Casey
05-14-2005, 02:33 AM
I've been feeling kind of bad because I haven't been skating very much - only a couple times a week - due to having a lot going on, waiting for various (skating) injuries to heal and so on. I haven't felt good about my skating when I have went, as I felt my skill had declined in all areas. I went skating yesterday, then forgot to dry my blades or take them out of the hard guards, or even to bring them into the house when I came home, so when I fetched them from my car this morning, the blades were all rusted up. :(
I took the sharpening stone I bought, and with the aid of some water and lots of patience (and frustration), an hour later the blades were rust-free and honed to perfection, nice and sharp with no nicks. I even got up into the part of the blade right next to the toepick that the machine never sharpened and got that to match the rest of the blade. Then I cleaned off the blades with a cloth soaked with olive oil, and went skating this evening. The blades were amazing, they felt like a hot knife cutting through butter.
I skated fast and with power, did all the moves and jumps I know and felt good about nearly everything. Some other decent skaters with good speed tried to keep up. Is it just me or does it feel like you're dolphins or fish racing along when there are several of you skating fast together, passing each other and so on... An hour or so into things, I fell (for the first time) and hit my right shin with my left blade (never did that before, but it *HURTS*). A girl who'd been skating fast and one of the guys stopped and asked if I was alright, and whether I would skate with them for the rest of the night. I said sure, but I needed to tend my ankle first (I looked down and saw a blood mark on my pants).
The damage wasn't too bad, the blade didn't cut through the pants, so that helped a lot. There's a nice big scrape edged by a cut about an inch and a half long, but not too deep. I washed it off and went back to the rink. The others (3 of them) that I met and I introduced ourselves to each other and started talking about skating in general. The girl (who was the best skater among them - she took lessons in previous years), said that my waltz jump was really big. But then when I had her show me one, it was the best waltz jump I've ever seen in person! So then I paid attention and measured the distance of the jump by the tracings, and found that when I jump a big waltz jump, it's 8 feet from toe leaving the ice to landing. Is that a lot?
We all had a lot of fun, various competitions of skills, practicing different/new things, racing around the rink, and so on. They left an hour before the end of the session, so I stayed and skated more myself. I don't know why but I just feel much more back into the rhythm of skating, and it's a great feeling. :D
So now hopefully I'll be going on nearly a daily basis, and trying to learn the loop again. Does anybody know a website that had good explanations of how to do the different jumps?
I took the sharpening stone I bought, and with the aid of some water and lots of patience (and frustration), an hour later the blades were rust-free and honed to perfection, nice and sharp with no nicks. I even got up into the part of the blade right next to the toepick that the machine never sharpened and got that to match the rest of the blade. Then I cleaned off the blades with a cloth soaked with olive oil, and went skating this evening. The blades were amazing, they felt like a hot knife cutting through butter.
I skated fast and with power, did all the moves and jumps I know and felt good about nearly everything. Some other decent skaters with good speed tried to keep up. Is it just me or does it feel like you're dolphins or fish racing along when there are several of you skating fast together, passing each other and so on... An hour or so into things, I fell (for the first time) and hit my right shin with my left blade (never did that before, but it *HURTS*). A girl who'd been skating fast and one of the guys stopped and asked if I was alright, and whether I would skate with them for the rest of the night. I said sure, but I needed to tend my ankle first (I looked down and saw a blood mark on my pants).
The damage wasn't too bad, the blade didn't cut through the pants, so that helped a lot. There's a nice big scrape edged by a cut about an inch and a half long, but not too deep. I washed it off and went back to the rink. The others (3 of them) that I met and I introduced ourselves to each other and started talking about skating in general. The girl (who was the best skater among them - she took lessons in previous years), said that my waltz jump was really big. But then when I had her show me one, it was the best waltz jump I've ever seen in person! So then I paid attention and measured the distance of the jump by the tracings, and found that when I jump a big waltz jump, it's 8 feet from toe leaving the ice to landing. Is that a lot?
We all had a lot of fun, various competitions of skills, practicing different/new things, racing around the rink, and so on. They left an hour before the end of the session, so I stayed and skated more myself. I don't know why but I just feel much more back into the rhythm of skating, and it's a great feeling. :D
So now hopefully I'll be going on nearly a daily basis, and trying to learn the loop again. Does anybody know a website that had good explanations of how to do the different jumps?