Skating Withdrawals

20 hours of skating last week may have done more mental harm than good, yikes! I am having skating withdrawals. I feel like a part of me is missing. Yesterday I could have gone skating in the afternoon, but I chose to hang out with my friends knowing that I wouldn’t be able to skate again until Friday. I had a great time with them, but open skate starts in a half hour and I am longing to be there.

I woke up an hour before I had to, on a Monday morning, the day after spring break no less; and all I could think about was getting back on the ice so I started brainstorming. I would do anything at this point for more ice time, but all the available ice time is during my work day. It’s far too late  in the season for me to join the skating club for afternoon drop in sessions (which are all to expensive anyways at $14 an hour!). I could join the adult skating class on Wednesday evenings, but that only guarantees me one extra hour a week. Plus, there’s a new coach in that class and I don’t know how I feel about having another coach instructing me. I have gotten really close to Coach T and I am used to Coach C’s methods. If I have learned anything in these last few months, it is that every single coach instructs differently! It could be a nice addition to my skating schedule, it won’t hurt my finances too much, and this coach could very well be a great coach...but there’s an even better option!

The edge program at the Onyx is for skaters who have passed basic 1-5 and are looking to learn more advanced figure skating skills without having to join the skating club. Coach T said that I have met the level, but I am not quite sure how I feel about joining before the summer. This program has many positives and only a couple negatives so I will start with those. I am worried about joining edge because I would be in a class with children. There are skaters in edge as young as 4 and 5 years old. There are some older students, but I would still feel like a giant next to them. Compared to the adults in my previous classes, I have learned relatively quickly, but I am about to be the tortoise in edge. Edge is also more expensive than the regular classes that I’ve been taking, even more than my private lessons, but for good reason. If I join edge I would have class instruction time, regular practice time, two additional practice sessions (on LTS ice) per week, and 20 minutes of off ice training (which I so desperately need). That would mean that I could skate on Wednesday evening, Friday evening, and Saturday morning. My skating time would triple, for a little extra moola ($$) that is!

I need a decision to be made by Wednesday, because that is the next edge class. I’ve already missed one week that I’ll have to make up, but I can only make up one class per session. I’m excited to say the least, because either way I’m going to end up with at least an hour of extra skate time per week in addition to my weekend public sessions.

I Need New Skates!!

It has become more apparent to me with every skating session that I need new skates. My recreational skates do not have good toe picks and the blades just don’t assist in spinning. I came off the ice yesterday with deep indents in my lower calf and pain in my knees and ankles from the lack of support in the boots.

Before learning to skate I had no idea there were different skates for different levels of skaters...and I had no idea how expensive they were! An “okay” beginner pair runs about $140 and a decent beginner pair is closer to $200. Nice skates for the mid-advanced skater run about $500-$2000, bet you didn’t see that one coming! I’ve dropped more than $70 in these last two days alone between paying for part of my L2S class, a private lesson, open skate, and my first sharpening. For skaters, this probably seems cheap, but for a beginner with an entry level job it’s a lot to drop in two days.

So naturally I’ve decided to pick up a part-time (temporary) job to cover the costs of skating. I’ve caught up to women in my L2S class who have been in it for 4 sessions (6 months). I’ve been able to do this because I’ve put in the extra time and effort on and off the ice. In order to continue doing so at an even faster pace I need the extra money to handle more classes, buy new skates, private lessons/ice time, and to join the skate club at my rink.

I’m coming at this skating thing with full speed!

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So my coach just sent me a list of skates that I should consider buying for my level, they are way more expensive than I thought they would be. Any skaters out there have suggestions about models and or brands?

Riedell-
Motion 255 $315
Edge 229 $269
Flair 910 $410

**Shout out to my friend Rachel (changed for anonymity) who helped me come up with a clever name for this blog! Figuring (figure) Skating Out & Breaking the Ice **

Learn to Skate

Today I called the Onyx and registered for my very first learn to skate session. I am very excited to start on Saturday, but I haven’t been on the ice since mid last week. Since I have jobs set every day this week I probably won’t be back on the ice until the morning of practice. Sounds to me like I need to start off ice training.