2023 CS Autumn Classic Men's Free Skate | Page 18 | Golden Skate

2023 CS Autumn Classic Men's Free Skate

4everchan

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 7, 2015
Country
Martinique
If they don't like it when I approach them they are extraordinarily good actors/actresses. Not only does Amber sign everyone's Pride flags (she asked my name, which no other skater has ever done and signed with a big beautiful signature and a big beautiful smile) but she invites everyone who brought Pride flags to take a group photo with her after the competition.
Also there is FOFS breakfast where I have to believe they are 100% certain they will be approached by many people. That's what the event is for.
Just read my post again :) I am not talking about skaters not willing to share a bit of time with fans. I am sure that many appreciate it. I am talking about my own behaviour. I do not like to be the instigator for quite a lot of reasons that come from my own experience as a performer who is required to greet audience members after concerts. I am a very good actor : I have always been nice to anyone talking after a show and so on, but I would prefer if I didn't have to do so most of the times, so I give the skaters a break. Of course, I made one exception at this rule once when I asked Nik Soerensen to sign my book...His handwriting is superb. It was a funny moment because all the young skaters were asking Lolo for photos and autrographs and he was standing gloriously by himself, in all his splendour... So I obliged and gave him some fan attention. He grinned and it was a very nice moment... but it is enough for me. When you get the best in the world, you don't need others :)
 

4everchan

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 7, 2015
Country
Martinique
Now THAT is the way to skate to Sex Music! Bo Derek is proud! IYKYK

Good job, Kevin, I don't even mind the mistakes.
Bolero is not sex music... just so you know :) It comes centuries before Bo Derek. It's sort of the grand-parent of flamenco that emerged later on. I think Kévin really brought that colour to it. So now, there are 3 good boleros in skating, T and D, Sholero and Bolaymoz. Honorable mention to Carolero.
 

labgoat

Coffee & Tea make everything better
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 3, 2007
Country
United-States
I hate myself. I fell asleep in front of my laptop while waiting for the RD, slept through it all, woke up briefly, had food, tried to catch up on what I missed, fell asleep again, and finally woke up to catch up. I am going to drink three cans of energy drinks this time
The body demands sleep sometimes. I’ve zoned out the same way many times. I fully expect that one day I’ll post a page of zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz by accident one day and you will all be annoyed and or laughing at me. Thank goodness for replays, I read and respond to the threads as if I were there in real time and it works mostly.
 
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4everchan

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 7, 2015
Country
Martinique
BTW there is tennis player from Australia whose first name is Rinky.
Rinky Hijikata ! Playing doubles with Jason Kubler. So if they were to try to make a porte-manteau nickname, for instance like Popspisock did it may be trying. :)
 

4everchan

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 7, 2015
Country
Martinique

4everchan

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 7, 2015
Country
Martinique
I am a bit late with this... but of course I did insert some comments here and there, despite the really bad internet. I even shut down the wifi to use 5G and still it wasn't working half the time.

In sort of approximate skating order but not quite.

Donovan. He is very nice and elegant. I am not sure how his shirt looks on the stream but the colour live is very nice on him. I like a lot of things about his skating, though, obviously, he is not yet in the greatest shape. However, I felt he was a bit slow so it was a bit hard as a first skater.

Edrian : gorgeous gorgeous skating. The 3lz-3t is class ! Of course, he doesn't have a 3a nor a quad (though he did try quads pre-covid) so it's hard for him to get ahead in the LP. I liked his performance very much. Plus, he is super cute ;)

Sota : his back, his arms, his neck, his posture. He is so beautiful to watch. Unmatched really at this event. Too many mistakes but he certainly did make up some ground after a shaky SP. I wish such an interesting skater to watch would choose something else than muse exo. At the same time, he was really able to showcase the nuances of the music.

Tomas was rather painful to watch. I won't comment much more. When I see a difficult performance, I think my memory presses delete.

Jimmy : this was one of the music I didn't like at all. What is it with people trying to mess up with Mozart's Requiem ? It didn't help that there were quite a bunch of jump errors in it. He seems like a nice guy, he came right away to sit in the audience. He did look deflated.

Nikolaj : not amused by the Samson proper mixed with the Muse bits... and if he wants to keep this music, why not use a less traditional looking costume? It was weird. Some good moments of course. His jumps look quite good. His spins, not so much.

Wesley : erm. quad lutz attempt. hard fall. 4t-1t... i mean no need to try to add the 1t if there is never a plan to repeat the jump. I was a bit sad for him as he did well in the SP.

Mark : he truly is a gorgeous skater with, smooth, strong skating. Nice triple axel sequence after a tiny touch down of the free leg on the first 3a. My issue with his program is that it's jump jump jump, then with barely any choreo until we get to the choreo seq and the step seq.

Gogo : a pop and a fall. It seems to be something I saw a lot about him. At least, this time, he calmed down and showed a lot of courage to do 3 very strong jumping passes in the second half, including the gorgeous 3f-3a seq. Spins are okay... A bit slow overall.

Boyang : My brain didn't retain anything about the program other than decent jumping. HIs technique is still iffy (neck backwards, stiff landings). I know a lot of people like him, the fans were crazy about him there. But I just do not. Hate me or not for it. I cannot just like everyone right? Well, maybe I could :)

Kévin : musically and choreographically, this was the most researched performance of the night. Bravo. I loved it. He is so engaging.

Ilia : after Skate Canada denying me from pairs and women with their schedule update and thus, the simple fact that I wouldn't be seeing world champs in action, I was hoping I would see quad god do a 4axel. The triple axel was huge and gorgeous but yeah. The jumping is stellar. He is truly immensely gifted technically and I command him on pursuing harder and harder things. However, the program doesn't exist outside of the choreo and step sequence. People went nuts for his aerials. It was super cool. I didn't know the music. I won't remember the sound of it... nor the emotion of it.

As I have mentioned earlier : only Sota and Kévin had decent programs. If I were to pick a third one who interested me by their skating, it would probably have been Edrian. The men's event is a lot about the jumps for sure but yeah... it was relatively boring to watch, especially when nobody went perfectly clean. Everyone at least had a pop,a fall and/or a stiff laboured jump.
 
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4everchan

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 7, 2015
Country
Martinique
PS. This was my first men event live since covid hit. I did go to CQÉ last month but no men skated (one did..) so I didn't bother to go extra early for men. I have never felt as bored at a men's event as I did today. I have attended quite a few events from 2016-2019 : Nationals, CQÉ, ACI, SCI... and I loved watching the men. I hope this is was an exception but if men's skating is really going to save choreography/program for both sequences (step and choreo) and do nothing in between than the required jumps and spins, men skating is going to be more and more and more boring. Of course, this was 10 men. This was an early challenger. This was not Shoma or Yuma or Roman or Jason or Adam... but yeah. It was BLAND. I sincerely hope this will not be the case at worlds, considering that I will see all the SPs and 24 FPs... hopefully more than 2 or 3 will have some choreographic focus. I will not take the excuse that men have to do quads. I have seen skaters with quads before and they had choreography.
 

Ic3Rabbit

Former Elite, now Pro. ⛸️
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 9, 2017
Country
Olympics
Ryan Bradley once skated to a program at US Nationals that featured banjo and fiddle music. Not particularly well skated, but he definitely had the crowd going.

Ah that season! Devil Went Down to Georgia and Dueling Banjos. He has the gift of always winning the crowd over with his showmanship, plus there's not too many male skaters that can keep up with Devil Went Down to GA.
 

icewhite

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 7, 2022
I am a bit late with this... but of course I did insert some comments here and there, despite the really bad internet. I even shut down the wifi to use 5G and still it wasn't working half the time.

In sort of approximate skating order but not quite.

Donovan. He is very nice and elegant. I am not sure how his shirt looks on the stream but the colour live is very nice on him. I like a lot of things about his skating, though, obviously, he is not yet in the greatest shape. However, I felt he was a bit slow so it was a bit hard as a first skater.

Edrian : gorgeous gorgeous skating. The 3lz-3t is class ! Of course, he doesn't have a 3a nor a quad (though he did try quads pre-covid) so it's hard for him to get ahead in the LP. I liked his performance very much. Plus, he is super cute ;)

Sota : his back, his arms, his neck, his posture. He is so beautiful to watch. Unmatched really at this event. Too many mistakes but he certainly did make up some ground after a shaky SP. I wish such an interesting skater to watch would choose something else than muse exo. At the same time, he was really able to showcase the nuances of the music.

Tomas was rather painful to watch. I won't comment much more. When I see a difficult performance, I think my memory presses delete.

Jimmy : this was one of the music I didn't like at all. What is it with people trying to mess up with Mozart's Requiem ? It didn't help that there were quite a bunch of jump errors in it. He seems like a nice guy, he came right away to sit in the audience. He did look deflated.

Nikolaj : not amused by the Samson proper mixed with the Muse bits... and if he wants to keep this music, why not use a less traditional looking costume? It was weird. Some good moments of course. His jumps look quite good. His spins, not so much.

Wesley : erm. quad lutz attempt. hard fall. 4t-1t... i mean no need to try to add the 1t if there is never a plan to repeat the jump. I was a bit sad for him as he did well in the SP.

Mark : he truly is a gorgeous skater with, smooth, strong skating. Nice triple axel sequence after a tiny touch down of the free leg on the first 3a. My issue with his program is that it's jump jump jump, then with barely any choreo until we get to the choreo seq and the step seq.

Gogo : a pop and a fall. It seems to be something I saw a lot about him. At least, this time, he calmed down and showed a lot of courage to do 3 very strong jumping passes in the second half, including the gorgeous 3f-3a seq. Spins are okay... A bit slow overall.

Boyang : My brain didn't retain anything about the program other than decent jumping. HIs technique is still iffy (neck backwards, stiff landings). I know a lot of people like him, the fans were crazy about him there. But I just do not. Hate me or not for it. I cannot just like everyone right? Well, maybe I could :)

Kévin : musically and choreographically, this was the most researched performance of the night. Bravo. I loved it. He is so engaging.

Ilia : after Skate Canada denying me from pairs and women with their schedule update and thus, the simple fact that I wouldn't be seeing world champs in action, I was hoping I would see quad god do a 4axel. The triple axel was huge and gorgeous but yeah. The jumping is stellar. He is truly immensely gifted technically and I command him on pursuing harder and harder things. However, the program doesn't exist outside of the choreo and step sequence. People went nuts for his aerials. It was super cool. I didn't know the music. I won't remember the sound of it... nor the emotion of it.

As I have mentioned earlier : only Sota and Kévin had decent programs. If I were to pick a third one who interested me by their skating, it would probably have been Edrian. The men's event is a lot about the jumps for sure but yeah... it was relatively boring to watch, especially when nobody went perfectly clean. Everyone at least had a pop,a fall and/or a stiff laboured jump.

Regarding Boyang: I don't really care for his skating. I just think he comes across as a nice fellow, down to earth, friendly, funny. No idea if he really is of course, as is always the case with people you only know from a few interviews and vids. But that's why I support him and wish him well.
 

labgoat

Coffee & Tea make everything better
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 3, 2007
Country
United-States
This is without a doubt the greatest program I've seen in the past decade. Horse noises, gun shots, whistlography, and ending with the greatest Rednex song of all time. If he adds chaps to his costume and drinks a whiskey in the K&C, I may die of ecstasy.
 

4everchan

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 7, 2015
Country
Martinique
Regarding Boyang: I don't really care for his skating. I just think he comes across as a nice fellow, down to earth, friendly, funny. No idea if he really is of course, as is always the case with people you only know from a few interviews and vids. But that's why I support him and wish him well.
I understand. Sure, the same way that some skaters from very small feds get support. I am rarely discussing skaters at this level because I believe they all deserve our respect and sympathy. Pretty much everyone there has had difficulties. Just think of Sota and Donovan with their health issues. Every skater could have a bad fall at any point. I admire their dedication and courage. So Boyang gets my respect for coming back after his health issues : he doesn't have anything to prove, he got a lot of accolades when he first arrived on the circuit. So when I say that he is not my favourite, I am only talking about the skater... not the human. As a matter of fact, I have no idea what kind of human any one of these skaters is... because for that, as you say, we would need to know them in real life... even with the media interviews, it's all a game. We cannot really tell who is a cool cat or not... appears to be cool is not really a factor for me, but yes, Boyang looks like he is a fun guy with a good sense of humour. Doesn't make me like him more. I hope he keeps developing under Orser and that he remains healthy.
 
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