Hi everyone.

I got back to the UK yesterday and have somehow made it through the day at work with the aid of copious amounts of caffeine.

Thanks lovepairs and 2salch0w for your kind words. It was really fun to be on the team with 2salch0w, FrankR and icecatepairs, though it was possibly the most nerve-racking event I have ever done. Usually when I screw up it is just me that has to suffer the consequences. I was last to go with my camel-sit combination, after the rest of the team all did a great job with their respective moves (including a great axel from FrankR ), I somehow managed to hold it together for my spin and we won. I knew icecate from the Mountain Cup and it was great to see her again. It was also a pleasure to meet Frank and Tim.

Raye had flown in all the way from BC to compete and is still coming on in leaps and bounds, even since Oberstdorf in the spring. Sorry I didn't get to say goodbye to you Raye, hope you had a safe trip home.

I got to compete against coskater64 in junior/senior MITF which was fun since she's still recovering from surgery and I learned the moves about 3 days before. We were really competing to see who had the best excuse for messing up, clearly there is a subtle advantage in being fully able-bodied since I won on a split of the judges. I was also lucky enough to win in freeskate and compulsory moves and to get the silver in spins.

NoVa had a great skate to win Silver men, he was wavering over putting in the flying camel before he went out to skate, but he did it and it was a great one. It was nice to meet looploop too and to see her freeskate and, with NoVa, take and pass their two pairs tests (I'm sketchy on the details of US tests so someone else will have to fill in the gaps).

I also got to meet and chat to DebbieS, but unfortunately only after I missed her skate, and probably a number of other forum members too though I probably didn't make the connection, so I'm sorry if I missed mentioning anyone.

Now you all have to come over to Europe and skate at Oberstdorf and the Mountain Cup - you won't regret it

John

Congratulations! Sounds like it was a lot of fun.

John did 3 great doubles (but where was the 2toe? ), and his level 3 sit-change-sit was to die for. In fact, all his element were polished and secure, and he didn't appear to break a sweat!

Thanks for the feedback then on the flying camel. It is always my "nerve" element. As you were in Oberstdorf to see, the flying camel I did there was so technically incorrect (a bad 3-turn on the "fly"), that it received ZERO points!

I hope you find a nice place to put all those gold medals!

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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.

Appearances can be deceptive, but as ever NoVa, you are too kind

As for the double toe, nope, I wasn't feeling it. I also went the wrong way out of my first jump and had a nice little detour around the entire rink before getting to the axel, so any time I might have had to fit in a double toe got swallowed up as I was taking the scenic route

Oberstdorf, Schmoberstdorf... it was great this time!

Yeah, like your trophy cabinet isn't full either

Hi, John--
It was nice to see you and the other gold men skate (we were all oohing and ahhing in the snack bar as we watched that event, as it was so cold in the actual arena). I didn't realize you were a forum member. I was the person who has a friend who used to live in your neck of the woods and other friends who went to Roehampton for a while.

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I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaack - and what a weekend!! I had the time of my life in Aston and it was awesome to see so many old friends and make new ones, including so many Forumites. (if that is not a word, it should be)

I woke up this morning at 5:30 am raring to go and totally unable to go back to sleep - my body clock is still on Pensylvania time - and while it IS only 7:30 here right now, I'm all in because it's nearly 10:30 in Aston.

When I got back to my office the place looked like I had been away a month instead of a week. AAAAAK

To Andrea: you and your team put on a first class event, Thank you

To Joan: It was awesome being your roommate, and I hope your luggage has found you. As for your skating - I definately see the improvement since I saw you last.

To John: Fellow distance traveller - Thanks for the nice compliments. Glad to hear you made it home again safely. I sure enjoyed watching your events - you have also improved greatly since Oberstdorf.

To Phil, Terry, Mika and Joan - It was a pleasure to be part of Phil's Gouls and I apologize for the pathetic waltz-toe. This is usually not an element that I have problems with

Debbie S: I saw your Rhapsody in Blue, but I did not get a chance to congratulate you on a great skate! Congratulations!! You have improved since Oberstdorf.

Loops and Nova: Great skates both of you, in the pairs tests, and in your individual freeskates - well done!

TimDavidskate, Lovepairs and 2salchow it was great to meet you and now I have faces to go with the names

Sexyskates and Manleywoman, I probably spoke with each of you at some point throughout the weekend, but since I don't know the real names that go with the forum names I didn't realize I was speaking with Forumites.

To Skate@Delaware: Congratulations on your GOLD medal freeskate!! well done.

To CoSkater64: You always skate beautifully, and this weekend was no exception. Glad to see the hip is healing well.

To Skaternum, Beccapoo, Terri C, and Jazzpants - we missed you and y'all missed a fabulous weekend - NO EXCUSES NEXT YEAR! - See you then, RIGHT???

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

And Raye left out her own accomplishments of the weekend: 6 medals including several golds! She landed an awesome loop jump in compulsories and her footwork sequences and artistry are always A+!

Hi all,

John, thanks so much for the compliments on the axel. After seeing the footage of the team event, I thought my axel looked a little bizarre in the air but considering I'd just belly-flopped on one in the warm-up like twenty seconds before I actually competed it for the event, I'll take it. I'm still trying to figure out how I wound up sliding across the ice on my stomach on that one in warm-up.

I am forever in your debt for joining our team and saving me from having to do a camel/sit on numb, frozen legs. I'd say I owe you one, but it's more like I owe you several. LOL

It was certainly a pleasure meeting you and sharing the fear and anxiety that comes with skating a maneuvers team event. And for those of us here on forums that haven't seen John skate, to say that he's great is an egregious understatement.

As for general impressions about the event, the one thing that I was really impressed with was how well everyone skated in all the events. I spoke with several skaters over the weekend that were skating up a level in various events and they all held their own and put strong skates out there. It's certainly never easy to compete, but when you put the pressure on yourself to skate up I think it's especially gratifying when you do well. So congrats all!!

If we're going to talk about flying camels in Silver Men I and II, I'd have to say just about all of those guys did a very good job with that particular spin on Sunday. Very impressive. Each of the guys that did them had a good fly and nice stretch in the camel position and good revolution on the ice. I also have to give Jeremy Balcom (not sure if he reads here but what the heck) a tip of the cap for trying his first axel (and in combination to boot!) in competition.

It was nice to see and chat, albeit a bit briefly in some cases, with Loops, NoVa, lovepairs, DebbieS, Heather Hilgar (also not sure if she posts here) and probably a host of others that I'm forgetting at the moment. I also ran into mikawendy and added to her collection of lefty skaters' signatures. (We lefties have to stick together!! ) I was glad to see coskater64 skating again. Get well soon.

Take care all,

Frank

re: flying camel
It was quite risky of me trying it, esp. I havent done it in weeks, I did manage to do a good camel spin 2 days before but didnt think properly going into it during my skate.

I hate spinning! Its the element that I dont do too much or at all during practices

final thoughts: I am still pissed at my poor showing and I wish I can do it over. After the flying camel thats when I got sooo tired, I felt like stepping off the ice. It is so scary not to feel my legs during skating, I felt like my landings were quarter short. I dont know what came over me

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I just thought the entire competition was a blast, it was lovely to see everyone and I throughly enjoyed myself. Thanks for the kind words I do what I can do but allofyall were great!

Leslie

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I was so delighted when I looked at the results and saw you'd been in it, and done well! Love from us both.

I was delighted to see so many familiar names on the results list - well done the lot of you (and John, especially well done showing all those Americans how to do it!)!

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Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

Thanks for the compliment. But I didn't go to O'dorf, so that must be someone else you're thinking of.

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Terri C is a Bronze lady!
Gold Moves, here I come!

Actually that was only one gold and enough silver to plate a tea service!!!

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

ooooooooops sorry But, nonetheless your skate WAS excellent this weekend

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

Raye, Joan, Terri (skate@Delaware), Phil, Mika (Mikawendy)

And there's KITTY!!! (MEOW!!!)

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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!!!

Halloween black cat - and double duty for her interpretive costume!

Hey! I'm a lefty too! Too bad I didn't get a chance to meet you guys at HC! Maybe next time...

Yup, next time--I keep my notebook in my skate bag. I was also sorry to see that the "Three Lefts Don't Make a Right" maneuver team wasn't competing this year. And I missed watching the antics of the Southern Comfort crew and Rob and beccapoo's other shenanigans.

The competition really was a lot of fun. It's too bad there are no speakers from the snack bar into the rink, because it was so cold that a lot of the spectators were cheering people on from in there. And coskater64, thanks for the explanation of TOM and TO in the hallway. I realized later that was probably you....

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Hi Mika. I think I met you and signed your book 2 years ago - sorry I missed you this year. I was 1/4th of the Three Lefts team last year. One of us is pregnant, two didn't make it down to the competition, and I defected over to the East Coast Stunt Doubles. Actually, Frank and I balanced out the righties on that team now. I noticed quite a few lefties on the practice ice, too.

Tim

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People dream of flying, birds dream of skating.

G-day all

So sorry I missed you all at the Halloween event this year but I have a training event for 6 weeks in Miami and must dedicate to my work so I can skate again some day soon.. I hope you all had a great time with all my friends at Iceworks.., they are truly the soles of the earth to me and I am proud to be a member of that club . I hope I will get to see you all next year . I am planning a trip to Oberstdorf as I do not think Ill make nationals next year. I look forward to seeing you all again soon..
Congrates to all of you who skated . I hope it was a blast....

Ross

G-day Star!

How's flyin goin? Are you havin fun? I'm thinkin about joinin your homeclub!

So nice to get away from it all foatin up there in the sky...so, happy your flyin again!

Halloween Classic was fun...but, we missed ya! The pair team of Cioppa and Mizerak did an excellent program...you would have loved it!!!

Best,
Lovepairs

Hi There Love

I am in training in Miami at the moment at the Airbus A320 training center, getting beat up in Simulators for 4 hours a day doing the things you hope you will never see and training to save lives if it does.. Thats what we do in training we fly normal for an hour and handle emergencies for 39 hours..
Im beat every day.. But Ill be back in PHL around the 7th I think..

How many in mens gold ? who won..?

Hi Sweetie,

Go to: www.adultpairskating.com click on "News", click on "Competitions", and click on the Halloween Classic application link...all of the results are there. I didn't see the men's gold competition. I was only there on Saturday and that event took place on Sunday.

Sounds like really hard work, but I bet the "simulator" actually helps you "jump" better! Okay, stay safe, and we'll all look forward to seeing you again at Aston when you return.

Take care,
Lovepairs

It looked great to me, high and easy. The first one in the warm-up was probably even better, but after the minor hiccup you had on the second one in the warm-up you did a great job to come back with the one you did.

Oh, but waiting until last to do a camel-sit on numb, frozen legs when everyone else in the team nailed their elements was so much fun and not a bit nerve-racking . I can't tell you how relieved I was to hold it together even if it was a bit wobbly!

but thanks! You're pretty nifty on a pair of skates yourself

John