Novel Research!

[Sam_Bryant]

I hope this is the right forum for this!



Figure skating individuals if the past or present! I'm doing Novel research and any help is appreciated! I used to be a figure skater but I unfortunately dont have many memories of it from when I was younger. (I skate currently as well. But Im looking for a different perspective.)



It's not limited to these questions either. Please share all your special/unique things about figure skating and its culture!



What was your club's culture like?



What's your best memory of skating/the club?



Was there anything weird only a figure skater would know? What the change room smells like? Weird things to do with skating inside jokes?



What's wearing show makeup like?



Do you remember anything special about the rink you skated at? Like a secret room, or something that was mysterious?



Did you ever have a boy who wore white skates consistently?



Is there anything you can say about learning skating at its core? The main exercises you'd learn? What a stroking lesson was like?



Things you struggled with and how you overcame them?



What was the girl-boy ratio at your club?



Was there any special people, coaches, skaters that you remember/really stick out in your mind for doing/being something special?



What's your best memory from the rink/club?



Please don't be afraid to get into small details either. Maybe there's certain 'unspoken rules' that every rink has. Or there's a weird habit that most skaters have?



Toss anything you've got at me please!

[Bill_S]

Research for a novel? This thread could be fun to read.

Wish I could help with your specific questions, but I grew up skating on winter lakes and ponds, including night-time skates with a bonfire on the beach, the stars overhead, and couples skating off into the weeping-willow groves to snatch a kiss. That's what I remember so fondly.

What I remember not so fondly are frozen fingers and toes, and the sting when they thawed out back home.

[Sam_Bryant]

Research for a novel? This thread could be fun to read.

Wish I could help with your specific questions, but I grew up skating on winter lakes and ponds, including night-time skates with a bonfire on the beach, the stars overhead, and couples skating off into the weeping-willow groves to snatch a kiss. That's what I remember so fondly.

What I remember not so fondly are frozen fingers and toes, and the sting when they thawed out back home.

Believe it or not. That actually helps a lot as well too! Part of the characters struggles involve finding a place to practice besides the rink, so the idea of frozen lakes/ponds/rivers etc. etc. are actually in the works. Your details definitely help!

You're actually the only person to reply across four different threads on four different websites too

[Loops]

Haha, I'm such a dork- I read this as Novel (as in New, cutting edge) research, so your questions confused me at first! I was expecting a physics-related post. 

You just posted this last night, I suspect.  I for one will have to sit down and think to give you decent answers.  Probably others are in the same situation as me.  Give us a bit of time. 

Your book will certainly be fun to read!

[Bill_S]

Well, if you are going to include outdoors skating, there are a couple things to remember. Frozen rivers were usually broken ice slabs. I did however ice skate for my very first time on the frozen Muskingum river. There were jagged floes, some sticking up at odd angles, but we found a level one to skate on. The surface was probably the size of a small room, so probably won't be ideal for your protagonist. Rivers aren't the best.

Ponds and lakes fared much better. The ice could be glassy smooth. When a large lake froze, you could skate to destinations out of sight of your starting point. It was an adventure and you felt complete freedom. I recall skating on the lake at Dillon State Park in Ohio, leaving from a boat launch area and skating to the public beach nearly 3 miles away. The thing about large lakes is that wind commonly blows unimpeded across them. After an easy trip out, my return trip was against the wind. It was very tiring having to have to stroke continually or be blown backward. The wind stings your face too, and your eyes water so much that it's hard to see. It would be difficult on a breezy day to do much artistic skating, but it sure was good stroking exercise. Oh, yeah, that's the one time that I wish that I had hockey skates without toe picks. Bending into the wind puts your forward enough to occasionally snag a pick.



Smaller ponds and lakes are ideal. Wind is a lesser problem. They are often sheltered by trees, and are the lowest area in the local geography. I'll describe a few thoughts about them in a continued post.

[Bill_S]

Most of my early skating was done on smaller lakes. I lived near Willow Lake in Zanesville, Ohio, and could see parts of it from my bedroom window. It was less than a quarter mile away, so within easy walking distance. I could see if others were already skating when I got home from school, and headed right over to skate. Being winter, it didn't take too long to get dark but the lake had a lamp on a pole by the beach area. If the switch was unlocked, we'd use it to be able to see for another half hour or so.

This picture was taken in the early 70s of me and my girlfriend skating on another lake in town, Melody lake. It was sometimes busier than Willow Lake, and we were skating with friends who lived nearby.



Notice the typical ice. There was a trace of snow, and of course, chips of ice on the surface from skate blades. I recall skating with her one night time and we were imitating skaters seen on the Wide World of Sports TV show. I bumped into her and accidentally knocked out one of her contact lenses. Those things blend in perfectly with ice chips and snow. I told her to not move, and I went to my car to fetch my skate box and the car's snow brush. I scooped up all the snow and ice around her and put it into the box. Then we went home and I put the snow into a kitchen strainer and ran warm water over it, melting the snow. In the bottom was her missing contact lens.

I also recall seeing (dead) frozen fish in crystal-clear ice, and in some areas of Willow Lake, looking down several feet at some of the dormant plants that grew from the bottom.

There is another thing with outdoor skating that is spooky, and that's the sound ice makes as it cracks. It could be plenty thick and safe, but still it cracks with a long, reverberant sound. There's a video on the tube that captures that sound nicely. In that case, the skater is on fresh, thin ice, but the sound is the same.

Here's the link to the video  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3O9vNi-dkA

[Loops]

My home rink (as a child) was right next to a pond.  When I was a kid it froze over occasionally.  One day, during the time the pond was frozen the compressors at the rink were non-functional, so had our freestyle session on the pond.  I remember the ice being pretty decent, but scared I'd fall through. I had a lesson that time, and believe I landed my first clean loop.

I also skated a bit on the pond at my college.  It didn't always freeze over, and I'd been told by other skaters that it was hit or miss quality wise.  One time when I went, the ice was decent, but someone had walked across the pond when it was only partially frozen, so there were nice deep footprints traversing the pond, and bissecting the skating surface nearly in two.  That was a bummer, because they were hard to avoid. There was also a small stream feeding that pond, and it was fun to skate in the woods.  I was afraid of falling through though, and ruining my skates (more than drowning).

In earlier years, they'd hose the frozen pond down with water to "resurface" it.  They didn't do that while I was there though.  Nice idea.  Wouldn't have helped the footprints.

[Bill_S]

After all my time skating outdoors, I recall seeing an indoor rink for the first time when I was about 25. The ice was much softer, and whitish, not clear, so it felt like I was skating on a large bar of soap.