Re-igniting My Inner Skater
In 1976, inspired by Dorothy Hamill’s Gold at the Olympics, I signed up for lessons at the Newbridge Ice Rink in Bellmore, New York. For the next 10 years, I skated and competed in various rinks throughout Long Island and the Tri-State area. When I turned 18 and went to college, I left skating, a decision made through the eyes of young person trying to find herself, as if skating hadn't already found and defined me. If only I could go back and guide that 18-year-old back onto the ice!
Years later, after the birth of my daughter, Ava, my doorbell rang. It was a neighbor asking me if I wanted a bag of hand-me-downs for Ava. I graciously accepted and handed the bag over to my then five-year-old. She tore through it and a minute later, she said, “Look mommy, pink ice skates. I want to go ice skating,” NOOOOOOO, I thought. No, I’m not taking you and you will never know that I once skated because then you are going to want to take lessons and I don’t want to be a “skate mom.” No! You are taking Taekwondo classes and that is enough!
A week later, donning my 30-year-old skates, I stepped out onto the ice with my daughter in her “new” pink, Velcro skates! Ava and I were the only ones skating on that obnoxiously hot June afternoon. I was scared, wobbly and slow, but I remembered how to do front and back crossovers. I tried a waltz jump but stopped in fear and didn’t try again. Ava was in awe. “Mommy, how can you do that?” Do what, I thought, how can I not do a simple waltz jump when I could once do an axle? And then I got my moxie up a little and did a spin. The three pathetic rotations, completely off center, sent me running to the bathroom with nausea. Once upon a time, I could spend two hours in a lesson spinning. What happened to me! How was this sport once easy?
I took my skates off and became the 30-year-ice-skating-hiatus version of the Seven Dwarfs. I was: Tired, Achy, Nauseous, Dizzy, Cold, Nervous and GRUMPY. I wanted to go home and take a nap! I stood by the sides watching Ava. Fearless. She fell dozens of times but got back up, never complaining. She was soaking wet, but I could tell she LOVED the rush that skating provided. Oh God, I thought, please, please don’t let her love it enough to ask for lessons. I don’t want to be a skate mom. No. She’s in Taekwondo classes and that is enough!
Two weeks later, she started her first Learn-to-Skate class.
A year after that, while sitting up in the lobby area watching Ava skate, I tilted my head to the side and thought, huh, why am I just sitting here? Why aren’t I down there skating with my daughter? I ditched my 30-year-old skates, bought a pair of very good and comfortable Riedell’s, got a coach (and a prescription for anti-throw-up pills) and came full circle. It’s all new and exciting for me again!
My beautiful Ava re-ignited my inner skater!
I now teach classes, camp lessons, adult Theater On Ice, and private lessons. I used to skate duets with my daughter, but she's 13 now and apparently, it's not cool to skate with your mother! But at least it provided me with a beautiful memory. I love teaching the toddlers and young children. I look at each and every child who steps onto the ice for the first time as if he or she was my Ava. I love teaching adults, too. I look at each and every adult who steps onto the ice for the first time as if he or she was ME! Although I have an advantage over adults who step out onto the ice for the first time, I did, in a way, step out onto the ice as an adult for the first time, when I took my daughter skating on that one glorious June afternoon. I returned to skating with fears of falling and all the worry that adults carry with them. I teach from a place of TOTAL understanding of what it’s like as a grown-up, to make the conscious decision to strap knives on my perfectly steady feet then step out onto the most slippery surface on the planet and say, Wee, isn’t this fun! Yes, I get it! For these reasons, I seek beginner students of all ages, children/toddlers and adult students!
Please peruse my website and I hope you will make that same crazy, conscious decision to strap on those knives and join me in subzero temperatures for one of the most beautiful and exhilarating sports in the world.
Happy Skating, my friends. I hope to see you on the ice!