aehodman
April 24th, 2000, 09:35 AM
Hi all! I'm back from my skating adventures in Ireland. It was pretty interesting, to say the least...
Apparently, there is only one rink in the entirety of the country, and that is in Dublin in a lower level complex. The ice is very mushy there -- it was also very rough. It reminded me a lot of skating on an outdoor pond with a slight cover of frost on it. Despite the harshness of the ice, some of these kids are terrific skaters! I could not manage a sit spin at even half the usual speed or position, as my inside edge kept tipping and grinding into the ice, yet there was a fantastic young lady there who not only pulled off perfect sit/change sits, but also a huge double axel. If she had been skating at my home rink on better ice, I'm sure she would have been able to land a triple loop, no problem.
The visit to the rink was a bit odd in that all the kids I talked to were super nice and considerate on the ice, yet almost all the other adult skaters were extremely anti-social and inconsiderate. At one point, a lanky adult lady skater who seemed to be about my age kept cutting me off every time I tried to do a lutz jump. True, this did happen several times anyway with other skaters there due to the smallness of the rink (it's about 1/2 the size of a standard rink here), but she seemed to be aiming right behind me a bit too often for it to be just a coincidence. Neither she nor any of the other adults would bother to speak to me. I have no idea why... The other 'non-skating' adults there, however -- the people who run the rink, as well as one of the beginning skater parents there, were extremely nice to me and we had some great discussions about Ireland's skating future.
I was pretty proud of myself in that despite the softness of the ice and the diffculty of grabbing the ice for a good solid landing, I managed a few good lutzes and flip/loops on the ice, as well as some great scratch spins. With as hard as I had to push on the ice there, I should be flying when I skate here on Tuesday!
Apparently, there is only one rink in the entirety of the country, and that is in Dublin in a lower level complex. The ice is very mushy there -- it was also very rough. It reminded me a lot of skating on an outdoor pond with a slight cover of frost on it. Despite the harshness of the ice, some of these kids are terrific skaters! I could not manage a sit spin at even half the usual speed or position, as my inside edge kept tipping and grinding into the ice, yet there was a fantastic young lady there who not only pulled off perfect sit/change sits, but also a huge double axel. If she had been skating at my home rink on better ice, I'm sure she would have been able to land a triple loop, no problem.
The visit to the rink was a bit odd in that all the kids I talked to were super nice and considerate on the ice, yet almost all the other adult skaters were extremely anti-social and inconsiderate. At one point, a lanky adult lady skater who seemed to be about my age kept cutting me off every time I tried to do a lutz jump. True, this did happen several times anyway with other skaters there due to the smallness of the rink (it's about 1/2 the size of a standard rink here), but she seemed to be aiming right behind me a bit too often for it to be just a coincidence. Neither she nor any of the other adults would bother to speak to me. I have no idea why... The other 'non-skating' adults there, however -- the people who run the rink, as well as one of the beginning skater parents there, were extremely nice to me and we had some great discussions about Ireland's skating future.
I was pretty proud of myself in that despite the softness of the ice and the diffculty of grabbing the ice for a good solid landing, I managed a few good lutzes and flip/loops on the ice, as well as some great scratch spins. With as hard as I had to push on the ice there, I should be flying when I skate here on Tuesday!