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A Day In the
Life of an Adult Skater Introduction Hello, I am an adult skater, who has skated for more years then I care to disclose (considering my current skating abilities do not really correlate to the number of years I have skated). Each month I will bring to you a story on the challenges and triumphs that adult skaters regularly face. These experiences are quite unique to us adults, given our life circumstances compared to our young skating counterparts. Although adults and children co-exist on the ice, it seems we are often on different skating planes. This is largely due to the many challenges us adults face - just so we can skate. I aim to encourage and unite us adults through the sharing of common experiences, and just to let you know that you are not alone in challenges faced. Hence I invite readers to comment on my stories in 'letters to the editor'. The Spirit of the Masters To understand the spirit of the Masters Cup (an annual adults only competition held every year on the Queens Birthday in Melbourne, Victoria), you firstly have to be able to visualize adults coming together from all walks of life, whether they be 21 or 61 years of age, married or single, parents or childless, black or white, Australian or Indian, doctors, university students, roadside workers, house wives or the unemployed, fat or thin, long hair or bald, blonde or grey. Although we are all very different, there is an unwritten code that when we are on that ice we are all equal. We are no longer the 'engineer' or 'unemployed' but we become a SKATER. We are all somebody on that ice. We are free to do whatever we want, free from the worries of work, studies, financial strife or family difficulties. We can challenge ourselves each day that we skate and see ourselves improve to grant us a feeling of satisfaction and achievement. It is here that we laugh and cry with others as we share in their challenges and achievements. Yes it is on the ice that we become a skater. We are linked by one common force - the passion and addiction for skating. We all have the desire to feel the breeze in our face and hair as we fly around that rink, whether it is by simple swizzles, stroking, and crossovers or through the mastery of the almighty axle. But whatever our abilities and level of skating, we all feel sheer exhilaration and freedom on that ice. It is hard work to improve, especially with that darn fear factor learned from our childhood and teenage experiences, but we drive ourselves with a passion for fun, yes fun. What we lack in youthful athleticism, we make up for ten fold with strength of character and determination that can only be gained through life's experiences. We are not and may never be Olympians, Senior, Junior or Novice level skaters, but we are Skaters. The ice is where age, race, gender, status and life's problems are all swept aside. On the ice we are all equal, we are all skaters. What we do on that sheet of ice is entirely up to us - not our age, race or employment status, but it is up to YOU. As I looked around the arena on the day of the Masters, I felt a shiver go through my body, for nowhere else had I felt so proud to be part of such a special group of amazing, determined and fun seeking adults. We all encouraged each other, knowing what each person must have gone through to get to where they were today, also knowing that we could choose to sit at home and watch TV and dream of skating or worse still, force our children to live our skating dreams. But instead we choose to actually go skating and challenge ourselves each day. We are people who believe in ourselves and in our dreams. This is the spirit of the Masters. |
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