Novices

Mon, 06 Jan 2014 03:44:52 GMT

Today marked my return to the ice rink after a hiatus of 7 years. I used to travel all over to see figure skating - Skate America, Nationals, Worlds, and exhibitions or pro skating too! But it got too expensive and they changed the scoring system and life changed and I stopped. Today it was time to go again!

US Nationals are in Boston this week! And my loving sister made it possible for me to go! We have all-event tickets and will be popping in to the arenas this week for many hours of skating practices and competition! Most of the action is at the TD Garden later in the week.

I started today with the Novice competition at the Boston Convention and Expo Center in South Boston. They build an ice rink inside the exhibition space on the lower level! Most of the competitors today are in their mid-teens. There are five levels of competition at Nationals:

1) Juvenile
2) Intermediate
3) Novice
4) Junior
5) Senior (the ones you usually see the top 3-4 on TV)
(they go on to the Olympics in a month)

I got to see the novice ladies and the pairs short programs with my 6 year old niece. I was worried that it would be too tough for her to sit hour-after- hour watching skaters, but she was enthralled! I also worried that I had forgotten the rules, or how to judge the moves. But it all came back to me, and we were sitting with experienced fans who were kind enough to help me indoctrinate her.

I saw friends that we made online in the 90's that often traveled to the same events with us, that I had not seen in 10 years! And I made new pals, some of whom told tales of starting in with skating fandom when it came to their city in 1971! Skating fans are good people!

I had also forgotten how fun it is to people watch! Many of my favorite skaters are coaches now. So you can looks behind the boards and see past champions, or glance left and right in the stands and see faces you've seen on TV so many times! You can even get a glimpse of Brian Boitano! Skating is still a small sport where everyone mingles! It was so wonderful to be back mingling with them.

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bex77

Novices