My First Ice Skating Experience

When I was in Leeds, my ex once invited me to join a group of friends trying out skiing and ice skating in Aviemore, Scotland. I liked the idea – but had to give it a miss due to having other commitments. After that, I’d never gotten such opportunity again – so, throughout my two years in UK, I had never tried out skiing or ice skating.

Two years ago I had to attend a meeting in Surabaya. Since our hotel was located just next to a huge shopping mall, one night, my friends and I decided to give an ikan bakar restaurant a try. Right after my first taste of grilled barracuda, I had another 'first' – becoming a spectator of one Surabaya Regional Ice Hockey Tournament game from the 8th floor of Tunjungan Plaza III.

Although I have watched ice hockey (read: The Mighty Ducks) and figure skating (read: Olympic) on TV before, nothing beats watching a live game to actually get my interest piqued. It was simply fascinating – the clean sweeps, the seemingly light yet deadly strikes, the players combining gracefulness and swiftness in their movements. I was awestruck - and found myself wishing to be able to ice skate.

However, upon my return to KL, I did not immediately act on that interest – so the wish somehow sizzled. The interest however fizzled back to life when I started watching “Pride”, a hit Japanese drama in which my favourite actor (Kimura Takuya lah, who else?) starred as an ice hockey player earlier this year. (pst, pst Jordan, in that drama, Halu, the main character, opted to further his career by joining the Vancouver Canucks – which pleased many true ice hockey fans. How about that, eh?)

Later, I loaned “Pride” to Kak Ham, who after finished watching it, also agreed with me that it might be a good idea to actually give ice skating a try. Hey, after all, in life it’s never too late to learn something new, right?

So, we finally did it last week.
I tried out ice skating for the very first time in my life.
Kak Ham, who used to study in Miami, at least knows how to rollerblade.
I, however, had no experience whatsoever with ice skating, rollerblading, skateboarding or plain old skating.
Nil. Nada.

At the end of our first session though – Kak Ham spent more time as a spectator than a skater. Upon entering the rink, she asked an Arab guy next to her to give her a hand. He did, but she lost control, slipped down, stood up again, slipped once more and ended up accidentally giving him a hug at the board.

It was funny. Honestly.
But not as funny as me being rooted in one place.

I was so scared that I was not moving at all. A teenage girl noticed my distress and came by to teach me some basic move. She hold my left hand, while my right was put on the board window.

“Keep your legs close together… Bend your knees a bit… Balance your shoulders with your feet movement… Yes, like that… Now move forward… Nooo, not like that… Stop!!!… Keep your legs close together... It’s different from walking, you know. You can only move forward, if you move backward, you will fall… Yes, like that… Stop!!!… Move forward… Just move forward... Don’t be afraid to fall… Nobody is going to laugh if you fall… Everybody falls..”

Jennifer patiently showed me some basic movement. I however, was making more attempts at moving than actually moving. Thus, we only covered about an eighth of the ice rink area when I thanked her and started to move slowly along the ice rink board alone. Slowly is the keyword here – dozens of other beginners passed me by as some of them walked and some skated slowly. I told myself that I must at least finished one complete round of the rink – or else it wouldn’t worth the RM15.00 entry fee.

I did contemplating taking a lesson from an expert instructor. However, I thought RM50 per session is too expensive for someone who has no intention whatsoever to be a serious skater. Besides, a colleague at work claimed that ice skating is the easiest to learn compared to other forms of skating. The “easiest-to-learn”, I found out that day, was not that easy after all.

I was fortunate enough to get another free lesson as I reached the far end of the rink. There was this uncle - a kind looking medium height middle aged man - who I suspected might be a qualified coach who was helpful enough to teach me some basic moves.

“Keep your legs close. Now march. Move your right leg. Move your left leg. Right. Left. Right. Left. Right. Left. Don’t stop!… If you stop you will fall. Now, right. Left. Right. Left. Keep moving… I said, don’t stop. If you stop moving you will fall… You see, actually you skate on one leg while the other push you forward. That’s how you glide forward…”

I fell, of course. A couple of times. Who didn’t on their first lesson?

‘Uncle’ taught me how to fall down completely, get back up, get my feet close together again and marched on ice once more. He helped me through all the way until we reached the entrance.

“Take a break. Then start marching again, until you get your balance, ” ‘uncle’ advised.

Kak Ham grinned widely when she saw me.

“I made a complete round.” I knew it was lame, but it was an achievement of some sort.

“I know. I saw you did it. It looked painful to me. ”

It was – my right knee was hurting. So was my left thigh. But I wasn’t about to waste that RM15.00 for just one round of the rink.

“ Would you mind waiting? I want to give it another go.”

“That’s fine with me. I’ll buy myself some drinks at that café over there and wait for you there, okay? Ganbatte!" Kak Ham waved as I entered the rink for the second time.

So while Kak Ham went and read some women magazine at a café located at the end of the rink, I tried another attempt of ‘skating’ around the rink. Hey – but there was some improvement – I moved faster this time around. If not for some slow girl who moved slower-than-a-snail blocking the way, I believed I could had finished the second round faster. The right-left, right-left marching trick worked, but I was too afraid to completely let go of the window, so I had to patiently wait for the girl in front of me to make her move, assisted by her patient boyfriend, until once she made a long stop and I braved myself to let go of the window for one step and overtook her.

Right-left. Right-left. Feet close together... Yeayyy… I did it. I completed two rounds of the ice rink! I told myself that it wasn’t too bad for a self-taught-first-timer. Just to, you know, cheer myself up a bit despite feeling insanely envious of those kids who could skate forward, backward, did a flip or two and all. Urayamashii!!! (Jelesnya!!!)

So, okay, Daeng was right. Ice skating is one area I need to improve on. Maybe I’ll ask a friend who knows how to skate and can assist/teach me on my next trip. I’ll pay the entry fee, of course. That’ll be my lesson fee. After all, RM15 is still a lot cheaper than RM50 per session.

I may not want to be a serious skater – but I’ll keep on learning until I’m able to fulfil a dream of feeling liberated as I glide alongside the rest, somewhat steadily if not gracefully, across the ice rink.