How you felt when you first got on ice/ how you feel now whenever you do get on ice

[FSWer]

Ok fellow skaters!!!!! I don't think we've ever had this for a thread before. But now that I'm back on ice it gave me the idea for this thread. What I want you to tell me today is...how did you feel when you FIRST got on ice as a Skater,and how do you feel WHENEVER you DO get on the ice. For me when I first on the ice as a skater I must say that it really felt GREAT to be with other skaters and to be thinking and knowing myself as an On Ice Skater!!!

WHENEVER I get on the ice now as a Skater. I must say that it always feels soooo good. Like I belong!!!!

Ok skaters.....GO!!!!

[Sessy]

I don't remember the first actually. I've been sort of a recreational 1-2 times a year skater for most of my early childhood. I do remember that because of my poor eyesight (then not discovered yet) I had trouble distinguishing where the ice ended, so I kept bumping into things and found that very frustrating, but I thought skating in itself was fun.

Now... Now it's like, the ice is a constant of my life. The ice is always the same (save for those days when the zamboni is broken...) 10 years from now - the ice is still going to be the same. It will wait for me, at the same time, it's also a constant factor. You can't say that you performed badly today or well today because you had good ice - like other sportsmen can say they had good weather or the team was more in tune than usual. It's only your performance that differs (unless you're in pairs).
The most wonderful thing is, you can trust the ice perfectly. It won't betray you. It just doesn't, ice is just that - it's ice. And you can let the ice work for you. I love the loop jump that way, when done well, the ice rotates you and all you have to do is go up - you'll come down cuz the gravity's pull will do that, too. A perfect spin is also that way, it's completely effortless because the ice will provide the basics needed for your spin if you just let it. Everything that goes wrong in figure skating is people fighting the ice or the gravity or other laws of physics. They tense up, not allowing their instincts to compensate for balance, instead relying on the much slower conscious mind. They force a rotation of any sort, thereby not allowing vectors and the ice to do all the work for them, throwing themselves off-balance. Even when a fall occurs, if you're relaxed, chances of getting seriously hurt are much slimmer compared to when you're tensed. And I love the cold air, invigorating me, I love the whiteness, like heaven...


If you want to get metaphysical, then let me point out that not only does the evolution theory say the origins of all life on earth lie in the sea, and that human bodies consist of water for the most part, but also - let's face it - water is a feminine beginning in most ancient pagan cultures as well as some modern ones. In the womb, a child is surrounded by water. In Christianity, the act of christianing a child or an adult takes place through water, as a new birth without sin. Water is the mother of us all, perfect tranquility, perfect change. Ice is one step above that. The crystal structure of ice makes it more perfect, more ordered and most of all - more reliable. Where as (fresh) water will not support our body, ice is as firm as earth itself under our ground. And yet, ice is not unchanging. Gletchers have been known to slowly flow - a few inches a year perhaps, but enough to carve out giant canyons, fjords in areas known as modern Norway and the like. Ice masses have in fact formed most of the modern North and West-European mainland, setting of sediments of clay and rock. In other words, not just the dripping water tears down the stone, not just the dripping water forms the stalagmites and stalagtites, ice has those properties as well. But because of its solidity, ice is a more reliable version of this creative beginning - this mother of mothers - than water is. In fact, it's the mother none of us have ever had, more predictable than any human being, more impartial than any human being could possibly be. Kind and accomodating, or cruel and relentless - all depending on your own behaviour. If you wish to compare it, perhapse the Norse Goddess Hel would be a fit - in her icy underground kingdom, those who had died of natural causes and didn't please any specific God or Goddess were punished or rewarded by their own deeds in life. By the living she could be called upon to deliver everybody the just ramnifications of their actions. Similarly, the ice will only respond in kind to what you do with it.

I trust the ice. I love the ice. I don't get in its way and it works with me, for me, trusts me back, loves me back.

I'd like to borrow a phrase from a neo-pagan movement to describe what the ice is like to me: "In perfect love and perfect trust".

So much for my little midnight ramble. Thanks for your attention.

[Thin-Ice]

Wow Sessy... that's very thoughtful, deep and esoteric! (Fortunately, we are all "members of the select few with deep knowledge of the subject" -- which is dictionary.com's definition of "esoteric". Go ahead and laugh.. :lol:it was the "word of the day" on my calendar yesterday... I'm working to improve my vocabulary, one day at a time.)

[hanca]

Now... Now it's like, the ice is a constant of my life. The ice is always the same (save for those days when the zamboni is broken...) 10 years from now - the ice is still going to be the same. It will wait for me, at the same time, it's also a constant factor. You can't say that you performed badly today or well today because you had good ice - like other sportsmen can say they had good weather or the team was more in tune than usual. It's only your performance that differs (unless you're in pairs).
The most wonderful thing is, you can trust the ice perfectly. It won't betray you. It just doesn't, ice is just that - it's ice. And you can let the ice work for you.

You have probably never seen our ice skating rink. There is a hill on it, so when you learn spins, you can do it only at certain spots (because you can't really learn spin downhill or uphill), the quality of ice varies depending on who is operating zamboni (there are a few staff members who know what they are doing, and others who probably think that the purpose of using it is to have a lovely and relaxing ride, just don't worry about doing it properly) :twisted: and in summer the condensation from ceiling drips so from time to time we have some lumps on the ice. sometimes it can be quite huge lumps, such as 5 inches wide and 2 inches high, and there can be sometimes at least one on every square metre, so not like 3 on the whole rink, but everywhere where you look... If they go over it with zamboni (if they bother), there are still remains of the lumps.

The other day I skated on a different rink and was shocked how different it feels. Flat ice! And properly done with Zamboni. How lovely!

[Sessy]

No, I haven't been to your rink. And I don't think I want to! :lol:

[Mrs Redboots]

I can't remember what I felt like when I first got on the ice, although I do remember the occasion and the location.

These days I usually think "Hmmm, wonder what the ice will be like today?" because it does vary enormously - we don't have hills like hanca's rink does, although we used to, but we do sometimes have sort-of corrugated ice, and speed bumps..... or the zamboni has gobbeted randomly while emptying itself. But some days it's like a lemon ice-lolly, it's so nice!