I'm sitting here, friday night, no plans at all, but my friend asked me why I started skating. the truth is, i had no idea, so i called my parents. I never remembered seeing anybody on TV and saying I wanted to do that. Well, according to my dad, when I was a kid, I was extremely hyper, waaay to much energy. So one weekend, my dad had enough and took me ice skating to see if it would make me tired enough to calm down.

it worked apparently. We went for the entire session, and apparently, i fell asleep in the car, and there was quiet in the house. The next week, the same thing, my dad took me skating, and then there was quiet. It's not like i was sitting around the house all day either, i was out until the sun went down every day playing tag or kickball or baseball. but i guess the logic was that if i did something i didn't know how, it would require more energy. and once i got decent at going foward, it didn't require as much energy, so i started bouncing off the walls again. so my dad taught me to skate fast, and attempted to teach me to stop. stopping didn't work too well, but skating fast sure did. and it all kinda worked itself up from there.

so how did all of you guys start skating? what "inspired" you?

I first went skating with my dad and sister when I was about 7. I hated it. All I did was cry. I never wanted to go back, EVER. But then when I was 9, the "cool girl" in school invited me to her party ... and it was an ice-skating party! Let me tell you, all of a sudden skating was my all-time favorite thing to do in the whole world. I couldn't possibly say I didn't like it, lest I be tortured in the school yard! So I went, and whaddya know ... I really did like it! I ended up taking lessons and advancing all the way through my 5th figure and Novice FS. This was 1979-85.

Fast forward to January 1994. Nine years away from skating, and 25 years old. I am literally sitting in my apartment doing nothing, and the idea pops into my head that I want to skate again in order to finish my figure and FS test. Why this idea popped into my head, I don't know! But I ended up calling my old coach from the '80s and telling him my plan, and he agreed to teach me. I actually started up again in February 1994, because a large earthquake in L.A. in January put my plans on hold for a few weeks.

Today, more than 10 years later, half of my goal has been accomplished: I finished the figure tests, but not the FS ones. I even went so far as to complete the MIF tests in anticipation for the day I might pass the FS tests, but the reality is I never will get those FS tests because this old body just doesn't want to jump anymore. But that's OK, I'm just grateful to have rediscovered skating and to have the means to continue to do it. Sometimes I can't believe I ever quit!

I went to a public skating session at my university and I was mesmerized by a figure skater doing the most beautiful camel spin ever. It had been my first time seeing figure skating live. I was changed forever by that. I also admired the beautiful leaping waltz jumps skaters did. The rest is history. But what I like most about skating now is the ability to express myself to music. I do find my lack of skating knowledge limits me though, but I hope to improve on my edges and skating skills.

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Where there's a will, there's a way.

I was always in love with winter sports as a child, but lived in the southwest and only saw real snow once. I had those strap on/clamp on street skates with steel wheels. Then, when I was 12, I was invited to several roller skating parties at local rinks. I started going to rinks to skate, and at one of them, there was a married couple who were teaching dance, and I fell in love with it. My parents really gave up a lot for me to skate, and it was my life from 12 to 18, when I left home for college in NYC. Roller skating was out of the question while I was in college, and I never even considered switching to ice back then, partly for lack of money and partly because my focus had changed. I remained active with skiing, squash, swimming, etc, until I had kids, when I pretty much turned into a couch potato. When my younger daughter asked for figure skating lessons at age 10, I started her, and after 4 or 5 years of sitting on the benches freezing my a** off and getting fatter by the minute, I decided to buy myself some skates and try to reverse the process.

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I wasn't inspired by a famous skater or anything like that. I went to the rink a few times when I was 15/16 but it was mainly because the 'cool boys' went there. I had no desire to learn to skate properly. Skating wasn't particularly the thing to do where I was although I did enjoy watching skaters on the TV.

I actually started because my ex-git was a semi-pro ice hockey player and rollerblade instructor ..... if you can't beat 'em join 'em! I started off playing hockey but didn't enjoy it. My dance background wasn't satisfied with charging around the ice after a puck so I started group lessons in figure skating on a small but lovely outdoor rink. The rest, as they say, is history

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The best whisper is a click

I hope this is interesting.

I'm interested in physical activities like martial arts, dance, ballet, figure skating, etc. that put an emphasis on the human form. I also like snowboarding, skateboarding, and other extreme sports. I already snowboard and I'm also taking kung fu lessons.

I've been skating since I was eight, but that was hockey, though I did learn on figure skates (at that time I didn't know the difference because I was eight). Recently, though, I've begun going to the ice rink every day. I try to excercise, and it's the only kind of aerobic activity I really enjoy. It also is a good stress releiver. In the begining, I just used my hockey skates, because I owned hockey skates. Then I started renting figure skates, and I liked it.

Basically now I'm going to take lessons every monday and wednesday (well a class really), and then wear hockey skates every other day. I really like both, and hope they have stick and puck sessions.

The classic story...I've always been an "armchair" skating fan and got the bug 2 years ago, after a friend took me to Stars on Ice as a birthday (29th) present--my first time to see skating in person. I don't remember ever thinking about skating lessons before that, but I started lessons about 2 weeks after. When I think back on it I'm surprised it didn't occur to me sooner, considering I always enjoyed staggering around mall rinks in horrible plastic rental skates. When the student is ready, the teacher will appear, I suppose.

These stories are great!

I started when I was 6. My parents put me in Canskate lessons just so that I would learn how to skate--so I could go skating with the class at school and not have to hold on to the boards, basically. They also wanted me to have a winter activity, and since I HATED swimming (even though they made me finish that, too), skating killed two birds with one stone.

I didn't love it, by any means. I can remember sitting in the stands while my parents laced up my skates and dreading getting on the ice. I think it had more to do with my extreme shyness than the skating itself, and they were just trying to get me through my chicken-shit stage. I can remember being at my grandparents' farm when I was 7 and watching Liz Manley skate at the 88 Olympics. It never crossed my mind that doing all those jumps and spins would ever be something I could do. I wasn't one of those kids who was mesmerized by skating and thought, "I want to do that!."

So for the next 5 years I stuck with Canskate lessons. I really had no desire to do fancy jumps and spins; I just liked the basics. I didn't get obsessed with skating until I started synchro when I was 11. I have been doing synchro now for the last 13 years, right up to senior competitive, and have been to numerous National Championships. I have two National medals to show for it, as well.

In May 2002, I decided to take a huge leap backwards and do my dance and skills tests! Throughout my synchro career, my coaches had just always taught us steps as we needed to do them. If she wanted choctaws in a block, she would just teach us how to do them. Synchro has progressed to such a high level that now teams require specific tests, but it wasn't that way when I started. So I called up a coach on the recommendation of a friend, and started to learn my dutch waltz after skating for 16 years and competing at a National level for 7. And now I'm happy to say that I have my gold dances and and working on my gold skills! The drain on my bank account hurts something awful, but the sense of accomplishment is awesome!

Sorry that was so long!

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~No thinking, breathing, or hesitation!~

I used to love watching the skating on TV when I was a kid. We only had an old Black & white TV (in fact my parents did not get a colour telly til 1986!) but I would be glued to any skating that was on (usually only the winter Olympics in Britain). I was always intrigued by the skaters ability to turn from forwards to backwards or vice versa without any sort of stopping - I could not for the life of me figure out how that could be done!

At 14 I went on a group trip to an ice rink (the closest one- 2 hours distant) It was a disco session and it was scary but fun and I didn't fall over. However there was no possibility of taking any lessons or anything as my parents had neither money for lessons, nor time to travel such a distance.

20 years later - I visited a friend who lived near an ice rink and we took our kids skating which I really enjoyed - though those rental skates were a killer on the feet. However I was living abroad so still no possibility of really skating and when we moved back to the UK we lived in the far West of Wales so still no ice rink- I took up horse riding instead.

In 1998 we were looking for a house close to where my husband now had a job and I was thrilled to discover an ice rink close by. Each time we came up to look at houses I contrived to take the kids skating and loved it. When we finally moved to within 15 mins of the rink I was thrilled and determined to take lessons as soon as I could, so at the age of 36 I had my first lesson - with the intention of learning how to go backwards, to do those turns I'd always admired and how to stop. 5 years later I am hopelessly addicted, have tested and competed and even learned how to jump.

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'skating is not just a sport - it is an obsession'

I'd skated a couple of times in my early twenties and even once or twice in my thirties, but we didn't start to learn until after our daughter did a course with her school, and then I got into e-mail contact with a Californian skater who was totally hooked. She came over to watch the World Championships, which were in Birmingham that year, and I met her..... and eventually bought my own skates and signed up for learn-to-skate classes.... and the rest is history.

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

I had my first trip to Richmond Ice Rink at the age of 8 when the Ladies Circle club my mother belonged to hired out the little rink at the end. They did this a handful of times and although I was absolutely terrible on skates, I always had this dream that I could skate. I remember on oneof the trips arriving there early and seeing all the girls in white boots taking lessons and wishing to be able to skate like them. I even wrote to Jim'll Fix It (UK dreams come true type kids programme) asking to skate with Robin Cousins but Jim never fixed it so my dream remained just that - an impossible dream that was never going to happen.

Skating was something I never thought much of after that. Then when I got married we happened to buy a house three minutes away from the the rink I skate at now, which was very new in those days. Again though I didn't think about skating and in fact I was knocked down in my early 20s with ME or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I guess this was the push I needed because after being ill for so long, I started to feel better and when my husband visited the rink to enquire about the gym, I decided I deserved to do something for me and looked into learning to skate. It just so happened a new set of LTS classes was starting the following week. I started those and continued right through the set of classes before taking private lessons with my coach. Of course I've never looked back, and I often wonder if I'd never been ill, I'd have probably never rewarded myself with that first course of classes and wouldn't be here on this forum now!!

Nicki

This is a great thread! I am enjoying reading the responses!

I am 37, started skating last year, and am in adult level 4 of USFSA learn to skate. I plan to start private lessons soon. I would like to test for pre-bronze and try adult competition if I could get there. It seems like it would be fun!

Anyway, I roller skated as a kid and loved it. I had only been on ice skates a few times though. Then around age 14-15 or so I stopped roller skating. I tended to always say though that I would like to do some roller skating again or try ice skating. I then took up distance running as an adult, which got cut short by a hip injury that kept nagging me even after a successful scope surgery for torn cartilage. In the meantime, there were certain things that I would look at and say to myself "wow, I wish I had tried that before I was injured." Those were ice skating and Irish dance.

Now fast forward to a couple of years ago. I decided that I wanted to get active again despite any lingering hip issues. Being worried about the pounding and other injuries that could happen from running, I thought I would try dance and my physical therapist suggested ballet. I looked at an annual local newspaper sports supplement that advertised lessons and noted several adult ballet classes and also saw an ad for learn to skate. I sighed and thought "skating would be fun to try, but I had better focus on dance." Well, I then ended up seeing an ad for Irish dance. I signed up thinking that maybe my hip could not take it. But guess what? My whole remaining hip issue was a muscle imbalance that PT excerises couldn't totally address. But Irish dance requires equal work on both legs and amazingly got the whole imbalance worked out quite quickly. Suddenly I was pretty much cured and had found an activity that I totally love!

Now flash forward to last year. Looking at that same newpaper supplement, they again had an ad for learn to skate. I figured why not? I always wanted to learn Irish dance and found I loved it, so why not try skating? I signed up, and yep! I love it! So here I am!

I have found that Irish dance and skating help with the other too. Both help with body awareness. Then, balance between Irish dance and skating is similar, yet different in ways and compliment each other I think. They also each work different muscles at times, which I have found is very good. I also found that because Irish dance doesn't use arms or head movement much, that I sometime struggle with those in skating, so skating is great for upper body awareness for me too.

Mostly I am happy that as an adult I am finally trying the things that I wished I had done younger in life. It is very rejuvinating!

My youngest daughter wanted to skate for a long time, but the closest rink was ~45 minutes away. Being the horrible parents that we are, we wouldn't let her start.

About six years ago, a sign went up announcing that the old 7-UP bottling plant would become an ice rink. As it was only ~20 minutes away, we told our daughter that she could take lessons, since it wouldn't take the whole day to take her anymore. It took over two years for that rink to open, and she was one of the first kids to enroll in skate school. (They still call us their first customers)

As I sat and watched her, I thought to myself, "If she can do that, so can I." I enrolled in the next session of LTS. Three years later, she doesn't skate, and I still do.

I origionally only wanted to do laps to lose weight and get some exercise. About a year in, it became boring, and I changed my focus to freestyle. I haven't looked back.

And, I have achieved one of my goals--I've lost 30 pounds so far!

Well I have a totally different angle on what started me skating!!

Firstly I did like watching skating on TV and loved the Duchesnays and T&D and various others. But that did not inspire me.

What did inspire me was on the back of our supermarket dockets they have special offers from local businesses. The rink here had two for one offers on the dockets which prompted me to think when I was on holidays from work 11 years ago to go skating. I never used the offer but just went on my own. However I got hooked instantly and after two session in hire skates luckily found a pair of second hand figure skates in my local trading post (considering Australia is not known as a skating country) and started group lessons. Then it wasn't long before I took private lessons and a year or so after that started ice dancing lessons. And I have been doing it ever since and have never lost the interest in it.

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Check out Cool Cat Skating Products - Australian Owned and Produced Skating Stuff.
www.geocities.com/aussiecoolcat/index

Christmas 2003 I was watching Flashdance and I saw the bit with the figure skater, and thought it was cool. I'd been previously and loved it but never thought to get lessons or anything. For some strange reason I became determined to get lessons as soon as I could, but my mum refused to let me, as I'd given up so many hobbies over my short lifetime, karate, judo, brownies, guides etc. The day before I went, I got permission from my mum and it's the best thing I've ever taken up. My mum wishes she never said yes because it's all I ever talk about and I think she gets slightly wound up by it.

My daddy took me! He used to play hockey and liked to skate around in circles during open skates, so I went with him and signed up for learn to skate when I was 7 or 8.

I moved to NJ after college and didn't know anyone here. Seeing as I had done gymnastics for 13 years, I went to the local academy to see if I could attend open workouts. They told me I was TOO OLD (at 23) and that they didn't have any coaching positions open. Great, so I found a new skating rink nearby, told the gym people I'd be spending my money over there and got my first pair of cheap-o skates (plastic bottom, learned axel in them) and my first coach, a college student. I loved it so much, especially the fact that I could go around in the air a couple of times and NOT have to be UPSIDE DOWN, that I dropped gymnastics and stuck with skating. I have some of the most amazing friends from skating now as well, such an extra bonus in addition to having found a "passion" that I'm not too old for.

Skate on!
Debbie

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Careygram

January: Sure I'll compete, quick, send the application
April: I signed up to do WHAT??

I love hearing all these stories!

When I was almost 15 (I'm now 45!), they built an ice rink a block from my house! My mom signed me up for lessons - she thought it would be a nice active little hobby since I was such a bookworm. I was hooked! I kept skating at college - of course I picked a college with an ice rink! After my sophomore year of college, I didn't know what to do with my life. I tried out for Ice Capades (didn't make it) and met a guy who wanted to skate pairs. I quit school, moved to another town and skated pairs for a couple of years (my parents were NOT thrilled). I've been skating on and off since. I've never had enough guts to compete singles (except for one adult competition), but I did pairs (standard and adult) and dance (20-somethings against the kids!). I'm now trying to get back on the ice - why did I ever quit? I'd love to compete again someday, but things are coming back very slowly - especially after breaking my wrist on that darn mohawk....

Why did I start skating?

......

That's where all the ladies are, of course!

I'd skated as a child - poorly - I could do inside and outside ankles! And, my legs used to hurt badly after just 2 or 3 times around the rink. So I never really liked it but always enjoyed watching figure skating on T.V. I think that started with Toller Cranston and John Curry. Anyhow, about 6 years ago a friend mentioned she'd been skating with a young child she knew, and we talked about it and decided we'd go together. I was very lucky that my old skates from childhood still fit, because I don't know any rink around here that does rentals. We went, my legs still hurt, and my thoughts were "What do you think you are doing?" But, I enjoyed it, even when I could still only do 2 or 3 laps. My legs ached for the rest of the day - my friend never went again, but I went back 2 days later, and after 4 months, I realized I didn't have to stop and rest anymore unless I wanted to. I wish I'd measured my legs before I started, because I know they changed drastically. After 6 months a hockey player showed me how to spin and one foot stops, so I decided to take some lessons. I'm lucky that some coaches come out to our adult skating sessions so I can get extra help, and that we're allowed to figure skate on adult (but public) ice. The difficulty is finding jobs that let you take 1 1/2 hours at lunch time to skate!

I wanted to learn to skate....I got hooked. Been doing it since I was about 5. Now...I'M ALMOST 14!!! I hope I do this for a while. I like it!!!

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I worship Mr. Canadian Idol....(Kalan Porter)
I also passed my Dutch Waltz and Canasta Dance Tests!!!

My parents took me to an ice show when I was around 5 ......then to the neighborhood rink (outside) to try out my new hardware store skates. I was hooked, even though I crashed the moment I stepped onto the ice. I wanted to be just like Carol Heiss (then Peggy Fleming, then Janet Lynn). Unfortunately, all I ever got to do was seasonal pond skating. I was 16 before my parents gave in and let me take a LTS class. 1 or 2 sessions with a friend and my aunt. In my mid-20's I was back in LTS. I skated for 2 years (passing pre-bronze dance & preliminary fs) until a hip injury forced me to quit. I didn't get back on the ice until I was 45. It's been a rough road with a back injury that has not allowed me to compete for the last 2 1/2 years..........but successful in many ways too (I medaled at AN in Bronze III, have passed thru my Silver FS test, and competed a few weeks ago at Buckeye..........pathetically, but I was out there). Once skating is in your blood it's there to stay.

I love everyone's posts! It is so interesting and nice to see how people got involved with skating.

I started skating when I was 4 years old in my backyard on double runner blades. There is a really cute picture of me in a snowsuit and hat and mittens. I had just fallen down on the ice. I started taking lessons when I was 6. I immediately fell in love with skating. My parents were on the PTA and they would regularly go and flood the local outdoor rink at my elementary school. I would skate after school for 2 hours outdoors, while my mother watched me in the car. We would then drive up to the university ice rink with my brother and sister and go for our lessons.

When I took lessons I did the USFSA program's 12 badge program. Badge 4 had the spiral on it. The judging system where I skated, reminded me very much of the standard track judging system. There was a panel of 3 judges who would determine if you passed or not. Badge 4 was a challenge because I had to do a straight line spiral, but I had really bad skates. I passed after several attempts and the skating director told me I needed new skates.

I skated on drill teams and learned jumps through the inside axel. I was learning the axel when skating became to expensive. I stopped skating when I was 13. I started teaching in grad school and started taking lessons from the first nice coach I had ever had. I moved to the Washington metro area after grad school and hated the area. I decided that I needed to find an ice rink. I stared skating again at 26 and started testing both the adult track and the standard track. The axel still comes and goes as it sees fit, but I've made it through my intermediate moves. Happy Skating!

I first got interested in skating around my 10th birthday, when I saw Torvill & Dean on TV (making their 94 comeback in either the British or the Europeans - probably Euros). I remember seeing their FD and just being totally mesmerised. I watched them in the Olympics, and fell in love with their new FD (and announced to my parents that I wish I'd been a judge because I would have given them 6.0/6.0). That performance remains one of my sentimental favourites to this day. My parents took me and my older sister to their Face The Music ice show that followed the competitive season. I didn't carry on watching skating after that, because they retired. I remember reading that they'd started skating aged 9-10, and being very excited because I was the same age and I wanted to be like them. The nearest rink was about an hour's drive away though, so I couldn't go, even though I still kind of had the dream. I went about 5 times between the ages of 10 and 16, e.g. on birthday trips/trips with friends, but obviously because of the distance I couldn't go regularly. I actually found skating quite scary the first few times I went, although I still wanted to go.
When I was 16, I was talking to a friend about our ambitions. I mentioned that one of mine was to skate in a T&D show. I don't know why but just saying that got me thinking - are they still skating professionally? Is there a chance of this to happen? I got on the internet and did my homework, found out where the nearest rink was, whether they did lessons I could get to, and even found out what T&D were doing (they'd retired from performing). About 5-6 months later, when I was 17, I finally managed to start learn-to-skate classes (getting up at 6.30am on Saturdays!!) I remember having really bad butterflies before my first one, and also falling when we were learning a dip and trying not to cry. I kept at it though, learned to go backwards in my second class (another exciting link to T&D, because I remembered reading that Jayne also learnt to go backwards in her second class), and kept doing those classes for about 2 years. I started ot have some private lessons after about 6 months. For the first 2-3 years, I only skated once a week. When I started university, I made sure I chose one near to a good ice rink And I'm still going. I'll always be thankful to my mum who drove me every Saturday - getting up early, giving up her mornings, driving me an hour each way, sitting in the canteen catching up on some of her paperwork/marking (she's a teacher) while I was on the ice, even paying for me. She did it because she knew it was my dream and because I wanted it so much, and I'm so grateful to her.
I also started to watch skating again at about the same time, in 2001. Of course, I didn't know who any of the skaters were, but I remember enjoying Irina Slutskaya especially, with her Don Quioxte LP. Since then, I got on the net and started to get to know everything - who the skaters are, competition results (I didn't even know who won the 98 Olympics), skating moves and terminology etc. And still here.

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"It’s never too late to skate at any age." - Alexei Mishin.

I agree, it is so interesting reading everyone's reasons for starting skating!

My mom was a figure skater and my dad was a hockey player. I started hockey and continued for about one month. I absolutly hated it, but I still wanted to skate, so my mom took me to the rink for figure skating lessons. After that I got TOTALLY hooked!! Almost 15 years old, taking my Sr. Silver Freeskate in March.. very excited!!! I never want to quit!