Artistic Roller Skaters - Introduce Yourselves!

[MWehmeier]

Originally Posted by thomas.schneider

Hey guys,

I am an artistic skater representing Brookpark Skateland of Ohio, coached primarily by Judy Smith (nee Hild, Drake). I have been competing for about 12 years primarily in team and solo dance, figures, and precision team. Recently I placed 4th in junior team, solo and figures, and 2nd in senior precision team at the 2008 nationals. Sadly, this is my last competitive season for awhile, as I am moving to Taiwan in a couple of weeks. I will certainly keep an eye out for the skating scene, though, when I check out the rink in Taipei that Kathie Fry mentions (link) and make my rounds at worlds in Kaohsiung, and keep you guys posted about the developments of the sport in Taiwan.

Sincerely,
Thomas Schneider

Hey Thomas...

Welcome to the boards! Congrat's on a successful season. How neat to hear you're going Taiwan. Is this a long term or short term move? If you're going to be there around Worlds... do us all a favor, and bring your camera! We'd love to hear your opinions and have some pics and videos from someone on the scene. If you need help in how to put them online, I'd be happy to help out.

I hope you are aware of it, but Jane Wojnarowsky is going to be the Senior Coach for the World Team. We have several Team USA skaters here in the forum, so you'll have some good contacts. Also Jayson Sutcliffe aka Rolaboi should be there as well.

[thomas.schneider]

Originally Posted by MWehmeier

Hey Thomas...

Welcome to the boards! Congrat's on a successful season. How neat to hear you're going Taiwan. Is this a long term or short term move? If you're going to be there around Worlds... do us all a favor, and bring your camera! We'd love to hear your opinions and have some pics and videos from someone on the scene. If you need help in how to put them online, I'd be happy to help out.

I hope you are aware of it, but Jane Wojnarowsky is going to be the Senior Coach for the World Team. We have several Team USA skaters here in the forum, so you'll have some good contacts. Also Jayson Sutcliffe aka Rolaboi should be there as well.

Mary,

Thank you for your welcome! This will be a long term move. After having studied Chinese at college, I want to immerse myself in the language for as long as I feel necessary (perhaps three to four years). Also, I am taking a job teaching English which has a year commitment.

I will definitely take pictures at worlds. They will be up on my flickr account and accompany some blog entries. Considering my work commitment, however, I can only attend on the weekends.

Jane is aware of my move and I will be glad to see her there! There are several team USA skaters I have yet to meet, so I will have to look them up. I cannot wait to meet Jayson in person finally!

[rwsz]

Thomas good luck, i was in taiwan years ago and it was good, had a good time. nice people i met there also. have fun at worlds and everything else. oh yeah welcome to the forum lol.

[Doug Sherman]

Originally Posted by Antoinette

- What is your interest in artistic skating? Are you a skater, former skater, potential skater, parent of a skater, competition judge, federation member, rink owner, skate manufacturer, member of the media, or just a big fan of the sport?
I was a competitive artistic skater when I was younger, back in the early 80's. I stopped competing when I was about 14. I recently came back to skating when my daughter started taking lessons and competing. My daughter is almost 12 and has been competing for a few years. I do not compete but I do practice figures, dance and little bit of freestyle occasionally. Right now is mostly about my daughter and my focus is mainly on her. For me its just for fun. I am going to start the processes of being a coach myself in about one month. I am very fortunate that we have some great coaches at our rink and that I get to learn from some of the best. I also want to start judging this upcoming season.

- What country, state or province, and neightborhood are you from?
I am from Sacramento, California-

Where do you usually skate?
Kings Skate Country

- Do you only skate for fun or do compete? If you compete, what events have you participated in? If you don't compete, do you have any interest in doing so?
I do artistic for fun right now. Right now my finacial focus is all on my daughter.

- What skates, frames, and wheels do you skate on?
Dance skates are Reidell 297's w/rolline variants plates and rolline grease wheels
Figures skates are Harlick high testers w/atlas circlemaster plates and rolline giotto wheels
Freestyle skates are SP Teri custom (LOVE THESE BOOTS) w/atlas freestyle plates and rolline panther wheels

- What else can you tell us about youself? What are your favorite hobbies and recreational activities outside of skating?
I really don't have time for much outside of skating.. lol I try to go to the gym at least 5 days a week. I enjoy spending time with my husband and kids and walking my dog. I also love to just hang out with my friends on the weekends. But with early practices on saturday and sunday mornings I don't get to do this as much as I would like.

Hello,
Im an ex skater from the 60s haha

[rwsz]

Hi Doug welcome to the forum, enjoy i am sure you can add to it.

[Footwork]

Former Artistic Skater, Judge and Referee, I skated in Michigan back in the 1960, yes they had roller skates way back then. I became a retread in the 1980's and took up Judging and Refereeing for a few years. I still skate, even at 67 years of age. I think the International Harris Tango may be a thing of the past, but I can still play :-)

I skated Dance, Freestyle, Figures, Pairs, and Fours. Speed Skated and played Roller Hokey. I started out on rollers, when I was 9 years old, switched to Ice for a couple of years, and went back to rolles, and skated competitively until I was 22 years old.

Happily retired and now living in Bedford, New Hampshire. I'm also into Photography, motorcycles, mountain bikes, and playing with my cars.

My photo website is www.F8Photos.com

[Rerunsk8s]

Awesome and welcome! It's good to hear about people that retire coming to judge or tabulate at events. We appreciate you and your comments!

[Footwork]

Originally Posted by Rerunsk8s

Awesome and welcome! It's good to hear about people that retire coming to judge or tabulate at events. We appreciate you and your comments!

The way I looked at it was when I was competing, there were people there doing those jobs, so I could skate. I gues it's "Giving Back" I was the Chief Artistic Referee in Michigan for a while. I enjoyed Judging and working the meets. I used to tell skaters to stand up and make my job harder, and that falls take the decision out of my hands..

[lilagus27]

Q: What is your interest in artistic skating? Are you a skater, former skater, potential skater, parent of a skater, competition judge, federation member, rink owner, skate manufacturer, member of the media, or just a big fan of the sport?
A: Ok, I’m Agustina and I compete since I’ve 14 if I remember well =P This year I only compete in Dance (Danza Creativa is call here...) cause in December I had an accident and I as unable to skate for about 6 months…and that’s why I couldn’t compete in the orders categories this year…

Q: What country, state or province, and neightborhood are you from?
A: I’m from Saavedra, Capital Federal, Argentina

Q: Where do you usually skate?
A: Where? Like a club? I usually skate in 2 different clubs, and know that the national competition is coming I’m practicing in 3 clubs xD

Q: Do you only skate for fun or do compete? If you compete, what events have you participated in? If you don't compete, do you have any interest in doing so?
A: As I said before, I compete =P and here we have “Regionales”, there we compete between the skaters of the same association (in representation of the club where we practice) , then we have the “Provinciales” (sometimes at the same date took place the “Selectivo” where are selected the best skaters of the federation to represent it at the National competition) where the competitors are from different parts of the province, in that competitions we represents the association where our club is subscripted I think =P, and finally we have the nationals competitions where we represents our federation and where the judges selected the best skaters of the hole country. That’s the biggest competition where I’ve competed xD also there are Competitions where are selected the skaters that are going to represent the country at the world championship.

Q: What skates, frames, and wheels do you skate on?
A: Figures: Risport Super Cristallo, Atlas plates and star wheels
Freestyle: Ripsort RF3, Star plates and star wheels (Roll-line fox for dance =P)
And soon I’ll have my 3º pair for dance =D: Risport Dance boots, Roll-line mistral plates and roll-line grace wheels

Q: What else can you tell us about youself? What are your favorite hobbies and recreational activities outside of skating?
A: I study at the Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA), I'm in the first year and I’m studying to be a civil engineer and…I don’t know :P I love skating…going out with my friends, my boyfriend, see movies, and I don’t know what else =P I think that’s all my life in a few words xD

[gluefish]

Originally Posted by thomas.schneider

Hey guys,

I am an artistic skater representing Brookpark Skateland of Ohio, coached primarily by Judy Smith (nee Hild, Drake). I have been competing for about 12 years primarily in team and solo dance, figures, and precision team. Recently I placed 4th in junior team, solo and figures, and 2nd in senior precision team at the 2008 nationals. Sadly, this is my last competitive season for awhile, as I am moving to Taiwan in a couple of weeks. I will certainly keep an eye out for the skating scene, though, when I check out the rink in Taipei that Kathie Fry mentions (link) and make my rounds at worlds in Kaohsiung, and keep you guys posted about the developments of the sport in Taiwan.

Sincerely,
Thomas Schneider

Hi Thomas. I lived in Cleveland heights for 4 mo. in 1966, just before entering the navy. During that time I skated several circuit competitions in Novice Dance with Susie Smith, representing Brookpark. My pro was Jim Harmer. I don't know what ever happened to either of them, but Susie and I did place a few times in the local competitions. I always regretted not being able to continue with her, darn the Vietnam War. I found my "dance", skating with her. We were both gold bar test holders and another 6 months would have seen us at nationals.

I immensely enjoyed that club.

Lou Wilson

[Footwork]

Best of luck sounds like fun. My stepson was going to China to teach English last year, but ened up working here in the States instead. I worked three months in Japan last yaer and met several American's teach English there, must be the thing to do???

I'd be interested in heaaring how roller skating is doing in Asia, hope you get to try it out. I lived and worked in Italy a few years back and roller skated there, WOW was that an experience, nothing like skating in America, but I survived, because I played roller hockey back in the day!! :-)

Originally Posted by thomas.schneider

Mary,

Thank you for your welcome! This will be a long term move. After having studied Chinese at college, I want to immerse myself in the language for as long as I feel necessary (perhaps three to four years). Also, I am taking a job teaching English which has a year commitment.

I will definitely take pictures at worlds. They will be up on my flickr account and accompany some blog entries. Considering my work commitment, however, I can only attend on the weekends.

Jane is aware of my move and I will be glad to see her there! There are several team USA skaters I have yet to meet, so I will have to look them up. I cannot wait to meet Jayson in person finally!

[rwsz]

footwork in taiwan they actually do skate. one of our coaches has worked with them for a few years in the past to help them out. they have skaters at worlds each year representing taiwan. not sure of the scale of skating there however.

[kzarah]

Periodically I type in a skater's name that I remember from the days I skated. Today I typed in google images Jane Puracchio Wojnarowsky. I was cool to she how she looks today. She has a smile that is unique to her. Actually she looks pretty good.
Daniel

[Footwork]

When I lived in Troion Italy 1991-92, there was a roller and Ice Rink in the building right nextdoor to my apartmento, in the Turin Exposition Center. The ice rink was always full of ice chips and people, the roller rink was full of kids that hadn't a clue as to how to skate, which direction to skate in, or how to turn. People skating every which way, drinking wine and pop from the bottle while skating and smoking while skating and throwing cigrette butts on the floor. I was fortunate to be nimble a foot and for my Roller and Ice Hockey experence.
One day I was there I noticed a young lady skating, who obviously had some traing from her body posture and stroking. So I approached her and asked if she spoke English, as my Italian was extremenly limited at that time. Yes she spoke English quite well, in fact I asked if she was American. No she was from Portugal, and suding in Medical school in Torino. I complemenyed her skating and she told me she was the Portuguise National Ladies Freestyle Champion.. She also told me her hardest jump was a one and a half Flip. She was quite interesting to talk to, especially that she spoke perfect English...

Originally Posted by rwsz

footwork in taiwan they actually do skate. one of our coaches has worked with them for a few years in the past to help them out. they have skaters at worlds each year representing taiwan. not sure of the scale of skating there however.

[Suzana Moreira Campos]

Hi all. My name is Suzana and I'm from Brazil. I'm married and I have two beautiful daughters. One of them practices roller skating here, in Brazil (solo dance, figures, free dance). Next year we'll move to Alexandria,VA and she is very sad because she will miss the classes. I'd like to know if there is a place next to Alexandria where she can practice her sport. She has her own equipment. She got a second and a third places at Brazilian Champiomship.
Thanks for your help and I'm sorry about my poor english.

[TerryL]

Originally Posted by Suzana Moreira Campos

Hi all. My name is Suzana and I'm from Brazil. I'm married and I have two beautiful daughters. One of them practices roller skating here, in Brazil (solo dance, figures, free dance). Next year we'll move to Alexandria,VA and she is very sad because she will miss the classes. I'd like to know if there is a place next to Alexandria where she can practice her sport. She has her own equipment. She got a second and a third places at Brazilian Champiomship.
Thanks for your help and I'm sorry about my poor english.

Hi Suzana,
I sent you a private message with some information about rinks.

[Sk8terontherise]

Originally Posted by Suzana Moreira Campos

Hi all. My name is Suzana and I'm from Brazil. I'm married and I have two beautiful daughters. One of them practices roller skating here, in Brazil (solo dance, figures, free dance). Next year we'll move to Alexandria,VA and she is very sad because she will miss the classes. I'd like to know if there is a place next to Alexandria where she can practice her sport. She has her own equipment. She got a second and a third places at Brazilian Champiomship.
Thanks for your help and I'm sorry about my poor english.

Olá Suzana,
Enviei-lhe uma mensagem privada também. Vivo em Alexandria, Virginia. Não há qualquer artístico patinando os clubes em do norte (alexandria) Virginia. Por favor contate-me. Agradece.

Não preocupe-se com seu inglês. Seu inglês é bom.

[SRQsk8r101]

Well Hello....Im Rielle and i am a skater....
I Skate out of Sarasota,FL in the USA!!! woot woot!!!
I skate at stardust event center...but it used to be stardust skate center...
I compete in JWC solo and JWC singles...
this is my second year skating in JWC and in my first year there was a big mishap at nationals...u may remember it...yeah i was that girl in the black that got to share the 4th place spot with andi flynn....
I use edea flys...i absolutely love them!!!! and for dance i use the classicas...
i use the roll line energy titanium plates. and wear roll line wheels...usually panthers but they sometimes break off the hubs which is annoying.....
I really enjoy skating...and love competing in it...i hope to make a spot on the wold team this year and travel to germany...so wish me luck!!!!!!!

[rwsz]

Originally Posted by SRQsk8r101

Well Hello....Im Rielle and i am a skater....
I Skate out of Sarasota,FL in the USA!!! woot woot!!!
I skate at stardust event center...but it used to be stardust skate center...
I compete in JWC solo and JWC singles...
this is my second year skating in JWC and in my first year there was a big mishap at nationals...u may remember it...yeah i was that girl in the black that got to share the 4th place spot with andi flynn....
I use edea flys...i absolutely love them!!!! and for dance i use the classicas...
i use the roll line energy titanium plates. and wear roll line wheels...usually panthers but they sometimes break off the hubs which is annoying.....
I really enjoy skating...and love competing in it...i hope to make a spot on the wold team this year and travel to germany...so wish me luck!!!!!!!

welcome to the boards and good luck in your skating. hope to see you on the jwc team soon.

[mkmkenn]

OK, here goes.

Stumbled across this website, read a large portion of it, and I know there's people here who know me and/or my family.

My name's Michael Kennedy from Long Island New York. My father was Donald, my mother Lorraine (Coney), and I have 2 sisters Maureen & Peggy.

I'm 47 yrs old, grew up in skating, but haven't been involved in abut 20 years.

My parents were national dance skaters & went on to teach throughout the Northeastern & Eastern Regions. My sisters & I skated both Artistic & Speed in the Northeast & Eastern regions.

I read some posts on here that really struck a chord. There was one about Park Circle. I was just a little kid at Park Circle, but I knew everyone mentioned in that post, from Joey & Marie Gaudy, Everett & Betty Magnus, etc.

We skated upstate NY when I was really young, and spent the better part of my youth in skating rinks. Here's a quick list of rinks we skated at (that I can remember quickly):

Avalon - Newburgh, NY
Fun Fare - Liberty, NY
Roll N Ice - Copiague, NY
Wal Cliffe - Elmont, NY
Mosque - Bridgeport, Ct.
Carolier - New Brunswick, NJ
South Amboy - South Amboy, NJ

There were other thrown in there too. I can't remember the name of the one's in PA, but there were a couple there too.

We were the typical skating family as kids. You could "skate up" in competitions then, so we'd enter every eveny we could from "Tiny Tot" on up. We'd skate 15 events at a meet if we could.

Although I skated artistic & speed as a little kid, it wasn't until we went to Wal Cliffe that I understood the "team" aspect of skating, and that was from joining their speed team. Under the direction of Joey & Marie Mauro, we developed into one of the strongest speed teams in the East in the late 1970's. We had numerous national placements, and had a great time doing it. I was on the 4 man freshman relay team one year when we won our heat at nationals. (Unfortunately I was knocked down in the finals by an attempted passer from Washington State who was disqualified, but that didn't do us much good.) Wal Cliffe was loaded with youngsters & "Old Timers" back then in the artistic club, and I was the type of person who knew everybody. I was always selected to distribute the cards & gifts at the Christmas Party because I knew everyone.

The last artistic skating I did was in 1981, when I skated pairs out of Carolier in NJ for Joe Fernando. I skated with Kim Kadlac as my partner & we finished 10th at nationals that year.

I ended up teaching at South Amboy for a couple of years with my Mom & Andy DeVito in the late 80's, but then I went back to college, got married, and now I have 2 kids, a boy - 12 (Donald) & a girl - 10 (Courtney).

My dad passed away in 1985 due to illness. My mom is still going strong, but not into skating at all anymore. She was, up until a few years ago, still teaching at Hot Skates in Lynbrook on Long Island with Gail Keischer. My mom went to the 50th anniversary party at South Amboy last week, but I, was unfortunately tied up with work. My sisters are both doing well, but not involved in skating anymore either.

When I found this site & started reading some posts, I realized what a big part of my life skating was. I also realized that I had some great times & met some great people. I just wanted to say thanks.

If anyone has any questions or comments, I welcome them. I miss it.

Mike