I've asked this question about TFSC possibly getting the rights to webcast other national championships, and it all will depend on the various nations' federations. Ditto for the ISU-controlled events -- Worlds, Europeans, Four Continents, Senior & Junior Grand Prix.

If you're interested in some of the skating highlights from the Southwest Pacific Regional Championships... A friend of mine that attended in person cited the Novice Ladies Qualifying Group A on Thursday Oct. 6th as a highlight, especially the FS performances of Victoria Rackohn [10th at 2005 US Nationals in Novice], Mirai Nagasu, Lexi Ibanez and Sophia Adams ("My Fair Lady"). Also highly mentioned were Daisuke "Dice" Murakami [2004 Novice men's silver medalist] and Douglas Razzano [4th in Junior, 2005 Nationals] in Junior Men's SP & FS and Brian Simm [6th in Novice, 2005 Nationals], Ricky Dornbush [5th in Novice, 2005 Nationals], and Christopher Caluza in Novice Men.

Other SWP performances of note that have been recommended (not meant to be a complete list):

Junior Ladies: FS of Caroline Zhang [4th in Novice, 2005 Nationals] gave an "enchanting performance" with eye-catching, fast & flexible spins, Tenile Victorsen [4th in Junior, 2005 Nationals, now co-coached by Angela Nikodinov], Crystal Shum [9th in Junior, 2005 Nationals], Angelyn Nguyen's SP.

Novice Men: Brian Simm's SP ("amazingly creative"), Ricky Dornbush ("amazing spins and footwork"), Christopher Caluza ("fun short with complex spins"; his FS featured a full spiral sequence that included a Biellmann position and ended with a spin combo with a reverse spin), Galvani Hopson's Blues SP "is worth a watch."

Novice Pairs: Amanda Sunyoto and Darryl Sulindro, a "rapidly improving brother/sister team" coached by Todd Sand.

Intermediate Ladies: "The final warmup in Sunday's Final was unbelievable. Best performance for me was Lindsay Davis's, a clinic on technically precise jumps and spins. Ellie Kawamura [who performed in the Michael Weiss Foundation benefit show in Virginia in Sept.] was incredibly fast, with solid double axels and a huge smile. Also take a peek at the innovative short program of Victoria Hecht."

Intermediate Men: "Grisha Fournier and Max Aaron's entertaining shorts with completely different styles, Sean Rabbitt's joyful FS."

Juvenile Girls: "Mariyah Thurston's spring in her jumps is worth watching". The others advancing to Juvenile Nationals in December are talented as well -- Katlynn McNab, Margaret Stevenson and Keauna McLaughlin [4th place in Junior Pairs at 2005 Nationals, now focusing on singles this season] -- "even though they didn't have their best skates in the final round."

Happy viewing!

If you go to their website, here, you'll see they do plan a webcast themselves. Let's hope it's better than last year's! But even that did give one some idea of what was happening.

Are you going to watch? We're just going on the Saturday, but do plan to be there to cheer on all our friends; it's just a pity we'll miss the Primary Ladies' final, as our current men's champion's girlfriend's sister is skating in it for the first time, and I've known her since she was knee-high to the proverbial.....

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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!

That's awesome that you can download! I didn't realize that, I thought it was just streaming all the time. I am definitely going to get some of the North Atlantics finals. I was going to go up to Lake Placid this weekend, but decided to substitute for some learn to skate classes and make money instead of spending it. Hooray technology!

Actually, I'd probably recommend that you download. I'm now pulling the second file, and it's estimated 3 hrs download. Given that the actual video is about 1-1.5 hrs long, it means that my download speed is lower than playback speed - which means that streaming would probably be interrupted all the time. I'm planning to burn the stuff on CDs to watch at leisure - I understand you can do it from any machine as long as your license is valid.

Re video quality - it does get grainy from time to time, but if you want to use it mostly for self-instruction purposes, it doesn't really matter.

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My other car is a Zamboni

Definitely on Saturday, but I'm not sure about other days yet. I finish my current work project in mid-November, so if I don't get on a new one by then I might take a few days off.

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My other car is a Zamboni

I noticed that they now have the British Championships scheduled for live viewing. For us in the US, that will make for some strange times of day!

Just bumping this up to say that I paid my $30 to watch the British Championships, and I'm very glad I did. It is working beautifully, so far, wonderful picture quality, I'm delighted.

I do hope that we will be able to pay a "one-off" fee for other competitions in the future, like the US (and, dare I ask it, the British) Adult Championships; I don't think I'd use it enough to take out a full subscription.

But this is wonderful, and thank you so very much!

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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!

You can split a subscription with several friends. You can even log on at the same time with the username and password as long as you are watching different events.

If you have DSL, you can watch online and it's almost always fine. That option doesn't force you to wait an hour (or 4, if you have a slow connection); you can start watching right away. Even when you watch online, you can still fast-forward and rewind by dragging the little button; it just takes a little while to find the spot each time you drag. Still, if you only want to watch certain skaters, it's a great way to do it.

It also works well with foresite wireless, a direct site line HS internet connection.

My coach's daughter is skating in Juniors FP today. Link seems to be working fine so I'm all impatient to see. Hopefully nobody walks into the office with something urgent this afternoon!

I was hoping to volunteer to do the scoring but work messed up all my plans as usual. Still, thanks goodnes for the Internet!

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My other car is a Zamboni

I know, work does interfere with skating quite dreadfully - who was it said "Work is the curse of the skating classes".

Good luck to your coach's daughter; my coach's star pupil did very, very well yesterday in her first-ever championships, finishing 11 out of 23. Our Primary couple look as though they are probably 2nd - alas, out of 2, my favourite place, too - after the compulsory dances (there is a technical glitch stopping the scores being announced) and I am about to watch our Junior couple doing their Westminster in a few minutes.

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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!