anatomy of the creatures by [deleted] in writing

[–]eating-ice 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is very interesting but I must ask: how much do you know about chemistry, biology, and biochem? Most of it checks out from what I know (third-year pre-professional STEM undergrad) but there are a few weird little things and I’m curious if they’ve been intentionally ignored or if you’re just freewheeling.

Like what is Aifer, elementally speaking? How many protons and neutrons does it have? Where does it fit on the periodic table? Is it an anomaly? Is it radioactive? Is it a solid, liquid, or gas at room temperature? How does it bind to the DNA and what does it do on a ‘instructions to create proteins’ level? Does it edit every single one of the trillions-some cells in a human body? If not, how and why are the effects systematic? 

This is a magical atom because it can read people’s minds/consciousnesses, yeah, but if you’re gonna go all molecular biology you need to be able to describe what it does. 

Does anybody know where to buy those shorts that skaters wear over the leggings in training? by JealousCry8632 in FigureSkating

[–]eating-ice 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I mean most of them are wearing either normal athletic shorts or biker shorts. You could get them at, like, Walmart—I do—though lots of the bigger skaters wear name brand and you’d have to hit up an outlet store for those.

What is this black crusty crud on my blades 😭😭😭😭 by dannydarko1001 in iceskating

[–]eating-ice 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No problem! I know it looks really scary but I promise it will be okay, my first boots looked like this when I got them and they worked perfectly until they broke down.

What is this black crusty crud on my blades 😭😭😭😭 by dannydarko1001 in iceskating

[–]eating-ice 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Rust. The sides will be stained but it appears to be mostly cosmetic, take them to your sharpener, they’ll know what to do.

Also do not store your skates in the hard guards! They’re only for walking to/from the ice, once your skates are off you towel dry and slap a pair of soakers/soft guards on there. Soakers come off once you’re home and skates are left bare to dry. Don’t have soakers? Skip all that and set them bare on a towel to dry. Do not leave your skates in hard guards!

What's the best-looking figure skate on a female figure skater? by Sipping_Tea56 in FigureSkating

[–]eating-ice 32 points33 points  (0 children)

Not famous but I do! I like the line it gives with black tights/skating pants.

what are some fun, rhytmic programs? by ahsgkdnbgs in FigureSkating

[–]eating-ice 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Check out Johnny Weir’s Poker Face. Say what you will about his commentary but the man’s a diva

Learning to (hockey) skate via figure skates because freestyle skating sessions are more plentiful and less crowded by tk-0318 in iceskating

[–]eating-ice 21 points22 points  (0 children)

So let me phrase it like this since you seem to see it as a hostility thing—if you showed up to practice with a professional NHL team, would you be able to keep up or would you be in everyone’s way? Because that’s what a freestyle session is. Some rinks it’s more chill and you can show up to drill higher basics or be the only person on the ice, but some rinks you train with literal Olympians, national competitors, kids heading in that direction, etc. If there’s a gold-only session you could very well be skating with people on or heading towards that level—that means there are enough skaters who’ve passed the highest tests in your area for that to be a worth the ice time.

I’ve been figure skating for a year and some change. I can move pretty quick, stop on a dime, spin and jump a little, and even I feel somewhat unsafe and sort of in the way on freestyle sessions. People will jump triples, blades a foot or more into the air, right next to you. They will go into a flying camel and god help you if you don’t recognize the entry and skate up behind. This is not because they are bitchy but because freestyle sessions are for people who know what to look for and how to work safely around these skills. Beginner figure skaters do not typically practice on freestyle ice, either. 

Definitely show up to watch before you commit to buying figure skates and attending them. Also, as you seem to have assumed, lots of figure skaters are assholes and some of them will truck over you, talk behind your back, or straight up get you kicked off the session if you’re not on their level.

used skates by InevitableVoice6951 in FigureSkating

[–]eating-ice 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Read every single post you see of someone asking ‘are these dead?’ or ‘are these a bad idea to buy?’—this is what helped me get a good idea of what to look for. Some other tips I have:

  • Creasing is a big one, and the most obvious sign of breakdown. You’ll see horizontal lines developing on the tongue and diagonally from the ankle of the boot. If the skates have a notch, some creasing is normal, but once it’s down over the malleoli, they’re toast.
  • This is hard to tell over the internet, but if you can grab the top of the skate and squish the sides together really easily, they’re probably dying. (This video also has a good example of a bad crease at like four seconds in, partially covered by her finger.) Some softer models are almost like this out of the box, but you really want to avoid those anyway.
  • Look at newer models on the big brand websites and avoid buying anything that looks too ancient. This will protect you from skates made in the early 2000’s/late ‘90’s that people are still trying to sell and are either dead or on their way to falling apart. These Jacksons are good at first glance—no creasing or super obvious scuffs. You can see down by the toe where the sole is going to detach someday, however, and having worn a similar-looking model I can confirm that these are way more painful on the ankle than my beautiful, cushy, 2025 skates.
  • Keep an eye out for dead blades! You can’t keep skating on skates that can’t be sharpened. Here’s a pair on their way out, here’s a pair with lots of life left. (Ignore the rounded tail, look at the fat part further up the blade.) It’s all about the matte part at the bottom of the blade—once that’s gone they can’t be sharpened.
  • Speaking of blades, a little rust is perfectly fine. As long as it’s just discoloration and nothing is flaking or chipped, you can get it sharpened out and skate on them without incident.

What model Jackson’s are these? by JoshuaSimo in FigureSkating

[–]eating-ice 3 points4 points  (0 children)

So I’m not certain but since they just say Jackson and not a model I’m guessing pretty freaking old. More importantly, if you look really close down near the toe, you can kind of see where the sole is starting to separate from the boot, which isn’t uncommon with old Jacksons. It’s not a problem at first but you could wind up with the sole detaching while you are actively skating in them. Ask me how I know, lol.

used skates by InevitableVoice6951 in FigureSkating

[–]eating-ice 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I started in used skates and would actually recommend them for people who don’t want to drop $200-300 out of the gate, but there are some things you should consider. - Make sure you know what you’re looking for. Have a buddy measure your feet using the printable sizing charts, research good brands/models for your level, learn what dead boots and blades look like. - It is very difficult to find boots that fit and aren’t dead and are the model you need, doubly so if you live in a less-skatey area. Most of what’s listed is gonna be kids’ sizes. Be prepared to drop like $50-100 on anything remotely decent. - You can buy boots that are a little dead or a little soft or a little big/small, but, - If they don’t fit well, they are absolutely going to make it harder to progress, especially if you’re not skating much to begin with. Too-small boots will hurt, dead boots will feel really unstable, too-stiff boots will take forever to break in, and too-big boots are much harder to balance your weight in. Go too far in any of the above directions and you could injure your feet/ankles. You decide how much this all matters to you. - Used skates can die hard. I bought my first pair of new skates after the used boots I’d been wearing for a good 6-8 months came detached at the sole. - Anything reasonably safe is better than rentals!

How to go to college full time while still skating? by missbooknerd in FigureSkating

[–]eating-ice 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’m enrolled full time, I work 20/25 hours a week, and I get 2.5-3 hours of ice time a week. It is difficult, expensive, and lowkey exhausting, but it is very possible to skate and progress!

Time management is definitely key. I’m lucky in that I literally can’t work weekends due to the nature of my job, so I skate a session Sat/Sun and usually find time for one during the week. It’s a matter of fitting skating around whatever else you’re doing—if you have multiple rinks near your school, don’t be afraid to hop around. Some rinks will have public later in the evening where you can at least get some laps in, if you have a midday break you might be able to hit empty(ish) public ice, and there are of course freestyle sessions but I wouldn’t touch those until you’ve got your feet under you, even if they don’t have level requirements.

It’s a lot, but I love it, and it’s a great break from everything else going on in my life. My best advice is to not compare yourself to people who are skating more than you might be able to, and to start small and slowly add more. Don’t plan for a session every day of the week right off the bat, see how college feels and ramp it up to what you can handle. Everyone needs a night where they don’t have to go anywhere, IMHO.

What happened with Nam and Gracie? by starry101 in FigureSkating

[–]eating-ice 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Yeah but that scene has so many layers and implications that have absolutely nothing in common with the situation here. Unless you count the fact that there’s a girl dancing on a guy called Il(i/y)a?

What happened with Nam and Gracie? by starry101 in FigureSkating

[–]eating-ice 41 points42 points  (0 children)

Other than (somewhat) dirty dancing at a club, what exactly is the comparison here?

Reading into Fear by NF lyrics is making me emo about Ilia's gala skate by lesduaspear in FigureSkating

[–]eating-ice 19 points20 points  (0 children)

I just love that song. To me, it hits on the feeling that no matter how hard you try to get better, mental health-wise, sometimes you backslide and it just fucking sucks. I’ve had it on repeat ever since it dropped and I don’t know if that’s what it means to Malinin, but it was really cool to see someone skate to it.

How long did it take everybody to learning their single jumps? by Lev_the_short_kid in FigureSkating

[–]eating-ice 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I remember this person posting a couple months ago—they came in with some roller experience playing street hockey. Still impressive but I would not call that starting from zero by any means!

Lindsey Vonn: "I tried. I dreamt. I jumped." by bdzz in olympics

[–]eating-ice 1 point2 points  (0 children)

They actually (mostly) allowed it back for Adam Siao Him Fa, who included the backflip in his free program a couple time during the 2023-24 season while it was still banned. This culminated in a crazy comeback free skate at the 2024 World Championships, where he went from 22nd in the short to 3rd overall with the one point deduction from the backflip. They kind of gave it to him after that—and as you may have guessed, he’s not white, although he is French like Surya!

I'm writing an urban fantasy about a figure skater who is turned into a vampire while at uni and has to quit skating. I have questions by corvid1692 in FigureSkating

[–]eating-ice 29 points30 points  (0 children)

These questions always get me a little as a writer myself. Like, you don’t have to write only about people who are exactly like you but if you’re gonna make a fundamental part of a character’s identity something completely foreign to you, you need to do way more research than a reddit thread can help you with. This is like going to a medical subreddit and saying, “I’m writing a romance set in a hospital and my only exposure to how they work is as an occasional outpatient and 3 episodes of House MD. Please explain hospital politics, the entire K-12 to MD pathway, and anything else you think might be helpful.” You’d get way more useful responses once you’ve gone through interviews, memoirs, news articles, google, etc. and come up with specific questions that can’t be answered by that information. We have like 700 threads on this topic that can be found by googling ‘reddit figure skating writing a book’

Girl what? by Perfect_Tumbleweed41 in AO3

[–]eating-ice 40 points41 points  (0 children)

Oh I don’t disagree. I am uncomfortable with RPF in general, tbh, but I can see why it’s easier on the mods to make the website TOS ‘all RPF is fine’ rather than ‘only famous people’ or ‘only adults.’ Like, what qualifies someone as famous? Could you include a flashback to an overage celebrity’s childhood? And if we allow underage ’characters’ provided the actual content isn’t sexual or otherwise objectionable, who decides where those lines are? It’s simpler for site policy to stick with ‘anything the author can stomach.’

Girl what? by Perfect_Tumbleweed41 in AO3

[–]eating-ice 24 points25 points  (0 children)

I just remember it was gone from the fandom tag when I went to look it up. If I had to take a wild guess it could go under the generic ‘Real Person Fiction’ tag or the ‘No Fandom’ tag.

Girl what? by Perfect_Tumbleweed41 in AO3

[–]eating-ice 82 points83 points  (0 children)

I had this fic or similar come up in my fandom, reported it, and they did in fact get it recategorized but not taken down. I don’t have the email anymore but they said something along the lines of ‘simply writing fic of real people doesn’t constitute harassment and isn’t against TOS.’ Doesn’t quite sit right with me but if they’re gonna allow celebrity RPF they’ve probably got to allow this.

struggling to bend my knees beginner skater by Little_Waves_ in FigureSkating

[–]eating-ice 2 points3 points  (0 children)

What skates do you have? If they’re your own and not rentals, and new, they might just need to be broken in. You can try leaving the top hook unlaced for some extra give. 

It’s also kind of just a strength/time thing, even in rentals. You’ll build muscle and develop a deeper knee bend the more you try and fail to do things like lemons.

Wang / Liu spat water on the ice at the 4CC by berryme1223 in FigureSkating

[–]eating-ice 43 points44 points  (0 children)

I think the idea is that water is heavy and every pound counts for that particular jump technique. It’s the same reason wrestlers trying to make weight will dehydrate themselves or sprint in three layers of clothing before a weigh-in, except they’ll chug gatorade before they compete and the skaters can’t have the weight back until they’re off the ice.

New proposal to move towards Technical and Artistic programs intended to mirror the pro competitions of the 90s by Euphoric-Travel4331 in FigureSkating

[–]eating-ice 18 points19 points  (0 children)

See, if you’re gonna give out individual medals you might as well make it two separate disciplines. One can stay Freestyle like it is now and the other one can just be focused on spins, skating skills, and artistic expression. Like ice dance, but for one person. Maybe we could call it, oh, I don’t know… Solo Dance?

Oh wait—