Reggie on Ice

Well, what an interesting session today!

That's Reggie from 'Big Brother' and 'Skating on Thin Ice' in the photos, and she was at our rink today! But more on that shortly...

I arrived at the rink at touch late this morning (9am), so I quickly headed up the back to do my warm up. My warm up consists of running up and down the stairs about 10 times, then doing some sprints, star jumps, push ups and a few quick turns on each leg. Then I stretch as many muscles as I can think of and head back to my skate bag and lace up my skates. By the time I hit the ice I feel a lot less clumsy than I used to feel by just jumping straight on. I also don't need to wear my big jacket because I'm already toasty!

The lesson was really good, as it went over some stuff I'm still having issues with (forward and backward crossovers in the clockwise direction), as well as introducing some brand new stuff. Today we learnt 3-turns on each foot. A 3-turn is how you turn from forwards to backwards (or backwards to forwards) on one skate. It is so called because the tracing left in the ice is shaped like a big '3'. For an RFO 3-turn, you push off forwards on the right skate's outside edge, hold it, bend your knee, turn your upper body to your right, flip your right skate from forwards to backwards and skate away on a backwards inside edge. The trick is to be able to balance well enough to not put your other foot down! I did a few okay 3 turns on my right foot, with my left foot lagging behind in the performance stakes a bit.

After the lesson I wanted to practise my left foot work, as I'm worried about it falling behind. So I practised a bunch of left foot spread eagles, and tried to then do a few left foot mohawks (glide forward on your left skate inside edge, then put down your right foot on a backwards inside edge and lift up your left skate simultaneously). One of these attempts caused me to have a cracking fall about 10 minutes into the session. My naughty right skate decided it didn't want to do as it was told and just stood there, causing my feet to go out from under me and launch me backwards onto the ice, spraining my wrist in the process. I also landed with such an almighty 'splat' that about half the rink turned and looked. While the fall didn't hurt much, the thousand eyes boring into my skull sure did. I half wished the ice would crack and swallow me up, allowing me to be perfectly preserved like a 2000 year-old woolly mammoth. Children on school excursions would be able to point and 'ooh' and 'ahh' at my majesty. Unfortunately, no such thing happened and I just had to suck it up.

The rest of the session went better, as I continued to practise things on my left foot. It's coming along okay now, and with a couple more weeks of targetted practise it should be fine.

Georgina was still missing! However, Linda was there to show off her awesome forearm bruise from last week. I swear that thing is alive. And angry. She mentioned that Georgina hurt her leg in a fall last week and so that's why she hasn't been coming. Apparently she should be back on Wednesday night. Linda wasn't happy with her new second-hand skates and returned them. They were not giving her enough ankle support it seems. She's going to just stick with rentals for a while before buying another pair.

Anna was there and was skating well. She has the most beautiful lunge, and lately she has been working on turning the lunge into a kind of kneeling position. She managed to nail it perfectly a few times during the session, much to her pleasure.

At about 11am we had our first celebrity experience! Reggie, the winner of Big Brother season 3, and one of the stars of the Channel Nine reality show 'Skating on Thin Ice' turned up to try out the rink. She had her own skates and skated very well indeed, even showing off a few backward crossovers for the kiddies. I took her photo and chatted to her for a while about her experiences on the ice. She said that this was the first time she'd been on the ice since the show, and that she missed skating. I of course tried to convince her to come more often, mentioning the lessons timetable and whatnot, and she did say that she would try to come tomorrow morning for the 9:15 lesson and session. She was concerned at how rough the ice was (at 11am it's pretty darn roughed up), but I reassured her that the ice is freshly Zamboni'd at 9am, so if she wanted good ice she should come then. I hope she starts coming regularly! She was just lovely to chat to and a totally sweet person, talking to everyone and smiling all the time. Her partner (I assume) was there too, and he was a really sweet guy named Cam. While lacking her grace on the ice, he was determined to get out there and mix it up. He told me that he had last skated about 2 years ago, and was having trouble adjusting to this rough ice and dull rental skates. I empathised with him and showed him my boots that I purchased as soon as I couldn't handle those crappy rentals anymore!

Will Reggie be there again tomorrow morning? Will she start skating regularly at the rink? I hope so! If she does come more often, I'll see if I can organise an interview with her about her ice skating experience and post it up here. I'm sure she has lots of funny stories to share!