Just a little damp
JUST WHAT is going on with the weather? I mean, really. Enough is ENOUGH! I have just come back from the Littlest Rink and I got completely soaked on the way home. I mean, drenched. I am sitting here in my dressing gown drying off as I type!
So I did skate yesterday evening and today.
Last night was interesting - I phoned up Ally Pally to ask if their Sunday night "Chill Out" session was quiet. "Oh yes, it's really quiet". It so wasn't. However, I wasn't there to practice my own stuff, I was in a position of support.
On Saturday, Stacey got her first pair of "proper" skates. Risport RF4's to be precise. "They're so comfortable!". I am guessing that skaters will be reading this, going "Hehe!" - 10 minutes was the maximum she could manage in them at a time, so last night was lots of slow stroking around holding her hand as she was a bit worried about the comparitively large toepicks, interspersed with lots of getting off the ice and loosening her laces. Poor girl - I think she went from loving to hating her skates in about 5 minutes, but they will get better soon. Originally we were meant to be going for the first time to the Ally Pally Amateur Ice Skating Club, but I didn't think a two and a half hour session was realistic on new skates!
This evening, yet another friend wanted to come skating - her first time in about five years. She was pretty good actually, once she got into her stride. I showed her how to stop, forward and backward sculling and a couple of small one foot glides. Unfortunately I forgot my tights today, and skated barefoot. I can't believe I used to do this out of choice - I have the beginnings of a blister on my right heel, and had some serious lace bite! Ouchie . . . Stacey gave it a miss tonight, to give her slightly sore ankles a rest, before she skates on Wednesday. Again, I didn't practice much myself, as it was really busy and a couple of little munchkins deliberately skating against the flow. That and my feet were rather sore! I did do a few forward crossovers, lots of edge work and some FO3's. I have to say, the LFO3's are feeling really good and smooth now - need to do some more on my right though.
It's going to be a busy week for skating this week - my usual lesson on Wednesday, and then two and a half hours each on Thursday and Friday morning! And again on Monday - very much looking forward to three days off work! Those sessions will be on my own, so lots of opportunity to work on my confidence for backward crossovers!
8 comments:
The least said about RF4s the better!
Also I'm very jealous of all your skating sessions. Why aren't any of my local rinks ever open during the day? Well at least not on my days off:-(
Not had a good time with RF4's Jane?! If I remember rightly, you have wider feet like me? Stacey's skates are the right width for me - at 2 sizes larger than my Riedells.
I am very lucky that Ally Pally has these daytime sessions - if I was relying on the Littlest Rink alone, there would be none at all!
I love my RF4s now but I remember threatening to get the toepicks ground down on more than one occasion! They felt *enormous*! Only my coach promising to kill me if I did actually stopped me from doing it!
Is that with the Ultima blades too?
I don't remember having problems with my toepicks, but I guess skating when I was a child helped, as well as only ever wearing hire skates once last year and going straight into my own skates on the first lesson. I swore never to wear hire skates again as they were cripplingly painful!
Yup, MK Ultima. Only today, my coach took great pleasure in smugly announcing, as we started 3 jumps, "see, aren't you glad now you didn't get your toe-pick ground down?!"
Yes, replied me, somewhat sheepishly...
I'll let Stacey know about you being glad of them now. I'm sure it will reassure her . . .
:-D
I think there must be no middle ground with RF4s - people either love them or with others they make skating a complete misery. I did persevere for 4 months using lots of moleskin on the tender areas. I read somewhere that they suit a boxy shaped foot. Mine is more wide at the ball of the foot but with a narrow ankle. I think I mentioned before that I use Edeas now which have been a dream.
Ah yes - I remember you mentioning the Edea's.
Stacey's got quite narrow feet with long toes, and she is slowly getting used to them, so I think she will be okay.
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