What year did you first start to compete? Are you planning to BECOME a competitor?

[FSWer]

Say,we haven't talked about our chat competitiors here for a while. So I would like to ask today what year everyone who competes here first started competing? Also please post if you are trainning to BECOME a competitior. So that we may get to know a little bit about our future competitors.

[dance2sk8]

I am 31 years old, have been training for 3 months now and have landed all jumps...now working on the refinements...not sure if by end of year if I will be competing Bronze or Silver level...we shall see if I continue to progress as I have. Never had lessons as a child...I've done some ballet as an adult..and am continuing to do so to help with artistry and working towards more flexibility. Testing will be starting for me soon...already started working on Juvenile moves...I can easily do Power Pulls...Back Cross Over Extensions and 3 Turns, both ways. Working on the 5 Step Mohawk sequence currently. Spiral sequences and back catches are my favorites....I can do a Y Spiral (going forward)...hoping to work on holding it longer. 8-)

I keep surprising myself every time I get on the ice.

Skating schedule: on the ice 4-5 days a week - 1 - 2hrs a day, Saturdays, 3hrs.

Ballet/Jazz - 2hrs a week (Tuesdays)

Starting weight training and cardio during the summer (since I will be waterskiing as well...die hard) :D

Look forward to competition and meeting some of you!

[Mrs Redboots]

Started competing in 1998; not sure how much longer I'll go on, but probably another couple of years. We shall see.

[rlichtefeld]

Started taking lessons in 1997 at 37 yrs old, and competing in 2000.

Will compete as long as the money and the knees hold out.

Rob

[flo]

Ha!
Started skating at 30 ish. and started competing a year later. Will compete as long as I enjoy it!

[doubletoe]

My first competition was in 2003, in Adult Bronze. I was 38.

[alliegator66]

I started skating in 1998 at age 23 and first competed in 2000. I "retired" in 2005 at 30. I reached the levels of Silver Freestyle, ISI 5, and did a few competitions in pairs at the Silver level (hi, Rob!).
Then, not being totally satisfied with that, I started skating again a month ago at 33 and will compete again for the first time in September of this year at 34.
I came back to skating because I love the sport and didn't reach all my goals the first time around, and only quit because "life got in the way". I don't know how long I'll continue, maybe only a year or two, but I'd like to go to Mountain Cup once again and become a respectable silver skater, where I was kind of mucking around the bottom before.

[Rusty Blades]

I started skating in January 2006 at the age of 56 and did my first (Adult) Nationals in March 2007, got a Bronze in Free at the following Nationals (2008), age 58. I am taking this year off competition and start back this summer for National in 2010. I too will keep going until the knees give out or they take the blades off my walker! 8O

[jazzpants]

I started at age 33 in 2001 at Skate SF. Did it for humor and experience. First AS was 2006 (as a Pre-Bronze FS lady) and first AN was 2008 (as a Bronze lady, of course.) This will be my second year doing AN!

THEN I'm taking a competition hiatus for a while to get my Silver (and maybe Gold) Moves out of the way. Just want a break from competing and work on looking like I know how to skate. :twisted:

[Skate@Delaware]

I'm 47 and have been skating competitively for the past several years. I had two years of set-backs due to an injury (not skating related) and this weekend I skate Artistic 2 at ISI Districts (last competition of the year for me).

I don't know what I will do next season, as I will begin nursing school (clinical portion). Probably test, not compete. Not until school is over!

[Isk8NYC]

I was talking to a collegiate skater last night about my skating career. I was practicing Pre-Prel MITF last night and she commented that I "must be getting ready for a test." I explained that I promised the twins that I'd take Preliminary MITF with them, which is several months off since they just passed Pre-Prelim MITF. I want to blow their scores away when we all test together, lol. Can't have the whippersnappers showing me up!

I also mentioned that I'm in my second round of being an "older skater."

I started taking lessons at 17, and competing at 18. I skated ISI instead of USFSA because there were no real competitive options in USFSA for adults at the time.

As I passed ISI tests, I competed on the East Coast and at ISI Nationals, then started working on ISI FS 6. The show-stopper for me was the double Salchow - my single was weak, so a double was a joke, lol. I could do a double loop, but not a double Salchow.

At the time, I was 26 and that was "old." Like many ISI skaters, I had hit a wall (double Salchow) that would take time to break through. I was stuck at the ISI FS 5 level. (Appx. Adult Silver / Std Juvenile)

Graduate School, family, and work got in the way, not to mention the distinct lack of convenient sessions. I had an axel and double loop for about five years after I stopped, but they went south too.

Now I'm pushing 50 and I'm "old" again. I can still spin and my footwork still sucks (except spirals. ;) ) The jumps are a sticking point though - I'm fighting to get them back. I'm hoping to land my singles before May, when one of my supporters graduates from college and leaves our rink. I look at it as a graduation gift to her because she's been so encouraging.

I don't think I would go back to competing though. Even after watching Adult Easterns, I feel like I've been there, done that. Maybe if I were at the level I had reached before I stopped skating, I might rethink that decision. For now, I'm satisfied with just being able to practice and plan to finally take the USFSA tests that I skipped as a young oldster, lol.

[PinkLaces]

I just started skating again this past September after a 22 year hiatus. My DD skates and their are 3 competitions a year that have adult skaters that she skates in. I'm thinking about entering one in the fall.

[niupartyangel]

I took lessons as a teenager and got up to ISI FS1, before quitting because I was going away to school and there was no rink nearby there. I graduated, worked for about a year. When I was 25 I was having a rough time at work and all that, in the phase where I was questioning "what do i really wanna do?" kinda deal. Anyway, I decided to go back to skating to have something to look forward to in the weekends and keep my stress level in check. Anyway I'm still at it (and the job situation so much better :) ). I'm turning 28 this year and in ISI FS3 now (i took forever in FS2) and hoping to test pre-bronze Moves in the summer and maybe Freestyle at the end of this year or early next.

I haven't competed yet since I haven't passed any tests. I'm not sure if I want to compete, but I do like doing ice shows.I would like to pass more tests in the future though, to validate my skating progress.

My one goal is a layback spin--they are so pretty--and i hope to achieve that by the time i'm 30. I'm not a very good spinner so this will be an uphill battle..lol

[flikkitty11]

Started skating at around age 6 in 1998 but i was very on and off with my interest as a little kid. I started skate school competitions within 3 months of beginning.

Changed coaches at age 13/14 at have been doing so much better since then.

I am now competing intermediate and will take the novice test later in the year all going well.

not sure how long i can keep on skating though since i have to move out of home in 2011 to start MBBS.

flik

[Yui]

Hue been skating for a while. I am doing skate uk and a grade behind bronze. I think i might compete and gold.

[Mrs Redboots]

Hue been skating for a while. I am doing skate uk and a grade behind bronze. I think i might compete and gold.
I don't think that you are allowed to compete until you have your Gold Passport; then you can compete at Under Level 1. So if you want to compete, hurry up and get it!

Edited to clarify that it's Opens you can't compete at until you have Gold Passport; club competitions can set the level where they choose. For many, it's Skate UK Level 10, or, for a Hop, Step & Jump competition, no requirements at all. But to compete at an Open, against skaters from other rinks, you have to have your Gold Passport.

[Morgail]

1990...that makes me feel old...
Last competition I did was in '95. Haven't competed yet as an adult, but hope to soon!

[Yui]

I don't think that you are allowed to compete until you have your Gold Passport; then you can compete at Under Level 1. So if you want to compete, hurry up and get it!

Edited to clarify that it's Opens you can't compete at until you have Gold Passport; club competitions can set the level where they choose. For many, it's Skate UK Level 10, or, for a Hop, Step & Jump competition, no requirements at all. But to compete at an Open, against skaters from other rinks, you have to have your Gold Passport.

Thanks anyway im only thirteen so i have a lot of time. I might get gold by 15 ?