This is something I've been thinking about... although maybe I am the only one who thinks this way.

When I first started taking skating lessons, I'd barely ever been on the ice before. I took group lessons, with a 6 week commitment and didn't want to buy skates right away because I wasn't sure I'd stick with it. While I was working on things like 1 foot glides and swizzles, I really didn't think of myself as "a skater" per se. Just as someone taking skating lessons.

Although I still don't feel I am quite worthy to be counted among skaters who have passed tests, I do pretty much consider myself a skater now. I think that change started to occur in my mind when I finally was able to do forward crossovers. (they took me longer to learn than I would want to admit...) And since then, other milestones have intensified the feeling that I can call myself a skater: going to the Hackensack camp, taking 6:30am lessons, getting some halfway decent forward power crossovers (makes me feel like I am actually able to do something with flow and ice coverage) I'm sure that when I pass pre-bronze moves that will also be a big step for me. (not sure when that might be... lol)

Just curious if anyone else has gone through a similar thought process...

I don't know how much I would count it. But as a after taking a "Learn to Skate" Program, I guess you could say that I consider myself a Skater. LOL.

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FSWer

I started to count myself as a skater after I landed my first single jump, the flip.

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What? You didn't do the waltz, toe loop, salchow, or loop before that?!?!?! Strange...

Let's see... when did I consider myself a skater? When I got my own skating boots and my group lesson coach at the time suggested that I have a LOT of talent and I need to start finding a private coach to enhance that talent. It was further confirmed when I finally started private lessons with primary coach (not said group coach) and was testing Pre-Bronze FS a few months later.

It also helped when a fellow adult FS skater saw me at skating school and said with a puzzled face "What the heck are you still doing in skating school? You got a private coach already and you're already good enough to be on FS for heaven's sake!!! "

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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!!!

waltz is a half jump so I don't count that. And yeah, my first single jump was the flip. Then salchow, then lutz, then loop, then toeloop.

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I have considered myself 'a skater' since I first stepped on the ice at the age of 17. It just felt right from that first moment.

During the 25+ years off the ice, in my heart I still considered myself 'a skater' - just a no-longer-active one.

Three years ago when I stepped back onto the ice for the first time in over a quarter of a century, the ice just seemed to say "welcome home"

Yup, I am still 'a skater' and will be till the day I die!

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If you keep your eyes on God, you can walk on water.

I don't think I do... I think maybe when I land a double I will.


Is always very weird for me when people go like, but you're all sporty! I don't think of myself that way at all

I can relate to this.

I don't know whether I consider myself a skater, or when/whether I ever will.

But the commonsense side of me says : You think about skating all the time, all of your disposable income goes on skating, most of your best friends are skaters, you are sitting on Skatingforums on a Sunday afternoon....go figure...

S xxx

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There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness"

I've been skating for 13 years and I first considered myself a skater after I continued with USFSA group lessons after the first session ended. That lead to private lessons, competitions, test sessions, ice shows, synchronized skating, and eventually coaching.

Oddly enough on my blog the other day I said that I am almost at the stage where I can say that I skate! I always thought that I would consider myself a skater when I could do forward crossovers, but that day has come and gone and I still don't! I am not sure when it will come, I go three times a week, have a private coach and go on patch at 6am yet I still don't consider myself a skater. I tell people that I "go figure skating" or "do freestyle skating" but I have never said that "I am a skater" which really is a bit odd!

I felt I was a wanna-be, an aspiring skater until I stepped off the ice after my first National competition. I didn't skate well, I didn't set the world on fire and you wont be seeing me on TV, but after competing at (Canadian Adult) Nationals I don't care what anybody says, I AM A SKATER!

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

Occasionally one of my friends will introduce me to someone new as "a skater," and I always have to fight the urge to apologise and say something self-deprecatory.

The first time my coach referred to me as an "athlete" I nearly fell over. Because me? Old, fat, slow, me - an athlete? My coach actually took me seriously as a skater before I took myself seriously. And although I do indeed take it very seriously now, I still say, "I skate," as opposed to "I am a skater."

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3turn
The Great Skate Experiment

I started skating at age 4, so in my young mind, just slapping on a pair of skates made me an instant-skater!

I used to skate on the lake I live on and I didn't really think of myself as a skater till I was 5years old and started Canskate. I realized that skating is what I wanted to do, which is when I thought of myself a skater!

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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

I only recently began thinking of myself as a skater....

I consider myself a skater now because I am doing doubles and I feel that when I jump, I actually get air time! lol I know its weird, but before when I was only doing single jumps, I wasn't in the air for very long and didnt feel like I was "worthy" of calling myself a skater, but now I feel like I am actually a skater since I am doing jumps with more than one rotation! Just me though...

I started considering myself a skater when I finished all the basic skills levels and moved into freestyle classes/ privates.

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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)

When my coach promoted me - from having lessons on public sessions - to having lessons on patch ice / training ice.

When I first stepped on the ice at Learn to Skate,my coach couldn't beleive how well I did!!!!! She was even surprised I could SPIN!!!!

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FSWer

When I passed my preliminary figure test.

Interesting to read everyone's responses... I was afraid no one would answer and I'd feel stupid for posting LOL.

I guess I don't completely feel like a "skater"- more like a skater with an asterisk attached. As in "I'm a skater... but I'm really not at that good of a level yet" But I'm definitely not as apologetic about it as I was when I first started taking lessons.

I think I have considered myself a skater since skating became my passion in life.

Kevin

There was no specific event or condition which triggered me to think myself as a skater... However, after competing, I definitely became more comfortable being referred to as a skater!

To me, a skater is someone who has taken up skating with a passion - it doesn't matter if they are learning crossovers, or working on the triple Axel.

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Blog: http://chowskates.blogspot.com

Youtube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/chowskates
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When I was a teenager . . . when I joined the skating club and started skating on freestyle and then patch sessions instead of having lessons on public sessions.

When I came back to skating in my 30s as an adult skater and did some ice dance, I started to think of it as really doing ice dance when I got to the Swing Dance (i.e., not just skating forward any more), but really more the Willow Waltz felt like the first real dance. (Of course, I never did completely master the Ten-Fox before I gave up on ice dance for a while, so Willow Waltz is still the hardest one I've passed.)

In my mind I made the switch from "taking skating lessons" to "being a skater" the first time I competed. After seeing all the girls in dressing rooms, the nerves, the excitement and the sheer love of skating everyone seemed to have I really felt like I belonged there, and thus I was a figure skater.

Same here! I guess I've always thought of myself as a skater (I first skated when I was 3), even during the college years when I wasn't skating.

I do remember feeling like a "real" skater when I first competed, even though it was only ISI Freestyle 1!