Good morning all,

I haven't posted too much lately-been busy with kids home from school and all but I thought this might be a fun/intersting thread.

Ever get on the ice with your guards on? SPLAT! I did last night. In fact, I've done it twice now in the past 6 months and it's sooooo embarrassing! I'm so sore today! So, my question is-have you done this or anything else you're mortified about? Please share!

I also have a tragic story to add. I was skating at a public that wasn't very crowded a while back. Mostly adults doing freestyle. Anyway, a woman who was just learning to skate split her pants in a fall. I was wary earlier when I saw her skating in jeans and I was nearby after the fall so I offered a hand and she was laughing, saying she couldn't get up because of her pants. I helped her get up and off the ice though, gave her a pair of sweats I had in my bag and she kept skating but then I never saw her come back again! I felt so badly for her! I don't think anyone else noticed her "accident" but since then I've thought about what would happen if I had a wardrobe malfunction. I would die!

Oh and this reminds me. Ever spin when you have a cold? SHUDDER! How about during a lesson? I don't even want to talk about that.

Please, make me feel better. Share some stories! Thank ya!

__________________
~AF

Ooo, spinning with a cold. I've done it many times. Its just not good, I did quite a decent spin. However, it just made me really really dizzy and i was halfway out in my landing position and i feel flat over, like onto my face over. It wasnt good. It was one funny fall though, i think it must have been like my best one ever. My coach laughed at my and then came over and helped me up, we had a chat while I tightened my skate and calmed down a bit and the I just carried on with the lesson.

Another funny fall i have done, i was early for my lesson (my acadmey one so we couldnt go on the ice to warm up) so we, me and my mate, went wondering round the rink. You would have though that if you kept your guards on it would give you more grib on the slippy rubber floor but apparently not. I was jumping about as you do, I hadnt been skating in a week so i was a bit excited, and i slipped over and landed right on my butt in this huge wet patch. But as there was lessons going on, I didnt see who was coaching and when i looked up, i saw my coach looking at me and laughing. I guess she must have seen me fall over. I did then nearly go and shut my fingers in the door when i was next speaking to her.

um i have never been on the ice with my guards on, but me and my mate were talking about it today. She has though, I now Im going to do it some day.

Thats all i can think of really. I have loads of funny stories, but those two i dont think im ever going to forget.

Hannah x

And you really dont want to do it Hannah I got a lovely black eye earlier this year from just that.

Well done for yesterday by the way.

Cheers
Grace

I've had a similar wardrobe malfunction... last summer or early fall.

I was in lesson working on the Tango solo, wearing a pair of old stretch fleece pants, with tights and baggy t-shirt.

Did the back swing after the cross-roll RFO3 and was trying to get more front elevation and fell off the back of my blade (hit something on the ice as I was on that LBO edge). As I fell, the back seam of the fleece pants ripped (I guess from the ice conditions.) Got up and skated back toward the barriers, and my coach told me that I had a rip in the back of my pants through to bare skin (I couldn't feel that the pants were ripped). Sure enough they were, so I just pulled the baggy t-shirt down over my pants until I finished my lesson.

The pants were too far gone to try and resew the seam, though, so they went in the bin, as did the tights.

__________________
American Waltz... Once, Twice, ???? ...

Q: How many coaches does it take to fix Jen's Dance Intro-3 Problems
A: 5 and counting...

Yep, that would be the affectionately named 'snot spin'. It's especially effective as a sit spin for some reason Make sure that you don't get anyone taking photos of you when you're doing this spin as it's pretty gross

__________________

The best whisper is a click

Front spirals in class, across the short way, tripped on a very rough patch and splatted into the barrier! Luckily, my arms caught the full weight of me before my face did......everyone in class thought it was super-funny (once they knew I was ok) my elbows were bruised a bit...

I always look down at my feet before stepping onto the ice due to an incident at our Christmas ice show---super quick change of costumes meant changing with skates on (and guards) and running backstage for next number, I dashed onto the ice.......skidded about 10 feet! Luckily, the ice was so chewed up backstage it caught me and I didn't splat, but everyone backstage saw me I stood stock still while 2 people held me and took off my blade guards. They still tease me about that!

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

I didnt compete yesterday, I just went down to watch and i watched thursday well. Im to young to compete in adults anyway, maybe two years time you will see me competeing but just not yet.

But yeah, im not planning to go on the ice with my guards on. But knowing me, I will. I've started wearing my guards more, since i got new skates, and im bound to be running late for a lesson and forget to take them off. It sounds like it hurts so much.

Hannah x

Whoops sorry...mistaken identity, I'm also too young...56 coming on 12!!
And yes it happened when I was late for a lesson.
Take care
G

The worst thing that happened to me while skating was during a 9am freestyle. The rink always left one door open at the far end of the rink. I stretched and got on the ice using that door and enjoyed the solitude while I warmed up. Then, I put on my program music for a run through, thinking I was all alone.

I didn't know that a woman had gotten on the ice by opening another door. I slammed into her while starting a back spiral. As I fell, I managed to hold her up, apologizing the whole way. As she skated off, I saw the blood. Fortunately, the Devils were practicing on the other rink and their trainer gave her first aid. Sixteen stitches and several weeks off the ice because I didn't look around before starting my program. Learned my lesson well.

__________________

ROTFL, TashaKat!! What a picture..

I'm so sorry that had to happen to you! Those sort of things really suck!

Last night I hit a little kid doing a back spiral, which was pretty darn scary because I keep an eye on where I'm going and all I knew was "uh oh, I just hit something" as I somehow turned it into something like a half loop to keep from falling. It was a little boy, no more than 8 or 9 years old, who had been *sitting* on the ice. So he was below my line of sight, and fortunately my raised foot as well. He wasn't hurt or concerned about it at all. *phew* First time I've ran into somebody in several months - it's always a scary thing...

__________________
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

Reading all these stories reminded me of my own ones. In chronological order:

Not too long after I had started taking figure skating classes, I got into my head the idea of doing as large a circle as possible around the ice, going backwards (i.e. staying very close to the boards). I was going rather fast and wasn't looking behind, so it came as a quite bit of a shock when I suddenly slammed into the boards.

The next one was shortly after I joined a proper skating club. It was in the summer, and there were very few skaters enrolled. That day, one boy (about 6 years old) was getting a few minutes of extra practice time before the session started, and the coach let me on as well (he might have had a test, but I'm not sure if that was the same day). I ran into him while exiting a waltz jump, just as he was doing his program run-through, with music and everything. He fell, started crying... Fortunately he wasn't hurt.
It was awful because his coach gets really nasty when something like that happens to her skater, no matter whose fault it is.

For example, a few years later, a girl taught by this woman got virtually between my legs as I was setting up for a spin (so one foot on the ice). She was doing her program, but it was entirely her fault - witnesses said there was no way I could have seen her and that she did see me, and should have turned or something. We both fell, and she started crying, saying she hit her head. Her coach yelled at me, even though she had not seen what happened and everyone was telling her it was the girl's fault. Someone said that she lied about hitting her head against the ice.

Since then, I've been avoid this coache's skaters like fire. Which sometimes can be hard, because the girl from the above story always skates as if she was the only one on the ice - she'll never get out of anyone's way, but always expect people to yield to her, even if they're in a lesson or doing a run-through. Ugh.

Anyway, on to more "fun" stories

I haven't yet stepped onto the ice wearing my guards per se. However, I did go out with the soft cloth blade covers on. I skidded about 10 feet, and my coach commented "wow, you got quite far in those!"

Once I was doing a back spiral, possibly as part of a group lessons. Suddenly I heard several coaches yelling out a "Jen, Jen, Jen, Jen!!!" and the next thing I knew was that I was down on the ice, after my skating leg ran into this Jen girl. I don't know what she was doing behind me, it might have been a fall or something. She didn't see me coming until the coaches started yelling, and then she avoided my free leg by ducking under. Must have been a sight.

I usually wear boot covers, just to protect my skates and keep them white. One day this winter I went ou on the ice with my right boot cover pulled up onto my shin and all the way to the knee. I think I needed to relace my boot, but then forgot about the cover because I wanted to get on the ice fast. I started doing some stroking and still didn't notice. About 5 minutes later one of the coaches asked me if this was "the new style". I just went "huh???" and then she pointed to my leg.

When accidents like that happen, whose Insurance pays for necessary Emergency-treatments ? (and in this particular incident, the sutures were needed where ?)

The injured, I would presume. Any rink you go to has signs which say quite obviously, "Skate at your own risk!". By stepping onto the ice, this is a condition which you accept.

__________________
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

I did the skate guards on the ice trick up at Lake Placid before a group lesson. It was in the Lussi Rink which is a patch rink so there is no rail. I started laughing, rolled over on my back and took my guards off. One of the coaches came up and said if it is any consolation, you had gone further on the ice before falling thatn anyone I have seen.

Second "trick" was when I was about 12. I was trying pairs and we both fell. The girl I was skating with sank the back end of her skate blade into my upper fore arm. The three coaches came over and while holding the skate and my arm, had her take her foot out of the skate. The rushed me off to the hospital with the skate blade still embedded in my arm. The reason they did that was a soon as it was pulled out it would bleed...and it did, just squirting out. My mom freaked!! No more pairs after that... I have a nice little 1" caterpillar scar from that as permament reminder.

__________________
Keeping School Figures Alive!!

I was doing power 3s, and I was nearing the end of the rink, but I thought I could avoid the wall. Nope! SPLAT I went into the wall on the backwards crossover part. That one hurt

My dance partner and I just randomly fell in the middle of the Dutch Waltz... on top of each other At least it was just us on the ice, no one really saw it

The other day my parnter was just standing up and just had his feet slip out from under him Needless to say I laughed at him

The other day I was doing crossovers with aforementioned dance partner (noticing a pattern? )and this other girl was doing field moves, and we were trying to avoid her, but still collided and I went sliding across the ice, and the girl nearly fell on top of me. Tha tone hurt too!

Oh, another one... I just FELL in the canasta tango for no apparent reason, again, and I fell splat on the INSIDE of my knees... you know, where you're sitting down with your knees bent and your feet on the outsides of you? make any sense? I did that not once, but twice I'm talented

My saddest fall was off-ice... before I started skating... I biked into a mailbox cuz I wasn't looking where I was going, flipped over my bike and landed on the asphalt driveway next to the mailbox. that one REALLy hurt... still have a scar on my elbow

Clumsy? Me? Nah

In this case, the Devils trainer didn't charge anything, just patched her up and sent her to the ER. She had health insurance, so it covered the stitches, etc. at the hospital. I gave her a gift certificate to the rink's pro shop as a "get well" gift. Her tights were unusable after the trainer cut them off to treat the wound.

__________________

Thanks for all the stories! Very interesting! Sorry if anyone got hurt though!

__________________
~AF

Several months ago, yes, I walked onto the ice with my guards on, for the first and only time. Hopefully it won't happen again! I don't even think anyone really noticed, but I felt silly anyway.
I usually go onto the ice slowly, as I did with my guards on, so the fall wasn't that bad. I was able to grab the boards to slow the fall.

Recently my primary rink put down a new, more-slippery floor by the ice. A few times I've ALMOST slipped on it (with and w/out my guards) and I've seen a couple other people almost fall on it, and one girl actually DID fall. The old floor was rougher and this one is so smooth, especially bad when wet.

A couple times I've either bumped/been bumped into by another skater on ice, though those incidents were minor.

__________________
Andrea