Gordon's Sk8er Boi Blog

My adventures as an adult male figure skater in Tucson, Arizona Portland, Oregon Chandler, Arizona.

Wednesday, July 08, 2026

Edges

 My figures lesson with Danette on the Chandler adult skate, coming back after Danette's trip.  Ice was nice, but really crowded -- 15 skaters!  I was running late so a very brief warmup.

Today's lesson:

  • FO edges -- no warmup so posture and flow not good.  They did improve.
  • FI edges -- okay.
  • BO edges -- more or less okay.  Lobe sizes not even, though.  Ugh.
  • BI edges -- I managed to push my feet out from under me on the first push and do the slo-mo fall, lol.  It was pretty funny, really.  That's what I get for widestepping.  These were better after that.
  • 3s -- just a couple minutes of these on the wall.

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Monday, June 22, 2026

Edges

 My figures lesson with Danette on the Chandler adult skate.  Nice ice but a bit crowded -- 10 skaters.  I was running late and had first lesson, so we just dived in when I got there (5 min late).

Today's lesson:

  • FO edges -- lack of warmup + usual posture issues = more time on these.  Posture is still a problem and I had a lot of flats to start with.  This did improve though.
  • FI edges -- as usual, rather better.  Still need to stand up straighter though.
  • BO edges -- once again a bit problematic.  More time on these.
  • BI edges -- not bad.  Posture a bit of an issue but I have an easier time fixing it on these than the BO.
A bit frustrating, as usual.  I need to get my act together and skate more, or I will keep facing these issues.  No lesson the next couple of weeks.

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Monday, June 15, 2026

3s

 My figures lesson with Danette on the Chandler adult skate.  First lesson so no warmup, and no scribed circles.

Today's lesson:

  • Edges -- just a run-through of all of these.  The usual posture and lack of warmup issues.
  • 3s -- some time just working on 3s on the wall and on the crease, a follow-up from last week. Some small progess.

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Friday, June 12, 2026

3s To Center

 My figures lesson with Danette on the Chandler adult skate.  Nice ice, a bit crowded (9 skaters).  We had postponed from Monday as I had a lot of stuff at work to catch up on.

I thought I was going at 11:30 (first lesson, the session was 11:30 - 12:30) but it was actually 12, so I had a lot of time to warm up all my edges.  I hadn't brought my scribe.

Today's lesson:

  • 3s to center -- we had not worked on these in a lonnng time. We worked them on  hockey circle, then spent some time just on the 3s at  the wall, then back to the circle.  After a bit more work we spent a fair amount of time just working the back choctaw as it was giving me problems -- basically the same issues as the step forward on the waltz-8, but worse.  I'm not standing up straight, not keeping the free leg close.  We worked this for a while and it did improve, so yay!

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Monday, June 01, 2026

Edges & 3s

 My figures lesson with Danette on the Chandler adult skate. Nice ice but a bit crowded, and since I had first lesson on the session, no warmup nor circles.

Today's lesson:

  • FO edges -- we did these a couple of times to get better posture. Considering the lack of warmup, not bad.
  • FI edges -- okay
  • BO edges-- relatively okay.
  • BI edges-- We worked on the initial push some on the wall.  Posture, posture, posture!
  • 3s -- just a few minutes on these, first on the wall and then on the crease.

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Friday, May 29, 2026

FO8, FI8

 My figures lesson with Danette on the 11:30 a.m. freestyle at Chandler.  About 8 skaters, nice ice.  I warmed up with edges, but didn't scribe circles since it was a freestyle session and a bit busy.

Today's lesson:

  • FO8 -- we decided to do these w/out scribed circles.  It actually wasn't as bad as I expected.  Still only making it about 3/4 of the way around the circle; and still working on improving posture. Despite the lack of scribed circles I did a reasonable job of tracing my circles.
  • FI8 -- as usual, better than the FO.  Almost made it around the circle.  Tracing was not quite as good.

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Monday, May 11, 2026

BO Edges, BO8

 My figures lesson with Danette on the Chandler adult skate.  Once again gorgeous ice.  Five skaters.  I scribed circles and warmed up with forward edges.

Today's lesson:

  • BO edges -- We ran these, they were so-so. We spent some time working the initial push (both directions! ack!) on the boards. Danette convinced me that starting with both feet on the ice for the initial push isn't cheating (lol) so that helped me to get my soon-to-be-skating foot turned out more.  After some work on the boards we ran the BO edges and they were definitely better.
  • BI edges-- As usual, better than the BO edges.  We did run them a few times specifically working, again, on the initial push and avoiding the wide step and getting the body turned more.  It did help.
  • BO8-- just 3 minutes on these.  The push was better (yay!) but I still need to work more on holding that initial position turned into the circle, and not letting the upper body rotate.  Uck.

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