A Mom and Figure Skating at 44?

Me at 3 or 4 years old. - 1975 or so.

Yes, I started two months ago. I had not been on figure skates in over 30 years. I'm not sure what prompted me to go back to the ice now of all times. Maybe it was my 44th birthday in October. Maybe it was something that was unfinished from my childhood.

I remember that excited feeling I had when winter arrived and I knew that the downtown outside rink was going to be made. I remember getting a new pair of figure skates for Christmas and watching CBS Sunday sports and hoping there would be figure skating on.

Fast forward 30 plus years and I still get that excited feeling about figure skating. I had never skated on an indoor rink until 3 months ago. I bought a pair of $4.99 skates at the Salvation Army and went to a public skate. I was surprised that I could barely skate at all. Wow! What a surprise. When I was a kid I could skate circles around everyone. Forward cross overs, backward cross overs were no problem. I felt like an idiot on the ice this time around. I have stuck with it and I am now working on my first Waltz Jump this week.

I was prompted to buy new skates by a lovely lady I met at the rink who is 71 and a gold level adult skater. She started figure skating at the age of 49. I took her advice, did some research on figure skating forums and purchased a pair of Riedell 320's or Bronze Star Figure Skates with Club 2000 MK Blades from ebay. These skates would be $300 at our local sport shop. I'm a frugal person at heart and I realize figure skating can get expensive.

I immediately felt the difference with my new Riedell Bronze Stars. I had them heat fitted at our local sport shop and had a "freestyle" sharpening done on made blades this week.

I am progressing rather fast with the help of youtube and about 4-6 hours of practice time every week. My chosen rink is closest to my home and has "figure skating" rink time from 1:30-2:40 Monday to Friday. Public skating is held right before figure skating.  I go early to public skate and when that craziness goes away we can figure skate and focus on our moves. There are only about 5 or 6 of us that regularly go to the figure skating rink time. We are lucky in that we don't have to share the rink to tons of people. Sometimes it is just me and I have the rink to myself. It's amazing!

My Riedell 320 Bronze Star Figure Skates