Asleep at the switch.

This is what happens at my home ice the morning after Xmas when I decide to sleep in and bag the 7am Free Style session:  "Three time US National Champion and Olympian Ashley Wagner stopped by the Bowie Ice Arena today! Pictured here with Bowie ISI team member Alexa Cruz and her coach Rebecca Robertson."  Photo credit:  BIA.  Can U believe it?!  Sigh...truer words where never spoken--Ya snooze, ya lose.

 

Skating 101 with Meryl and Charlie

Skating 101!  Freshman intro to ice dance lifts?  Ha, this seems more like Skating 604--a graduate level seminar, but that's just me talking.  The two kids, Alina Letova and Dakota Delcamp, are not your typical birthday party kid skaters.  These two are obviously battle hardened veterans who probably started skating seriously at, oh, age four or so.  Having said all that, this little video is fun to watch and has some useful coaching tips for lunkheads like me to think about.  A little Xmas Bon-Bon.  Enjoy!

 

Ice Halo update

In the recent past when I visited the Ice Halo website I could not find mention of their products complying with any test standards.  People told me that this statement of fact was buried somewhere on the site, but try as I might, I could never find it.  The other day I went back to the Ice Halo site and there it was right on the page which describes the standard Halo: "All our Ice Halo Products are tested in one of the top impact testing facilities in the world, using the Hockey Helmet Standard (CSA Z262.1-09 (April 2009) Annex A, Impact Drop Testing). Our products pass the standard requirements for front, side and back impact."  I guess enough others must have voiced their hesitation such that the manufacturer of the Ice Halo decided to place the test statement in a more prominent position.  But don't take my word for it, see it yourself.  

CSA stands for Canadian Standards Association which is a non-profit organization dedicated to product testing for consumer safety and protection.  The CSA is much like the ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials.

Knowing that the Ice Halo complies with a reasonable standard (one deemed appropriate for hockey helmets) gives me a little more confidence to try out this product.  As I pointed out in an earlier post my current skateboarding helmet while adequate does tend to draw my eyes towards the ice rather than ahead and one must cinch the chinstrap fairly tightly in order for the helmet not to move around on the head.  So, I will now place an order for an Ice Halo and see if I like that any better than the  Bern Watts helmet.  Stay tuned.

And we figure skaters think getting a good fit in boots is important...

Principal Dancer Megan Fairchild discusses the importance of good fit for pointe shoes.