this guy came to our rink with a video camera and he was taping some of the kids. He said they were making a reality show , where kids from differnt levals of ice skating get to train with former olympians. He talked to me and a bunch of other skaters as well. In the end theres gonna be a benefit show for our rink. I have no idea if hes going to use our rink and if the skating director kicked him out, buttttt be sure to look out for it! :]

Wouldn't that be cool? (if it is really true...) I would want to train with Paul Wylie to improve outside spread eagles. If you were chosen who would you train with?

What official-ID did this guy have, as far as having been checked out by your Skating-director?

Without such, how can you know the children he taped will be safe? - or is this not an issue here ?

Well, for ANYONE's image to be shown on TV, you need to sign a release form to give your permission. For minors, the permission of course comes from the parent/guardian. So, if he didn't stick around and get signed permission from anyone he filmed (or their parents) then he's probably just some creep with a camera and I'd be very wary of that.

I agree, especially if it is one guy with a hand-held camera, even if it's one of those $3,000 ones. On the other hand, if it was some guy with a camera crew (camera guy and lighting guy), then I'm sure it is more likely to be from a show.

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

When I coached swimming, we had some creep with a camera taking chest shots of the high school girls as they pulled themselves up onto the deck. He wasn't a relative or friend, just some guy who walked in off the street.

The mgmt. called the police. The cops viewed the the pictures from his camera and deleted them before letting him leave. He just shrugged it off. I guess he figured he'd just try again somewhere else. Too bad they didn't think to check his home computer. Probably would have helped stop five other perverts.

As others have said, no rink management allows people to film without credentials and a pre-arrangement. He was probably taking T&A photos of the girls. Stay away from him and report him if he turns up again.

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Tell your rink management now. If the guy's legit, he will have had to clear it with them, and you and all the other kids will have to sign a legal waiver before he can use the footage.

If he's not legit, then this needs to be looked into. Cause his story: hey, little girl, let me take your picture so you can be a skating reality show with all your favorite stars sounds like it's begging for a followup hey, little girl, mind helping me with something in my car.

He's probably a jackass with a camera. He may be a harmless jackass, but still. This needs to be looked into by adults.

While it may have been something for fun, I agree, it is important to be cautious if a stranger is filming. During a competition once, I wanted to film some of my favorite skaters and also some of the adults to see how good I needed to be to compete at the USFS Level. (pre-bronze/bronze) I did ask their permission (or their parent's permission) before filming them.

yah the guy asked for permission from the parents, but the skating director got mad. So i really dont knwo whats happening but if it is true then yay! but it sounds kindof fishy

Um, that guy sounds like a pervert. He needs a permit to do that kind of stuff, and he needs EVERY single kid on that ice to sign a release form. The kids also needed to be warned ahead of time. Lots of legal stuff had to happen. And if they were taping a reality show, they would have said what channel, who the producer was, had a press release packet, had ID's, and had more than one guy with a little video camera. Even the Blair Witch Project wasn't *actually* shot with only a little haldheld camera.

Definitely a fake. I'd call the POLICE next time, screw rink management. What are they gonna do? He'll just move onto another rink if they kick him out.

ps: also....why would he be shooting your session if the show he is supposedly doing is about former olympics and kids of different levels? Clearly they've had casting calls..and they'll bring in the kids they picked, along with the "former olympians" (love how they don't give any names...). If they really were shooting a show, they wouldn't be coming in to just video tape some random skaters. And I cannot even believe the parents allowed that guy to tape their children- shows how showbiz-hungry most of these skating parents are, it's disgusting. A RESPONSIBLE adult, let alone parent, would have asked for a bussiness card, and then asked for 48 hours to call the guy's network or production company to get more background info on the guy and on their project, and THEN offered to call back if they were interested in being filmed. You don't just say "oh sure, film my kids!!" You do some research first. God, so irresponsible. People say love is blind- how about money, too?

..or some A&V geek who had the resources to rent/borrow the equipment for an hour in order to look legit when he isn't. Shows have auditions- even reality shows. You don't just show up and randomly start taping skaters without an advance notice.

yeah the skating director was like " YOU CANT JUST COME IN AND START FILMING THATS NOT RIGHT" he did have an id. but he only interveiwed like 2 kids. it was kinda weird.

Of course, we always have parents videotaping their kids-who's to say they aren't taping someone else's kid? We did have one older guy take pictures of the little girls at our rink, supposedly for the "rink web site" but the pictures never materialized...... Someone did have a talk with him and he never showed up with a camera again. But with the cell phones that have cameras in them, who knows?

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

Well, you have to draw the line between being protective and being overreactive. After all, if it's a skating parent that clearly belongs there and appears to be taping his/her child, then you can't go crazy. But if it's someone with no connection to the rink or the skaters that just walks in off the street, that's the time to lay down the law.

Yes, be careful of the cell phone camera thing. Apparently, there are hundreds of websites out there showcasing "upskirt" or "downblouse" pictures of unsuspecting girls or women that were taken with cell phone or other tiny cameras. Supposedly, cell phone cameras are also used to take pictures of people's credit cards, so be careful when you pull your credit card out when making purchases - you don't want to wave it in the air too much.

Generally, it's a good idea to be wary of any grown man with a video or still camera taking pictures of unrelated young girls or women.

I agree, Debbie. Although i have a camera phone, and it's a good one and everything, but I don't think it has the zoom or angle necessary for any kind of "unsuspected" invasions of privacy (not that I've tried, so I guess I don't know, haha). It just seems unlike to me....I mean, to take an "upskirt" shot, you'd have to be crawling on the ground or something....sure you can be pretending to use your phone and take a pic instead, but you'd still have to aim it at what you want to take a picture of...I don't get it. I think some of those sites might advertise as "unsuspected shots" but really they were planned. Some weirdos get off on that kind of stuff, after all.

For me, the creepiest part of all this is his story, as Crayonskater pointed out. Too easy a set up to entice someone into their car at a later date, with promises of being on TV.

The local news in my area did a story on this several months ago - there was a bill introduced in the state legislature this year to make taking such pics a crime, but the bill stalled and will need to be reintroduced next year. In this feature, they showed a scene captured on a department store security camera where a man pretended to drop something on the floor near where a woman was browsing through clothing racks and he just stuck out his hand (with cell phone) and snapped - she likely didn't even know he was there. Someone they interviewed for the story said she saw a man take a briefcase, walk up to where some women were talking, set down the briefcase next to them and hit a button - apparently, you can put a tiny camera in a briefcase - there was a hole on the top.

One woman involved in our state's bill is an acquaintance of mine. She was having dinner in a restaurant and some guy actually walked up to her and showed her pics he took of her with his cell phone - she had bent down for a second and the picture showed her "downbloused" to her belly button.

That is the most repulsive, infuriating, terrible thing I have heard of in a long time. SO disgusting. I can't believe some men think it's okay to treat girls and women like objects. It makes me so angry. People like that need some psychological help, pronto. But no, they probably just get fined or sent to prison. People are so messed up, and it's not getting any better. Times like these, I get really depressed about the future and how the world is evolving. Wasn't there ever a time people were nice to each other? Blah.

I heard of a story where this guy was a gymnastics coach, and he would tape his students during competitions or practices, saying he was going to watch them later to see what they missed, or did wrong. The parents didn't mind, because he was their coach. But what he did was tape just the crotch area of these 10 year old girls. They did catch him, but I don't remember what happened to him.

THERE IS ONE!
its called " skating with celebrities" thats gonna be aired on fox.
i bumped into a celebrity at the ice rink today practicing. He said that they would be taping next week i think. I wasnt sure who it was at the time but when i was in the car going home, he looked a lot like Gary Busey but with orange hair. He told me he was a celebrity, but no one popped into mind so i was like uh okay....
its gonna be 6 celebrities and 6 pro. skaters.
so if you tune in and see a middle aged guy with orange hair, thats who i bumped into today! hehe.

So I guess things are going ok with the Skating Director now???
They seemed pretty upset about it in the beginning...

i think the guy who came to our rink, was for a differnt show. i really dont know what happened to him. All i know is, there is some sort of skating tv show coming up.

There was a fun one-off ice dancing reality tv show, on BBC in the UK, over Christmas last year. It was a variation on the Strictly Come Dancing show, where celebrities team up with dance coaches, and compete against each other. Here's a link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/strictlycomedan...16/16103.shtml . Apparently, ITV are planning something similar for next winter season, but it will be a team show, with two teams of celebrities each led by one half of Olympic ice dancers Torvill and Dean. I'm really looking forward to that one, too!!

Edited to add: I found a link to a skatingforums thread on Strictly Ice Dancing - with some pics! What a riot it was - very unfair - the celebrities all had different skating backgrounds - one of the judges knew nothing about skating - but since when was skating ever fair .....?!!
http://www.skatingforums.com/showthr...ly+ice+dancing

I worked for FOX over the summer and that is the only skating reality TV show currently in the works that has been announced. I would still be careful if I were you.

That was a riot - one of the "celebrities" (not someone I'd ever heard of before) trained at our rink, and turned out to be a very charming young woman. She almost won, too, and would have done had the audience not disagreed with the judges..... Rats!

But some of it just had us in fits of laughter.....

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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!