how did you guys start skating?

[falling_rain]

:D hey everyone, i'm new to this forum but already i can tell it's a lovely place. it seems really active and helpful!

i just wanted to start a thread cos where i live, not many people know much about skating, some aren't even aware we have a rink in the country. how did you guys start skating?

for me, my sister used to watch skating on t.v. whenever they showed it (which in the first place wasn't very often.) when i was about 13 i was quite intruiged by it and wanted to try. we went to the rink and i saw a coach giving some lessons. it was love at first sight lol. well no...more like bigfatteenagehormonal crush at first sight, but ah anyway, i dragged my sister over and it wasn't long before we started regular group lessons. i wanted to continue after a while but she didn't so i started private lessons. i did overcome the silly crush lol, and in the first place it wasn't a big deal. i think at 13 i had crushes as often as i sneezed, and they lasted about as long as well heh heh.

so that's my story. i got seriously hooked onto skating after a while. i don't know how it happened. i just know that not skating made me miserable and just the thought of skating would make my day brighten up.

what's your story? :)

[samba]

Welcome Falling Rain, it is fun isn't it, I'm quite new to this forum too.

I always wanted to skate as a child but in those days we were told it was for "rich kids" mum and dad had to spend the money on such luxuries as food clothes etc..everyone say awe.

Anyway when my son became a teenager he started skating and I used to just watch, however I got very cold and decided to give it a go, although my son is a pretty good skater he doesnt skate much nowadays but I still keep going, never looked back.

Talking about crushes, people always laugh when I say that my teenage crush was my dentist!! He wasn't particularly good looking or anything but I had horrible vampire like teeth and he straightened them, so I will always be grateful

[Mrs Redboots]

My dentist was called Mr Peckover (and for family illnesses, we went to Dr Payne - how's that for what the New Scientist calls "nominative determinism), and I loathed him and all his works with a deep and deadly loathing.... however, that's beside the point.

The daughter came home from school at the beginning of Year 10 with a note offering pupils the chance to take a learn-to-skate course at the local rink very cheaply. She wanted to do this, so no problem. However, the next term, not enough pupils wanted to do the course, so it wasn't held and they went 10-pin bowling instead. But she still loved skating - so we had to take her (she wasn't quite old enough to go on her own, and couldn't have afforded it on her allowance, anyway, so...). And after awhile we bought ourselves skates, enrolled in the adult learn-to-skate classes, and the rest is history!

[Isk8NYC]

I started at 16 -- it was a cheap date in High School.

[Elsy2]

Fond memories.....when I was about 6 or 7 my dad took me down to the river in the metropolitan park system where I lived (Cleveland area...). We shoveled the snow off a patch of ice and skated........We did this every winter until one day my dad fell in......that was the end of river skating!

First lesson, however, was when I was 42 years old. I enrolled my daughter in learn to skate, and decided to try the adult classes.

[Skate@Delaware]

I remember seeing skating on TV when I was about 12. We were at a thrift shop when I spotted some ice skates, which sort-of fit. Bought them, Dad sharpened them, took them out to the frozen ditch across the street and started (spent more time falling at first). Every winter I would do this if the ditch froze up enough. Sometimes I found a cow pond that was good. My sister got skates and joined me, we would skate to a radio and make up routines. Luckily, it was mostly us so no one would tell us how stupid we looked-we didn't know how to do anything (but I could do a 2-foot spin).

Skated off-and-on through the years

Like Elsy2 I took my first lesson when I was 42 years old-found out that my local rink did teach adults and could teach me to skate backwards... Signed up when I signed up my daughter.

One year of lessons later, I'm still working on that 2-foot spin (ha ha ha, and the one-foot scratch, etc.)

Terry

[russiet]

For those of us that are "adults", it seems as though our children bring us to the sport.

When I was a child & a teenager I skated at the local pond a few times a year. This was in the 1960's. I never took any lessons & wouldn't have any idea about technique. It was just fun! Probably the last time I skated then, I was 15.

Then in 2000/2001 I bought my then 6 year old daughter figure skates and myself a pair of hockey skates. Why hockey? Hey I just wanted to skate & for the cost they felt comfortable & well made. We either pond skated or skated on an outside rink that year. She took lessons one evening a week through the town recreation department.

The following winter the three of us (wife, daughter & me) bought seasons passes to the inside arena & skated together nearly every Sunday. Sometimes Saturday's too. Karen, my wife, bought me adult skating lessons as a Christmas present. By the end of that season I had outside 3-turns. Woo-hoo, moving right up, eh?

I skated more & more the next couple of years, going at luch time during the week as well as on the weekend. Finally last fall my wife decided I was so addicted to it that I should have some well made figure skates (isn't she great?). Got them in mid-December and started taking lessons again in January.

Now I'm re-inventing myself on skates. Different stance, different goals. It's great doing something new.

[sue123]

i started because as a kid, i had too much energy. my parents got tired of me bouncing off the walls, so my dad, who played hockey in russia, took me to the ice rink on a saturday. he taught me to skate, and kept taking me back, teaching me to skate backwards, stop (although it took me about 4 years to do a hockey stop because his method of makign me stop was to have me hold onto him, he'd skate around the rink like a maniac, then stop on a dime by hte walls. i'd go flying into the wall unless i also managed to stop. ah, tough love). i went through playing ice hockey, speed skating, and figure skating at one point or another. although i had to stop figure skating when i severly injured my knee about 7 or 8 years ago (i was 12 at the time). i got back into it when i met a girl who also used to skate and missed it. so we started going to empty public sessions, and after a couple of sessions, she stopped going, and i signed up for group lessons, and now private lessons.

[Melzorina]

Christmas 2004, I watched flashdance, and saw the skater in it, and for some reason had this fantastic urge to learn how to skate. I don't know why, I just had this mad skating obsession all of a sudden and I had to BEG my mum for lessons. On the 2nd Jan 04 me and my Auntie/Mum/Grandma went out for a meal and were talking about it and I had to get my Aunty for persuade her for me, as the classes started the next day. After I got my own skates (The happiest day of my life!) I started private lessons with my instructor. I definetly picked the right guy!

I went.
I absolutley LOVED it.
I go every week.
And now I help out in those classes that I was once in!
I love that too!!!

[TashaKat]

My ex-http://www.lotsofkids.com/forums/rwf-icons/pig.gif played semi-pro ice hockey and was also a good roller skater and rollerblader (he was an instructor). I always did dance (ballet, stage etc), music and acting as a child so never got into skating apart from when I started noticing boys and hung around at the ice rink a few times, waddling around the rink on horrid blue plastic skates and generally neither finding a nice boy or a love for skating (how many people do those rental skates put off?)

Anyway .... I decided that if you couldn't beat them, join them so I got all of the hockey stuff and started playing roller and ice hockey. To say that I didn't enjoy it is the understatement of the decade. I got whiplash twice when I was tackled by a much bigger guy than me (same guy both times) who turned around and said "I didn't expect a girl to tackle me" :roll: Anyway, there was a small outdoor rink at Liverpool Street in London. I joined a group lesson there, got hooked and the rest, as they say, is history.

Unfortunately after a broken wrist (doing back 3's) and a drastic change in personal circumstances I've never really got back into skating (about 2 months after buying some new custom Harlicks and Gold Seal blades) though I still don't say that I've given up. I've since moved from London :cry: and the rink near to me isn't particularly adult friendly as to clubs, patch times etc. I've written to the guy in charge and explained that adult skaters are an untapped market but got a very nice but very bland reply back saying "thanks but no thanks".

I'm now into horse riding and have got my own young, green horse who I'm hoping to do dressage on. I'd still love to get back to skating and am hoping that circumstances change so that I am able to (a lottery win would be good :D ).

BTW one thing that you'll learn about me is not only do I go off at a tangent but I don't half go on ;)

[fadedstardust]

My mom took me to the rink to get lessons as soon as I could walk (ok, maybe when I was 4 yrs old?), and I've never looked back. It's odd really, because she wasn't a skater or anything. She tells me she has no idea why she did it, but I thank God she did.

[Hann]

My best mate took me skating like once and we loved it, so we decided to start doing lessons. and yeah... we started in the learn-to-skate lessons, and passed them easily, now we are both working away in the academy. we applied for private lessons, picked a coach, and that thats really... skating always cheers us both up.

[dbny]

I grew up in the (American) Southwest, where there were no ice rinks. As a child I had those awful metal, clamp-on roller skates. When I was twelve, I was invited to a party at a roller rink and discovered "shoe skates". After that we found a rink that I could go to on my own on the bus, and there was a married couple there teaching roller dance. I emptied my piggy bank to buy my first skates, and my parents went without a lot (that I never knew about till much later) so I could have lessons and skate. I was passionate about roller dance and skated every day, tested, and competed, but when I went to NYC for college, I knew I would not be able to continue, and really never gave it another thought. I also never thought to switch to ice, though I did go ice skating once or twice later on. When my younger daughter was 10, she decided she wanted ice skating lessons, and soon both of my daughters were taking private lessons and skating on freestyle sessions. Meanwhile, I had become a big, fat, couch potato. After a few years of that, when I was 53, I decided that I needed to get some exercise, so I bought myself a pair of skates on ebay (I knew what I needed, from all the skates I had bought for my kids) and started lessons. The first time I went out, I had to sit down half way around the rink because my calves were in so much pain. Both of my girls quit skating (although the younger one may be starting again :D ), and now I coach more than I skate for myself. I really do love coaching more than skating, but still want to improve my own skills so I can coach higher levels than I do now. Realistically, I know that my figure skating will never reach the level of my roller dance (gold), but I do have wonderful dreams of skating like I used to, but on ice.

[Perry]

My mom took my when I was 4 because she used to do dance when she was in her 20's. By the third time I around the rink, I didn't need to hold onto her hand or the boards anymore. I asked to take lessons that day, and when she, trying to dissuade me, told me I'd have to quit something, I gave dance and gymnastics right then. Never looked back.

[jazzpants]

As a kid
When I was about 9, I moved to my family home, which was exactly ONE BLOCK away from the ice rink. My sister took me there along with her bf/date at the time. We kept going there for a while. But when she broke it off with her bf, she stopped skating, but I kept coming back for more!!! I never had lessons, but somehow I managed to learn to do crossovers, spirals, waltz jump and one foot spins from a figure skating book I got from the school library... I gave it up to concentrate on high school and getting into a good university! :cry: When I tried to get back into it, I found that my old rink was being torned down and converted to a condo! :evil:

As an adult
I was working out at the gym 4 times a week and had a lot more energy to burn and need something "creative" to do. I was also feeling stifled being around home on weekends. A coworker mentioned that there is a NEW rink and those memories of being a kid on skate brought me back to my now home rink to try skating again as an adult. I lost everything but the forward crossovers and a back crossover going the CW direction. But I kept going... and an ice guard befriended me and ask if I should consider going to take skating lessons. That turned into "getting my own skates"...which turned into my group coach saying "Have you considered getting a private coach?" (which eventually led me to my primary coach! :mrgreen: ) and then tests and competitions...

It's been 5.5 years and I'm still skating -- in fact, I'm skating better as an adult vs. as a kid! It's still my favorite form of therapy... much cheaper than REAL shrinks I think... and lots more fun too! :P

[pennybeagle]

I took an intro skating class as a college sophomore for a PE credit, and got started for a couple years...

...then I started again after a relatively long hiatus after a few years of graduate school as a "reward" for passing my exams. I didn't expect that it would turn into such an intense hobby! :)

LOL Mrs Redboots, my childhood family dentist's name was Dr. Payne... and to add to that, my brother's orthodontist's name was Dr. Vise!

[mikawendy]

A few years back, there was an outdoor rink about 4 blocks from my house. I had lived in the neighborhood for about 2 years before going and trying out the rink. The rentals were killing my feet, so I got skates; then I started skating fast enough that not knowing how to stop or steer around the little kids was becoming very dangerous and VERRRY scary.

The figure skating director of the rink I go to was nice and gave me a "placement test" for free to figure out where I should start out in Basic Skills lessons.

Edited to add: The last time someone posted a "how did you start skating" thread either here or on FSW (it's been a while, so I can't recall), I mentioned the outdoor rink, and flo and I realized that we live less than a block from each other. Before that we hadn't known...

[Shinn-Reika]

Ever since I found out that the campus rink is open free every weekday, I decided to come as much as possible. It's the only excercise I can really stand to do for a long time. I eventually decided to try figure skates ( I mean why not?). And it was actually kinda hard the first time. Rentals are terrible. I couldn't do anything. I actually felt kinda weird. Then I actually got my own pair, and I think that changed things. I became much more at home with them, and was able to gain advantages. After a while I took a skating course for PE credit (like above), and my teacher decided to teach me jumps and such.

Right now I'm still working on a lot of things. In all honesty I have no Idea where I might go, or what I might do. But now I'm already so many things I never thought I would, and it's really fun.

[Mrs Redboots]

I've since moved from London :cry: and the rink near to me isn't particularly adult friendly as to clubs, patch times etc. I've written to the guy in charge and explained that adult skaters are an untapped market but got a very nice but very bland reply back saying "thanks but no thanks".
What about the other rink in your new home town? I believe that is far more "adult-friendly", and certainly fielded some good skaters at last year's Adult Nationals. I know of at least one free-skating coach who will and does teach adults.... and dance coaches, too.

[Casey]

Well when I was 17 I had some younger friends who liked to rollerblade. I tried rollerblading for a few weeks, but was never any good at it and didn't really like it.

About a half-year ago, I was in a thrift shop, and found some rollerblades that fit for $1.50, so I bought them. I skated for maybe 2-3 weeks last summer and got a bit better, and then they sat in the closet until this day. I remember I had this urge to go ice skating. I don't know where it came from, I just always had it. I just knew it would be more fun that rollerblading, the blade on the ice would be so fun. I found the location of an ice rink in the neighborhood, but didn't have much money then so I never went. Then I moved for my job, and forgot all about it.

3 months ago today (today is my 3-month ice skating anniversary!!), I was driving around and looked over and saw a sign that said "Castle Ice". I slammed the brakes and swerved into the shopping center, and went right on over to the rink. I went in and said I wanted to skate. Lucky me, it was the beginning of a public session. I paid my money, got some rental hockey skates, and went out on the ice for about an hour. Then I came back and traded them for figure skates. Then I ordered a pair of cheap ones on eBay which worked for about a month, then got a used pair on eBay for another month, then bought expensive new skates which I'm on now. Since day one, I've been going to every public session possible, about 15 hours a week, and loving every minute of it. It brings me strength, balance, and sanity. If I don't make it to my session (I missed it a couple times at first), I go crazy.

I have a terrible addiction to it. Without skating, I don't know what I would do. It took away my depression that I'd been in for years and skating is now the number 1 priority in my life. I wouldn't have it any other way.

[Mel On Ice]

my inspiration was Tonia Kwiatkowski. I loved skating as a kid, but had corrective shoes and couldn't participate (I clumped around in metal roller skates strapped to the corrective shoes, pretending to be Dorothy Hamill). I happened to be watching a skating event in '97 with my mother in law who asked, as the commentators were talking about Tonia's status as the grande dame of ladies skating, what I wanted for Christmas. I answered "skates!" I got CCMs from Target, and enrolled in an adult learn to skate class, learned how to go backwards after 5 weeks, and I've been hooked since.

[garyc254]

I had scarcely ever skated as a kid. It wasn't my "thing".

At 47, I would go watch my girlfriend skate (she was on an adult synchro team), but got tired of freezing sitting in the hockey box. I figured if I'm going to be there, I might as well skate.

Bought myself some decent skates and started taking lessons. I've been hooked for the last 3-1/2 years and, except when I'm on injured-reserve, skate 2 to 3 times a week.

[flo]

In grad school and needed something fun to do. Finished my masters research that year!

[coskater64]

The start:
I went skating for the first time @ the Galleria in Houston. I was barefoot and wearing those awful rentals, but after an hour I could go forward, backwards, xover's and a 2 foot spin. My parents were suprised but I was booked, I did ballet and gymnastics along w/ competitive swimming. At 12, I quit ballet because the pointe was just not working for me. So I took skating lessons at the local rink, I went through basic skills and fs4. Then presented to a panel of coaches who decided if we were teachable. So at 14 -18 I skate 2-3 days a week about 2 hours, by the time I quit I had passed my 2nd figure and my Juv FS.

My parents sent me to a college w/ no rink so I quit at 18. I didn't have any doubles jump a very nice axel.

At 32 my doctors told me the party was over and that I had to start exercising again or else my achilles tendon would continue to shorten and life wouldn't be good. So at 36, after dealing w/ several other issues I started skating again, now at 41 I have surpassed where I was as a child. My mother who used to refuse to watch me because every time she did-- I'd get another concussion. Now every time she watches me skate she cries because she says the difference is incredible. Of course, she still wants me to quit, too dangerous. But, I won't, this sport has me sucked in sooooo bad.

la ;-)

[AnnM]

As a kid:
When I was 4/5 years old, I saw Peggy Fleming skating in a tv special and started twirling around the living room. At the time, my family lived three blocks aay from the very same 'childhood' ice rink that Jazzpants went to. My parents took me down to the rink one evening to check out the lessons offered and within the first half hour I was skating on my own around the rink. For almost the next seven years, my dad would drop me off for lessons every Sat. morning at 8am and my brother would come collect me around 3 or 4 o'clock. By the time I stopped wanting to take lessons, we had moved out of the area, which meant waking up earlier to get there on time, which just wasn't appealing to me then.

As an adult:
Ten years after that, while in law school, I decided I needed an outlet for all my school-induced stress and anxiety. There was a rink that had ample evening and afternoon public sessions about twenty minutes away from school, so I bought a pair of cheapie skates and headed out. After my third slide across the ice, I decided that maybe I needed a little "refresher" course in skating and signed up for group lessons. Moved on to private lessons within a year and have been happily skating ever since, waking up much earlier for ice time than I ever did as a kid. ;) I even brought my study materials to the rink while studying for the bar exam; I'm convinced that studying in the bleacher seats during the morning public sessions, with spurts of skating in between, was the key to my success with the exam.

[sue123]

As a kid:


As an adult:
Ten years after that, while in law school, I decided I needed an outlet for all my school-induced stress and anxiety. There was a rink that had ample evening and afternoon public sessions about twenty minutes away from school, so I bought a pair of cheapie skates and headed out. After my third slide across the ice, I decided that maybe I needed a little "refresher" course in skating and signed up for group lessons. Moved on to private lessons within a year and have been happily skating ever since, waking up much earlier for ice time than I ever did as a kid. ;) I even brought my study materials to the rink while studying for the bar exam; I'm convinced that studying in the bleacher seats during the morning public sessions, with spurts of skating in between, was the key to my success with the exam.

hey, i'll buy it. i figured if i take my mcat books to the rink, i'll be able to study there in between the public sessions. they have an hour in between sessions, so i worked it out that if i go to the last half hour or so of one, i could then study and then go to the public session afterwards as well. see, before i was complaining because i had to stop going to my group classes because of the prep course that i wasn't supposed to be in but now have to be in, and i actually did a lot of studying there after my class. but i managed to change my work hours so i can get to the rink on friday's during the 1:30 session after my classes are over, as well as get private lessons before class on tuesday morning, and it i was planning on taking my books there for when i take some breaks. or at least bring my flash ncards with me. if you ever happen to stumble across an empty public session and you see some moron flipping through flash cards as she warms up, yep that's me. for some reason, material sticks better in my head if i'm moving. that how i passed organic chem, i took the textbook on the treadmill or stationary bike.

sorry to start babbling, but people think i'm crazy when i tell them i plan on studying at the rink. i say wherever you can squeeze it in.

[starskate6.0]

:D hey everyone, i'm new to this forum but already i can tell it's a lovely place. it seems really active and helpful!

i just wanted to start a thread cos where i live, not many people know much about skating, some aren't even aware we have a rink in the country. how did you guys start skating?

for me, my sister used to watch skating on t.v. whenever they showed it (which in the first place wasn't very often.) when i was about 13 i was quite intruiged by it and wanted to try. we went to the rink and i saw a coach giving some lessons. it was love at first sight lol. well no...more like bigfatteenagehormonal crush at first sight, but ah anyway, i dragged my sister over and it wasn't long before we started regular group lessons. i wanted to continue after a while but she didn't so i started private lessons. i did overcome the silly crush lol, and in the first place it wasn't a big deal. i think at 13 i had crushes as often as i sneezed, and they lasted about as long as well heh heh.

so that's my story. i got seriously hooked onto skating after a while. i don't know how it happened. i just know that not skating made me miserable and just the thought of skating would make my day brighten up.

what's your story? :)
Where are you living... :?:

[starskate6.0]

Im not going to get into the answer to this thread, Ill be here all night.. but in brief. :D

Stepped on the ice for the first time at 23 in rental skates. six weeks later I was doing my first ice show in Australia, stood on the ice and presented a girl while she skated, I could not even stop. Five months later went overseas on a one way ticket to try Holiday on Ice, got kicked out and told I was the worst skater they had ever seen. :lol: Joined a show in Spain for 5 months, skated in a Circus, learned from the skaters in the show. Went to Canada and tried Ice Capades, ( they hated me, :cry: not good enough), Worked in pubs and night clubs for years in Europe and skated where ever I could,( Richmond Ice Arena in London ) tried again for Holiday on ice , they said no . :giveup: I gave up and went back to Australia, Auditiioned for Disney on Ice , no luck there but got hired later after working on a lot of new footwork and basic figures. Almost 7 years with Disney,Learned a lot from them, 4 world tours in chorus and comedy, retired in 1993, took up adult skating in 2003 and learned how to freeskate.
Learning to be an amature and competing for the last 2 years...

[Mrs Redboots]

sorry to start babbling, but people think i'm crazy when i tell them i plan on studying at the rink. i say wherever you can squeeze it in.Absolutely! At our rink, kids are often seen squeezing in a few minutes' of homework when they need a break from skating. And on Saturday/Sunday mornings, where there are (or used to be) three separate lesson sessions, with skaters encouraged to stay to the end and to practice on public ice afterwards, you would have thought the cafeteria was actually a homework room!

[falling_rain]

Where are you living... :?:

sorry for the late reply. i'm in Singapore :)

[skatingatty]

Started skating at age 12 at the Stone Mtn. Ice Chalet in Georgia. I took a bunch of group lessons and was very disappointed when I had to repeat a class b/c my crossovers sucked. Appeared in silly costumes in group numbers at rink shows. Took a few private lessons, landing on my back on a salchow attempt. Competed in one local competition and came in 2nd out of 3 girls after flubbing up a waltz jump. Quit at age 15 and then started taking private lessons at Berkeley Iceland at age 22, after dropping out of Hastings Law School in SF (long story). My coach there was great; she was a former student of Jim Hulick, Kristi Yamaguchi and Rudy Galindo's coach. I ended up in the DC area to go to Georgetown and continued skating as much as possible at the Fairfax Ice Arena. Then I moved to NC almost 4 yrs. ago and am still crazy about skating! :)