Smooth as a baby's...

There is no finer feeling than skating on a well-maintained rink. The last couple of weeks the rink has been resurfaced a bit, and the ice is just unbelievably smooth. A true joy to skate on. Tricks that were hard before are now easy. The sensation of flying is intensified. I LOVE IT!

I believe they are able to look after it better now that the hockey playoffs are over. Anyone in Melbourne should get down to Olympic Ice Rink now while it's still great!

On a personal note, my hockey stops (at least in the anti-clockwise direction) are a thing of beauty. I can madly skate at full speed down the rink and do a massive 8 foot skid at the end, spraying ice in the air. It is so much fun! I'm the envy of my skating buddies, as none of them can do a decent hockey stop -- some can't even manage a bad hockey stop! It's weird like that -- some skills are easy for you and hard for others, and vice versa. Perhaps that's why the sport is so addictive... there's always so much to learn and improve.

Still Skating!

I know I haven't updated in a while, but I'm still skating and everything is cool! I just haven't really gained any new skills recently so I didn't see much point in writing about my lack of progress!

Well, that's not entirely true, as I AM progressing. My clockwise forwards and backwards crossovers are improving nicely, although they still are not at the level of my anti-clockwise ones. I've also moved up to the Advanced class, as the intermediate class was getting a bit repetitive. In the advanced class I'm probably the worst skater, so it is very humbling -- but still, it means I'm going to really learn some good stuff there.

Had a couple of falls recently but nothing too painful. Have been working on my inside three turns which are really tricky. Also, my two foot spin which is slowly coming along. I've had to relearn it because I was doing it incorrectly before and don't want to encourage bad habits!

Still loving the feel of the ice. Especially at the moment as the rink is very smooth and just gorgeous to skate on. I've had to miss this morning's (Sunday) skate due to me being at work, but I went yesterday and I'll be there Wednesday night as usual.