Tag: skating

It has been a busy first season of skating. So far I’ve competed in 2 USFS competitions, 1 ISI competition, a club recital/exhibition, taken (and passed) 3 sets of tests: USFS Adult Pre-Bronze Moves in the Field and Free Skate; ISI Open Bronze, Figures I; USFS Adult Bronze Moves in the Field and Free Skate. I’ve had the opportunity to meet some talented adult skaters at the competitions which has been super fun! Meanwhile, Jason and I have still been traveling 2+ hours each way twice a week to practice and have my weekly lesson with my brilliant coach. It has been worth it though, I really feel my skating is improving and I love learning new skills and polishing my old skills.

I was the only entry in the Adult Pre-Bronze FreeSkate, therefore I guess it was technically another exhibition skate. I was really hoping to have video this time, however, even with a replacement camera we had some technical difficulties. It would auto-shut down after a couple of seconds, so Designerd just took some rapid fire stills. My music is “Comptine d’un autre été: l’après midi” composed by Yann Tiersen from the movie Amelie (arranged to 1min:40sec). I was really nervous from having so much time to kill before my program. The ice was very rough and dry from so many skaters and for whatever reason, the last ice resurfacing was 3 hours earlier. But I still got a gold medal.

Skating is something I’ve always done for myself, not to please anyone else. As a result, not too many people know about it…until now.

I grew up as a competitive equestrian eventer, doing the show circuit, 4H, Pony Club, and 3 phase eventing and while I enjoyed it at the time, it wasn’t something I would have chosen for myself. It was my mother’s dream.

My dream was to figure skate. Unfortunately, I discovered skating too late and I was born to non-skating parents. I was 12 before I started begging my parents to take me to the rink (which was not conveniently close) and finally started the Basic Skills classes at SUNY Brockport. In the 80’s, starting to skate at age 12, I was already washed up. I could never hope to do anything competitively, even if I had natural talent–which I did not. I only had passion. All of the 12 year olds were already doubling their jumps and had years of figure practice, so I relegated myself to skating in our back horse pasture that would flood each winter and I’d spend the first 30 minutes “warming up” by shoveling the snow and grass that would poke through the ice. Hoping that there hadn’t been a warm lake effect wind the night before because that causes ripples. I bought a discarded library book for 25 cents published in the 50’s and taught myself everything I could about skating.