On Site Reports:@ Canada 2016 Nats.

If you are watching the practices or any of the competition in person, please feel free to share your stories with us on this thread.
Who is doing well?
Who is standing out?
What are you eating at the venue?


Spill the beans and let the cats out of the bag!

luckiest1 said:

Hello from Halifax!

Patrick had two practice sessions today, one at the secondary rink early this morning (which I wasn't able to attend) and then the one that you saw a part of, from the main rink. The guys could choose to skate either their short or long program, and most chose to skate their longs. After his program run through, Patrick worked on his triple axels for a while (he rotated and landed all of them, he was just working on the landings, trying to get them cleaner). He also worked on quads and then started doing some of the choreography from his short program (without his music playing, obviously). I'd say he had fairly good practice but he was frustrated that all the landings weren't clean. The second "coach" was in fact choreographer David Wilson, who stood at the boards with Kathy.

I had a nice day today, watching all the practices, then my group went over to Dartmouth for dinner and took the ferry back to Halifax afterwards. I'm looking forward to the competitions tomorrow!

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Thank you Luckiest1

Thanks for bringing that over Interspectator. I have to say I am pleasantly surprised at the food that will be available in this arena. Not that I've actually eaten it yet, but there are so many booths that will be open tomorrow - Asian themed (yay, my favourite!), BBQ themed, a Subway cart, the usual arena stuff plus fresh soup each day, and countless restaurants and pubs within walking distance (not to mention the mall which connects to the arena by tunnel). So far I'm loving Halifax!

Yesterday's ladies practice was exciting, so many triples flying it was hard to believe that I was actually in Canada. Alaine Chartrand was doing triple/triple/triple at times! I am not a jump specialist so I can't tell you what they were, but I know she did triple lutz/triple loop a couple of times. I hope she can put it down when it counts! Kaetlyn Osmond looked polished and smooth, on top of her game jump-wise and everything else. She is just beautiful in person. Gabby is fierce, she won't give her title up without a fight.

My faves in the pairs are Dylan & Lubov and they looked very good in practice yesterday. Their side by side jumps were working well, and their lifts are just spectacular. Megan and Eric are always awesome, and they were trying to land their throw quad lutz a few times towards the end (I don't think it was landed cleanly, not that I saw). The battle for silver & bronze is going to be intense.

I can't say much about dance practice except for how much I love Piper & Paul's Sgt. Pepper outfits. Their run through was excellent, great twizzles. Some of the other teams did struggle on that element a bit. Kaitlyn Weaver's dress is gorgeous up close, so intricate. She and Andrew command the ice. We had a nice chat with Andrew's father for a while, what a nice man.

My eyes were mainly focused on Patrick during the final flight of the men's practice, but I was impressed with Nicolas Nadeau. He looks to be a strong contender.

Sadly, I have to take back everything I said about the great food in the arena. They did not open ANY of the new concession stands.....the only thing open was the usual snack bar crap. The explanation I was given was that ticket sales were not good enough to bring in the "outside vendors" who run the new stands. So, no Asian food, no donairs, so we all left the building for dinner and skipped the opening ceremonies. To say we were disappointed is an understatement. On the up side, the local businesses are loving it. CBC had their news crew in the MidTown Tavern across the street, which was filled to capacity! The food court in the mall is also a busy place for fans and skaters alike.

A few comments from Halifax, first of all attendance. In short, disappointing. Friday afternoon perhaps you would expect low attendances, and I would say the rink has one third full, but rising to only half full in the evening. Saturday afternoon, for senior women and dance less than half full by my estimate, and Saturday evening about two thirds full. Most of the all event seats had been sold on the side opposite the cameras to give a good impression, but the ends were mostly empty throughout, and the judges side only really well populated for Sat evening. Locals sitting near us suggested the event had been promoted poorly locally. To succeed you really need the casual fans to come, you can't rely on the hard core skating fans. This is a small arena, stated as 12,000 but I think this is for concerts with floor seating. Lowest attendance of the four nationals we have been at (and the most uncomfortable seats).
On a more positive note here are the performances that I recall getting really positive crowd reactions - standing ovations. Crowd was small but knowledgable and appreciative.

Dance: weaver/ poje short and long, paradis / oulette long, Gilles Porlier long
Men: Chan short and long, nadeau long, Reynolds long
Women: Osmond short, daleman and chartrand long
Pairs: Pretty much top four in both short and long.
There were more, but those are the ones that stuck out as really creating a buzz in the crowd.

I was going to ask about attendance! I've mostly been following the U.S. Nationals and just watching videos here and there from Halifax and.. the crowds looked shockingly sparse for the women's and pairs LP and free dance. Was the men's LP any better?

I was especially shocked that attendance in St. Paul for the U.S. event has looked much, much more impressive.

dgel said:

On a more positive note here are the performances that I recall getting really positive crowd reactions - standing ovations. Crowd was small but knowledgable and appreciative.

Dance: weaver/ poje short and long, paradis / oulette long, Gilles Porlier long
Men: Chan short and long, nadeau long, Reynolds long
Women: Osmond short, daleman and chartrand long
Pairs: Pretty much top four in both short and long.
There were more, but those are the ones that stuck out as really creating a buzz in the crowd.

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I was curious to hear from someone who was there — what did you think of the women's LP, in particular Chartrand vs. Daleman? Both skated very well, of course, but I was surprised to see Daleman score above Chartrand in the long — I thought Chartrand was definitely that little bit better. What was the impression from the arena?

rain said:

I was curious to hear from someone who was there — what did you think of the women's LP, in particular Chartrand vs. Daleman? Both skated very well, of course, but I was surprised to see Daleman score above Chartrand in the long — I thought Chartrand was definitely that little bit better. What was the impression from the arena?

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Daleman got a great reaction, crowd on their feet at the end, but they were standing and cheering Chartrand as she went into her final spin - as a performance it topped Daleman's- which was in itself a great skate. There really was nothing in it as you can see from the protocols - Daleman a bit better technically, Chartrand a bit better performance, and they pretty much tied on the freeskate. I do think the crowd would have been very surprised if Daleman won overall. They were both world-class performances, and it would be great if they could reproduce this at world level. I was impressed by the crowd's general level of knowledge - good, well executed jumps got strong applause, hand down/ 2 foot/ or a pop to a double just a smattering.

This is not a report. I've been to Halifax a couple of years ago, and I love this city a lot. But, I think it is quite small, and doesn't have other big cities close enough. I think, that's why the rinks were, at best, half empty. Probably, the the promotion was not good enough either. I'd rather keep nationals or Skate Canada in bigger, more populated areas. Maybe I am wrong...

Sabrina said:

This is not a report. I've been to Halifax a couple of years ago, and I love this city a lot. But, I think it is quite small, and doesn't have other big cities close enough. I think, that's why the rinks were, at best, half empty. Probably, the the promotion was not good enough either. I'd rather keep nationals or Skate Canada in bigger, more populated areas. Maybe I am wrong...

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I have to disagree heartily with this general sentiment. I'm not sure why there was a poor turnout in Halifax, but I went to nationals in Victoria (another small city, but the biggest on an island) in 2011 and the arena was packed to the gills with a loud and enthusiastic crowd. There would certainly be no attendance reason not to hold it there again. So it's not just about a city's population.