2018 US nats Experiences & Practice Reports | Page 13 | Golden Skate

2018 US nats Experiences & Practice Reports

Mrs. P

Uno, Dos, twizzle!
Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 27, 2009
What is an FOFS breakfast?

FOFS = Friends of Figure Skating.

Basically, the breakfast happens for those members during any USFS-hosted event, so namely Skate America, Nationals every year and also 4CC or Worlds if USFS is hosting (they'll be the host of 4CC in 2019).

The breakfast is a great way to meet skaters. The other way to meet skaters is at the official hotel. I stayed at the Fairmont, which wasn't the official hotel, but that's where all the parties were, so I ended up seeing a lot of skaters there, I'll detail more in my actual report.
 
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moonvine

All Hail Queen Gracie
Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 14, 2007
Country
United-States
Anaheim, Calif. Skate America is in Everett, Wash. (north suburb of Seattle). U.S. Nationals is in Detroit.

Ugh...Anaheim and Washington are so far...Detroit is 3-4 hours away so that's doable...we drove to Boston - 2 day drive - but I think Anaheim or Washington would be a 3-4 day drive.
 

Mrs. P

Uno, Dos, twizzle!
Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 27, 2009
Ugh...Anaheim and Washington are so far...Detroit is 3-4 hours away so that's doable...we drove to Boston - 2 day drive - but I think Anaheim or Washington would be a 3-4 day drive.

You're not into flying, huh?
 

Mrs. P

Uno, Dos, twizzle!
Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 27, 2009
I suppose I could now. My best friend refused. She died in November. But it is really nice to have a car and I do hate flying. HATE.

Oh I'm sorry to hear this! Yeah flying is not as fun as it used to be.
 

TontoK

Hot Tonto
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 28, 2013
Country
United-States
Oh I'm sorry to hear this! Yeah flying is not as fun as it used to be.

I dislike flying, but my wife absolutely hates it. She does not handle the stress of the lines at security, the cramped planes... don't they always seems stuffed nowadays? Rarely even one open seat.

She asked me if I wanted to go to a family wedding in Hawaii, which would require cross-continental flight before the Pacific transit.

My response: "No, Not if we have to fly in the same plane."

Edit: She routinely drives cross country to visit her sisters, rather than take a flight.
 

penniavaswen

On the Ice
Joined
Sep 15, 2017
Country
United-States
What is an FOFS breakfast? I will have to get advice from y'all next time I go, I went last year and did not see or meet a single skater. The closest I've come is walking past Javi at worlds when he was on his way to a press conference, and that wasn't very close.

Keep an eye out for any promo emails... only by reading what appeared to be spam did I find out about the Olympic send-off event at US Nationals. :D
 

NoNameFace

GS given name - Beatrice
Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 12, 2012
to All who attended and shared their impressions throughout whole Nationals and after being at home from San Jose - BIG thank you!!!:thank:, for everything, photos, stories, meet-ups, conversations...It felt for me, being on the other side of the world (practically), like I was much closer to the skating at Nationals:), it looks like You had a great time and well - the competition itself was pure drama at many places:laugh:
 

apgold

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 10, 2014
Country
United-States
apgold, I was standing there while Max S. crouched down on the floor and drew something on a t-shirt. I wonder if that was you I was talking to! He was also showing us his drawing of Mirai. I think maybe I met you and didn't know it!...I second your remarks on the arena. Restrooms, very friendly & professional staff, some healthy food options, relaxed food policy -- all good!

Arriba627, I'm not sure if we met, I don't recall chatting with someone when talking to Max other than Mrs. P. Maybe Max was signing another t-shirt, entirely possible. It was a bit of a blur, anyway :) Glad you had a good time, and maybe we'll meet at a future competition!
 

Mrs. P

Uno, Dos, twizzle!
Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 27, 2009
So a bit delayed, but a few thoughts from me.

* Bad news first: I have caught the #USChamps18 crud. I tried my hardest -- washed my hands a lot, used sanitizer, etc. I don't think it's as severe as it was for some, but it still bites. The good news is that I'm on vacation and at home, so at least I don't have to do anything crazy.

* I agree with others that the Arena's lax policy on foods was tops -- cause the arena food, at least what I had the first night, was not that great. Whole Foods must've been thrilled with the extra business -- I loved their cold brew and the beer was good too.

* After returning to the hotel (I was at the Fairmont) Friday night after meeting some skating fans for dinner, it was hopping. There was a live band at the bar, so I went to check it out. I bought a glass of wine and saw there were a few skaters at the hotel bar. I think some of them were at the Hall of Fame reception nearby while others were just hanging out. I ended up talking to Angela Wang, who was starstruck after talking to Michelle Kwan . It turned out that both Michelle and Meryl had texted her, so she kept saying "I'm dying! I'm dying!" It was really cute to see her fangirl. I also talked to Ben Agosto for a while and complimented him on his commentary. He said he wanted to work on educating the audience as much as possible. He also talked about trying to figure out his post-Tanith career -- with Tanith having a baby and going the NBC commentator route, it seems they're not going to perform as a duo much longer. He talked about moving to Coloraldo Springs so he could collaborate more with Christopher Dean. It was fascinating and cool to hear about this new phase of his career he was trying to figure out.

* The Friends of Figure Skating breakfast was super fun. I am super thankful to CoyoteChris for giving me his ticket (though feel bad it's cause he got the #USChamps18 crud). At first, I wasn't sure how it was going to go because the room was kind of broken up and it wasn't obvious, but Ryan Bradley did a good job getting all the skaters to introduce themselves. One super cute story: When Ryan was introducing the skaters and got to Alexa Scimeca Knierim, he talked about how she lived with him when she first moved to Colorado. Then many of the junior skaters who introduced themselves noted that they lived with the Knierims at some point when they first moved to the area. It was super sweet and goes to show how tight knit the skating community is.
The skaters also were encouraged to mingle. It was a bit crowded at first, but I kinda laid back and just talked to whoever was the closest to me. So that meant Courtney Hicks (told her I loved her coffee posts since I was also a coffee addict) and Camden Pulkinen and Jacob Simon (who I complemented on their fun music video that was going around the Twitter).
I loved meeting all the men -- Jimmy Ma was super nice, Timothy Dolensky was thrilled to hear I was also Catholic (and it sounds like he's going to keep that fantastic FS for another season), Grant Hochstein was super gracious (and I got a photo with him and Caroline) and sweet and Sean Rabbitt was outgoing and fun to talk to. Alexander Johnson had a fan posse -- but I managed to tell him how much I loved his free skate and he talked to us (me and apgold, who was tag teaming skaters with me) why he made the switch. Jason was friendly as always, but I really enjoyed talking to his dad, which I talked about on his fan fest thread, here. Also I didn't mention in that report, that my questioning regarding their dancing videos prompted Jason's dad to do the Cabbage Patch move, LOL.
I also enjoyed talking to Ashley Cain (who was wearing her mom's blazer from The Limited from the 1990s -- man I feel old, I LOVED that store) and Timothy LeDuc. And Max Settlege! He was sooo adorable -- he was wearing black rimmed glasses, a gingham shirt and red suspenders -- very artiste like! He showed me his sketch of Mirai from her FS. I also had a chance to talk to Brian Johnson and Chelsea Liu. Karen Chen stopped by at the end of the breakfast and I got to talk to her for a few minutes -- she is super sweet. I asked her how she tried to compete through her sickness and it was interesting to hear how careful she had to be with treating the sickness because of drug testing. We talked about our respective Bay Area fandoms (me with the Golden State Warriors and her with the San Jose Sharks -- she was wearing a team scarf!) I was telling her that her skate and grit made me tear up and Jason heard me and said "Me too!" -- he truly admires and adores her!
The breakfast for me was fun because it was just a chance just to chat with skaters in a very casual environment. I definitely will join FOFS so I can get a ticket for the breakfast at Skate America this fall!

* I kept bumping into Alexander Johnson several times that day, after meeting him at the breakfast. By the third time, I said, "I swear I'm not stalking you!" and he grinned and said, "It must be the Minnesota thing." I had mentioned at the breakfast that I lived in Minneapolis for a summer internship and not far from where he was going to school now.

* I ended up bumping into Brian Johnson at the airport Monday morning and he recognized me from the breakfast and said hello. I asked if he was awake yet and he said, yes, but that he was ready to take a nap later. :biggrin: There were a few U.S. pair skaters who were flying out that morning.

* Finally, it was SOOOOO fun hanging out with the GS-ers as always. I got to sit with many of them during the competition and it was nice to watch together. And of course Din Tai Fung after the men's free skate -- AWESOME! The GS dinner after the men's free skate was also nice -- I was pretty emotionally spent from seeing my favorites both do amazing and struggle, so it was nice to have people around. Thanks to all of you who I met/re-met it was amazing! (OMG, I sound like Jason, LOL)

* One more random observation. I sat near Matt Blackmer during the short dance and he cheered loudly for Alexandria Aldridge, who he skated with last season. It was really sweet to hear him cheer for his former partner! I also love seeing all the fan factions -- Vincent Zhou had a pretty big contingent and I swear after his performances that section was raining plushies. Ellie and Alex (Ice Dance) had a good sized cheer section that were all waving pink flags and Jason's Team Brown crew all sported the brown T-Shirts.
 
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humbaba

Final Flight
Joined
Jan 12, 2004
Thanks to all who so generously took the time to post about your experiences at Nationals. Your efforts are much appreciated.

:thank: :thank: :thank: :2thumbs:
 

Mrs. P

Uno, Dos, twizzle!
Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 27, 2009
One more thing, I want to officially ban Cake by the Ocean and Havana from the USFS warm-up playlist FOR LIFE.

(Although the music videos for both are kinda funny. No, don't resist, Mrs. P. BAN FOR LIFE!!!)
 

CoyoteChris

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 4, 2004
I dislike flying, but my wife absolutely hates it. She does not handle the stress of the lines at security, the cramped planes... don't they always seems stuffed nowadays? Rarely even one open seat.

She asked me if I wanted to go to a family wedding in Hawaii, which would require cross-continental flight before the Pacific transit.

My response: "No, Not if we have to fly in the same plane."

Edit: She routinely drives cross country to visit her sisters, rather than take a flight.

Your wife is a wise lady. I took a ship to Hawaii instead of having to fly there. First thing I do when I sit in an airplane is see how much air is coming out of the overhead nozzels. If there is adaquate air, I know the aircraft's two HEPA filters arent clogged and the pilots, who BTW get all the air they want, have allowed at least a minimum of air to reach the pax. Then I made a decision about putting on my Hepa 100 mask. Next, I observe the flight attendants. Do they put their bare fingers on the lips of the plastic cups they are handing out? You do not want to know how much filth is in an aircraft, from the seats to the overhead bin doors.
The worst thing for me is all the canceled/delayed flights. When we took off for Spokane from Portland, we were told that the pilot was doing to try and drop down through the pea soup and land, but if he couldnt slip in under minimums, we would go back to Portland and WE all would be responsible for hotels, if we could find some. And that covers any weather delays that would effect your flight....Makes the insurance seem like a better idea in the winter, doesnt it? If you are lucky, your weather delayed trip will only cost you a day......
I will say the pilot did a great job in flying the ILS approach and slipping us in. She got a standing O!
 

CoyoteChris

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 4, 2004
One more thing, I want to officially ban Cake by the Ocean and Havana from the USFS warm-up playlist FOR LIFE.

(Although the music videos for both are kinda funny. No, don't resist, Mrs. P. BAN FOR LIFE!!!)

The folks at home dont know how we suffer between performances...."Romeo" plays hip/hop or rap during warmups or between performances and the jumbotron shows cuts of little kids dancing in their seat to it.....or we get commercials.
 

Mrs. P

Uno, Dos, twizzle!
Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 27, 2009
The folks at home dont know how we suffer between performances...."Romeo" plays hip/hop or rap during warmups or between performances and the jumbotron shows cuts of little kids dancing in their seat to it.....or we get commercials.

I like hip hop and edm. But he couldn't come up with a more varied playlist?!
 

TontoK

Hot Tonto
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 28, 2013
Country
United-States
The folks at home dont know how we suffer between performances...."Romeo" plays hip/hop or rap during warmups or between performances and the jumbotron shows cuts of little kids dancing in their seat to it.....or we get commercials.

Oh my. That sounds awful. Do they do that just between groups? Or is it when skaters are awaiting marks?

If it's between groups, at least you can get up and wander about. But if you're captive while waiting for scores... this might be a Geneva Convention situation.
 

CoyoteChris

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 4, 2004
So a bit delayed, but a few thoughts from me.

* Bad news first: I have caught the #USChamps18 crud. I tried my hardest -- washed my hands a lot, used sanitizer, etc. I don't think it's as severe as it was for some, but it still bites. The good news is that I'm on vacation and at home, so at least I don't have to do anything crazy.

* I agree with others that the Arena's lax policy on foods was tops -- cause the arena food, at least what I had the first night, was not that great. Whole Foods must've been thrilled with the extra business -- I loved their cold brew and the beer was good too.

* After returning to the hotel (I was at the Fairmont) Friday night after meeting some skating fans for dinner, it was hopping. There was a live band at the bar, so I went to check it out. I bought a glass of wine and saw there were a few skaters at the hotel bar. I think some of them were at the Hall of Fame reception nearby while others were just hanging out. I ended up talking to Angela Wang, who was starstruck after talking to Michelle Kwan . It turned out that both Michelle and Meryl had texted her, so she kept saying "I'm dying! I'm dying!" It was really cute to see her fangirl. I also talked to Ben Agosto for a while and complimented him on his commentary. He said he wanted to work on educating the audience as much as possible. He also talked about trying to figure out his post-Tanith career -- with Tanith having a baby and going the NBC commentator route, it seems they're not going to perform as a duo much longer. He talked about moving to Coloraldo Springs so he could collaborate more with Christopher Dean. It was fascinating and cool to hear about this new phase of his career he was trying to figure out.

* The Friends of Figure Skating breakfast was super fun. I am super thankful to CoyoteChris for giving me his ticket (though feel bad it's cause he got the #USChamps18 crud). At first, I wasn't sure how it was going to go because the room was kind of broken up and it wasn't obvious, but Ryan Bradley did a good job getting all the skaters to introduce themselves. One super cute story: When Ryan was introducing the skaters and got to Alexa Scimeca Knierim, he talked about how she lived with him when she first moved to Colorado. Then many of the junior skaters who introduced themselves noted that they lived with the Knierims at some point when they first moved to the area. It was super sweet and goes to show how tight knit the skating community is.
The skaters also were encouraged to mingle. It was a bit crowded at first, but I kinda laid back and just talked to whoever was the closest to me. So that meant Courtney Hicks (told her I loved her coffee posts since I was also a coffee addict) and Camden Pulkinen and Jacob Simon (who I complemented on their fun music video that was going around the Twitter).
I loved meeting all the men -- Jimmy Ma was super nice, Timothy Dolensky was thrilled to hear I was also Catholic (and it sounds like he's going to keep that fantastic FS for another season), Grant Hochstein was super gracious (and I got a photo with him and Caroline) and sweet and Sean Rabbitt was outgoing and fun to talk to. Alexander Johnson had a fan posse -- but I managed to tell him how much I loved his free skate and he talked to us (me and apgold, who was tag teaming skaters with me) why he made the switch. Jason was friendly as always, but I really enjoyed talking to his dad, which I talked about on his fan fest thread, here. Also I didn't mention in that report, that my questioning regarding their dancing videos prompted Jason's dad to do the Cabbage Patch move, LOL.
I also enjoyed talking to Ashley Cain (who was wearing her mom's blazer from The Limited from the 1990s -- man I feel old, I LOVED that store) and Timothy LeDuc. And Max Settlege! He was sooo adorable -- he was wearing black rimmed glasses, a gingham shirt and red suspenders -- very artiste like! He showed me his sketch of Mirai from her FS. I also had a chance to talk to Brian Johnson and Chelsea Liu. Karen Chen stopped by at the end of the breakfast and I got to talk to her for a few minutes -- she is super sweet. I asked her how she tried to compete through her sickness and it was interesting to hear how careful she had to be with treating the sickness because of drug testing. We talked about our respective Bay Area fandoms (me with the Golden State Warriors and her with the San Jose Sharks -- she was wearing a team scarf!) I was telling her that her skate and grit made me tear up and Jason heard me and said "Me too!" -- he truly admires and adores her!
The breakfast for me was fun because it was just a chance just to chat with skaters in a very casual environment. I definitely will join FOFS so I can get a ticket for the breakfast at Skate America this fall!

* I kept bumping into Alexander Johnson several times that day, after meeting him at the breakfast. By the third time, I said, "I swear I'm not stalking you!" and he grinned and said, "It must be the Minnesota thing." I had mentioned at the breakfast that I lived in Minneapolis for a summer internship and not far from where he was going to school now.

* I ended up bumping into Brian Johnson at the airport Monday morning and he recognized me from the breakfast and said hello. I asked if he was awake yet and he said, yes, but that he was ready to take a nap later. :biggrin: There were a few U.S. pair skaters who were flying out that morning.

* Finally, it was SOOOOO fun hanging out with the GS-ers as always. I got to sit with many of them during the competition and it was nice to watch together. And of course Din Tai Fung after the men's free skate -- AWESOME! The GS dinner after the men's free skate was also nice -- I was pretty emotionally spent from seeing my favorites both do amazing and struggle, so it was nice to have people around. Thanks to all of you who I met/re-met it was amazing! (OMG, I sound like Jason, LOL)

* One more random observation. I sat near Matt Blackmer during the short dance and he cheered loudly for Alexandria Aldridge, who he skated with last season. It was really sweet to hear him cheer for his former partner! I also love seeing all the fan factions -- Vincent Zhou had a pretty big contingent and I swear after his performances that section was raining plushies. Ellie and Alex (Ice Dance) had a good sized cheer section that were all waving pink flags and Jason's Team Brown crew all sported the brown T-Shirts.

I am so glad you got a chance to go. I was just too sick...I suspect that at my donation level, I could even at the event buy more $25 tickets other than my free one just as I can pre- event. I could be wrong but I am not sure there is a breakfast at 4 Conts. The ones at SA are very intimate, smaller affairs. Some at nats are huge. I have lots of pics from over the years.....such good memories....
http://s1217.photobucket.com/user/C...sboro 2015/A1_zps437b07a8.jpg.html?sort=3&o=3
http://s1217.photobucket.com/user/C...o 2015/Ashibs_zpscf3215ee.jpg.html?sort=3&o=1
http://s1217.photobucket.com/user/C...ting/Mirai 2_zpsnapxx9id.jpg.html?sort=3&o=26
http://s1217.photobucket.com/user/C... Mil 2015/B17_zps8akwsyxs.jpg.html?sort=3&o=9
 

Mrs. P

Uno, Dos, twizzle!
Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 27, 2009
Oh my. That sounds awful. Do they do that just between groups? Or is it when skaters are awaiting marks?

If it's between groups, at least you can get up and wander about. But if you're captive while waiting for scores... this might be a Geneva Convention situation.

It's definitely while waiting for marks. I'm all about the upbeat music. But THE SAME SONG OVER AGAIN. HOW MANY TIMES MUST I HEAR CAKE BY THE OCEAN KILL ME NOW!
 
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