Skating with Celebrities!

A few weeks ago, Dave and I made the trek to Toronto for a small vacation. Inbetween attempts at touring the Labatt Brewery, discounted sushi, Rush band points of interest and the Hockey Hall of Fame, I managed to get a toepick onto the Toronto Cricket Skating and Curling Club ice.

I was extremely nervous since this place has an international reputation, but according to their brochure, they have a wonderful adult skating progarm taught by... BRIAN ORSER!

Who is Brian Orser? Two time Olympic silver medalist. World Champion. 8-time Canadian champion. Prettyfreakin' awesome skater and humanitarian.

And I got to take his adult skate class!

I got out on the ice and did a few laps to warm up, until Brian skated up
to me! Millions of OMG! thoughts went through my mind as he introduced himself
and quickly reviewed what he does in the class. I introduced myself to him, told
him what US Figure Skating levels I was at, and I thought I could keep up. He
smiled and said he was glad I was there, and I lost a bit of composure and said,
"it's just an honor to be in your class. I'm so very pleased to meet you." He
clapped me on the shoulder, said thank you and we got started.

I wish I could tell you he gave me some earth-shattering insights into my
skating, but I was one of 10 adults in the class he was teaching. Skate Canada doesn't have our MIF equivalent, but the skills Brian was demonstrating and asking us to replicate started with Basic 8, then went into the pre-bronze through silver tests, with a heavy emphasis on dancey moves and edges. I can tell you I was a tad disappointed to be demonstrating how "good" I am at swizzles to the 1987 World Champion. But I was a little proud to be flying through the power pulls and cross strokes that he was teaching the rest of the class.

He then broke out of all of that to show us how to put some of those skills
together to create little footwork sequences. This is when he unleased the
Orser. A change of edge pull became a little piece of magic. He made two
crossovers, a swing roll and mohawk look, well, Olympic. Then he switched it up
to so how to make a change of direction into something glorious. A two-foot
glide come alive. I know I was standing there with my mouth hanging open. Maybe
a little drool. One of the other ladies nudged me, wide-eyed herself and asked
rhetorically "Aren't we LUCKY!?"

Brian worked with me from time to time, taking me in turn. We did swing rolls
side by side and he complimented me on my edge rip. When we changed up the tempo
of back cross strokes, we held hands and skated face to face *sigh* while he
gave me instruction to keep my head up and shoulders down. He also noted my L/R
dyslexia when he demonstrated something and I did it perfectly the opposite way.

So I didn't have a chance to show off too many of my moves, but I had lots of fun sharing the ice with Brian and all those wonderful TCSCC. It was an hour to remember!