PCAS 2012 Free Skate

My "Battle for the Beat" free skate program at Pacific Coast Adult Sectionals in Provo, UT.

I was at the rink in the morning watching, then went back to the hotel w/skate & travel buddy Melissa so we could get prepped.  Got in my costume, rested a little, and was back at the rink by 3.  My skate was scheduled for 5:44 p.m. -- there was an ice cut, then two events (2 skaters each) before me; they were all separate warmups.  Since I was first in my event I'd decided I needed to come off at the 1-minute warning (standard for first skater) and also not push it too much since I didn't want to be too tired and I knew the elevation might get me if I wasn't careful.

Got my skates on after Melissa's skate, then checked in with the ice monitor and went back to wait for my skate.  At this point I was pretty nervous... although the nervousness wore down a bit as the time got closer for my event (thank goodness!).   I had a chance to meet my competitor (just 2 of us), Mark L.

When the event before ours started we walked over and checked in with the ice monitor guarding the actual entrance (like last year, we entered the ice from the hockey boxes) and sat down.  Went out for the warmup, did some stroking, then waltz jump, then waltz-sal, both okay.  A couple of spins and those were okay, but the ice was pretty slick and I was having issues keeping the free leg back on the lunge into the spin -- it kept creeping around on me.  I decided I'd better do a few to get that fixed or it was going to be an issue, so I did several lunges both separately and going into the spin until they were okay (I'd decided I needed to warm up the spins more thoroughly anyway).

I came off at the one-minute warning, and took off my jacket and got some water, and tried to relax.  Finally they called my name, and I went out and started...

I was slightly shaky at the start, then settled down a bit, and the whole first part went pretty well -- no issues on the lunge and it felt nice and low (for me, anyway :-)).  Spin was... okay, but a bit short.  Off into the second half of the program, toe loop (toe-waltz!) was okay, footwork felt okay,waltz jump was good but I biffed the salchow landing just as I had in practice Friday night!  Grrr.  Somehow I got a little confused and didn't recover well, lost some time and decided to just skip the FI3s and go right into the final spin, which was short and ended early.  I managed to end relatively okay.

Did my bow, came off the ice, and watched my competitor do his program.  His spins weren't any better than mine, and his jumps were about the same, although he had more of them.  All in all I thought I had a reasonable shot at it.  Unfortunately the judges didn't agree :-( and I got straight "2" ordinals across the board.  Oh well!

Here's the video!