Arutyunyan on hopes for 2016-17

Me, I just logged on here to ask if anyone knows what Rafael meant at the very end when he said, "You did it again!" What was he referring to?

But since I'm here, let me express my bewilderment at the story about Ashley and Adam having nowhere to train. In addition to their home rink, there are two full-sized rinks within a 10-minute drive, another two rinks within a half hour drive, and another 6-8 rinks within an hour's drive. Their home rink and several of the other nearby rinks also have elite freestyle sessions that are limited to high level competitive skaters so they are never crowded. They do what all L.A. area figure skaters do: Know the freestyle schedules for each of the nearby rinks and go where there is ice at the time they want to skate. It's nothing like Japan (or Korea, if I understand correctly), where skaters need to buy an expensive annual membership to the rink just to skate on a freestyle session there at all, and there is so little freestyle ice available that many skaters end up having to practice triples on crowded public sessions.

At the end, Ted correctly pronounced Rafael's last name again.

And from your post, it certainly does sound like Adam & Ashley aren't wanting for practice rinks.

The cost isn't the rink...it's the property/land! It's odd - some buildings in my area have been empty for about 8+ years but the rent is still $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.

I am guessing he would like to have less crowded freestyle sessions and more hours. Getting up at 4:30am gets old. And dodging other lessons.

And yes, like vlaurend said, we all look up freestyles at other rinks - it's just that freestyles can be crowded and you don't know until you get there. I talked to a mom in Canada this weekend and she said you can rent a sheet of ice there for $80CAN an hour and that in Southern California it's $450USD.

"Rafael Arutyunyan and co. will be moving from East West Ice arena in Artesia, CA to Lakewood Ice in Lakewood, CA at the end of this summer."


Hadn't seen this news posted elsewhere on GS.

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Congratulations to PSA's ... 2016 Coach of the Year recipients - Rafael Arutyunyan & Vera Arutyunyan & Nadezda Kanaeva.

Raf won for the second year in a row .

Ashley's wonderful message of thanks to Raf:

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BTW, winners of other PSA awards announced on Jun 3 (and tweeted by https://twitter.com/ProfSk8rsAssoc):

2016 Developmental Coach of the Year - Aleksey Letov & Olga Ganicheva
2016 Sonja Henie Award - Ekaterina Gordeeva
2016 Distinguished Official Award - Doug Williams
2016 Fritz Dietl National Award - Ice Den Scottsdale
2016 Photo of the Year - Mark Walentiny
2016 F.Ritter Shumway Award - Richard Dwyer
2016 Hall of Fame inductee - Hans Gerschwiler
2016 The Betty Berens Award - Paul Wylie
2016 Honorary & Lifetime Achievement Award - Angie Riviello & Garrett Swasey (posthumously)
The Pieter Kollen Sport Science Award - Lindsay Slater
The Joe Serafine National Volunteer of the Year Award recipients Alex Chang & Becky Stump
2016 Paul McGrath Choreographer of the Year - Cindy Stuart
Gustavo Lussi Award - Ben Agosto

The list of nominees for all of the awards above can be seen here:

golden411icecoverage said:

"Rafael Arutyunyan and co. will be moving from East West Ice arena in Artesia, CA to Lakewood Ice in Lakewood, CA at the end of this summer."

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I'm guessing this is why he expressed his unhappiness with his current rink situation in that interview with Ted; he was hoping someone would make him a better offer. And apparently someone did.

Good for him.

mrrice said:

Blizzards and 100 degree weather? Where do you live?? It definitely hits 100 in Ca. but I don't think any big city in Ca. has ever had anything that be considered a blizzard. In fact, I don't think it's ever snowed in LA? At least not in the last 40 years.

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Mr Rice, I know you wrote this over a month ago, but you gotta come to Ontario Canada sometime. Last week we had temperatures in the 90s (farenheit). And then last February we had several snowstorms and a low of -26 Celsius, which I believe is around -15 degrees Fahrenheit. We Canadians love our seasons.

SarahSynchro said:

Mr Rice, I know you wrote this over a month ago, but you gotta come to Ontario Canada sometime. Last week we had temperatures in the 90s (farenheit). And then last February we had several snowstorms and a low of -26 Celsius, which I believe is around -15 degrees Fahrenheit. We Canadians love our seasons.

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OMG SarahSynchro!!! This is Exactly the area I'm talking about. We were touring ( it was a long time ago ) but, we had performed at Niagara Falls before performing at an amusement park which is now called Darien Lake, and at a Buffalo Saber game before traveling to Toronto. I remember seeing ice crystals on the INSIDE of our bus windows. Horrible!!!:disapp:

mrrice said:

OMG SarahSynchro!!! This is Exactly the area I'm talking about. We were touring ( it was a long time ago ) but, we had performed at Niagara Falls before performing at an amusement park which is now called Darien Lake, and at a Buffalo Saber game before traveling to Toronto. I remember seeing ice crystals on the INSIDE of our bus windows. Horrible!!!:disapp:

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Awesome! Yup, that's definitely the Niagara region for ya, blizzards blizzards and more blizzards! My home and native land!

No, don't hire mafia to kill them. Offer them a ride to the venue, then go to another city. lol

Update re the timeframe for Team Raf's move to Lakewood Ice: