When I was a kid, I cheered for Kristi Yamaguchi and Michelle Kwan despite being Canadian (besides, Jennifer Robinson wasn’t worth cheering for anyways) as I watched figure skating with my mum. I couldn’t tell jumps apart and I cried furious tears when Tara Lipinski/Irina Slutskaya (who I called an unflattering name – I think you can guess it)/Sarah Hughes beat the Kween. After a while, life was too hectic for TV and figure skating until I saw this:
And then I became obsessed with these two… (Their connection! The magic! Their lines! The beauty!) I watched all of their programs in one afternoon and then I got back into figure skating and started paying attention to the single skaters. (I didn’t really care about pairs until Savchenko/Szalkowy’s LP at 2009 Skate Canada.) I found a helpful video on youtube and learned to tell jumps apart. A friend, who’s a walking talking figure skating (among other things) encyclopedia, taught me so much more and gave me a list of programs to watch. (I may post this list at some point in the future…) I started familiarizing with the new wave of skaters and found favourites among them, which finally led me to post competition predictions on twitter and then… this happened.
The birth of the Rinkside Cafe.
At the moment, I’m wondering what some future posts should be about. I can’t promise lovely long posts when I’m super busy but I’ll try my best. If you want me to write about a certain topic, please let me know and I’ll do my best!
Hope you’re having a wonderful day~
~The Rinkside Cafe
The Rinkside Cafe 
Jan 06, 2011 @ 01:01:51
Write a post about Davis/White (who I bet will be world champions this year)!
Also, what do you think of Khoklova/Andreev?
Jan 06, 2011 @ 12:28:43
I don’t doubt that Davis/White will take the dance crown at Worlds this year. Even the fans in the Tessa and Scott fan club are expecting either a silver or a bronze medal from them, even if they will fervently hope for gold. If Tessa and Scott compete at the WTT cheesefest, they might be able to reclaim gold thanks to Skate Canada politicking (though Japan will probably win the WTT this year now that they have a half decent pairs team and 4 very strong singles) and the ISU might figure that it’s a way to keep things exciting for the next season.
As for Khokhlova/Andreev, they have a great connection to each other, which didn’t happen when Jana was with Sergei. Fedor’s not that bad at ice dance, though he makes twizzles look hard. These two just needs some time. Fedor needs to learn to extend his limbs, especially his legs and how to present his partner. He also has to make sure that he has proper posture throughout the entire dance and maybe have a stronger and firmer frame when he’s holding Jana in dance hold. As for Jana, Hallelujah, she’s wearing something that doesn’t make her look like a total freak. In fact, her costumes are pretty this season. Hopefully Fedor will be strong enough to make use of her bendiness once again.
All in all, I’d say that Fedor is a better partner that Novitski. Novitski’s footwork was sloppy and usually pretty bad. (It was infuriating to see him stumble or trip during their step sequences – usually the circular – at Worlds. I think I screamed at him when I saw that stumble in their FD at 2009 Worlds.) Fedor has the potential to be a lot better than he is right now with time, especially with Queen Marina behind him and his partner. Not to mention, these two will get better choreography if Queen Marina is their adviser.
Jan 06, 2011 @ 06:42:20
No demands , nor suggestions. I just wanted to say a big thank you for this effort.
I started watching the skating just by accident, “zapping” by. Suddenly the television screen showed Michelle Kwan – halfway through “Salome”. I was glued to the screen – it was such magic. And since then the VCR stood ready for whatever skating glimp I could get from her (or Yagudin for that matter).
But there was no internet back then (well.. not broadly spread anyway) so you lost contact in a way. I’m so glad for You Tube and sites like yours which enable us to enjoy past and recent performances. It are sites like this one who brought me back to figure skating 🙂
Wish you all the best!
S.