So I am back and trying to get Youtube to cooperate with my videos. As they are only of the jump event, I will start with this update. (The video of Jason's quad attempt is convinced it wants to be on its side, even after i rotate it - i am open to suggestions).
We only got to see skating on Saturday, but I still am glad we went and really enjoyed myself. Manged to catch all the senior ladies and senior men's frees with a few other little things tossed in. I was there for all three ladies programs, but Jason Brown showed up in the audience later. Watching him watch his friends is entertainment in and of itself. We were in the front row and he and his group were in one of the side sections. He is so bouncy! I don't know if he was trying to cram in a work out, stay warm, or is just a bundle of energy, but geez! Pretty much the entire second group he was either jogging back and forth, or bouncing back and forth or doing some version of lunges that includes kicking his foot over his ear back and forth. You can really see why his parents put him in an Olympic sport, his energy seems endless. Jordan Moeller was over there too but he seemed to have skipped the skater nip that morning. He also is very distinctive in his cheering. It was fun to play "spot Jason by his voice" by the end.
As for the ladies. Mostly stuff to be expected. Mariah seemed a bit shell shocked the prior night at her new roll as a favorite but was looking better on Saturday. Her program is lovely. Amber was noticeably "on" both nights.
Mirai on the other hand. Well that was a melt down. I am wondering if she just did too many 3As in recent times. Her issues did start at the jump event. There were a few falls where she was down long enough for me to start paying attention I could not tell if she was frustrated or in pain. She did appear to be going for it for herself though, and did have a lot of personal determination in her eyes. At the free, she had issues. The first one i started was a quick balance check, (think pinwheel arms trying to catch yourself from falling backwards) where she grabbed her lower back afterwards, it went down here from there. I don't know if it was her knee or her back, but she did break the fourth wall (for lack of a better way to put it) a few times to check herself. Eventually she just stopped. She skated to the center of the ice turned to where Tom Z likely was (i could not spot him) and looked to be shaking her head and saying "I can't" while just standing there looking like she desperately wanted the music to stop. Eventually there was a change in the music and she came back. To her credit when it was time to be on again, she did go back into performance mode. It looked like she may have been having issues jumping but still wanted to finish out her final step sequence and spins. I am not sure it was a great idea to finish rather than withdraw when it is that bad. It was sad to see and I hope she is ok.
We ran to grab a beer and wings in between segments. One of the waitresses (not ours even) was surprised to hear something was going on as they usually try to do cross promotions. She had no idea and seemed kinda shocked that they had not been told. Also she went to high school with Lukas Kaugars and was shocked to find out he was actually a name some of us would recognize. The location was perfect, and they should have cross promotions.
The men were great. This even really did solidify that I enjoy the men more. Not sure when or why that happened, but it did. Jordan was awesome, I was so glad to get to see him nail his routine. Timothy is another one that clearly looks like he is enjoying what he is doing. Nathan Chen reminds me of going to visit his grand parents - i.e. doing it because it is the right thing for a proper and polite young man to do, not because they want to be there. I think the only smile i saw from him was high fiveing some teen girl fans the night before. His jumps are nice, but as my better half put it, there was not much in between the jumps (or more accurately "Rohene has Jason doing all sorts of crazy stuff between the jumps"). The better half also said the sparklies look better in person.
Jason's new program is lovely and he is beautiful on ice in person. His flexibility, both on ice and in the stands is just amazing. I am not a fan of the music, but it is clearly a beautiful program that will stretch him. I will say it is interesting to see something so understated used. Most music tends to be rather large and try to fill the arena in tone, this was note. The thing is, the more understated music means you pay more attention to the skater. It was lovely in person, but i very quickly stopped even noticing the music. I did not even notice when the strings showed up, just suddenly realized there was more than piano i was hearing. It grabs you more in the arena, but is less depressing and emo on video.
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for sharing all your tweets and videos from the Broadmoor Open (and Freezer).
