I passed!
 

not one but two figure skating badges! Both had one element left for me to conquer -a scratch spin and a beginning back spin.... today I won! :D

:applause:

That is wonderful! :)

That's great but can you give more info.

Is this significant? I don't get it...

Not to you, maybe, but to me it is.

Good for You Monster !!

Lets see we have a figure skater , Fencer , We could Prolly put together a Decent shooting team , got a few cross country skiers , a few cyclists , Now we just need a few fools to Ski Jump and we could have a Olympic team !!!

thanks, zipper :)

"I passed!"

so sorry for your loss. don't forget to haunt. 'tis the season and all that.

I keep thinking you mean kidney stones.

oh haha -I always forget that euphemism.

...quick, someone polish classicman's dancing shoes.... :lol:

:beer:

Are they talking about sex or ice skating???

:lol: If you'd seen my half flip, you'd know it definitely wasn't sex......

....but I do stroke nicely and exibit superior flexibility.....

YAY! congrats monster!

ty :)

It must be fairly significant, or she wouldn't be hollering about it. But, I'm totally lost myself...are these steps up in skill or what?

Monster, if it makes you happy, I'm happy for you!

:cheerldr::cheerldr::cheerldr:

Are you a badass now?

Yay!

Thank for those who are happy for me. Grav, you nailed it. Yes, I'm badass, and yes, people who don't get it should perhaps be be a little less rude if they would like explanations, but of course I'm more than happy to elaborate for those who are interested.

Yes, each badge covers a set of skills/moves you must be able to perform. the first 8 badges are called Basic 1-8 and I think I have been sharing my success with all y'all on the cellar since about Basic 5. Basic 1 starts with skills like falling down and getting up, gliding on two feet, stopping and swizzles (a way of moving on the ice without picking your feet up) Basic 8 has a couple of jumps with half revolutions, a one foot spin and forward 3-turn (changing from skating forwards to backwards on one foot).

After the Basic Skills badges, we move onto Free Style (1-6). This breakthough has been a long time coming -it's been well over a year since I passed the final elements on my Basic 8 badge.

FS1 has some backwards three turns, two jumps, more advanced version of basic moves (like writing in cursive instead of printing) and a scratch spin -this means setting up the spin and finishing it correctly rather than just spinning.

This is a scratch spin (I only had to do three revolutions, though)



FS2 has a jump combination, a toe loop (yes, we're finally getting to jumps with the name you hear in Olympic commentary -real jumps! :lol:) Spirals (gliding in an arabesque-type position (I think I posted video of this way back when) ) and a back spin-which is a spin on the "wrong" foot rather than a spin in the other direction

Apparently I passed Basic 6 on May 2007: http://www.cellar.org/showthread.php...figure+skating

I couldn't find the threads for 7 and 8, but I know they're out there......

and yes, I took these badges to the kids school for show and tell at the office too :lol:

This thread has vids of me skating in April 2008: http://www.cellar.org/showthread.php...figure+skating

I like to think I look a bit more confident and jump a little higher than that now :)

I used to ice skate at our town's arena when I was a kidling. I loved it, but never could even skate backwards.

I did, however, master "Not Falling On My Ass As Much."

If I had some gumption about me, you'd be my inspiration. ;)

When I first started -when I got here- all I could do was skate forwards. No stopping and certainly no backwards :headshake: I stopped briefly when I was too pregnant for it to be sensible, but other than that have take a class almost every week , every year, Sep-May for 10 years. Slowly but Surely I'm learning to do what I always wanted to be able to do :)

Congrats monster. Applause and other signs of approval.

:lol: thanks. I'm in high maintenance mode today

My favorite course in college was probably ice skating. I was amazed at how much I improved over the course of the semester. Good job, Monster!

ADDAGIRL

you took ice-skating as a course in college? for credit?

I took golf. I can't for the life of me remember my other 1 credit phys ed class. :blush:

Liberal Arts education, I'm guessing. We took a bit of EVERYTHING.

My ex hubby took canoeing (did I spell that right ??) for college credit.

The "final" was a four day trip to the Flambeau River in upper Wisconsin. It was way fun.

Yeah. It was awesome. It was only 2 credits, but I had also taken a 2 credit scuba course, so they counted together as a real course. I can't remember if we had a gym requirement for graduation or if I just did it for fun.

The ice skating was me and 3 other students being trained by the hockey coach on skates that he had sharpened before every class and on ice that had just been smoothed by the Zamboni. It was awesome to have the full sized rink for just the 5 of us.

As a kid, I had just skated on the frozen pond near our house. Ripply ice with reeds sticking through.

Edit: Maybe they were only 1 credit each. Can't remember. All I remember is that I needed to take two gym courses to make the credits worth anything.

Bloody hell, no wonder college costs so damn much here. No phys ed requirement in UK. I had to pay to play badminton after hours. ...and I don't even know where the nearest rink was!

Yeah, that's why i like the Wednesday morning class -only about half a dozen of us on fresh ice. Ooh that reminds me, i think my skates need sharpening...

I totally want to skate on a pond, not done it yet.... but I'd need a different pair of skates.

Well, most liberal arts colleges are private colleges, so students do pay, in the form of crazy tuition.

You don't have a phys-ed reqt in most public institutions, that I know of, though you can take phys-ed classes as electives. For my college, those two less credit hours would have meant no piece of paper with my name on it after 4 years.

Oooh I don't understand all this uni stuff over here. Liberal Arts...private...state.....zillions of colleges to choose from..... I hope someone else sorts it all out for Hebe. And she gets a 100% sports scholarship. To Yale or something :lol:

Congrats Monster! Can you do a camel?

Not yet. but Hebe can. I just have the camel toe going on if I don't adjust my tights properly....

I have no doubt! :)

Never got into it, so I know nothing about it, why different skates for a pond?

The last time I ice skated, it was on a pond...and I ended up with a concussion. Probably had the wrong skates.

Are the teethy things on the front of the blade different? Ponds can be some rough skatin'.

No, I just don't want to trash my good blades on the rough ice. I need skates I don't pay so much money for!

Oh ok, that makes sense, thanks.

I pay $20 for a sharpen (and I'm a skinflint, so trust me, it's the going rate...), and a bad rock might even render them unfixable.

Oh, I guess I cant blame my concussion on the skates then...darn.

maybe they weren't sharp enough, or you weren't wearing a helmet?

I'm very impressed! Be proud of yourself!

LOL, definitely no helmet...this was 1978, for god's sake :D.

I was practicing figure 8's and boom, I fell backwards....and my big head hit first.

OMG! I just love the sexy figure skating outfit!!

I always wanted to ice skate but I would be Basic - 1. falling down and not getting back up.

I thought you told me in another thread that you were a dude?

Awesomesauce! Well done that Monster!

I did a bit of ice skating as a kid. My bezzie mate and I went every other Saturday to the Nevada Ice Rink in Bolton - which a few years later mysteriously burned down when the business was in trouble:p

Loved it but never got beyond the basics of staying upright and moving round at a respectable speed.

Then you should probably do a little less of whatever it is that you're doing...... :lol:

Skating rink...

It missed the gang of asshole 10 year old boys with the frames designed for the toddlers to skate with, hooning round the ice at 50mph with no gloves or helmets.

And the three 13 year old boys who, despite all the evidence to the contrary, still believe it must be possible to skate with your waistband around your knees and skates four sizes too big and completely unlaced. Yup, I really to see them, every public skate. nope, they really can't skate like that. nope, they don't learn. they fall over a few times then give up and get popcorn from the concession stand :lol:

I passed Free Skate 3 yesterday. You can extrapolate from 1 and 2 to get a visual, so I'm not going to faff about taking a pic :lol: but I passed! :D just. i had two thngs left and I kinda scraped through them.

Free Skate 4 is never gonna happen though -I passed half of it yesterday, and the other half involves complete rotation jumps -the kind they actually do in the Olympics (albeit usually with 2 or three rotations) and my instructor says people my age shouldn't be trying to jump (which of course means I'm going to try....)

Children largely form their character by imitating their parents.


By, say, copying your approach and becoming a scholarship-quality swimmer.

Tuition plan, underway!