With all the new skaters on this board, I was curious to know if the recent televised olympics and nationals influenced your decision to learn how to skate.

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Keep Evolving. "From this moment forward, every voice that told you - You Can't - , has been silenced." - Freedom Writers

I've always wanted to give skating a try but never had the guts to ask my parents to let me take lessons, since I'd heard that it was very expensive. One day I was randomly thinking about it and I looked at a local rink's website and found out that there were signups for lessons starting the next day for what seemed to be.. a good price. I've played soccer since I was 6(so 9 years) and I didn't know what people would think of me wanting to ice skate, but I thought about it and I figured that I would definitely regret it if I didn't try it now while I still could.

Technicly Im not a 'new' skater, I skated from when I was 3 til I was 13 but then gave up. However, it was watching Dancing on Ice thats made me want to start again, I just need to find a new rink because my old one closed down

My husband is a senior ice dancer... and we found out about the Ice Dance Club at the rink here... so we went along, and I decided I needed lessons

The Olympics were just good timing

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-Erinna-
aka cassarilda

My Progress Report!
"Did I mention there is only ONE rink in Melbourne?!"
"If you're not flying, you're obviously not trying!!!" - courtsey of the guy who helped me up off the ice after my last spectacular and sore fall

I to am a returning skater, though after 36 years away, I am also a beginner - LOL!!

I always loved figure skating and was seriously involved in my teens, until life got in the way.

I had just simply "forgot" about skating until early January when I was channel surfing and happened to catch a nice Ladies performance. "Why am I not skating?" I asked myself. I didn't have an answer, so I bought skates and got back on the ice at age 56.

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

Mine was seeing Disney on Ice No kidding we (my daughter who had just turned 4 at the time) and I went and saw it. I already loved to skate and could skate well enough to get around, but my daughter wanted to start learning. She has taken to it like a duck to water, and well I'm still left in the sidelines trying to manage a 2 foot turn front to back!

I don't know how "new" a skater I am for the purposes of this poll, but today is a remarkable date for me - exactly 1 year ago, 6th March 2005, me, my husband and a friend, with nothing better to do in mind decided to check out our local ice rink.

The pre-story is that prior to that I've given some serious attention to my fitness, lost quite a bit of weight and was trying to avoid at all costs any sort of leisure activities that could tempt me back into my old habits. So I was looking for a fun outing that didn't involve much eating and drinking and preferrably was energy-consuming. That's how we ended up at the rink.

What none of us could suspect (and if they only did, my husband and his friend would probably try all they could to stop me from setting my foot at the rink!) is that a month later that innocent Sunday entertaiment would turn into a serious obsession that would consume all the weekends to come!

What nobody who knows me well could also imagine, is that this hobby would last for a year and so far wouldn't have any signs of fading off, unlike many of my previous interests. Now, when I've passed my first standard test and had my first silver medal at a closed competition, I'm even more determined to go on, than I was before. Not mentioning that I'm now working towards an assistant coach certification...

Which brings me to another topic - don't know about the Olympics, but the guys behind UK "Dancing on Ice" show have a lot to answer for. Yesterday about 60(!) (No kidding!) new skaters showed up for Skate UK absolute beginners class (4 times the usual).

Someone, start building new rinks, quick!!!! Great Britain is swept away by a skating bug!

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My other car is a Zamboni

I regularly run if the temp. is high enough. THis time, I thought, if skating isn`t too hard, I will skate at winter times.

And suprisingly, it was as easy as to jump in a boot. My first minutes were critical, but for the first ocassion, I didnt fell. And I could skate, not walk only. It was very encouraging for me. I love it! :-)

My 8 year old daughter has gotten VERY into skating. I'm tired of watcing her have all the fun. I want to get out there and try too!

I've always loved skating. However, I just used to go and skate for fun every couple of months. I was sitting with my cousins watching Ice Princess and then we decided we'd go skating the next day. I went skating and then again the day after, and then I eventually signed up for lessons. I got hooked and now I'm just loving it all.

I decided to go back to skating (I did Basic 1 and 2 when I was young, and then just did skating in circles at the mall rink for fun) because it's something I've always been interested in.

I was cleaning out the closet and found my skates, which still fit, and were barely used since i lived in Texas- so I got the blades sharpened and signed up for beginner classes. It's been 8 years since I've been on the ice, so I thought beginner was a good place to start.

I did watch the olympics and skating with celebreties but my interest in skating comes from WAY before that.