Day Two

8am: Arrived at the Spokane Arena with my mother-in-law. Watched the senior pairs teams practice. Inoue and Baldwin and Vise and Trent were among the final group, so it was a thrill to watch them. John and Rena’s characteristic intensity was in full force. At first, I thought they might be mad at each other, because during their warm-up they didn’t skate together like the other couples. During their practice, they didn’t go through their entire program, and seemed to do a lot of talking about it.

Someone later on in the day asked me what my favorite part of our long day was. I answered the practice session we watched, because it was the first practice session I’ve seen and it was really interesting. Some couples went through their entire program; others, like Inoue and Baldwin, did not. Some were dressed in warm-up clothes; some wore skating one-piece outfits. It was interesting to get a little glimpse into what might be part of their daily routine. When we got there, I thought that four hours before lunch was going to be a long time, but the time went by quickly.

11:30am: Broke for lunch. We tried to find the shuttle to go downtown, but grew impatient and walked across the street to a sports bar called the “Ticket.” Good food, and we’ll probably go back, since it’s convenient. Met some more old women and had a nice chat with them.

12:30pm: Went back to Spokane Arena. During the practices, seating is open, so after lunch, we decided to “steal” better seats. We picked seats lower and closer to the rink, and when the seat owners came, they kicked us out, made a lame joke about “warming” their seats for them, and moved. It worked out quite well, and everyone was very nice about it. In the afternoon, we moved four times; after dinner, we only moved twice.Watched novice competitions the rest of the day. It was the first time I had seen any novice skate, since ABC/ESPN doesn’t broadcast them. There were some very impressive skaters at this level. That made me, along with some of the people I sat next to, wonder how a skater goes from one level to another. We thought it might be age, but there the ages of the novice skaters ranged from ten to twenty.

The answer was in the souvenir program I had bought. Here’s what it says on page 89:

Within ladies singes, men’s singles, pairs and ice dancing, there are five different competitive skill levels that are based on proficiency tests. Each level draws on similar techniques but adheres to increasingly more difficult skills as well as different rules and guidelines.

There were other questions that came up for me that when I have more time and a better internet connection, I want to research. One of them is about a novice pairs skater named Kurt Weiss. (His partner is Emily Glassberg.) I wonder if Kurt is related to Michael Weiss, one of my favorite male singles skaters. The other question I want to research is about re-surfacing the ice, but that’s another article to write when I have more time.

The friendliness of the town of Spokane continued into the afternoon. We had to move for a woman and her little boy, and ten minutes later, she apologized to us for “inconveniencing” us and told us that she wanted to move next to some relatives she had seen. We ran into this woman and her son as we were leaving for dinner, and when we told her we wanted to find sushi downtown, she offered to drive us there.

6pm: Yummy sushi at a wonderful place in downtown Spokane called “Sushi.com.” I’ve wanted good sushi for about four years, since there’s no decent sushi in Moscow, Idaho. If you’re even in Spokane, I highly recommend Sushi.com.

7:20pm: Back at the Arena for ladies free skate and free dance. The things that struck me have to do with the dancers. For the novices at this competition, they had two compulsory dances, no original dance, and like the juniors and seniors, a free dance. I wonder why that is. (Another thing on my research list.)

The other issue that came up for me surrounds the judging. Every couple last night had at least a one-point deduction. One couple lost five points, and probably would’ve medaled otherwise. I found myself explaining ice dancing to the women sitting next to us, so they asked my opinion. The only explanation I could think of is the time limit on lifts and spirals. I suspect that the judges were cracking down on everyone who went over the time limit. I also suspect that it will occur competition-wide. It will be interesting to see how the judges score the juniors and seniors later on in the week.

11:20pm: After watching the ladies awards ceremony, we decided to call it a night. When we got to the shuttle, though, we were told that the city busses had stopped running. Yikes! We got more Spokanian hospitality, though; the bus supervisor drove us back to our hotel. Tonight, things won’t go as long, so it shouldn’t be a problem.

The day was long, but again, it was loads of fun. When I told people back home in Moscow my plans for this week, some made the statement, “Boy, you’re gonna be sick of figure skating.” My answer was that I doubted it, and it’s turning out to be true!