How did you feel when you first started hanging out with other skaters?

[FSWer]

Say,I don't think this has ever been talked about. But when you were a brand new skater, how did you feel when you first started hanging out at a Rink with other skaters? For me I must say that I click right in with them....I surely felt like one of them....Like I belong there!!! Anybody else?

[TiggerTooSkates]

I was actually thinking about this yesterday. My niece and my mom went to the rink with me (my niece is nine). Some of my skating friends - who range in age from eight to seventy-seven - were there, and they are at all levels of ability. But we're all SKATERS - we all take this seriously, we're all working towards goals, we're all involved up to HERE in this sport we've all adopted.

This is the one thing I've taken up where anything achieved feels like some sort of victory, where something as simple as mastery of a lunge (I'm getting a MEAN lunge, let me tell you - and given the sometimes state of my knees I'm very proud of it) or realizing that I've got four good revolutions in a two-foot spin (discovered that yesterday; my niece was so impressed I felt like I'd just won the Worlds) makes me feel like "I'm king of the world", to borrow the now-cliche phrase. And I love that - and I love that my friends at the rink, whether they're working on their doubles or just passed Basic One (and are eight, 18, or 77!), are as thrilled about it as I am.

So, yeah - I also feel like I belong.

(Now, to clean up my shaky 3-turns...:yum:)

[sk8lady]

It makes for a whole new set of friends, from 17 to 70 (and I mean that literally!).

[jazzpants]

Well, I don't remember much what it was like when I was first skating as a kid... but I remember when I was an adult starting again that I felt I've come home again!!! A particular ice monitor (who is now just a casual skater but he's still skating with me just about every Monday night...) was especially of help, since he was a former figure skater and recommended lessons and then later on my own skates so the other ice monitors don't chase me out of the middle of the rink! So it's ALL HIS FAULT that I have AOSS now!!! :twisted: :P

[Gina10179202]

Well, I never really hang out with the other skaters because I am busy working hard, but I chat to peope sometimes. At first I felt like I had to compete with them all the time, and would add in things like 'yeah, landing double-doubles is fun.' and stuff, but now it's good. We can help each other.

[Rusty Blades]

Since I was 56 and most skaters are teenagers and younger ...... WEIRD!!

After moving to a 'competitive training centre' and sharing the ice with competitive skaters, I feel right at home despite the age difference and huge difference in skill level. There is a bond among competitive skaters that goes far beyond 'just skating'.

[samba]

Hi Rusty

Did you ever see "Stepping Out"? I think the bond with adult skaters is a little like that, although I must be the biggest kid on a Saturday morning patch when the average age range is 7-15 years old, yet the kids talk to me as though I was one of them, funnily enough I find it quite complementary, afterall in my head I am the same age, its just that my body doesnt believe me!

[Helen88]

I don't really talk to any of the skaters on my patch session...they all talk to each other while they're landing their doubles and doing their programmes and I feel a bit stupid being the biggest, lousiest (?) skater there. So I tend to just mind my own business.

[teresa]

When I first started skating I felt out of place. "Everyone" knew each other and spoke a language I didn't understand. It took time to know folks and learn what skating was all about. I'm still learning. =-) We have many adult skaters who skated as children at my rink and this didn't help. Things I struggled with came easy to them. I've learned not to compare myself to others and skate only for me and my coach. I always try to be nice to the new guy remembering how out of place I felt once. I don't always feel part of the skating community but I do feel comfortable with just being me. at the I do feel like skating has become part of though.

[kimberley801]

I mind my own business too. I skate for fun and don't compete, so I don't know too many of the competitive skaters. The facility I skate at has two rinks, and so there are freestyle and public sessions at the same time during the daytime. The two groups are VERY divided, but there isn't any drama or anything like that. It's just that the two groups don't socialize or intermix.

At the nighttime public sessions, however, there are a few "regulars" who are adults, and most have learned how to skate as adults. We all chat together, and I would much rather attend the crowded nighttime sessions with my skate buddies than be all by my lonesome during the daytime sessions!

[ibreakhearts66]

I never felt all that different than spending time with other friends. We had fun, we skated, we talked about skating, and we talked about other things. Now, hanging out with other skaters makes me feel NORMAL. I still have non-skating friends, but I love my skating friends. Also, we spend so much time together that we just know each other very well.

I've always liked hanging out with other skaters while practicing. We still practice very hard, but you also have someone to give you feedback. Also, it's nice for playing games too, like add-a-jump (THAT gets hard when you keep trying to add doubles) and add-a-spin.

[celticprincess]

At first before I became 'good'..I used to look up to skaters who could do one foot spins. Well at one session I skated up to this girl(my current good friend) who was spinning and I asked her to show me how to do that. I made skater friends at that time by either coming up to them and asking them to help me out or them approaching me. Once I joined a club I felt totally out of my league and thought if I was going to fall that everyone was going to laugh at me. Surprisingly I was wrong...but I learned that everyone was mostly skating for themselves and never laughed. I then joined a group that was performing in the Spring show..we were all around the same level, but different ages. I felt funny coming in late, but the coach(my current coach) was very welcoming and soon they all came to be. Little by little I grew to know everyone in the club and they're all very wonderful people. They range from 7-60ish, LTS-senior level and I get along with all of them. My fellow skaters are a nice bunch. I also joined another...more competitive club, they're not nearly as social, but still I get along with them well. In the end everyone supports eachother. Its a nice feeling:)

[Mrs Redboots]

It's actually why I call myself Mrs Redboots - I went to a skate shop to buy some soakers and they had some red boot-covers, so I bought them and wore them, on the grounds that since I was going to skate regularly people would, eventually, know my name - but until that day, I would rather they thought of me as the woman in the red boot covers than as that fat woman who can't skate! And then one of the coaches started to call me "Mrs Boots", and one day I turned round and said, "That's Mrs Redboots to you, if you don't mind!" and liked it so much I've kept it ever since.