I honestly have no idea what inspired me to start skating, or even what started my love of skating. My parents weren't big fans and we never went skating as a family. I know I saw Karen Magnussen at a young age (under 10) and she is still one of my favourites. The next memory I have of watching skating is seeing Tai and Randy win Worlds in 1979. I started skating shortly after that, so something about that win must have inspired me. I didn't go very far when I was younger. I got all the badges that the CFSA offered in the early 80's, but I never did any testing.

A little later in life (early 20's), I joined a precision team and took a few adult classes. I passed my Dutch Waltz, but never went any further with testing. I'm on an adult precision team again now, well, not right now, I'm waiting for my ankle to heal. But I really enjoy that and would like to pursue some of the dance tests again and go a little further with those.

Hockey players inspired me to even start skating. I grew up in the south in an area where ice skating was not prevalent. Our family moved to Michigan and I became a Red Wing fan and started watching them on TV. Since I am more of a "doer" rather than a "watcher", it wasn't long after that I bought my first pair of hockey skates because the skating looked so much fun on TV! I was fortunate that I lived in a neighborhood with a free ice arena (yes, FREE) so I skated public skate 3-4 days/week in the winter time while I was in highschool. I didn't have any formal lessons, I just liked the feeling of sailing across the ice!

It was a figure skating coach later on in College who persuaded me to try figure skating.

Kristin

Tonya and Nancy.

Plus the Olympics

I started skating when I was 9 and moved to a house out near the beach. The house was a block away from a very old ice rink (those of you who know San Francisco in the old days, it's NOT the Sutro rink but the 48th Ave rink.) One day my oldest sister and her bf went skating (and I was the 3rd wheel but mom made her take me along -- to keep her out of trouble.) Well, eventually she stopped skating but I kept going! However, given that our parent's finances were limited, I had to settled for skating at most once a week and in rentals. Ironically I managed to teach myself crossovers, a one foot spin, and waltz jump. I think eventually I even taught myself a "shoot the duck" for good measure too. Eventually, I had to stop skating to concentrate on high school and "getting good grades so I would go to a nice university and get a nice paying job and blah blah blah..." Eventually the rink was demolished and a condo took its place!!! And yes, it certainly broke my heart to see that happened. They were tearing down a part of my childhood.

I came back to skate when I was 31 and I wanted to get additional exercise besides going to the gym. (Plus I was going thru some personal issues and I needed a break from it.) Someone mentioned about an ice rink in San Francisco. I thought this person meant 48th Ave but NOOOOO.... the person said there is a rink downtown near our convention center (Moscone to be exact...) I look it up on the web and sure enough, there IS a rink near Moscone... called Yerba Buena!!! So I went there and slap on those aqua green ski boot skates and went around the rink. No waltz jumps and spins!!! I barely got my crossovers back, but I can still skate after 17 years!!! And I kept coming back each week, plugging away at the rentals... until an ice guard suggested taking group lessons and eventually getting my own skates -- starting the new expensive slippery slope that I'm still in now!!! (It's called AOSS!!!)

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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!!!

I began skating because we were living in California at the time, I did not have a work permit and was bored. My daughter, imagining herself as a trampolinist, while jumping on the home made trampoline (the bed) had trampolined out through the window completely cutting one of the nerves and two of the major arteries in her arm. She'd also sliced part way through three of the other nerves in her arm. Six months after leaving hospital despite intense physio she could still not move her arm. She went to a skating birthday party and for the first time lifted her arm away from her body. I mistakenly thought that skating was going to be a cheap replacement for physio. (That was 11 years ago and my daughter still costs me a fortune in skating) After hours of sitting in a cold ice rink watching her skate I mentioned to a grey haired lady seated next to me I would love to have a go at this but was too old being in my 40's. She was 67 and had been skating for only five years. Suitably chastised I joined her at her coffee club. It was great. I discovered the San Hose rink which was below a shopping centre and I could shop and skate. I would watch Rudi Galindo who was training there at the time and imagine I was skating like him -although I think I looked more like Daffy Duck but it didn't matter. I was hooked. I think I love it more than my daughter .

Because I had almost always wanted to do it and liked the way it looked on TV. As a child I only roller skated. I first ice skated when I was 15 or 14, after wanting for years to be able to do it. Even though we had lived pretty close to ice rinks when I was a child, my mom didn't really know I wanted to do it (she thought I just wanted to do gymnastics) and we were unaware that any ice rinks were nearby. It was only a few years after we moved away that we, regrettably, would find out how close we'd been to the rinks.

Now I'm 19 and in the low Freestyle levels, around FS 3-4 (but rusty ). I plan to keep doing it as much as I can and as long as we can afford it. Unfortunately, the closest rink is about 27 miles, and the next closest one where I go most often is 40 miles away. Oh how I regret not doing this sport when we had more rinks closer. At least they aren't as far as some people have to go...

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Andrea

When I was a kid, we lived on a lake and I started skating when I was about 5 years old. My mom helped me get started and I used my brother's old black figure skates. A few years later my parents signed me up for lessons at an ice arena which had a newly formed club. I skated all the way thru my college years but then quit. Lots of shows, tests and competitions later, I guess I burned out.

I loved skating for the most part but I look back now and realize I never really appreciated the sacrifices my parents made for me and my skating. I think I took it for granted, complained a lot about going to practice when I was a kid and probably caused them lots of grief and headaches. My dad had been a hockey player when he was younger and he loved skating but had to quit when he was in his 40s due to some health problems. He had silently put up with me for all those years, was always enthusiastic about the events I was in, seemed very proud and didn't seem to mind forking over the money for all the privates or other stuff. I don't remember him ever getting angry at me for not wanting to go to practice or griping about getting up at 5am many mornings to go do patch. He was just there. A rock. So was my mom.

I got back into skating less than 2 years ago because my kids were interested. I was apprehensive about getting back on the ice but after one public session I realized I absolutely love skating. Every time I step out there, so many wonderful memories come back about my family and growing up skating. Both my parents have passed away, so it means much more to me now to be out there on the ice and able to use what they helped me learn and the gift they gave to me. It has helped me heal lots of wounds and has given me peace and a huge sense of accomplishment. Its like my parents are there still, standing behind the boards. I don't know if anyone can relate unless they've lost loved ones, but it means so much to me and to be able to pass something like this on to my kids is really special. I hope one day my son and daughter reflect about their times growing up and the fun we had out there learning together. There isn't anything better than goofing around with your kids on the ice or working diligently on the same rink on different things, passing each other by and giving a wave..... I am so blessed.

~AF

I skated as a teenage 14-18 but competed maybe 4-6 times, passed my 2nd figure back in 1982 and then after finishing high school quit. Mostly, due to the fact that there was no rink near the college I attended and one of my last axels I landed on my head.

After that I did nothing, I worked a lot. Got sick, worked more went back to school, joined the peace corps, got sick again. At 33 my doctors said I had to exercise, my tendons were shortening and I was in hideous health, so I tried everything hated all of it. Moved away from all my friends to CO and decided to try skating again. I liked it I was 36 and I could only skate for 1/2 and hour every other day before being exhausted. 4 1/2 years later I skate 2-3 hours a day , 5 days a week and started dance about 1 1/2 years ago. I just feel really happy when I skate and apprently I don't look like as big of an idiot as I think. I hope to get through all my moves, dances and freedances, but I don't think I'll get the freeskates.
la

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Who me? Couldn't be....
http://www.youtube.com/bouldersk8r

my sister started skating when I was still in gymnastics. When we picked her up after her lesson I told my mom I wanted to skate. My sister didn't like the idea of me skating because she wanted it to be HER sport.( she was 13 and I was 8)if that it explains it .well, I started any ways and caught on faster than my sister since I started younger. I'm now 12 and she's 17 . I'm a level higher than her now.We both skate 3 days a week. It's not much but good enough for me!
~cutie

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Skating is suppose to be fun , no PRESSURE at all

~*Courage*~*Confidence*~*Consistance*~

i was about 16 and used to watch skating obsessively. my parents were sick of it and told me to take lessons. but i was too scared that i'd be put into lessons with 6 year olds. anyway, i was walking around in goodwill one october, looking for an 80's halloween costume, when i came across a pair of skates. i looked at them,and they appeared to be hand stitched. i wondered who "john kneebly"was and what "gold seal" blades were. so i bought them for $10, and brought them to my local club. they fit perfectly, and boy, did i fly on them! i found out after i'd been skating for about two weeks that they were $1000+ skates! i got hooked, and no pair of skates has been good enough since. i'm canadian, but i'm moving to sydney, australia in july, and just hope i'll have enough ice time to satisfy my cravings...

I did pond skating in the early 50s, until the built the South Mountain Arena in New Jersey, where I grew up. I started figure skating lessons there. Figure skating was hard on my mOm to take since she was an equestrian champion and wanted one of her sons to follow. My brother took up golf.

Anyway, went to college in the mid 60s. Since they didn't figue skate there, I took up hockey and proceeded to smash my left knee to the point where I had it rebuilt.

Fast forward to 1998 when I was up to 195 pounds and my doctor told me to do something. Since I lived around the corner, literally from the ice rink I started figure skating again. Weight went down to 172 where it has been ever since. Also I go up to Lake Placid every August for the Adult Skate Week....this year will be #6.

Wife and I plan to retire to the Adirondacks in a couple of years.

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Keeping School Figures Alive!!

I agree that these posts are really neat to read!

Same with Daisies, the first time I skated I hated it! The rink was a temporary "outdoor" facility at the amusement park in Memphis, TN. It was cold and wet and I fell a lot! My mom used to skate on the pond at the dump when she was a kid, and the neighbors thought she was nuts skating on our driveway after an ice storm. I remember watching some Olympic skating, but the 1988 Olympics was the first time I understood what was going on with the skaters.

Then it was a "cool" thing to do once another arena opened up. I remember staring at the Zamboni for what seemed to be hours with my brother begging to skate. (Maybe I really wanted to drive the Zam) - that one was an Ice Capades rink in the mall. They then opened one near our house and the owners and skating pros went to our church.

By that time I was 13 and was really bad at softball and soccer so decided to take up skating. I've been doing it pretty constantly ever since. That local arena closed about a year after I started and I lost my coach (He and his wife were really cool and from South Africa - he use to tell me that I would spin the other direction in the southern hemisphere!) I can't believe how many miles my mom drove to take me to the rink in the mall. It was an ISI program, and I did quite a few local competitions and one Winter Classic the year we hosted it (1990?) My brother played on the only hockey team in the city, so we were a skating family.

I had a brief time off while in college in Atlanta - no transportation to the rink, but then I moved to Rochester, NY for med school. There's no lacking ice here! I had passed my intermediate free in college and really liked doing figures bright and early in the morning. It is definitely great exercise, and it's a good conversation piece.

I was waiting for 25 years to hit so that I could skate at AN. That is definitely a lot more fun than the kid competitions. The adults are so much more fun to skate with although I do like practicing with the kids because they're good motivation for the most part.

I'll be moving to Tucson in a couple of months, and I'll have to find new ice. That was a criteria for a new job - an ice rink!!!

Keep posting! It's fun to read the different stories.

Pedonskates

I read the book "Skating Shoes" by Noel Streatfield LOL. It was a story about a rich girl who skated pretty seriously, and her (of course) poor friend who started taking lessons with her (paid for by the rich friend), and guess who was better at it and who loved it more, ha. I have to say, I was drawn to the descriptions of the persistant hard work it required....Brenda will laugh at that.

I read that in my early teens, we moved around a lot growing up, and shortly after reading it we moved to Santa Barbara CA. I sought out the rink, and started in the equivalent of Learn to Skate classes (ISIA curriculum - Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta) in 9th grade. In 10th grade, I started some private lessons, and started doing a patch and freestyle session in the morning before school, and again after school, sometimes patch/FS/then patch again after school. I passed my Juv tests (figures and FS) right at the end of 12th grade, an axel was my hardest jump, and for a lot of reasons I didn't have coaching my last summer (two coaches in a row moved away in quick succession, and I was heading off to college) and by the end of the summer I had lost the axel due to just doing it wonky without coaching. I never even thought about picking a college that had an ice rink - what a dope. I ended up at college in Portland OR - where it would have taken 3 bus rides to get to the mall rink and while I tried it once, I just couldn't keep it up. Too bad, b/c I'm pretty sure Tanya Harding was a kid on her way up at that time LOL.

So I quit when I went to college, then moved to Boston for grad school and stayed there for 11 years - I skated maybe a handfull of times there, but my feet had grown a full size and my skates didn't fit anymore so it hurt to skate. I couldn't afford new skates let alone lessons etc. Then we moved to CT and I commuted to NYC for 5 years - there was no time with that commute to add in skating... Finally, we moved to Rochester NY 4 years ago, and a huge attraction about the job I got was that there was a rink on campus. With a figure skating club. I bought new skates, started going at lunch time for the first year, and then braved finding a coach and getting some lessons. I had gotten back probably about 1/2 of the three turns on my own without coaching (I couldn't do FI so well or BI), I could do a weeny waltz jump and toe loop and salchow, but couldn't rotate a loop fully. My coach got one of those out of me in the first lesson - things proceeded from there!

Funny thing is I never really stopped thinking about it in the years off - I quit in 1981 and started up in 2001 (lessons in 2002). Patch/figures I thought about a lot, and often I'd "choreograph" in my head when I heard music I liked. It has been pretty awsome to get back into it...

Sara

basically... my mom was a coach and i started skating at 3... simple as that... no fancy story or anything

I skated on ponds when I was a kid, then as a teenager skated in the local city square (which they'd fill with water and freeze during the winter). Just normal goofing around kid skating. Then when I moved down to Columbus (in 1995), I made my hubby take me to go ice skating. I didn't even have my own skates, so I used the rentals. After 10 minutes, he sat down and took his off (his ankles were killin him), and that's just about when I got back into the groove of skating.

The next year or two later at Christmas, he bought me a pair of my own skates (Jackson Mystiques). Unfortunately, they kinda were put away unused and unsharpened..you know how sometimes X-mas presents have a way of doing that. LOL Then I got them out maybe in 2001 and took them to Sportmart to be sharpened (after all, that's where they came from, they should know how to sharpen them, right?) There was no charge for the sharpening. I put them on, step onto the ice, and I'm tellin ya, my feet were every which way but straight. LOL Exasperated, I gave up and went home and banished my skates to the garage. LOL I kept thinking to myself "how could I get so bad when I did fine a few years ago?"

Fast forward to February 14, 2002. Bored, hubby already zonked out for the night, I turned on the Olympics. I was watching the men's final program, and not being familiar with any of the skaters, I decided to root for the American. So of course, the Russian was last to skate. As they showed him pacing in the hallway prior to his skate, I was thinking "Mess up, Russian guy. I want the American guy to win." Well, as soon as this "Russian" guy stepped out on the ice and started his program, I was MESMERIZED, I tell ya. I just felt like I was right out there on the ice with him. He skated with so much passion, it just made me feel at one with him. Who IS this Alexei Yagudin guy, I thought? He is awesome! So of course, I had to look him up on the internet. LOL 8 days later, I took my banished skates off their hook in the garage and drove them up to OSU Ice Rink in Columbus. I figured I was gonna get them sharpened by somebody who knew what they were doing. Lo and behold, after they were sharpened and the guy handed them to me, he said "These have never been sharpened." HMMMM, no wonder I couldn't skate on them....

So, I started skating when I could, during lunch sessions, etc. I took a session or two of group lessons from OSU. I'm lucky enough to work a block away from a rink, so I could go skate during lunch. When Champions on Ice was in town, I even got to skate on the same ice at the same time as Philippe Candeloro. That was cool. Anyhow, last summer I took about a 6 month break, skating only a couple times a month. I think that actually did me good, and I came out of that refreshed.

I signed up for group lessons from the Columbus Figure Skating Club, and got a really good instructor. He started skating as an adult, and is very good at teaching things to adults. I passed Adult Basic 1,2,3,4, and now I'm on Freestyle 1. I just started taking private lessons from him last week, so I hope to learn lots and lots more. I can only get better, right? And, I'm in a group number in the ice show this Friday and Saturday! I'd have never dreamed in a million years I'd be in an ice show, LOL. But it's been so much fun learning, and I continue to have fun and be challenged at the same time. Keeps me young (in my head, at least, LOL). There ya go, that's my story and I'm stickin to it! LOL

Suz

In abbreviated form:

Skate fan for years....Watched old Sonja H. movies with mom. And Dorothy H in 76.

Went to a SOI or COI show in mid 90's started trying to do jumps on rollerblades.

Went to Worlds in DC...Started in-line skating on Pic skates....

Went to 2004 Nationals in Atlanta...2nd row seats for the whole week...Got the BUG BIG TIME!!

April 2004 started on Ice

Feb 05 passed pre bronze tests.......summer 05 I will pass Bronze Moves...I will I will I will!

2006 Adult Nationals Bronze Men Competitor.......I have a HUGE lutz!!!!!

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Why are you skating so slowly? Get out of my way!

If you skate faster, it makes everything look better!

Tonya and Nancy

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Tim David's Website

well i first liked skating from watching it on t.v. when i was 4 and i really wanted to be like them so i asked my parents and they said that the rink was to far away for that (it was like an hour away). so then i just took up dance instead. i also would check out ice skating books from every library i went to and try to do all the moves on my roller skates. i was actually pretty good just doing that stuff on roller skates, but i still wanted the ice. so then when i was 11 i moved down here (orange county, ca) and there happened to be a rink near-by so my mom surprised me with skating lessons for my 12th b-day and ever since, ive been hooked on skating...

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~Dreams Can Come True~

When I was about 2 years old, my Mom took me to see Holiday on Ice/Ice Capades.. and that is one of my earliest childhood memories. All I really remember is there was a pink elephant on skates (I knew it was really people inside the costume, but I thought it looked like fun). But I never even thought of trying it myself. I had been told all my life I was the family klutz, my sister was the athlete.

I did skate ONCE as a kid, at our school's 6th grade graduation party. One of the teachers at our elementary school owned the Ice Castle rink in Blue Jay (the name has since been transferred to the Training Center in Lake Arrowhead.. which is a couple of miles away from the original Blue Jay rink)... and she donated the afternoon to the graduating class. (She also gave us free hot chocolate and cookies! ) My goal was to make it once around without falling down or touching the boards. By the end of the afternoon I had done that exactly ONCE!

Many years later, I was working 12-hour days on weekends so had three days off during the week. Not many people have Monday-Wednesday off, so I was always looking for things to do by myself. I found an ice rink at the mall 10 minutes from my house, called and asked if they taught adults. They hooked me up with a coach, who gave me my first lesson. (I took a private because I knew if I took a class I would just feel really inadequate!) I figured at the end of the lesson she would say it was hopeless.. instead she said "Same time next week?" That was nearly 20 years ago.. and I'm still going to lessons "same time, next week". (although I've had 3 coaches retire on me.. They all CLAIM it was health or career-change reasons.. but sometimes I wonder if I don't force them into it ) I'm also on my fourth rink...

This is a very short story. I'm 18. I just started skating a little LESS than a month ago. . but last week I worked on my waltz jumps, and this week I'm tackling my first axel. I'm limited because I haven't gotten my custom skates yet, they're taking a while to be made. But anywho. . the point. Why did I want to skate. I used to watch figure skating when I was little, mostly during the Olympics. I remember that I LOVED watching it. . but it was one of those things where it never really clicked as something I would want to do or enjoy. But a few weeks ago. . my friends all decided to go ice skating. We had never been on the ice, any of us. We all went out and bought a cheap pair of skates from Dick's Sporting Goods. When we got on the ice. . I was the only one not falling. Everyone else was holding their arms up struggling to stand, and I was already flying around the edges of the arena. It felt so natural to me. I found it extremely easy to look at some of the good skaters around the arena and copy their foot work, their posture, their form and style. I didn't think that much of it, until people started having a hard time believing I had never skated before. That's what made me realize that maybe I had a niche in this. But to everyone else. . it was crazy. . and that just lit the fire under me. It became about defying the odds. I will not let time stop me from doing something I love. And now. . I have become determined to train hard this season, outside of the competition circuit, so that when I step onto the ice next season to compete, people want to know "WHERE DID HE COME FROM!?" I know I have the determination and mindset, and I desire to be unique from any other skater. I want to be a POWERFUL skater and skate with strength and stability. . . .graceful. . but powerful. I am determined to succeed! Let one year pass. . .and watch for the name. . Justin Raczak!

Sorry for digging out a retired thread - I found it quite an amusing read.

Myself, I had quite a sudden start, at 32. Sometime back in February this year we were sitting at home wondering what to do for a weekend. Movies? Nothing good was showing... Pub? Boring.... BBQ? Not the right weather yet. And suddently it hit me - let's go ice skating! Over the past few months I lost quite a bit of weight and got much fitter, so I was curious to see if I can do anything a bit more challenging than treadmill. As a kid I was exempt from school PE classes because of pretty strong myopia. When I was a teenager, I sort of decided "whatever" and started doing aerobics, dance, and later, kickboxing. But skating? Never even dared. It didn't help as well that I'm wearing size 42 shoes (US 11 - UK 8). Not many local sports shops used to have female boots in that size. (None, actually. It's only with e-commerce I now have got a chance to shop the world, and sure there's something even for a Very Big Foot - Edea Ouverture). But back to the story. We drove down to Coventry Planet Ice, which I expected to be more like Queensway Bowl Rink in London - tiny indoor patch packed with squealing kids and dashing teens. Well, the kids and teens were there, but the rink was of a decent size and not too crowded. The rented skates were horrendous - plastic boots with worn out and stinky insides - but at least they were the right size and had "proper" figure skating blades, with toe picks. I stepped on ice expecting to barely hold my balance and pushed... and pushed... and pushed..... By the time my exhausted husband dragged me off ice, I've been circling the rink in forward strokes yelling "I love it!"

Next week in the office I typed "ice skates" into the Google just "to see what's out there". Out were was a pair of the most beautiful skates I've ever seen, in my darn size 8, at a price I could probably afford. I went very quiet and pensive for a few days..... Was it a start of a serious passion or just a flick? Would I be able to commit to it, with my out-of-the-suitcase job, not even knowing which country I will end up living in (I'm not British originally, haven't even got a permanent settlement here yet), eventual motherhood - can't postpone it forever. What I was getting myself into? What for? I went through a few adult skating boards, but they only made me more restless. I knew I have only one way to put and end to all that anxiety and indecisivenes: I ordered the skates.

It wasn't till April then I put them on then for a proper tryout. Almost immediately I joined a Skate UK group - I wanted to make sure that if I'm spending my time at the rink I'm at least learning something. I got into grade 3 since I was already "stroking" and managed to breeze through to grade 6 where I got stuck at 3 turns. At some point I even thought "this is it, this is your plateau, you can't get past it". Silly, I had been skating for a few weeks only. Surely, one day it just clicked. Then there were mowhawks. Now I'm pushing to get past 3 revolutions on my upright spins... There's always something. That's what makes skating so exiting - there's always something to challenge you, to cheer or whine about....

And other things I can barely describe - the smell of the rink, the mist, the sound of cracking ice when you do a good deep edge: it's so crunchy you can almost taste it! The way your feet pulse when you put them back into trainers The relief of biceps that you never knew you had. Those kids in public sessions that skate up to you and ask "are you a professional skater"? Those kids in practice sessions that land their double axels without taking lollipops from thier mouths (exaggerating, sure, but, oh my, do they make you feel an old cow!)

Sometimes I feel sad I haven't had a chance to start earlier, but then, I guess, I just wasn't ready yet. It's the best time to learn for me now - with no pressure to achieve things other than my own ambition, with my career drive going from "burning" to "slow cooking", with a bit of time and space and cash I can devote to myself. Sometimes I think I'm just skating off an early onset of a mid-life crisis; but even if so - I haven't felt (and looked!) that good for ages, and that one thing is definitely worth it.

I started skating at this same ice rink in SF when I was five years old. At the time, my family lived only three blocks away on 45th Ave. We were neighbors Jazzpants! My interest in skating was sparked by seeing a dark-haired female skater (either Peggy Fleming or Linda Fratianne) performing her program on tv. She did a spin; I started twirling around in the living room. And that was the initial draw for me --- I wanted to twirl around. My parents agreed to lessons, but only weekly group lessons. So I pretty much spent every Saturday from 8am-3pm at the ice rink. I spent the whole time in rental skates, but since I was a "regular" the rink owner would make sure that I had a good pair of rentals and would even check to make sure the baldes were sharpened. My family moved across town when I was eight and I kept up the same routine for a few more years. But once I reached 11/12 years old, I started preferring to sleep in on Saturdays and gradually lost interest. I stayed a fan of the sport, but that was about it. I didn't do any competitions, but passed up to ISI FS4, and could do all the FS5 elements with the exception of the axel.

Flash forward to 1999. I was in my second year of law school in Sacramento and was seriously stressed out. One day after watching the movie "The Paper Chase" (where the main character swims to release law-school related stress), I decided that I needed to take up a sport in order to remain sane. So I bought a pair of recreational Riedells, headed out to the local rink, did two butt slides & 1 knee slide across the ice, and signed up for group lessons. I stayed with group lessons until I got back to Freestyle levels and have been taking private lessons ever since. There have been a few skating hiatuses due to work and moving, etc., but I've been consistently taking lessons again since this past November. Skating definitely did help relieve some of the stress and anxiety I had during school. Now I do it for exercise and fun.

After going into YBISC (same rink as JazzPants and AnnM) and seeing all my friends do jumps and spins, I really wanted to take classes. My parents and I agreed that as long as I maintained a 4.0 GPA (eurgh ), I could do public lessons. Eventually, I got a 3.67 few months after starting, and had to quit....

By the time my next report card came from school, I was ready to get back on the ice. Unfortunately, I was a bit late on signing up, and the season had already started.

I ended up signing up for the season after, and have been skating every Sunday since.

I first started skating at 9 for about 2 months. the rink was too far and i didnt have any knowledge about how the classes were leveled. i thought they only had a beggining class. About a year later my friend was taking figure skating lessons and a rink and they took me. I FELL IN LOVE AGAIN!. From then on , i took lessons and in a year 1/2 i went up about 7 classes i think. Alpha 1 - Freestyle 3. All in begginer blades,. lol. Then i started taking private lessons when i was in freestyle 2. Now i got new skates and i cant wait to continue in figure skating. i absolutly love it.

12 years old and on my way to the olympics...

YAH RIGHT!

straight A's?! .. wow... you're smart ! lol.
have you ever met jazzapnts and AnnM? its pretty cool you skate at the same rink!