Hi all!

I have to share a new experience of mine with people that may feel my enthusiasm:
A few days ago I went to skate to my normal session of my skating club. As I was warming up stroking, a guy passes by me. It took me a few seconds to realize that this guy was in fact Stephane Lambiel! Me and everyone else was skating with him as nothing non-ordinary happened. I was thrilled! Nobody else was thrilled though, so it seems that he does skate on our skating club sessions some times. That day it turned out that he was actually coaching a girl and after a while they splitted the rink in two and he and the girl had half of the rink for them selves.
Today, I went again to skate on an ordinary session and Stephane was again there! This time he was with his coach and he skated with us, practiced his routine and his program as one of us! It was amazing!!

Has anybody else had such an experience? Were you too so thrilled or is it just me??

I found DS standing still on ice a few years ago staring at this young fellow with huge jumps in the middle of the ice ... as DS was only 9, he was easily distracted. The skater was amazing; turned out to be Patrick Chan.

In my experience very few of the skaters at our rink (adult or children) seem to even follow the international competitive scene. During various world and european championships I have expected to get some figure skating chat out of rinks friends and most were oblivious to the fact the championships were even on!

My story of being on the ice with famous skaters was nearly being mowed down the Kerrs in full swing! It was my one and only experience of being on the same ice with elite skaters - there was me, one other adult and them on an early morning session. I looked up and they were literally in the opposite corner to me, i glanced down for what felt like a fraction of a second and when i looked the Kerrs at full speed had split up and sakted around me so as not to collide with me and i was frozen to the spot with rabbit in head lights fear. John skated back to make sure i was ok and to hope they hadn't scared me I saw them a few more times on early morning sessions and enjoyed nothing more than hanging on to the boards and watching them warm up with gorgeous crisp turns and edges up and down the rink at full speed!

Ant

Evan Lysacek skated at my rink when he was a novice and junior skater. His parents were still in the area after he moved out to CA and he would occasionally skate a session if he was in town. Those were never very productive sessions as I'd spend more time watching than I did on my own skating, but they were very cool. When he'd put his music on, everyone just moved to the boards just because it was cool to watch.

T. Totmianina and M. Marinin sometimes skated there, unfortunately it was usually on our Saturday sessions which were usually pretty crowded with younger/lower level kids. I don't know how, or if, they managed to get anything done, and honestly I was always scared that I'd get in their way on an overhead lift or a throw, or that one of the little rugrats would.

I skated in an exhibition at my practice rink with T. Totmianina and M. Marinin in August 2002!

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This space has been put on hiatus for retuning....

Mao Asada did visit and skate on our ice ... most of the kids weren't allowed on except for the high level skaters, as she was using it for practice ice, but, yeah, it was pretty amazing.

The Protopopovs train and coach in Lake Placid every summer. The first time I was on the ice with them I was amazed that such an occurance could happen! And of course I couldn't take my eyes off of them.

Three years later and I've taken several lessons with them, but more importantly they have become my friends. They are incredible supporters of adult skaters. They attend the Adult Skating shows and have a great time at the parties. They're one of the reasons Lake Placid is truly my skating heaven. : )

Pat

Without naming names, I have skated with several elite skaters before and have met quite a few in their/my travels. I recently missed out on skating with someone VERY elite b/c I had already skated for a couple of hours earlier and was resting my knees at the following FS session when he came on the session.

It did motivate me to skate faster the next time I went on the ice though. I've worked my butt off on those back crossovers yesterday and probably will today as well. LOL!!!

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Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

We had some elite-level ice-dancers at my rink in the Boston area in the '90s - they became our pros and I have to tell you that the level of EVERYONE on our dance sessions benefitted from having them on the ice - we skated faster, had better posture and presentation - I think your body just starts to imitate how they move. Other dancers would come to our sessions and remarked how everyone had really improved.

That was a great time.

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Is Portland the only city with it's own ice-dance website? http://www.pdxicedance.net/

I skated on the same ice with Johnny Weir once, and some other people (I don't know who they were, a dance team from Italy), among others. It was interesting seeing that quality of skating so close however, trying to keep from getting zamboni'd was nerve-wracking.

Last season, Shaun Rogers was one of my group coaches, and we had a lot of fun messing with him (4 adult ladies, one young man-how messed up could we be? LOTS!!!). The first night of class he asked us what we were working on (and we knew he was expecting to hear "swizzles" etc) so we told him we were working on our axels and some of us landed our double-toes, double-sals etc. and that Jean landed her triple-loop! His look was PRECIOUS!!

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

I'm from an area where there are or have been lots of "famous" skating people come and go.

Glyn Watts coaches at my main rink. (Glyn and his wife are two of the nicest people to have around at the rink.) Carol Heiss coaches at the other one I skate at. Tonya Kwiatkowski is from my area and now coaches at both of those rinks. Parker Pennington is from the area as well. Frank Singley was successful on the national level in ice dancing in the early 90s (3rd in jr dance) and now coaches pretty much everywhere in the area. Over the years, we've had Tim Goebel, Ryan Hunka, Jenni Meno and Todd Sand, Liz Punsalan and Jerrod Swallow, and all sorts of other people come and go. Last year when we hosted US Nationals and my rink was the practice rink (and all the skaters stayed in the Holiday Inn next door), there were a lot of skaters walking on to sessions in the days before official competition practice started, so I was on sessions with all sorts of people. About 10 yrs ago I was working a show and my job was pretty much to hang out w/Scott Davis and Rudy Galindo and make sure they had whatever they needed/wanted. Rudy was a blast.

I'm not one to be star struck, they're just normal people who share the same hobby/passion, although if Dorothy Hamill walked in the rink I'd probably FREAK OUT!!!! If I find myself on a session with some high level skaters, I do find myself watching a bit and admiring what they do, it's a good learning experience. Sometimes it really helps to see people do the things my coach keeps reminding me to do (i.e. staying down and riding the edge and leading with the knee on an axel take-off, various lutz take-offs, etc).

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2010-2011 goals:
Pass Junior MIF test
Don't break anything

My very first freestyle session happened to be when regionals was at a rink near ours, so our ice was over taken by high level skaters. None of them were big names yet (though some were "known", but compared to my skating they sure seemed like it, now, however, I see their names on quite a few of the lower international assignment, so it's kind of cool to know I shared the ice with them for a bit.

Otherwise, I skate a mall rink without much in the way of high level training, so I don't expect much chance to skate with the "stars".

But our few high level skaters I really appreciate. I skate so much faster and with much more confidence when there is a good skater on the ice.

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-Jessi
What I need is a montage...
Visit my skating journal or my Youtube videos (updated with 2 new videos Sept 26, 2009)

Yup, quite a few times. It takes me a while to realize who it is b/c the person is out of context unless I am used to seeing him/her at the rink. I've never really been thrilled b/c I'm just not much of a star-gazer. Sometimes I will watch their technique and try to duplicate it as a free lesson. In that sense, it is inspirational and instructional. It can make me skate better and more aggressively.

Back to the OP. So the famous skater took 1/2 the rink to work w his student? That would make me mad if I had paid for that session. Did you know that you only had 1/2 ice when you paid for the session? Famous or not, IMO, if I am paying to skate, I want to skate. Of course, I understand etiquette and would stay out of the student's way, but taking 1/2 the rink goes beyond that.

Kay

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Oh, "name dropping" - such FUN!

As a teen, there was Dorothy Hamill, Toller Cranston, and a few others that were well known or went on to future glory. All these people were before your time LOL!

The biggest thrill recently was taking private lessons from Elizabeth Manley last summer - just her and I alone on the ice.

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Dianne
(A.O.S.S.? Got it BAD! )

Well, a couple of weeks ago I skated with the one and only Mrs Redboots. I think that trumps everyone here

Sarah

Oh, yeah! Rudy IS a blast!!! My rink did a benefit show a while back where Rudy was one of the guest. We all had to wear false eyelashes as part of the show when Rudy overheard us women in the locker room and he yelled "Have any false eyelashes I can borrow?" The WHOLE WOMEN'S LOCKER ROOM ROARED!!!

Yup! You sure did!!!

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Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

At the original Sky Rink, I was once on the ice with John Curry, but I didn't know it until I got off the ice. I've shared ice at various rinks with various former skaters who were coaching, but was with my own students, so no gawking.

At the PSA Conference, I was on the ice with legends, but had to repress my fangirl tendencies, although I did get Brian Orser's autograph. (Gave him a ride to the hotel)

You win!

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Actually we did not know that we would have half of the ice. In our club we do not pay for each session this year, but we pay once for the whole season. So I was a bit upset that first time that they had half of the ice. The next time though he was just practicing with his coach. One reason I was so thrilled with skating with Lambiel is not so that he is a world champion and an amazing skater, but he seems such a wonderful and tender person. If anyone has seen him in interviews or some tv shows (french speaking) you would probably agree...

The Kerrs skated at our rink for a bit. They are so friendly and sweet! Unbelievably fast on the ice. One morning they came on about halfway through our mostly empty morning freestyle, and even though they were extremely polite, careful and aware of the 2 or 3 of us who were there, I ended up leaving early because I didn't want them to see my sorry-a$$ salchows.
My ice dance coach will be at Nebelhorn so crossing my fingers that he qualifies for the O's and GETS famous!!

Could be empty session unspoken courtesy. I've been on early morning ice with just me and one other person and if we're both just working on jumps/spins (or I bust out the figures) and not MIF patterns, dances, or sections of program, we stay to opposite ends of the ice just since we have so much room.

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2010-2011 goals:
Pass Junior MIF test
Don't break anything

Yes, that is true. I have had that exp also. Empty sessions are a different situation and a rare treat.

Kay

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Snorf!

Actually, we do have an Olympic-hopeful dance couple who train at our rink, and the Kerrs came once for a critique, so I've skated with them. Funny, that was - it was the year Husband and I had a Scottish dance free programme.... next thing I know, what was their programme that year?

And at one stage the then British champion John Hamer used to come in every so often, so I've skated with him, too.

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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 was at a practice session at Lake Placid this summer and stopped to watch an adult pair. The woman was pretty good but the man was really amazing. I thought, "Wow, she's lucky to have such a great partner!" and then realized she was taking a lesson--from John Zimmerman.

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

I was supposed to skate with Mrs Redboots again this morning but I suspect my constant pestering her for her autograph and for pictures to be taken with her last time has put her off. She obviously heard I was coming as there was no sign of her this morning, alas!

Sarah

I've skated w/ a few here & there. It's great fun to watch them though I find I don't get as much work done myself!

My coach was famous in his day, and it took me awhile to get over being a little star struck by him. But then as I got to know him better & just know him as a person I got over it. Mostly.