30 Days of [Figure] Skating: Day Eleven

Day 11: Top 5 Favorite Male Skaters

Now here's something that should be relatively easy.... I hope.

1 - it's a tie for first between Scott Hamilton and Kurt Browning. From a strictly skating standpoint, Kurt wins hands down. Kurt is the most brilliant, talented and amazing skater on the planet past and present. His triple axel is GORGEOUS and his artistry sublime. No skater comes close to touching him in all around awesomeness. Scottie gets a nod, though, because he's been my hero since age four. I cannot let him slip to number two, I'd feel like I'm betraying him!
3 - Paul Wylie. He's smooth, he's inspiring, and he's a Man of God. What more could you want? Yeah, he seems to be a one hit wonder, but he's the encourager, and I love hearing him speak. And no one does the spread eagle like he does.
4 - Brian Boitano. Well, Duh. Who doesn't love watching him skate?
5 - Brian Orser. I've seen him skate LIVE... he's amazing.

30 Days of [Figure] Skating: Day Ten

Day 10: Last competition/show you attended...

I will speak on both, because I can. The last competition I attended was in 2008, the US National Figure Skating Championships held, that year, in St. Paul Minnesota. I met up with my regular gang of crazy girls and we, once again, had a wonderful time. The skating was good, some parts of the competition were nail biters (Johnny vs Evan anyone?), I shocked everyone by booing the scores at the end of the Men's final... we all took interest in several of the soon to be stars in Juniors (The Shibs, for one... and I got the girls hooked on Keegan!)

The last show/gala I was able to attend was the Fairbanks Art Festival Skating exhibition. Melissa and Denis were guest skaters and teachers and the kids of the area did an amazing job with their skating. It was such a joy to be able to see some great skating by the local talent as well as a wonderful performance by Gregory & Petukhov. They made me realize that I missed the feeling of watching figure skating LIVE, and I vowed to make it down to another skating event in the states soon. US Nationals 2012, here I come! (I hope)

I've heard that Fairbanks is not going to have the skating event this summer. Which has me completely bummed out as I was hoping to take the trip back up there this summer, but no such luck. Guess I will just have to reflect back on last summer, then. It's a huge disservice by the head honchos to kill the participation of the skaters. They were terrific.

30 Days of [Figure] Skating: Day Nine

Day 9: Feelings on Code of Points

First of all, I apologise for not sticking with this, but the break was needed ha ha.

I am going to probably annoy a lot of people by stating my feelings on the CoP. I have no problem with it. Yes, it's still being tweaked after nearly eight years since it's inception, and yes it's hard to keep up with the numbers and the rule changes and blah blah blah...

But Competitive skating should be sport first and I feel the CoP pushes that more so than 6.0. Yes, corruption still exists, let's not try to kid ourselves one way or the other. As long as there is anonymous judging and personal preference there will be those issues.

Do I think it has killed the artistic side? No, I think those skaters that are on top now would probably be on top with 6.0 with the same sort of program (ie boring). Do I think Patrick Chan would still get bonus points from the judges when he flubs up - yes. These are the same judges we had 8 years ago give or take a few names. It's not all that different, just more numbers and more work to finagle.

This season has been a weird one. The ISU is dancing a very odd tune trying to please the sport aspect while pleasing then many vocal unhappy fans. They are trying to get that balance of artistry and sport. It's seemingly backfiring this season with the quad points as Chan has proven.

Is it a perfect system? No. But, then, no system would be. I think the CoP is the right direction.

Frustrations creeping up...

I had a meltdown last night. Dad picked me up around 8 to go look at a car to replace the Duck Truck. Yes, that's right, the Ford Ranger was considered totalled by the insurance company. I'm still upset about it. That truck was an awesome vehicle. I miss it. Anyway dad found a couple of cars on Craigslist after getting caught by a scammer with a Ford Escape. Hopefully my parents are saved from any true fraud. No money had exchanged hands anyway.

So off we went to check out this Monte Carlo. The one thing I told mom was that I did not want a low to the ground vehicle. This was not understood or relayed to my dad. So I was incredibly disappointed to see how short/small the car was. I took one look at it and thought "oh heck no." Dad was pretty happy with it, but if I can't see over a snowberm I don't want it. I was very adament about that.

I was in a bad mood because work is also not going well. I just feel absolutely stupid every night as I've keyed something wrong just about everynight and everyone stands around waiting for me to finish or - worse - realizes I've made a mistake so they go tell everyone it's going to take a while.

So after I told dad I did not want the car and we had a heated discussion about the car I was going to be seeing on Sunday (about the same size but a buick which always translates into an old fogie car, to me, as well as a boat of a car at that) and I just lost it. I'm just tired of all the crap. If things don't start looking up I'm going to go insane. Thanks to taxes I am not making enough to afford rent, gas and food... I can have two of the three. I still have NO roommate prospects as I'm stuck advertising only through churches because my parents are worried some crazy person is going to come in otherwise...

UGH!

So I cried in dad's truck while we got gas and then really lost it when it pulled into my driveway. I was just TIRED of it all. I didn't want to be angry at dad - it's not his fault I've screwed this whole thing up by biting off more than I could ever possibly chew - and I didn't want to cry. Dad put his arm around my shoulders and I lost it. So then he sent me inside and parked the truck and came in. I think he was afraid I'd hurt myself LOL. We watched a bit of tv, dad started to fall asleep so I sent him home... besides I still had to work today so I needed to go to bed...

which I didn't get to sleep until 11... and even then it wasn't very fitful, so today I was in a fog.

I came home at lunch to good news. Judy and Gaylord had found a Ford Explorer in my price range and had purchased it. It's a bit older than the Ranger was... but they're convinced it is a good find... so I'm hopeful. Not the dream car, but I will get a Ford Escape someday. That's the dream.

If I survive this nightmare first. Oy.

30 Days of [Figure] Skating: Day Eight

Day 8: Favorite Ladies Program

This is so much easier than the men... I'm not a huge fan of ladies skating. I do have my favorites, but as far as picking a favorite program it's simple. It's Angela Nikodinov's (admittedly overused) short program "Just For You". It was the first program for her transformation into the elegant skater she is remembered as. It's still my favorite even after 10 years of "more brilliant" skaters. Brilliant. Sure. Whatever.

The medal doesn't make the skater...

30 Days of [Figure] Skating: Day Seven

Day 7: Favorite Men's Program

You really want to hurt me, don't you? How am I supposed to choose just one program? It's pretty close to impossible. The Men's dicipline is my favorite in figure skating, no surprise there, and I have a lot of favorite programs. So I'm going to narrow it down to two, favorite show program and favorite competitive program... at least I hope by the time I'm done I can have one. It'd be easier to just ask for favorite body of work of a figure skater! LOL

I'm still having a hard time deciding, I've had this blog open pretty much since I got home two hours ago and I'm still watching Youtube trying to decide just which program I want to use. It's come down to Kurt Browning, but that just narrows it down to A skater... not a program. I have so many favorites for so many reasons. And just when I think I have decided my heart comes up with another love.

But I think I'm going to go with Serenade to Sonia on this one. Not because it's technically difficult, or mindblowingly artistic (that'd be Nyah and Summertime) but because of the heart in it. It is, after all, a program dedicated to and about his relationship with his (then) new bride. And it's the program that made me fall in love with the Canadian skater whom most of the skating world already loved.



So there, whew, I picked my favorite show program... now to decide on my favorite competitive program... oh dear. This didn't seem to be so difficult. Originally I was going to go with Kurt's 1994 SP to St. Louis Blues (even if it was a disaster in Lillehammer), then I remembered I liked Evan Lysacek's Carmen, and then I wanted to pick Ryan Bradley's 2010 LP, and then I remembered I love several of Alexei Yagudin's programs. So many fantastic programs. And I do enjoy watching Johnny Weir's Otonal program... oy...

Alright I went with Ryan Bradley's 2010 Free Program. I dedicated a whole blog post about it last year, so why not. It's a fantastic program. It's everything I enjoy about the sport - in a COMPETITIVE program! It's just freaking awesome. I cannot wait to see what he does at nationals this year (so glad you've come back, Ryan!)

30 Days of [Figure] Skating: Day Six

Day 6: Predict - gold medalists at 2011 Worlds

I am a horrible predictor. Chances are if I name someone as the winner they bomb. I am unlucky. This is not just in figure skating but in mushing and football as well. If I cheer too loudly or have too much faith in even the heavy favorite, they lose. It's so bad that I've had to promise several athletes that I won't cheer for them at all! LOL

But since I have promised to do this stupid 30 day thing I will go ahead and jinx six skaters and ruin their year.

Ladies - Miki Ando, pretty sure she's being set up as the winner. Would love to see Alissa Cizny just have a monster year and take it all, though.

Men - Daisuke Takahashi. Granted he didn't have a good nationals, and he will be defending his world title at home and yadda yadda yadda, but I think he can do it (Kurt Browning's season the year he defended his first World's title was crappy too).

Pairs - Savchenko and Szolkowy. I know most have given this to Pang & Tong, but I'm giving it to the Germans. Because they're awesome.

Dance - Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir will win this thing, if they compete. If not Meryl Davis & Charlie White.

30 Days of [Figure] Skating: Day Five

Day 5: Your favourite Dance program

Oh goodness this is tough. Growing up I didn't "get" the ice dance side of the sport, it didn't have jumps or throws so it just didn't interest me. Then in 1999 I attended a show in Anchorage that Scott Hamilton (shocking, I know) brought up partnering with Tesoro. Renee Roca & Gorsha Sur were the token dance team in the show and they totally blew me away. Who knew ice dance could be so amazing? They skated to their program titled "Ghost". It sent shivers through me at 14.

Fast forward a few years to 2005 when I went to my first US National Championships. I met up with Melissa Gregory & Denis Petukhov and Melissa's mom and grandparents (who are all amazing). It was the first time I'd met them face to face, though we'd communicated by email prior to my making the trek to an actual event. I learned so much by sitting with Dale that week as she explained the basics of the dances. She was just your regular skater mom, but it was through her that I fell in love with the sport her daughter was a part of.

In 2007, Melissa and Denis had the free dance of a lifetime. It was one of the most beautiful programs I have ever seen, and I'm still so bummed that I did not get to see them skate it live. It was their Adam and Eve program - which would later become "Fallen Angels" a program they skated with US Men's Champion Johnny Weir.

I know I've already featured them before, and I'm incredibly biased, but Adam & Eve/Fallen Angels was just spectacular. I was tempted to go with Belbin & Agosto's Gypsy Free Dance from 2005, or Torvill & Dean's Take Five, but I've gotta go with MelDen once again. That program was everything a free dance should be.




And, of course, I gotta give some love to Gorsha Sur and that chick he skated with... so amazing.

30 Days of [Figure] Skating: Day Four

Day 4: Up and Comer you're most excited to see...

No question, that goes to Alaska's own Keegan Messing. I've watched him climb the ranks for the last six years or so, and couldn't be more proud of all he's accomplished. While others see some of the results and think him mediocre, I'd like to point out that Alaska's figure skating scene is... well... nearly non existant. They get very little support from teh state, very little notice from the USFSA, and their expenses are multiplied due to the lack of training rinks, general airfare to get to competitions, and the inflated local economy.

Keegan is a techinical wizard who is slowly working on his artistry. He's got a lot of energy and flair... and I love his sense of humor. He made a lot of buzz in 2008 and I heard a few remarks about how much he reminded others of a young Scott Hamilton (the height probably has a lot to do with it).

He's skating as a Junior internationally, and a senior at nationals. He's part of the next generation, and I have no doubt he'll be in the mix in no time. Definitely my top pick for most exciting up and comer.

30 Days of [Figure] Skating: Day Three

Day 3: Favorite Spectatorship Moment

I have so many. I've been fortunate enough to watch Keegan Messing over the years skate in local events, I saw some wonderful Fairbanks talent this summer both of which makes my heart swell with pride seeing Alaskans excel in the sport I have loved watching for most of my life (and certainly all of my adult life, which I know is only five or so years but still. It sounds cool when I say it).

However I think the one that stands out as my favorite is watching two very special people take to the Olympic ice for the first time in 2006. Melissa and Denis were so deserving of their spot on the US team, and I was so happy for them! I was able to see them make the team at the 2006 Nationals and the butterflies still come just thinking about it. I ended up having to sit away from their family during the free dance because it was so well attended that we had to sneak seats elsewhere, but we were still front and center to see them skate to silver.

Then February came and I sat in front of the TV watching every moment of the US Olympic Figure Skating Team's moment... and when Melissa and Denis took to the ice for their Compulsary Dance there was a lot of joy. Nerves were gone, because for them it wasn't about a podium placement, it was about the moment. I don't think I've ever seen them skate freer (though their Free Dance the next season is their best ever IMO).

So that's my favorite moment as a spectator... it's all summed up in that one skate.