been skating ever since. I took a break for about 18 months before we came home to Australia, as I was tired of making no progress because I could only get to the rink once a week.
Since coming back to Sydney, I've started lessons again, and now that I can skate three times a week, and have found some quiet sessions, have made a huge amount of progress, learning dances I'd never have dreamed of being able to do two years ago. So now I keep going because I can see some progress and I reallly enjoy my lessons. I struggle a lot with confidence issues, but I'm kind of stubborn, and don't like to let something beat me, so I will slog away as long as I'm enjoying myself.
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I just found and read this last month lol!
Seriously??!!! Wow I am impressed, that is a VERY OLD comic series!
I thought the mini story line of each skating program was pretty good.
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Wow I am impressed, that is a VERY OLD comic series!
Where can I find this manga?
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Where can I find this manga?
Minimal chances in English... Amazon Japan has it under the title ワン・ モア・ ジャンプ. I read mine in Chinese.
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Occasionally growing up I would watch the Olympic figure skaters on TV, and they make it look so fun, graceful, and easy. In all of the other sports, the athletes looked like they were trying really hard, but in figure skating they looked like jumping and spinning was the most natural thing in the world! ;D
Having started skating myself recently I know now that was all an illusion, but it's still definitely fun. I like skating because I'm usually very un-athletic, but when I skate I can at least pick up a little speed. :)
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Minimal chances in English... Amazon Japan has it under the title ワン・ モア・ ジャンプ. I read mine in Chinese.
Yeah I read mine in Chinese too.
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Always loved looking at skating on TV, but never had a chance to learn or even try it out as a kid. Saw my first rink at age 37 when I tried a terrifying public skate on rentals that hurt like hell. The feeling of gliding was amazing though! After we returned our rental skates to the desk, I went sneaking back around to the other counter to sign up for classes.
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Minimal chances in English... Amazon Japan has it under the title ワン・ モア・ ジャンプ. I read mine in Chinese.
Well, DW reads Chinese.
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Always loved looking at skating on TV, but never had a chance to learn or even try it out as a kid. Saw my first rink at age 37 when I tried a terrifying public skate on rentals that hurt like hell. The feeling of gliding was amazing though! After we returned our rental skates to the desk, I went sneaking back around to the other counter to sign up for classes.
Nice!
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There is an outdoor mall near my house and it has a little skating rink in the winter months. I really enjoyed going and saw an ad for adult classes at the local indoor rink. I thought, "why not try it?" Four days before I started my first class I broke my foot while rock climbing. 5 months, 1 surgery and two crutches later, I actually got to attend my first class! Hurt like crazy on my still recovering foot but that didn't stop me!
Now it's been two years and I still love it.
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It has been a lifelong desire to figure skate. Pushed onto the back burner for 30 years. Started skating a year and a half ago on public skate sessions, still doing that. Just been in contact with a club with an adult program running a session this April/May, joining the club and signing up :) :)
I was crowding 40 and decided that if I didn't learn to skate soon it would never happen. Do or die. Love it and wish I had started 30 years ago.
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First time skating at 16 while on holiday in the UK. Spent more time on my bum than on the blades. Second time was 27 years later when I took my three children to the ice rink one school holidays. They fell frequently whereas I didn't.
I signed up for group lessons and fell frequently. I bought skates after one term and am still falling over two years later. Now my two daughters have started.
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During the summer of 2011, I started going to public sessions every week. It was so much fun that I signed up for lessons. I started in Learn to Skate in February of last year, and pretty soon, I was hooked. I like skating because it makes me feel good about myself. I just love feeling the cold air on my face when I skate. And I love learning new elements. :)
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I'm from a cold-weather state, and back before global warming, the ponds used to freeze. Every kid went pond skating in the winter. I started on the ponds before I could walk, according to my mother. (I think she held me up.) I took lessons as a kid but there was never the money to be a serious competitor although I never stopped skating. I'm 46 now and I skate more than ever.
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When I was 2 my brother(then5) started ice hockey and I wanted too, I was too young so they put me I to figure skating. I had to stop due to work when I was 18 but started again 2months ago and love it like even more :-) you could say I'm obsessed ha ha if I could I'd skate everyday and practice all the single and double jumps, spin and steps for hours and hours :-D :love:
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I was in the second grade. In the winter 1975/1976, my family moved from Miami to New Hampshire. I saw snow for the first time. We lived near a lake, and a Canadian neighbor "tested" the first ice. I was amazed at how he moved across that lake.
Then, my mother took me to see "Ice Capades" (it could have been Holiday on Ice, but I think it was Ice Capades) in the Boston Gardens. I saw a woman, don't know who it was, but she was a prima skate. I remember the song as "You and Me Against the World" It was a slow ballad, and she was a very beautiful skater. I could have the song wrong. But, from that day forward, I wanted to skate.
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I wanted to skate as a kid, but education was much more important and so was attending a private school. Fast forward to my first real boy friend, who crushed my heart and my severe depression (college). My sisters got together and gave me group lessons for Christmas. I was hooked.
Also, when you and your sisters are all in theatre and they are much, much more successful than you are, it's nice to have one thing that you excel at that they don't. I continued skating partially out of love for the sport and partially because I could and they couldn't. :laugh:
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I can't believe I haven't posted on this thread!
I started when I was 5 or 6 - Carol Heiss had won the Olypics in 1960 and I had a little set of cut-out dolls of her - I wanted my own skates and got some for Christmas.
My dad said the first time he took me skating on a frozen pond at a park near our home in Detroit, I must have fallen 50 times the first time around!! I still wanted to skate though.
But it was my dad who REALLY got into it - he had skated as a boy in Northern Michigan and so he took it upon himself to get really into the sport. Before I knew it we had joined a skating club (Detroit Skating Club) and I was on my way with lessons and everything just kind of went from there. He became quite the accomplished ice-dancer and the club at that time had evening dance sessions 4 nights a week and he was always there. My mom also skated but she always had trouble with anything but the lower dances - I remember her constantly complaining about trying to learn a mohawk.
Things were kind of tough though with our family - my dad's health was not so great and he stopped skating. I skated for a few years after that but failed a couple of tests - 2nd figure and Pre-Silver dances and so they they made me quit - I didn't have a choice at that time because - well, they paid for the club and lessons and the rink was quite a drive and impossible to get to by any other means so that was that.
I always thought about skating though through the years - always had a pair of skates and when I was in high school a lot more rinks opened up in the area and of course I could drive so I went to the area rinks as much as possible - crazy wild public sessions with millions of teenagers - I was probably the only person on the ice who really knew how to skate...
Continued this pattern through my twenties - always wanting to get back into it but no time, no money, trying to establish my career, graduate school, etc. I was in my Jr year of graduate school when Torville and Dean won the Olympics and they I started to get back into it - I had a pair of used men's skates and would skate more and more - eventually once I finished school started working at a clinic that was very close to one of the rinks where they had an ice-dance session at Noon (this was in Massachusetts) and started to go to the sessions and met a coach who took me through my Pre-Silvers and one Silver - they moved on to another coach when he left the area - got through my Silvers and one Pre-Gold... then moved to Oregon...
Have not tested any more dance but have learned Moves and gone back to doing figures - social dances, etc. - my coach encouraged me to become a judge - which has been great - and difficult - but knew I would do that one day as well.
Skating has been good to me! :love: