I live in SC and there were no ice rinks nearby when I was a child - I went ice skating once in Charlotte as a little kid and had a hard time keeping my ankles upright . . . but I always LOVED roller skating (quads) and then moved on to inlines while in college. An ice rink was built near my house about 6 years ago, but my kids were really small and although I kept meaning to check it out, never got there. It closed down, opened up under a new owner and we finally went skating one fateful night in August on a "school night" fundraiser deal. At this point the kids were 7 and I was 37.

When Christmas time rolled around the rink was running a special - if you enrolled in learn-to-skate classes for the January session, you got a pair of skates for free. So that was one of the things we gave each other for Christmas that year. I *thought* it would be an 8 week deal just so we would all get more comfortable on ice. HAH!! I quickly found out that the adult "learn-to-skate" class actually encompassed all levels - we were sorted out into "beginner" "intermediate" and "advanced." Because I had already been ice skating a few times before (and kind of used to the balance aspect) I was in the intermediate level. (My *dream* at the time was to be able to skate BACKWARDS). Anyway, the idea was that you could actually continue on indefinitely in the group adult lessons, so I just . . .kept on going. My "free" skates are now history and I moved on to Riedell Gold Medallions. And my current short term "dream" is to land a FLIP! (and skating backwards is just as easy as skating forward!).

An a bonus story about my figure skating DS . . . after we finished the first LTS session, DH asked if the kids were going to continue on too (I didn't think they would) and said it was only fair that we offer the option to them too. It totally floored me that one of them took us up on it!! And I was even MORE amazed when this same son decided he wanted FIGURE skates instead of the hockey skates he was in at the time. We put him off for a little while, thinking he would lose interest, but when he fell and loosened a tooth trying to learn 3-turns in hockey skates, we decided it was time to bite the bullet and get figure skates for him . He is currently in his 3rd pair of figure skates, and working on the axel. And amazingly has perservered despite being one of the few (now, the ONLY) freestyle boy skater.

I skated as a kid on a pond near my house in the winter, and occasionally at an indoor ice rink. Never took any lessons (parents did not want to be bothered with driving ), but always wanted to.

When I was in my early 20's, a friend and I decided to go skate at a public session one night to sort of shake up our exercise routine. We had a blast, so made it a weekly thing. Which then evolved into us deciding to take group lessons. We were the only adults in classes filled with little kids....it was a riot. We were having a blast and worked our way through the learn to skate basic stuff. I think she ended up stopping at about basic 5 but I kept on going until I ended up in freestyle classes. In 1995, I took a break when I began having my kids (break lasted 12 years!) and just recently went back when my two girls began the group lesson program where I had taken all my lessons. They offered up an adult class during the kids lesson times, so I went for it and fell in love all over again.

I'm sidelined right now as I wait for my new skates to come in (just could not squash my feet into the too small ones any longer...the pain was unbearable), but hope to be back out there in a few weeks. I can feel the adult skating addiction creeping back and hitting hard. I'm a goner.

I used to go ice skating occasionally as a child with a school friend. Then when I went to High School skating was offered as a school sport the first year. After that it wasn't offered any longer, but skating was in the news because Torvill and Dean had just won the Olympics and Worlds, and then were snapped up to tour. Very rare for skating to appear so much in the news in Australia. As a result of the T&D effect, another school friend and I decided to take some group skating lessons, which we did for almost two years. Then the rink closed down a week before one batch of group classes finished, never to re-open. There were no other rinks accessible by public transport, so that was that. I went skating once in a blue moon after that, when my father was available to drive me.

Fast forward to a few years ago, and to the other side of the world, and I saw an advertisement for the Hampton Court Palace open air rink. My husband expressed surprising enthusiasm for the idea (I'd taken him to a rink a couple of times before, but hire skates defeated him) and bought some cheap skates whilst on a business trip to the US. So we went to Hampton Court and managed to stay upright. I suggested he might want to take a couple of lessons as I was having trouble communicating the concept of a swizzle (lemon) to him. He found a nice instructor, who is good with nervous adults, at our nearest rink, and despite hitting his head on the first lesson, was basically hooked. I followed him into private lessons several months later, but as he can skate more often than I can (I work office hours) has long ago out-paced me. I'm still struggling to get back some of things I could do as a teen - I'd pretty much lost everything apart from the ability to skate forwards. But we also take dance lessons now, which I love, and it takes me back to being inspired by Torvill and Dean all those years ago!

Why I started skating...I moved to Colorado with the military a couple of years ago (Navy-I know, no water). My brother came out to visit shortly after my move. He is exactly almost to the hour 10 years younger than I am. We decided to go skate for fun. Keep in mind we both grew up in FL and had no skating experience.

He was skating like it was nothing and I could not get off the boards. I decided that when he came back, I was going to skate circles around him, so I bought a pair of skates. When I went to sign up for lessons, they told me the rink was closing. The skates sat in my closet for about a year.

Last January my then boyfriend suggested we take a skating class (he saw my skates--I had to explain). We took a Basic 1 class and in 10 weeks, I was a basic 4. 2 weeks later, I was a basic 6. It took me 2 months to get past basic 7 and 8. By then I was hooked. I competed that September at Adult 2, and took first out of 3. My brother came back out to visit around that time, and I was skating circles around him, but he is a real quick study!

I am going to continue to skate and compete. I am now a FS2 real close to FS3, and getting ready to test pre-bronze.

I have 6 brothers and sisters, and they all love to come out and skate with me. One of my brothers is even talking about enrolling his 4 year old in lessons and taking lessons himself. I think I am starting a trend...

Mine is an easy one Amanda. I not only became adited years ago, and had always wanted to learn to skate. Which I finally did last year through a Learn to Skate Program at Newington Ice Arena, (and a wonderful coach and former Pairs Skater turned Synchro. Skater) named Catlin. (I can't remember her last name,or spell it without looking at it). But with HER coaching I even made it away from the wall on my first day!!!!!! But I must say that you all ALSO gave me encouragement to skate as well,and have helped me a lot. I actually now even have my OWN 2 Pairs of skates!!!! As well as getting my own RINK PASSES soon TOO!!!!!! Along with there being an outdoor Rink here as well. I thank each and every one of you for helping me make it through, and even though I never actually past Level Adult 1. Again it was mostly everyone's encouragement here that helped me at least pass the first 2 parts. Falling and recovery,and Forward Strides and Gliding. So that's my story. I'm really PROUD of myself!!!!

__________________
FSWer