I skated in the Winter Classic last year and while it was freezing cold, the ice felt great. Fast and somewhat springy. I loved it. Just had to remind myself not to push so hard because I'm used to skating on less-than-pristine ice!

Pat

Sounds like that was an anomaly, but good for them!

My official practice didn't ... only one minute of music was played as the music techs tested it. Official warmups are always only 20 minutes, so, depending on the program length of an event, you'd never get everyone's program in if you have more than four or five skaters in a group, and that wouldn't be fair. That's the rationale for no music on official warmup. I could see it happening in a men's group though, because those groups are typically smaller.

I skated at the winter classic last year and it was absolutely freezing and I had on 3 layers and hiking leggings. I took me almost an hour to warm up in the ladies locker room. The ice is very good but the one side of windows while pretty makes the rink seem smaller. I had trouble w/ turning around and being blinded by the view. The ice is springy and you should go out on the practice just to get your bearings.

Good luck

la

So, I'm just now gluing stones on my dress for Sectionals....and I read that I'm heading to a sub-arctic meat locker next weekend to compete.

The dress I'm working on has one ballet shoulder strap and one tank-mesh shoulder strap. I'm turning blue just thinking about skating in it.

I was really hoping that sectionals this year would be a little warmer than Syracuse ... oh well.

__________________
"Gravity is a harsh mistress." -- The Tick

I skate at Sky Rink 3x a week. The air temperature depends on the weather outside. Yesterday I was fine skating in a T shirt. A few weeks ago when it was freezing out, I had to defrost my toes with a hair dryer. Heating in the locker rooms has improved a lot this year. They are kept warm all the time. The ice is usually hard. I don't think it's brittle. The east rink ice is a bit harder than the west.

The exhibitions around 4pm should be fun. SCNY's Men N Sync, Adult Theatre on Ice from Boston, and Championship skaters will be performing. Wine and Cheese party for everyone after the competition on Saturday.

Hope to see you all there!

OK, now I'm smiling....I'm glad it's not a foregone conclusion that I'll freeze to death. I hope it's warm this weekend!

__________________
"Gravity is a harsh mistress." -- The Tick

I've competed at Winter Classic the past two years and both times the rink was absolutely frigid, so I'm happy to hear that they've made some improvements in the locker room at least. Last year, IIRC my group was the last to skate before the resurfacing, so the ice was like broken glass, but I've been training with these conditions in mind.

Note changes in schedule posted at www.thescny.org
Exhibitions Sat 5:30, party afterwards, and exhibitions Sun 1:45

Best of luck to all who are competing today & tomorrow - have the most enormous fun, whatever else happens!

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

Once again, thanks to the SCNY for putting on a nice adult event. The rink was much warmer this year and I so appreciated the practice ice on Sunday (even though I need to figure out a better way of warming up without practice ice). There was a manageable number of skaters on the session. It appeared to be a regular club session, except for the significant number of visiting adults.

The interps were fun to watch. I liked one skater's margarita costume. It was really funny when her coach (?) inserted a wedge of "lime" into the "rim" of her margarita glass before she went onto the ice. Very cute. One of these days I'll get my act together and do an interp.

Cheers,
Raine

Hi Raine,

I'm sorry I didn't get to meet you. My husband unexpectedly had to go out of town, so I had my 4 year old, and I couldn't socialize and see a lot of the events. I hope you had a good time!

That was a friend of mine! She did have a great costume, didn't she? I'm still waiting for her report!

Pat

Hi Raine--

I heard you skated this event very well -- and the judges thought so, too! Sooooo what did you do to warm up so you could skate that well?

Hi, Thin-Ice.

Having a 30-minute practice at Sky Rink only moments beforehand was absolutely crucial.

Bless Helen Chan who informed us of this practice session.

I drew second to last, which may have helped, too. I was surprised at the results, however, because I left out transitional moves and screwed up the footwork.

I still feel that I'm pretty stiff until I've skated at least 15-20 minutes, however, so I've got to work on that.

Cheers,
Raine