Hidden Valley Open Results(NNN)

Hidden Valley Open Results(NNN)

Senior Ladies (SP, FS, overall):
1 - Naomi Nam (3, 1, 1) All Year
2 - Yvonne Leung (2, 2, 2) All Year
3 - Katie Mulvaney (4, 3, 3) Utah
4 - Katy Edgecomb (5, 4, 4) Rim of the World
5 - Felicia Beck (1, -, - ) All Year

Thanks to Sylvia!

Report:
This weekend was escondido, california's annual hidden valley competition. the competition was fierce especially in the novice ladies division. the top 3 novice ladies attempted 2 different triples and of course one to two double axels in their long program. if i could emphasize one thing it would be that they were very very fast. all of them had explosive jumps but very few had quality choreography and expressive movements.

the novice men were the largest group of men in the competition. their long programs ranged from 3 different triples in combination with double toes to double axel double toes. one skater who everyone should watch out for this year at nationals is Daisuke Marikami (im pretty sure that is accurate spelling). this young boy who stands under five feet is a little fire ball. in his long he opened with a gorgeous double axel double toe and then worked his way into a beautiful triple sow double toe. he then followed it by his triple loop although he fell on it but landed an amazing one in the warm up.

moving on to the jr. division... the ladies were few and far between. very few actually skated up to their level. kelly knight won the over all competition, megan marsh came in first in the long. although one of the girls tried all the way through triple lutz successfully landing a beautiful one. another girl landed a surprising double flip triple toe. the jr. men division had one scratch (Luis Hernandez, who has the most wonderful style and artistry i have seen from a young man). the other two skaters were alright. neither had the best skates.

now for the senior ladies and men. Felicia Beck won the short but with drew from the long. Naomi Nari Nam skated a very nice long program. she landed her triple lutz double toe, triple flip, touched her hand down on her triple toe, and fell on her double axel. and the final group which was senior men had the reigning jr mens champion in it which is Dennis Phan. he skated with so much energy. he landed a triple loop triple loop, attempted a HUGE triple axel and landed the rest of his triples in combination. he had the audience screaming!

over all the competition had the top skaters from california. i hope this gives some insight into what the competition will be like this year, good luck everyone! if you have questions about any of this feel free to ask me! bye!

Thanks to askater!

Naomi:
2A(fall)
2l
3L/2T
3T(rough landing)
3T
3F
2S
3L

Re: Hidden Valley Open Results(NNN)

Thanks, Kabooke. Sounds like a great competition. Do you know if there's a listing for competitions like this? It'd be fun to check some of them out. I'd love to have seen both NNN and Dennis Phan as well as the up-and-comers.

Re: Hidden Valley Open Results(NNN)

www.usfsa.org/events_resu...events.htm

Re: Hidden Valley Open Results(NNN)

It doesn't seem to be up yet, Ellyn. Unless I'm not navigating the page correctly, the last update was July 15.

Does anyone know why Felicia Beck had to withdraw? I think she might be the class of the field, and might well have come in ahead of Naomi in the long, too.

Mathman

Re: Hidden Valley Open Results(NNN)

Ellyn - thanks for the link - I think I'm going to check out the competition in SF if I can. I don't think there are as many good skaters up here is in SoCal, but it'll still be fun.

Mathman, I was thinking the same about Felicia Beck. Could have been interesting.

Re: Hidden Valley Open Results(NNN)

Felicia didn't "have to" withdraw. She is a perfectionist, and made a last minute decision that the program wasn't ready yet. She'll be skating both programs at Glacier Falls next week - at least, that's what she told me fifteen minutes ago. Things change. :lol:

Re: Hidden Valley Open Results(NNN)

Thanks Kabooke for the results of this competion. I was able to see the novice men and the senior ladies on Sunday. I was very impressed with Yvonne Leung.

Re: Hidden Valley Open Results(NNN)

Thank Kabooke for the information and review.

Nice to see NNN being so active in competitions, but everytime someone describes her jumps I cringe with pain. She seems to be going all out. I hope the hip(s) are healed.

Joe

Re: Hidden Valley Open Results(NNN)

Joe-
Her skating seemed a bit heavy with jumps that were two footed and a fall. I hope her hip is ok too.

Re: Hidden Valley Open Results(NNN)

You're Welcome Guys!

Here's some more info on Naomi

From askater:
ill try to answer them as best i can. i didnt get to watch the short, sadly but if you really really want to know i will ask skaters who were at the competition this coming monday. she obviously missed a few required elements to place that low, b/c the other senior ladies (not including felicia beck) were definitely not any match to her skating. her artistry in the long program was nice. it was not quite as equal to the senior ladies who placed at the top in our previous nationals. i was impressed by her unique moves. she did a forward gliding charlotte, (from experience i've tryed it and it is alot harder than it looks). she had very nice edges and most of the jumps flowed throughout her program nicely, they didnt look broken up and out of place. i liked the fact that she kept her head up the entire time making eye contact with the crowd and smiling. she picked a very nice peice of music, its flowy yet strong in parts. im sorry i dont know the name of the piece. her dress was a turquoise/purplish/blue/green mix of colors and it flattered her shape very well. it almost looked like an ice dancer's dress, it was a halter top and had nice accents of rinestones on it. now that i think about it, she did not attempt a triple loop in the warm up at all. and i believe she did land her triple sow in the warm up, it may have been a triple sow double toe. i hope these answers are what you were looking for. take care! bye

Re: Hidden Valley Open Results(NNN)

Look at Naomi!
She's really growing up!

Naomi Pics from Competition

Thanks to Dave Amode!

Re: Hidden Valley Open Results(NNN)

She has changed from a spectacularly cute kid to a strikingly beautiful young woman. I am certain that she will have a future in show skating even if her bid to return to the top eligible ranks falls short.

Dave Amorde is a heck of a photographer!

Mathman

Re: Hidden Valley Open Results(NNN)

That split jump!! It's a perfect ballet grand jete. The back foot is paralel to to the ice while the front foot is pointing to the ceiling. therefore her bottom is underneath her.

The so-called Russian Split jump is when both back and front toes are facing upward and bottom is sticking out to the side. I've never been crazy about that split

Perfect positions do not seem to be a problem for her, but there are spins and jumps we have to look at too.

Anyone know how tall she is? She looks somewhat taller than I remember.

Joe

Re: Hidden Valley Open Results(NNN)

What's with the bent leg on the Charlotte and the split jump?

Re: Hidden Valley Open Results(NNN)

I don't think I've seen one single skater other than Sasha having an aboslutely straight leg when doing a Charlotte (though Bebe Liang comes the closest). But NNN's leg does seem more bent than it is supposed to be- but I think it's just the angel from which the photo is taken. What I saw years ago looked a lot better. And lets not forget that she is doing a forward Charlotte on an edge, which is much harder than doing a backward one on the flat.
As for the split jump, I'm pretty sure it's just the camera angle. Her leg looks unnaturally bent. And looking at another pciture of her split taken from another angle, it looks perfectly fine.

Re: Hidden Valley Open Results(NNN)

They are optical illusions. For comparable moves from the same event but from different angles, see SWPSkating.com/tammysutan.html
A perfectly straight leg is not only rare, but undesirable. The important thing to look for is the extended toe, and where it points.

Re: Hidden Valley Open Results(NNN)

More fun pics but they are only pics. The camera doesn't always click at the appropriate timing. However, in the case of NNN, she's looking good.

Btw, what appears to be a bent back leg in the split jump in the previous set of pictures is just that back leg is completely paralel to the ice. It's the same as if a skater did a split on the ice - the back knee appears bent from a certain angle.

Joe

Joe