Trip to 1st qualification competition in Joensuu 5. - 6.12.2009

On early Saturday morning, around 9 o'clock, our team members arrived slowly one by one to Paloheinä. First we headed to the changing room to get dressed in the competition dresses for a photo shoot, which took place shortly after nine. After the photo shooting, we went warming up for our last practice on ice before the competition. The training went rather well and everyone could be satisfied. At 11 o'clock it was time to jump into a charter bus and direct to Joensuu. The way was long (almost seven hours) and the scenery boring, but somehow we kept ourselves entertained - maybe even too entertained, namely once in a while we got some annoyed looks from the front parts of the bus from the national seniors. We arrived in Joensuu shortly before 6 pm, got our hotel rooms, and then went together for dinner.

After getting some food we had a team meeting in one of the hotel rooms. However, everybody was already quite tired so we went to bed soon.

Sunday morning was calling with an early wake-up. We got started by doing the hair and make-up. Around 7 am we were more or less ready and went downstairs for breakfast. Luckily we had about 50 easy minutes before getting to the ice rink. Nevertheless, Time flew by and soon we were already at the Joensuu indoor ice rink. At 8 o'clock it was time to start warming up and do some dry runs to practice our routine.

At 9:24 it was time to show up. It was actually the first time we did the whole programme from the beginning till the end with the whole team! Nevertheless, it went really well considering how it looked like, say, two weeks ago.

Best words I come up with to describe the feeling after the performance are excitement and relief. The only unfortunate thing was that we had to wait over four hours for the results in the auditorium, but we spent the time watching other teams performing in different divisions of the nationals, and in the meanwhile went for lunch, too.

Finally, after the impatient waiting, the results were presented. All teams gathered back on ice and the winners were announced. For our big surprise we started to hear our music coming from the loudspeakers and then we started screaming. We had won! Amazing, Team Antique had really won, and with a yet unpolished routine! That really made the win feel sooo much better.

The weekend was successful for other HSK teams as well: Team Sympatique and Team Panique won also in their own divisions, and Team Hysterique took silver. So on the way back home the busses were full of joyful synchro skaters who were excited yet tired of the long day. Yet, I must say after experiencing all this - my very first synchro competition ever - no matter how sweet winning is, in the end it's all about having fun with a good team - and we have one of the best :)

Final results:

1. Team Antique, HSK        35,20
2. Shadows, ETK                   32,00
3. Ice Comedy, TTK              31,20
4. Creme de Ments, HL         28,70
5. Team Ice Ladies, PoriTa   18,80

Outside the competition:

Team Ice Passion, Varala-Tiimi 34,00

http://www.joensuunkataja.fi/taitoluistelu/kilpailu/ML_kans2009.htm

Training session at Pirkkola indoor ice ring

Today we had pretty cool training on ice. So far our programme seemed to be more or less like a nightmare thinking of the forthcoming competitions, but today we really rocked! For the very first time we skated the routine from the beginning till the end and, for everybody's surprise, it went roally well. It was also the first training, in which we were wearing our contest dresses, and what was more important, our coach gave us a heartening speech before going on ice, so maybe it was the right state of mind that kicked in and helped us to improve our performance. I really look foward to the sunday's competition now. It'll be great :)

Aikataulu Joensuun kisoihin - Schedule for the competition in Joensuu

Kasallisten sarjojen II lohkon 1.kilpailu 6.12.2009

STARTING ORDER
AIKUISET VAPAAOHJELMA (Adults Free Programme)
9:00 - 9:36

Starting     Name                    Nation
Number

1               Team Ice Passion   VARAL
2               Ice Comedy            TTK
3               Team Ice Ladies     PORIT
4               Shadows                 ETK
5               Team Antique       HSK
6               Creme de Ments      HL
 
Joukkue               Koppi nro  Koppiin   Jäälle   Jäältä   Kopista

Team Ice Passion   1              8:30        9:00      9:06      9:26
Ice Comedy            3              8:36        9:06      9:12      9:32
Team Ice Ladies    4               8:42        9:12      9:18      9:38
Shadows                5              8:48        9:18      9:24      9:44
Team Antique      6               8:54       9:24     9:30     9:50
Creme De Ments    7               9:00        9:30      9:36      9:56
 
Link to the organizer's page:
http://www.joensuunkataja.fi/taitoluistelu/kilpailu/ML_kans2009.htm

Kisakampausvinkkejä - Tips for hairdressing in competitions

Tässä muutamia käteviä kampausvinkkejä kilpailuja varten. Kyseisen kampauksen tekemiseen menee noin 10 - 20 minuttia riippuen hiusten pituudesta ja tekijästä. Kampaus on joka tapauksessa suhteellisen helppo tehdä, joten sen ei pitäisi tuottaa suurempia ongelmia.

Here are some handy tips for hairdressing in competitions. It takes about 10 - 20 minutes to do the the hairdo in question depending on the length of the hair and on the one who's doing it. Regardless, this coiffure is relatively easy to do so it shouldn't cause any bigger problems.

1. Tupeeraus                                     2. Silotus

    Beehive                                                    Smoothing out

3. Poninhäntä                                          4. Poninhännän kääntäminen

    Ponytail                                                   Turning the ponytail

5. Kiinnittäminen pinneillä                         6. Latvojen kääntäminen
    Pinning                                                     Turning the hair endings

Lopullinen kampaus pannan kanssa

Final hairdo with hairband

First qualification competition 6.12.

Team Antique is starting the competition season in Joensuu, Finland, 6th December. Teams are devided randomly into two divisions. We're competing in the division II, which includes following teams:

Shadows (ETK)
Creme De Ments (HL)
Team Antique (HSK)
Team Ladysette (ParSport)
Team Ice Ladies (PoriTa)
Ice Comedy (TTK)
Coastline Collection (VLK)
Team Ice Passion (Varala)
Sun City Secret (VG-62)

Hair styles in the spirit of 60's

Our theme being the Supremes this season and related to 60's, I add here some drawings as a suggestion for our team's hair style. I hope you like and pick your favourite

Starting point

This is my new blog about synchronized skating. About my background: I started figure skating at the age of 4 and continued competing until the age of 11. In the beginning of 2009 I decided to go back on ice but this time I wasn't going  to do it solo - I joined an adult synchroskating team. However, and unfortunately, the team started to run to all directions so I ended up changing a team and voilà, everything looks nice and good again. Here you can read things about our team, issues about synchronized skating in general, and all kinds of fun stuff related :)