I thought it would be cool if people posted either a photo or a movie of them when they started to skate and a recent video/photo. and if you don't have two to compare just post whatever you have! I hope no one did this just like a day ago or anything. I am gonna post some pictures of myself when I get my camera. =P have fun!

OKAY i have two spin videos. A pivot spin from April and a sitspin from this past Monday. I started in March.

I wish I was a beginner again, so that I could get a video of myself starting over. I was a wall hugger once.

Check out http://kc.sk8rland.com/video/ice_skating/ for mine...

And a reminder for anybody who needs it - I give out free accounts for E-mail, skating pictures, video, and websites on sk8rland.com - just send me a message and tell me what you want as a username if you want one.

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Casey Allen Shobe | http://casey.shobe.info
"What matters is not experience per se but 'effortful study'."
"At first, dreams seem impossible, then improbable, and eventually inevitable" ~ Christopher Reeve

Oh no, do I have competition? It took me 6 weeks to break off my affair with the barrier.
I do have vids of me as a beginner, tucked away in the attic where they belong!!

I'm jealous about that. Because you even have videos when you began. I wish I had vids, because learning to skate for the first times is quite an important moment. It took me a while, and the side boards were my best friend I can remember that. I made good use of side boards while learning 3 turns too. The feeling is like a little bird or something, going through practice exercises and routines, before finally...for some reason, you break free from the preparations.....or in this case ...the sideboards.

Yes I'm dating myself now, but in those days the video camera was the size of a house (slight exageration) but at least you could put the tape straight onto the player.

What a wonderful description!!

I have some basic jump/spin vids from my LTS class 2 years ago...I'll dig them up and put them up on Casey's sk8rland site when I get a chance. I have improved a bit....at least I keep telling myself that.

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

Nice videos everyone!

Here is a video of my first few weeks of skating.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvxeHN_Zi_M

Are you kidding? You could do all those in your first few weeks? Not bad at all!

I started skating half an year ago, but this video is of me after about THREE MONTHS. I was totally self-taught then. (I got in USFSA FreeSkate last month)

Anyway...Me practicing a salchow, spirals, and shoot-the-duck...with an awfully bad leg.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eczvjs6P8HU

^When was your salchow? I didn't catch it.

I saw toe loop attempts but no salchow too. Did you get the two confused?

Really?? LOL! It's really considered "old" video that I hadn't watched for like...two months or so. Now that I fully watched it over, yes it is a toe loop haha. But there's something wrong with it...

WannabeS8r, you look pretty comfortable on the ice for just 3 months. So what are you doing now that you weren't able to do when you made this video?

Umm...Let's think.

Decent salchow, decent toe loop, loop, flip, almost got the lutz down, decent scratch and back spin, sit spin, camel spin (only 4-5 revs though....;-(), Ina Bauer, Spread eagle, Biellmann, and some footwork.

I think that's it... BTW Thanks! I don't just "look", I am! ;-)

There is a young skater I have coached who was almost entirely self taught before I ever saw her, and was already doing Sals, sit spins, etc. The really funny thing is that I was thinking about her after reading the comment on how well you were doing in only three months, then went to watch your video, and this young skater has two videos of herself on youtube that showed up on your page! I didn't know she had anything out there, but recognized her almost right away. There's a lot you can do with talent, but lessons really clean it up and speed progress, as I'm sure you've found by now.

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Awesome!!

I have recent videos from competition... this was the cleanest program...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Egv6pBx6AaM

I have an old program from few years back some where in my backup cd collection, will be interesting to compare that! (One thing definite is that I was sllooooooowww back then and I'm moved up to umm sllooow? haha)
edit: ok here is one 5 years ago...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9VJLvw6-v8

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Tidesong

Great video! you spins and jumps were really nice!

Tidesong, you are a very pretty skater, and what nice flexibility!

Yes, I think I know who you mean. She's called Laura, right, I think?

As always... I have plenty of stuff I want to improve on but thanks Leda and Double toe for saying nice things hehe, I put my old program there now too... its not that much different on hindsight but oh well.

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Tidesong

Hey that's my name!

Oh, no, you have definitely improved! You look so much more sure of yourself on the ice, and your presentation has improved, too (not to mention your nice axel!).
By the way, I don't know much about ISI. Do you have the equivalent of moves-in-the-field tests? If you want to work on getting more speed and power, those moves-in-the-field can really help tremendously.
If I had to choose one move that improved my speed the most, I'd have to say the the forward and backward power circles (crossovers starting with long, slow crossovers in a tight circle and expanding out into top speed crossovers in a big circle). They are on the Adult Gold test as well as the standard Intermediate test.