When I was a wee tall, my parents took me to skate a rink that's sort of far away. I remember part of the experience..I remember looking down at my feet and couldn't believe I was moving on a slim piece of medal against a slipper surface. I remember my parents holding onto my hands, then finally I would let go and try it by myself...thats all I remember from that. Im sure that I fell plenty o times. In those days, I only skated if I was lucky once a year. That is until my parents had the twins(currently 12 now..yikes) and didn't have time to take me anymore

The next time I went I was about fifteen during our summer vacation...yes summer We went to Ocean City, M.D and had a condo with the ice rink in the middle of it. (Funny we're going there in less then 3 weeks too...hooray Anyways, my whole family and I went skating at that rink where I thought going backwards consisted of shaking my butt side to side. At night they would do professional shows and that was the begining of my absolute love for skating.

About a year after that, the college about 20 minites from my house got this brand new ice center. My family and I went to public ice..only once. My mom had a horrific fall and injured her knee and is afraid to go back to the ice. Within that year I even had a birthday party in which my friends and I skated. Heh we were 17 and some of my friends were using the poles while my other friend who had some skating experience tried to teach me to spin. Nonetheless it didn't really work out.

A year later, I began going to school at that college and would have 2 hour breaks, so one day I decided to try my hand at skating again. Well little did I know that I would instantly get hooked. From there, I went skating everyother day during my breaks, made skater friends who taught me stuff, and later that year skated in my first show. Basicly if it wasn't for that college and my two hour breaks, I wouldn't be skating like I do now. I love it and I've grown so much from there. Who would have known that I'd be jumping, spinning, doing spirals, and competitng and actually medalling? I would have never expected that. Im proud of my history of skating and that I didn't start off six years old...but 19 and here I am 22 working on my axel!! To me it's amazing.

I have always loved to watch figure skating. My mom and I would always watch the Olympics together and she still calls me to tell me anytime she finds skating on TV. My daughter started skating four years ago and my son started the following year. I love to watch them skate and now I just signed up for my first learn to skate class. I start next Tuesday! I did rollerblade to all my classes when I was in college and have been to a few public sessions with my kids so I can stay up, but I am so excited to actually learn how to do things (stopping included)

Congratulations on taking the big step into the world of Adult Skating!!! And welcome to our version of obsession!

I always wanted to skate as a kid, and even clomped around the basement (OMG!) in my mom's old skates, doing spirals while holding onto the washing machine, pretending the concrete (!) was ice. I had pics of Dorothy Hamill up in the basement playroom from an Ice Capades program, and tried to paint a picture of her on the wall. Yes, I had the doll too.

I also had corrective shoes, which kept me not only out of skating, but out of most sports. I was regulated to being the smart "bookish child."

Fast-forward to 1997. My husband's best friend, and our best man, died in a car accident a month before we got married. Bill's death devastated the both of us, and affects us to this day.

What was wonderful about Bill was his zest for life attitude. There wasn't a dish he hadn't tasted, a dare he didn't attempt, a passion he didn't pursue. He may have been only 26, but he lived those years fully.

I decided to live by example. I wanted to try kick-boxing, and didn't like it. I ate sushi for the first time and loved it. My careful little world was expanding by the day.

I was watching figure skating on TV with my mother in law, and the skater happened to be Tonia Kwiatkowski, and the announcers were making a big deal about her being "so old." I remembered that long ago feeling of wanting to skate like Hamill, and I was inspired by how lovely Tonia was, even "at her age." My mother in law chose that very moment to ask what gifts were on my wish list for Christmas. Without a moment's hesitation, I answered "ice skates."

I got a pair of $50 CCM's from Target and started LTS soon after. It was a 6 week class, and I was frustrated that I could not master the simple move of backward swizzles. I made the decision that if I couldn't do it by time the class ended, at least I had tried and that was the goal anyway.

I got the swizzle in week 5. And that my friends, was the key moment in my life that had me hooked like a junkie, and has cost me thousands of dollars in ice time, lessons, skates, rhinestones, travel and entry fees.

What I have gotten out of it is an investment in friendships all over the US (and the world, for that matter), a sense of accomplishment at competing and testing, pride at annual checkups with my doctor ("whatever you're doing, keep it up"), and being able to travel for love of my sport. I've had wonderful opportunities to meet my idols and find out that they're people that share my passion, and in most cases, share a mutual respect for those who loves the sport like they do. I have been a member of 3 clubs, at which I can still name many friends.

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Champagne in 2005, 2008, 2009 - who's next out of the pre-bronze club...?

Wang chung!

Yup. I was entranced in 1976 by Dorothy Hamill (winter Olys) and Nadia (summer Olys). My dad was and still is a hockey skater, so I'd been skating a few times recreationally but never really tried it. Well, I couldn't do BOTH gymnastics and skating (was already skiing & doing ballet) so gymnastics won out for the next several years. Some 20 years later, I took some LTS classes. Fun, but had no idea where to go from there. I wasn't a beginner but SURELY I wasn't supposed to take private lessons?? Another 5 or 6 years later, when my daughter was no longer a teeny toddler, I found out about this forum and some others and that there were actually ADULTS taking private lessons!! Signed up for a LTS and then went on in private lessons. . . .

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"Go wash an elephant if you wanna do something big." -Baby Gramps

I left Australia on a one way ticket and $400 and tried to join Holiday on ice in Europe when I was 25, they kicked me out after a 30 sec audition and told me I was the worst skater they had ever seen.. They where right.....I went home 10 years later..
Im 48 now , skated Disney on ice for 6 years to 38 countries and 4 World tours and now Im an Adult skater... ( " I think "). I may still be just a kid that never grew up... Thats the short of it... Pretty boring "eh"

Mel--

This is just BEAUTIFUL... (but I'm mad at you.. you made my cry and I'm at work... so now everyone is asking why I'm crying.)

We skated about once every couple of years, usually when on holiday, but were total public skate people - I decided I didn't even enjoy it very much.

Then my daughter went into year 10 at school (equivalent of US 9th Grade), and came home that first week with a letter saying that she could, if she wished, do an ice-skating course for her PE option that term. She wanted to, so we agreed and paid the very modest fee. Sadly, not enough people wanted to do the course the following term, and it was cancelled, but she wanted to go on skating, so we started taking her every week or so, and skating ourselves. I'd also recently gone on-line and made "friends" with a woman who had taken up skating in the USA and was wildly excited about it. It was the year that the Worlds were in the UK (1995, I think), and this person came over to watch (she had family here, so it was a dual-purpose visit!). We met up, and skated together, and I was suddenly able to move a bit...

And a new set of learn-to-skate classes was about to start, and we signed up.... the rest is history! The daughter gave up when she went to university in a town that only had a Christmas rink, but we carry on.... older, greyer, poorer but much fitter!

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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!

No way, that's a FABULOUS story! I bet most of us would have just cried and gone to grad school after the first audition. (I know I would have!)

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You miss 100% of the shots you never take.--Wayne Gretzky

I became a figure skater at the age of 5 because my sister did skating when she was younger and my mom was putting me in all the same sports as her. Except my sister stuck with ballet and I stuck with figure skating. When my mom put me into figure skating she thought i wouldn't like it, but she just wanted me to try, but I loved it so much and now i'm proving that i have the potential to be one of the best or at least go pretty far inside canada.

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2014 and 2018 Olympics here I come!

Skating, skating all day long, skating, skating all night long! May seem tiring to some people but not me, it's my life!!

Goals: Triple Loop, Novice Competitive, Sr.Silver Dances, Gold Artistic, and top 3 at Sectionals