Adventures in skating historiography
Roller Skating Association International (RSA) has revised its figure tests. The old program is available until 12/31/2021, and the new one starts immediately. The new and old programs are the same at the lower levels. The revised tests include the new junior and senior figures from World Skate.
Henry Eugene Vandervell ends The Figure Skate with a challenge: to skate a hypocycloid. The hypocycloid is the most difficult of three curves he describes: the epicycloid, the cycloid, and the hypocycloid. All three are the designs made by a point on the edge of a circle being rolled along a line. For the epicycloid,… Continue reading H. E. Vandervell’s hypocycloid challenge
The Figure Skating Club held competitions in single and pair skating at Prince's Skating Club on March 17 and 21, 1906. The Field reported that The inclusion of pair-skating in the club programme proved a great attraction, and a good entry was secured in both the senior and junior sections."The Figure Skating Club," The Field,… Continue reading Junior and senior singles and pairs in 1906
Header to the first issue available in ANNO (July 1, 1880). I recently discovered the Allgemeine Sport-Zeitung archive in ANNO: Historische österreichische Zeitungen und Zeitschriften at the Austrian National Library. Spanning 1880–1927 with a few gaps, it is a fantastic resource for skating history! (Provided you read German.) This newspaper was published in Vienna, home… Continue reading Mrs. Syers in the Allgemeine Sport-Zeitung
I was hoping to travel to the World Figure & Fancy Skating Championships held in Plattsburgh, NY, on 12/31/2020 and 1/1/2021, but with all the public health officials advising against travel due to the pandemic, it didn't seem like a good idea. Instead, I skated the championship at home, mostly on my backyard rink. The… Continue reading World Figure Championship at home
This image from the Illustrated London News in 1907 speaks for itself. The Illustrated London News, January 19, 1907, p. 105. Image courtesy of the British Newspaper Archive. The caption reads: Football on roller-skates was inaugurated recently for men at Brighton skating-rink, and the pastime was very soon taken up by women. The game is… Continue reading Football on roller skates
In his autobiography, Goethe recounts a conversation with his friend Klopstock about whether the German word for an ice skate should be Schlittschuh or Schrittschuh. They spoke namely in good southern German of Schlittschuhen, which he did not accept as valid because the word does not come from Schlitten, as if one puts on little… Continue reading Goethe & Klopstock on ice skates
The weather's getting colder, and there's a second round of lockdowns on the horizon. With the pandemic raging and the rinks shutting down again, it's time to take matters into your own hands. This winter, skating goes back to the days before indoor rinks with artifically frozen ice were readily available. Today, backyard ice rinks… Continue reading Building your own rink
Inclusive Skating makes figures and other types of skating (on both ice and roller skates) accessible to skaters with challenges through events at the World Figure Championship and around the world.
This organization runs the annual World Figure & Fancy Skating Championship & Festival as well as numerous workshops. WFS exams differ from ISI and USFSA tests in that the figures do not have to be taken in any particular order. You can test any figure you like whenever you’re ready. Many special figures are available… Continue reading Testing & competing with the World Figure Sport Society