After watching Kristi Yamaguchi (who looks great, BTW) on Dancing With The Stars, I have to wonder: what would you do if you weren't committed to skating? Is there something you've always wanted to try but haven't had the guts, money, or opportunity to do because of skating?

Personally, I'd love to learn to surf. I don't live near a beach and I'm not really fond of sharks, but it looks like so much fun! Although for now, surfing is something that I definitely wouldn't want to risk my skating career for (injury-wise, that is).

I'd also like to learn to ballroom dance. I'm working on my gold dances in skating, so I think learning the regular, off-ice versions would be interesting and a totally new challenge. Plus, I think the glamour of the whole sport and seeing someone like Kristi do it so well on Dancing With The Stars makes me wonder if I, as a fellow skater, would be equally as talented with it...how well I could transfer my on-ice abilities to the dance floor...

Without sports of some sort, I get totally demotivated as far as everything is concerned, the place becomes a mess, I gain weight and eat cookies all day... So if I weren't skating, I'd say I'd get really into fighting sports of some kind.

Well, I have two routes to go...

If I choose the active route, I would take up dancing. However, I would consider more the "hip hop" or "modern jazz" or "show jazz" route than the ballroom dancing route... just b/c I'm married and I'm not sure DH would like me pairing up with another guy that isn't...ummm...himself!!! (And, God bless his soul for being a kind wonderful person, but DH just *doesn't* have the moves at ALL!!! Last time we've tried to do ballroom dancing at a company party, I wanted to follow what the instructor was doing, but HE wanted to "do his own dance." I was like and ...)

If I go the non-active role, I would go back and do my voice training, but get another voice coach from the one I dropped for skating (or do piano...)

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jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
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Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

Don't laugh.....fencing. (Yeah, with swords.) Always thought it was kind of cool.... Not flexible enough for gymnastics. (sigh)

Downhill skiing! I would do it now except that I have too far to travel and it's too expensive. I figure when I'm too old to skate, I might do cross country skiing.

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I'd say some sort of martial art like Karate, Tae Kwon Do or Kung Fu. Just like skating, you develop strength, coordination and flexibility, but you also develop some great skills at the same time!

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"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." - Dara Torres, 41, after her 2nd medal at the 2008 Olympics

I would love to take up tennis again. I played a lot as a kid and now only play about once a year. Just when I get my swing back, vacation is over and the racquet goes away for another year. With a job and two kids though, I only have time for one hobby, and skating wins out over everything. I hope to be doing this well into old age.

I'd still be doing gymnastics. I miss it terribly.

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Gymnastics! If not that then some kind of dance. I want to learn how to fly an airplane or helicopter too though... (but i don't have the money or guts to try the latter even if I didnt skate )

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Tidesong

RinkRat - I love your siggy.

Great thread!

If I wasn't a skater, I would probably take Tai Chi.

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I'd be riding again.

I actually took up skating six months ago after my horse died. I was a pretty serious dressage rider, and skating seemed like good cross-training. (It is, but I've found myself becoming addicted to skating for it's own sake!)

I'll definitely go back to riding when circumstances allow, but as committed as I am to dressage, I think it would be fun to try reining or working cow horse just for the heck of it!

1. Have a lot more spending money.

2. Use said money to travel the world.

I'd get back into theatre/take acting classes again - the exact reason I'm not is because money goes toward skating...I'd also go to one more fiction writing workshop per year (I already go to one in January).

If I win the lottery (if I play the lottery) my life will consist of skating, theatre, getting back to writing my novel, and working with dogs in some fashion that pays next to nothing but is very gratifying!

(For now, I keep toiling away at my desk)

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Revised Official 2010 Goals checklist
Skate __
New boots __
(lowering the bar for 2010 as I haven't skated in a year)

I would definitely be roller skating b/c that is what I did as a child.
I'd probably be more involved in running and total fitness. I need to start running again when the weather gets warmer.
I like kick boxing, so maybe karate or other martial arts.

Kay

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Comedy acting

But then I'm meant to be starting a drama course at Birmingham School of Acting in september so maybe that will be happening anyway

Oooh, so many things.

I did karate for two years (stopped about a year before I started skating) and used to take it very seriously, training about 4 hours a week. I even did my first competition - I would love to go back to it, but I can't afford to at the moment. I used to have bruises everywhere from fighting, but it was a great stress reliever!

Going back to ballet possibly - skating has filled the void that stopping ballet training left.

And horse riding! I used to ride when I was small, and my best friend started riding about six months ago. She rides at the stables next door (at Lee Valley) whilst I skate and I do love going to see the horses afterwards. Though one of them was trying to eat my skates at the weekend . . .

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Amanda

"If you are going to walk on thin ice, you might as well dance . . . "

My Skating Journal

Probably horseback riding. I took lessons for a awhile as a kid and loved it.

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Jessica

http://ilove2skate.livejournal.com/

http://www.myspace.com/sk8fabulous

Same! My parents wanted me to switch to a different sport when they thought horseback riding was becoming too expensive, so they suggested skating. Hahahaha...less expensive...yeah, right!

Wow. I don't know.

I never really liked any other kind of sports. Gymnastics would be fun, but I can't even do a cartwheel. Cross-country skiing is fun, but I'd have to relocate somewhere where it snows more than 3 times a year.

Honestly, I would probably revert to what I did before skating again - trying to drag myself to the gym (unsuccessfully). Then I would gain weight because all my other hobbies - writing, reading, movies, doing puzzles, genealogy - don't require activity. With all the money I saved though, maybe I'd travel more.

I'd be a fat couch potato, probably due for a fatal heart attack any minute.

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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!

Wow- that's a really good question!

I started skating in sixth grade, and in seventh or eighth a bunch of my friends from school got into field hockey. I might have done that with them; the problem was that at that age I was so tiny I don't know how successful I would have been- my friends were all in the 5'4"-5'7" range, while I didn't hit 5' until I was almost 14. The only other sport I was at all interested in was, believe it or not, basketball I've always wanted to try snowboarding or downhill skiing. Maybe I would have joined the ski club in middle school.

As for right now... I have no idea, lol. I did about a year of horseback riding as a kid, which I wouldn't mind trying again. I'd probably be more into running, maybe doing 3K's and stuff. I really like to run, but it's too hard on my knees to do much of it while I'm on the ice to teach and/or play hockey five days a week.

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Shae-Lynn and Victor: We knew you were champions, and on 3/28/03 the whole WORLD found out! Thank you for twelve wonderful years!

Unfortunately this is a very timely question for me. I haven't skated much for going-on-two years. A broken wrist, followed a year later by a broken ankle, coupled with various middle-aged life energy drains (aging parents, sibling meltdowns and other assorted family dramas, volunteer commitments, preparing for my husband's retirement this summer, etc.) -- and the first thing I know I've turned into that couch potato Mrs. Redboots described above !

But because I've kept telling (aka fooling) myself that it's only a matter of time before I get back on the ice, I haven't really gotten serious about what to do next. I guess it's hard to face the fact that I may not actually be a skater anymore, even though I still think of myself as one -- despite all evidence to the contrary

It's time for me to get serious about what to do next, though . . . I'll report back if & when I do.


Ellen

I won't laugh, as I used to be a fencer (in fact, that's how I met my husband). Now there's another money-sucking sport. The proper protective gear (and you DO want the proper gear) costs an arm and a leg, then there are special jackets and other associated equipment for electric fencing, and then once you've managed to accumulate all that stuff, you find that fencing blades have a habit of breaking, so need replacing semi-regularly (also at some expense, though you can buy cheaper blades - relatively speaking - if you aren't doing competitions). On the other hand, it is another sport you can take up at any age. Yes, you need to be reasonably agile, but it's also partly a mind game, so you have to be good at strategy.

But even though I still have all my fencing gear lurking under the spare bed, I think if I wasn't skating I might take up horse riding. Guess I'm just attracted to expensive sports! Don't have the time or money to do both though.

I would take up riding again - but I know that has gotten really expensive!

But I could probably afford to buy and board a horse with the money I spent on skating.

I would also dance and would always take some sort of exercise/yoga/pilates/dance classes.

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

I would go back to horses as an event rider. I have already been a showjumper but always wanted to event and have worked with horses most of my adult life