roadskater's blog

I took a break from working on the website and some family health issues, and from photos and video of the US Figure Skating Championships, to read this nice story of a day out at a new rink...in a snow storm. There's a balance of thoughts on the rink and the money and the goals, but really, to me, it sounds like the start of something beautiful in Toronto. Community and physical activity often amplify each other well. If you have a minute, read this journal entry of the brand new shovel and brand new skating rink. 

Skate Across Toronto: The best $9.99 the National Post ever spent - National Post -

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What is it about a young kid only skating for twenty percent of his life that can fascinate and inspire? Maybe it's the low center of gravity, little awareness of pain, and ability to spin without expelling previously ingested appetizers? I don't know, but as much as I love road skating and find most street and vert performances to be a bit repetitive, I enjoyed watching this young Scot hit the ramps. Here's a bit of viddy with more available. If you only look at a few seconds, start at 2:30 or so to the end to see some front and back landing spins and some post ramp flippage. Nice! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHAp39F_fT8

In this video, starting at about 1:00 in, he hits a jump, then misses a flip, but goes back again and does it...a back flip off the rim of a vert ramp, landing on the next vert ramp.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8syOxEb7aTw

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There's nothing so brilliant for me to say, except kudos to having a nice attitude and trying to make something good and fun out of a perhaps major mistake. It seems like 5 to 6 inches of ice would make a good start at a rink, and I vote for the Fire Department to come help smooth it out some. I have not been to the local outdoor ice rink but did drive by a few days ago on the way to something else. It seemed to be well attended by teens and such, who looked to be having fun.

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It's the helmet debate. I read this article to see if my thoughts might be changed. They were not. My thoughts are not based on numbers, but on my increasing belief over the years based on my experiences, mainly my failures if you'd like to think of them that way, but I think they were accidents far less under my control than I believed only seconds before, all in apparently very safe conditions. This doesn't make me right, but it makes me convinced. 

Shani Davis showed his speed at all distances this weekend as he won the all around for the U.S. Long Track National Championships in speed skating. In his first 10k (10,000-meter) in two years, he managed second place, seven seconds out. Davis had already won the 1500-meter. Davis hopes to give it a go in Calgary for the World Championships Allround too. But long distances are not easiest for him, he says:

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Here's a quick interview article with more from the mom than the skater and coach, taken from email and web material as well. Just like going to sit in the stands for a sporting event. You want to know what the athletes are thinking...not the former ones except for maybe the coach...but you hear the parents of course, coaching from the stands and discussing the logistics, because you're not an athlete down there but a spectator up here. Good reason to have an ipod or talk with the person beside you on stereo headset phone calls! :o)

Just in case you want another reason to keep on skating, consider Agatha Van Der Starre's 80th birthday celebration on ice. She did 80 laps with friends to celebrate 80 years. Like many who love various forms of skating, she came to it late in terms of joining the speedskating club. Being from Holland and then Canada, it'd be crazy to think she never skated, but it seems her speedskating started some time around 1980 in a serious way. She medaled at the British Columbia games a couple of years later, and fifteen years after that, still going strong...

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We've talked about the idea of bonk training before, and I don't claim to know a lot, but know I have done it. Often it was not "breakfast" time, but for various reasons it was still over 6 to 8 hours, sometimes more, since the previous meal. This might have been due to odd work hour schedules or preoccupation with all sorts of things, but sometimes I showed up at the park to skate in a fasted state. 

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