Hello from Estonia!

[Mrs Redboots]

Well, lots of skaters have already arrived in Tallinn for the Vana Tallinn Trophy on Saturday. We got up at 3:00 am this morning and after a very uncomfortable flight - somehow there was simply not enough leg-room and you couldn't get all of you leaning back against the seat at once - arrived in Tallinn, with our skates and all our luggage! We got a bus into town and then found our hotel.

After unpacking and so on we went downstairs for lunch, and who should come in but Chowskates and another friend, who are staying in this hotel. We spent the afternoon wandering around the old town and exhausting ourselves (such a great idea, just before competition, not!), and then met up with Piret (the organiser), Chowskates (again) and some British skaters at the rink. They've all gone off to buy chocolate, and we are flaking out and will go and have dinner in an hour or so.

[flo]

Please say hello to everyone for me! Have a great time, I'm looking forward to your posts.

[Tiggerwoos]

Don't blame you for flaking out........... Sounds like you've had a tiring day.

Sounds like you're at a nice place and best of luck for the competition.

[sk8er1964]

Please say "hi" to Piret for me.

[peanutskates]

good luck for the comp!

[tidesong]

Hi everyone in Talinn ehhehe hope you guys have a great time, keep us updated!

[Isk8NYC]

BEST OF LUCK TO YOU ALL!

HAVE A GREAT SKATE!

[jazzpants]

Go kick some ice butts in Estonia, Mr. & Mrs. Redboots!!! WHOO HOO!!! :bow: :bow: :bow:

[AW1]

Wow what a great place to go! Have a great time and good luck for your competition!

[Mrs Redboots]

It should be fun. The competition is today. Husband has a most interesting group, and nobody could possibly call the result before it's been skated! Frbskate63 and kateskate are against each other (which they knew - as they said, long way to go to skate against each other when they do that at home!). Team Singapore (including Chowskates) are all skating Gold, and are the only Gold skaters in their competition. BlueIIIMoon plans to have fun at Silver IV & V.... and so it goes.

Should be fun, and it doesn't start until 11:15, which is remarkably civilised of it.

Will update later, probably not until tomorrow, I know me at competitions and I get very, very, very tired!

[Mrs Redboots]

What a great competition! Skatingforums members have done fantastically well, with gold medals for kateskate (two!), roblichtefeld , chowskates and me (well, those two were walkovers!), and three for Husband, who didn't deserve his free skating gold as he really skated badly! Obviously our couples' dance was a walkover, but he also won his solo dance.

frbskate63 got one Bronze and one Silver (2nd to kateskate in solo dance), and chowskates got Bronze in her solo free, her gold being for pairs. BlueIIIMoon got Silver in Interp and 4th in free.

I hope I haven't forgotten anybody. It was a lovely day and a good time was, I think, had by all. Husband and I didn't dance fantastically well, but we didn't disgrace ourselves.

One down, two to go....

[jskater49]

Woohoo - Congratulations everyone and thanks for the report Annabell!

:bow: :bow:

[chowskates]

What a great competition! Skatingforums members have done fantastically well, with gold medals for kateskate (two!), roblichtefeld , chowskates and me (well, those two were walkovers!), and three for Husband, who didn't deserve his free skating gold as he really skated badly! Obviously our couples' dance was a walkover, but he also won his solo dance.

frbskate63 got one Bronze and one Silver (2nd to kateskate in solo dance), and chowskates got Bronze in her solo free, her gold being for pairs. BlueIIIMoon got Silver in Interp and 4th in free.

I hope I haven't forgotten anybody. It was a lovely day and a good time was, I think, had by all. Husband and I didn't dance fantastically well, but we didn't disgrace ourselves.

One down, two to go....

Mrs Redboots is kind! Truth be said we were the only pair, and it was hilarious... My partner and I have not skated together for 2 years and have not seen each other for 15 months. We had just three 25-min sessions to work on it - and of course also trying to work on our own freeskate at the same sessions!! It was more like an pairs improvisation!

My own freeskate felt quite disastrous, as I singled my double toe (yes, chicken!) and popped the double Sal... :cry:

BUT, after seeing the detailed scores this evening I realised that my technical score was not quite as terrible as Id imagined, and I really need to brush up on program component! ARGH!!! :frus:

[Mrs Redboots]

Mrs Redboots is kind! Truth be said we were the only pair, and it was hilarious... My partner and I have not skated together for 2 years and have not seen each other for 15 months. We had just three 25-min sessions to work on it - and of course also trying to work on our own freeskate at the same sessions!! It was more like an pairs improvisation!The actual skate was extremely good, especially as it was so improvised - the warm-up, I have to admit, was funny, especially when he dropped you in the death spiral and you squeaked - I was afraid you'd hurt your shoulder, as you came down quite a whang, but as you hadn't, it was funny. I am impressed that you can do a side-by-side step sequence with very little rehearsal and still keep more-or-less together - I know full well that we still sometimes look as though we were just randomly on the same piece of ice, and I do die to try a side-by-side, especially with the crossing-over. But not this year!

BUT, after seeing the detailed scores this evening I realised that my technical score was not quite as terrible as Id imagined, and I really need to brush up on program component! ARGH!!! :frus:We haven't seen Husband's yet, as we weren't at the banquet, but hope to get them later today.

[Raye]

Hello to everyone and congratulations to all on a great day of competition. :bow: :bow: :bow:

Wish I could have been there :frus: - I miss you all and I AM NOT STAYING HOME NEXT YEAR!!!!

[Beccapoo2003]

Thanks for the updates, Annabel!! Give everyone a hug for me!
Becca

[kateskate]

Just returned from Estonia and can't be bothered to unpack or sleep!

It was a really fun competition and everyone was very supportive of all the skating! Well done everyone!

And I'm just so excited that I have an IJS protocol sheet and score! I've been studying it.

[coskater64]

Congratulations to all!

I didn't know Chow did pairs! That is impressive!

Love those IJS protocol sheets, very handy.

See yall soon!

[tidesong]

Congrats to all of you! Congrats on the spiral seq Chow :)

[Isk8NYC]

CONGRATULATIONS EVERYONE!

[chowskates]

Congratulations to all!

I didn't know Chow did pairs! That is impressive!

Love those IJS protocol sheets, very handy.

See yall soon!

I don't usually do pairs, just lots of last-minute partnering... LOL

[chowskates]

The actual skate was extremely good, especially as it was so improvised - the warm-up, I have to admit, was funny, especially when he dropped you in the death spiral and you squeaked - I was afraid you'd hurt your shoulder, as you came down quite a whang, but as you hadn't, it was funny. I am impressed that you can do a side-by-side step sequence with very little rehearsal and still keep more-or-less together - I know full well that we still sometimes look as though we were just randomly on the same piece of ice, and I do die to try a side-by-side, especially with the crossing-over. But not this year!


Well, I have put up the video of the actual skate:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAgJK8cuifw

Don't have the squeak in the warmup, though :P

[rlichtefeld]

It was great seeing everyone at the event again this year. What a much larger event from the first year. There were Finns, Lithuanians, Italians, French, Singaporeans?, Estonians, Brits, Americans, and probably a few I've missed.

I'm trying to get the link to the results from Piret. She told me they were up, but I can't find them.

I've got photos from the event, Tallinn in general and then Helsinki and Stockholm where Conchita and I went after the event:
http://rlichtefeld.sk8rland.com/pictures/?s=2007%2FTallinn-Helsinki-Stockholm
The ones from the rink are a bit dark, but it was a bit dark in the rink.

Also, I have video of my Silver IV-V skate at:
http://rlichtefeld.sk8rland.com/video/VT07-Rob.avi

Not my best, but not bad considering my knee and the amount of training I was able to do, because of it.

Rob

[Beccapoo2003]

Chow and Rob, awesome!

[Maris]

I'm trying to get the link to the results from Piret. She told me they were up, but I can't find them.

Rob

Hi, Rob!

I found results here: http://tsukiyo.planet.ee/VTT2007/1/index.htm

[rlichtefeld]

Hi, Rob!

I found results here: http://tsukiyo.planet.ee/VTT2007/1/index.htm

Thanks!

Rob