After reading a few blogs this week and talking to a good friend, I thought I'd jump the bandwagon once again. I've had several blogs in the past but more wore off on me and were ignored.
A friend of mine and I decided to take on a challenge. Blogging for 30 days about a sport we're both quite passionate about: Figure Skating. This will probably help me with a case of writer’s block I've been suffering from lately!
Day One: How Did You Get Into Skating
I remember this like it was yesterday! My parents decided to sign my sister and I up for Canskate lessons so that we could skate when our school would go on field trips to our local arena. We walked into the Rioden Arena and right away I knew I belonged there right away. The smell of zambonied ice took me in and I hasn't let go some 20 years later! I sat on a bench in one of the locker rooms, but on my slush pants, my pink and green jacket, hat and gloves while my dad tied my skates on as tight as he could. I took my sister by the hand and off we went or so we thought. The second we stepped on the frozen sheet of ice, we both took a stumble. We looked at each other, started to laugh and crawled back to the boards to help us get back up. I was a little braver than my little sister and pushed away from the boards trying to take as many baby steps as the thin blades would let me before tumbling forward. A childhood friend of ours who was already a year into her short skating career was skating circles around us encouraging us to get up and try again. So I crawled back to the boards, pulled myself up and tried again each time being easier.
As the weeks went by, the gliding became easier and falling became less frequent. I was excited to learn new tricks, whether it being a bunny hop, two foot spin or shoot the duck; I loved every minute of it. Finally we got to learn our very first choreography to Mockingbird Hill by Pattie Page for our annual Carnival. We were able to sit in the first row in our beautiful yellow chiffon dresses and watch the other skaters while waiting for our turn. I was amazed how easily the older skaters were jumping off the ice and doing tricks I'd never seen before. I turned to my newly best friend and told her that one day I would do those tricks in a show just like this. I sensed that she didn't believe me but we didn't have time to discuss it as we were on ice next. The music started and we all skated cautiously around doing small bunny hops, spins and waltz jumps. Once we all landed our waltz jumps, none of us could remember the choreography and we turned to our teacher for guidance. Unfortunately she was in the middle of her own mini solo and didn't notice we were all standing around looking at her. She finally ushered us off the ice as we all waved at our parents making sure they were watching!
I continued with the Elliot Lake Nuclear Figure Skating Club (renamed the Elliot Lake Figure Skating Club once the mines closed) for some years after and moved the several clubs once I moved to Ottawa. As I got older realizing an Olympic medal or even a National title would never be in my future, I switched over to teaching the same lessons that were taught to me as a young skater, hoping that some day I would recognize the name on top of the podium and proudly tell everyone that I was that skater's first teacher.
A friend of mine and I decided to take on a challenge. Blogging for 30 days about a sport we're both quite passionate about: Figure Skating. This will probably help me with a case of writer’s block I've been suffering from lately!
Day One: How Did You Get Into Skating
I remember this like it was yesterday! My parents decided to sign my sister and I up for Canskate lessons so that we could skate when our school would go on field trips to our local arena. We walked into the Rioden Arena and right away I knew I belonged there right away. The smell of zambonied ice took me in and I hasn't let go some 20 years later! I sat on a bench in one of the locker rooms, but on my slush pants, my pink and green jacket, hat and gloves while my dad tied my skates on as tight as he could. I took my sister by the hand and off we went or so we thought. The second we stepped on the frozen sheet of ice, we both took a stumble. We looked at each other, started to laugh and crawled back to the boards to help us get back up. I was a little braver than my little sister and pushed away from the boards trying to take as many baby steps as the thin blades would let me before tumbling forward. A childhood friend of ours who was already a year into her short skating career was skating circles around us encouraging us to get up and try again. So I crawled back to the boards, pulled myself up and tried again each time being easier.
As the weeks went by, the gliding became easier and falling became less frequent. I was excited to learn new tricks, whether it being a bunny hop, two foot spin or shoot the duck; I loved every minute of it. Finally we got to learn our very first choreography to Mockingbird Hill by Pattie Page for our annual Carnival. We were able to sit in the first row in our beautiful yellow chiffon dresses and watch the other skaters while waiting for our turn. I was amazed how easily the older skaters were jumping off the ice and doing tricks I'd never seen before. I turned to my newly best friend and told her that one day I would do those tricks in a show just like this. I sensed that she didn't believe me but we didn't have time to discuss it as we were on ice next. The music started and we all skated cautiously around doing small bunny hops, spins and waltz jumps. Once we all landed our waltz jumps, none of us could remember the choreography and we turned to our teacher for guidance. Unfortunately she was in the middle of her own mini solo and didn't notice we were all standing around looking at her. She finally ushered us off the ice as we all waved at our parents making sure they were watching!
I continued with the Elliot Lake Nuclear Figure Skating Club (renamed the Elliot Lake Figure Skating Club once the mines closed) for some years after and moved the several clubs once I moved to Ottawa. As I got older realizing an Olympic medal or even a National title would never be in my future, I switched over to teaching the same lessons that were taught to me as a young skater, hoping that some day I would recognize the name on top of the podium and proudly tell everyone that I was that skater's first teacher.
I wish I'd gotten the chance to see you skate! And I love that the Elliot Lake Figure Skating Club has the word "nuclear" in the title..haha.
ReplyDeleteahhh the joys of being known as the Uranium Capital of the world! I have videos of a few programs.... we'll have to watch them sometime and you can be my commentator!
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