Terri,
Skating with other adults definitely has its perks.
At least for me, other adults offer helpful tips and hints on elements that they have experienced.
Also, skating with other adult (the freaks of the skating world, as one person I used to skate with calls us ) takes out the "them (young kids or even hockey players)" vs. "us" factor.

It's good to know your comfort level, but honestly sometimes you've just got to break over this barrier (within reason). I never ever thought I'd do a flying camel or a back shoot-the-duck. But I tried them and hurt myself a bit and finally got them. I remember the process, not the bruises.

Good luck,
Stephen *superNoVa*

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Doubt whom you will, but never yourself.
"Do what you love, and you'll never have to work a day in your life."
-Haha, I've *arrived*! I am listed as a reference on Wikipedia.

The worst thing is definately injuries (of course I don't pay for my own skating, so....). I've had three major injuries, the last of which required surgery and had me off for two years. And when your high school is literally two city blocks long and six stories high, and you're carting around a 50 lb. backpack, being on crutches for eight weeks is just not fun...

The worst thing about skating is the fights it has brought between my mother and I, most are money related, others are performance related, and yet others because she doesn't really understand much about the sport and will say things that don't make sense and stand by them, or I will tell her about something and she won't understand what I'm talking about. So definitely the worst thing about it is the feuds it prompts constantly, considering my mother pays for my skating.

The worst huh?

Inconsistent skills. One day you can and the next it's GONE.

Understanding what your coach wants and not being able to do it. Mind body disconnect....ugh.

Being an adult skater with limited time to skate. What I wouldn't give to be 12 for just a summer of skating!

Skates that need to get sharpened.

Killer falls that hurt and scare the heck out of you.

Really bad ice. I'll skate on it, but I don't have to LIKE it.

Two left foot days. THOSE days when everything just seems off.

Chico

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"I truly believe, when God created skating, he patted himself on the back."

ooooh my god you are so right! I've only had this whole situation happen to me in skating! I have NO idea WHY it happens or how to fix it, but it takes a fall and a half to realize that today is not a 'jumping day'...its a spinning day. which hurts!

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The cold - usually I don't mind it but in the past few weeks it has been mind-numbing, bone marrow freezing at my rink. I know it's bad when I put on gloves for practice, I usually NEVER wear gloves.

When that happens, I use a bodkin (the thing that looks like a huge needle and is designed for threading elastic or tape through a casing) to do mine. I don't remove them often, but when I'm going to polish my skates I do.

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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!

Have you ever tried burning the ends with a match or a lighter?

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~No thinking, breathing, or hesitation!~

The cost of things...relative to what you get. Crowded freestyle sessions with variable ice conditions, stinky hockey locker rooms where you'd never consider entering without a biohazard suit (and forget about showering) so you have to change in tiny bathroom stalls where kids have "missed" etc; snack bar with only junk food, serviced by teens making 6 bucks an hour who'd rather be doing something else, and so on.

My husband joined a private golf club and he actually pays less per month than I do for skating (around $350 PER FAMILY so we all get to use it-gosh, wouldn't it be special if you could pay for ice time that way? ) and he gets so much more for his money. He can play pretty much any time as long as there is light and generally the play is fast. $10.00 for a cart that you can use for as long as it takes you and no charges if you walk, a roaming beverage cart with cocktails, sodas and snacks, FREE WATER. Beautiful, well maintained coarse (more consistently than the ice, anyway), plush, clean locker rooms (his even has a bar right in the locker room!) with all the ammenities (couches, TVs, mini library, game tables, sauna, towels, soap, shampoo, hairdryers, big baskets of things in the ladies' room) and a nice restaurant with good food (they have a chef, not a fry cook) , sit-down service and staff that come up and know each member by name. They also have a fitness center that you can use without paying extra and a pool. Grumble grumble.

How come ice rinks are so crummy generally but cost more for ice time overall? I can't imagine the overhead for a golf club would be less than an ice arena but I sometimes wonder why the conditions are tolerated without question. We put up with it and kids probably don't care that much but its beginning to annoy me. I don't ask for that much, but a little more would be greatly appreciated. I would settle for f/s sessions that had fewer than 25 skaters out there at any given time.

~AF

i'd have to say injuries and trying to polish the skates white for competition-(which is partially why i can't wait to get my custom tan skates)

The worst thing, right now?

Power threes, on my bad foot.

Man I hate those.

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All that glitters has a high refractive index.

As Fall is showing signs of winter coming and daylight hours suddenly are gone, the name of this thread reminded me of the hate I have for lugging my skate clothing bag to the rink and leaning against the bathroom stall wall as I put on my multiple layers 3 tops, 3 bottoms - it is a struggle! (Maybe my advanced age has something to do with it.) The days I can get home from work (I work in an OR) and change at home are a real treat.

That's what I will be facing hopefully in about 3 more weeks after rehabing a fractured patella......

Join the club, MissIndigo!!! Join the club!!!

Boy oh, boy, do I hate those forward power 3's on my bad foot! Unfortunately the consequences of giving up on the power 3's is MUCH worse than making an effort to learn the thing, thanks to my coaches!!!

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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!!!

[QUOTE=Melzorina]I unlaced my boots not so long ago, without realising the ends were frayed, so I couldn't get them back in! I tried everything, putting nail varnish on to harden them up, selotape, everything! I did eventually get them relaced but it took about 2 hours and I was extremely annoyed. I never even went skating that day either!!![QUOTE]

Find some heat shrink tubing (from an electronic supply house) slip it over the end of the laces, then use a lighter and shrink it onto the lace. Be careful of course if your laces are nylon as they will melt.

Steven

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"A sure sign of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result." - Albert Einstein
"A free society is one where it is safe to be unpopular." - Adlai Stevenson
"Got Edge?" - Steven J. Arness - Coachless, two years and counting.
"He who carves himself to suit others will soon whittle himself away."
"Sometimes you get what you want but loose what you have."

• Bad rink management who are only interested in hockey and who don't maintain the ice properly
• Rink management who seem to think that figure skaters are a 'cash cow' and keep on putting the fees up just because (we had THREE price increases in 18 months, the final increase was an increase of over 60%)
• Rink management (can't you tell that this is personal?) who make the PEAK TIME patches MUCH MUCH cheaper than the early mornings!! The peak time patches are heaving
• Rink politics, wannabee skating princessess, 'skating moms' (I'm not talking about all mothers of skaters but that special breed that is a 'skate mom')
• My job. If I didn't have to work I would have the time to skate
• The lottery. If I could win the damn thing I would have both the time AND the money to skate

I don't have a problem with laces either I don't like it when I have to get them 'recomfortable' though

I don't set myself limits so not being able to do something now doesn't mean that I'll never be able to do it (though I'm not unrealistic enough to think that I'll ever be doing quads ).

As someone who can't skate at the moment (time and money) there's nothing about actually skating that is 'worst' for me

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The best whisper is a click

Rink politics, and fights in the pros' room so that there is a feud between two coaches and if you take from one, you can't take from the other.... sigh.....

Not being able to do things you ought to be able to do, like 3-turns in hold, and not sure whether it is husband or you doing it wrong.

Wondering whether your coach really is as rigorous with you for competition as you'd like him to be, judging by the way he is before tests, and what the video looks like.

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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!

The worst thing for me, and I do love skating, is the frustration of working on a single element and seeing little payback. Some things seem to take years to get. I won't talk about the 5 years I've been trying to get a scratch spin. Is it worth it? Hell yes! I still love skating and I am enjoying learning - the journey and the challenge is worth it in spades. When I feel like then I do the things I know I own and try to feel good about my skating.

ITA - Back edges ugh!

Agreed and then to take it further, half the board members have their kids take from the one coach and the other half from the other coach so then the skating board gets polarized because the coaches have got the entire club wrapped up in their feud and nothing gets done.

Hey, so do I!! Four rooms, small county hospital.

I don't like always being the oldest and slowest on the ice. Most of the time, there are two older than me--both coaches. And the kids always seem to think I should be the one to move out of their way--even when I am in lesson and have right of way.

Trying to find convenient times when I don't have to race to the rink from work--they are few and far between.

Ruts in the ice--either from hockey or jumping. One of my rinks has a young man that leaves HUGE holes in the lutz corners. I'm afraid I'll fall in.

Competition nerves!

Skate moms who feel threatened by kids who train or compete against their daughters. And go truly whacked out as a result.

(The male variant usually shows up as hockey dads or soccer dads...)

The ones I know are all fathers of figure skaters. And they are worse than the mothers, by an order of magnitude....

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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!

Yeah actuallly, skating moms (no dads at my rink, at least no evil dads) are pretty distracting. Sometimes I feel their eyes on me as I do a jump their daughters have struggled with to see if I've "surpassed" them. I know this isn't possible, and in SOME cases it's good practice for competitions, but I really wish some practices were closed. I hate having the negative parents watching my every move and see/tell their kid that I'm struggling on double axel etc etc etc. And that stuff definitely comes out in the locker room. Often parents catch things other kids are too busy practicing themselves to notice, and I really don't like my weaknesses scattered around the rink.

Hi, I am skating mom and I felt sad for you reading your post. There are so many skaters at our rink that I like and admire. I want them to do well and I try to encourage them. They notice me watching them and they don't seem to mind. It sounds like you may be dealing with some jealousy issues from the negative parents. I hope that there are some positive parents at your rink.