Gordon's Sk8er Boi Blog

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

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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Monday, May 04, 2026

BO Push, BO8

 My figures lesson with Danette on the Chandler adult skate.  The ice was GORGEOUS.  6 skaters  I scribed circles and warmed up with edges.

Today's lesson:

  • BO edges -- we ran these some more because I wasn't happy with them in my warmup. They did improve a bit.
  • BO  push -- we transitioned into just working specifically on the BO initial push/start, as Danette noticed my initial BO edge push wasn't starting perpendicular to the axis.  So we worked these quite a bit on the circle to get a a better push and position and a better edge that actually followed the circle.  We did a bunch and it did actually get better.
  • BO8 -- from there we worked on BO8, mostly holding the stick but without at the end.  The work we'd done did help but I'm still having some posture issues, need to not break forward.  I've also noticed I bend my knees much better on subsequent pushes than I do on the initial push.  Bleah.

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Thursday, April 30, 2026

FO8

 My figures lesson with Danette on the Chandler adult skate. We'd rescheduled from Monday due to my flight home from Jo Williams Memorial Cup (Spokane) being very delayed late Sunday.  I was running late, and I'd forgotten to replace the pen in my scribe, so I got a brief warmup of forward edges.

Today's lesson:

  • FO8 -- we spent our lesson on this.  Pretty much same old, same old -- Still trying to fix my posture and get a better push.  A bit frustrating.

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Monday, April 20, 2026

Edges

 My figures lesson with Danette on the Chandler adult skate. Nice ice, 8 skaters.  I tried to scribe circles but my scribe marker dried up and wouldn't write (looks like the cap came off in the car).  I didn't really get a warmup from messing around with that.

Today's lesson:

  • F edges -- we ran the FO a couple of times, focusing on posture.  The left is generally better  than the right.  The FI were not bad.
  • B edges-- Okay.  We ran BO and BI several times to improve the initial push, stand up straighter, and to keep the free foot in front and then 'hinge' it back.

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