Skating Field Trip

I had the day off from work yesterday, so I was in Phoenix to visit friends and family and have a "skating field trip."

I attended the coffee club session at Desert Schools Coyotes Center (formerly Polar Ice) in Chandler. I'd skated there before, but only at the public sessions. They coffee club session was really nice -- only about 6 or 7 people, all figure skaters. I dragged a friend of mine with me; she'd not skated in many years (she's a recreational skater) but she did fine, didn't fall once and was able to get around the rink and enjoy herself. I didn't work anything seriously since I was supposed to be there with my friend :-) but I did manage a few 3s, a couple of spins, and some miscellaneous other stuff just to keep my hand in.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that they honored my Polar Ice annual pass, so I didn't have to pay to skate. Yay!

After the session I said goodbye to my friend and headed up to the Alltel Ice Den. There I met up with Katlynn McNab's dad (Dale) and we had a good conversation while watching her practice. Her double axel had deserted her for a while, but it looks like it's back (and a nice one it is, too!). It was interesting to watch the session there, a lot of really good skaters. They have a practice I've heard about that we don't do here in Tucson -- the person whose music is playing wears a little sash/ribbon so that others know to give them the right of way. I was personally disturbed to discover one of the skaters there has a program set to a John Williams piece that I've always wanted to skate to -- here I thought it was my only little back-pocket secret and then I hear it playing over the loudspeakers! Of course by the time I get around to being able to skate to it it will be several years from now, I'm sure, so I got over it :-).

Another interesting thing about the session was that after the session they make the skaters patch the holes in the ice that they've made. I thought that was an interesting thing -- another custom we don't have in Tucson. Apparently it's pretty common elsewhere, but I thought it was kind of neat.

After the session we were standing around talking, and Dale introduced me to Grant Marron. Grant is a pairs skater (his partner is Jenna Yount), and I'd actually gotten to watch them practicing some side-by-side jumps and other stuff at the session. He seems a very intelligent, together person and of course he's an awesome skater. We had a nice chat (he was playing around with Katlynn, putting her on his shoulders etc.) and then it was time to go.

I had a great time on my little field trip. It's nice to see what other folks are doing and how other rinks function.