Skate Canada 2010

inskate wrote:

And I love some of the gifs they post. Yesterday someone summarized Patrick's SP performance with this gif:
https://2img.net/r/ihimizer/img594/5450/gatorfall.gif
and I still can't stop laughing over it.

hahaha I can't stop laughing!


And hmm...I wonder if Orser will file for "obstruction of practice" in addition to "over-inflated scores"

The collision looked really bad. I'm glad they're both okay.
Btw, I wonder where Pochi is. I haven't seen her around lately.

aoi88 wrote:

Btw, I wonder where Pochi is. I haven't seen her around lately.

Yeah, I miss her and her witty commentaries.

inskate wrote:

My comments about the Skate Canada Gala:

WORST. LIGHTNING. EVER.

Or, perhaps, should I say: What lightning?

It was so dark that I actually couldn't see the skaters. It was lucky if the skaters wore a bright outfit: then at least I could see some part of their bodies shimmering in the darkness. I'm surprised nobody crashed into the boards.

I adore Nobu's new EX. Now I could see what the Japanese fans were talking about: his skating style really matured. He looked a bit stiff in the competition, especially the LP, but in this EX his style was really reminiscent of Jeff Buttle and Kurt Browning, except with many Nobu-esque moves. He did the sliding split, back Y-spiral (nice!), Ina Bauer, besti squat, 2A out of brackets, illusion, great Russian split jump with full extension, and his program was just awesomely dance-y.

Adam skated to Nuovo Cinema Paradiso (I love this music) and was also great. He landed the Rippon Lutz (big kudos for attempting it in those awful lighting) and did a Russian split jump.

ONTD's reaction over Patrick's skating to "Don't worry, be happy" was the highlight of the evening for me.

Сan you post it there? I was so afraid for skaters, I agree,lighting was awful. Some people were joking they're saving light for Patrick Patrick's ex is...don't worry,be happy, judges are with Patrick!
Most of all I loved Nobu and Luba and Nodari's exhibition numbers.

inskate wrote:

ONTD's reaction over Patrick's skating to "Don't worry, be happy" was the highlight of the evening for me.

I haven't seen the exhibition but after watching the whole men's competition I can't stop laughing after reading this

Score for SP of Chan is a big joke. I know he has very good speed, artistry and transitions but 3 mistakes should have made this score much lower than 73 points.

I agree there was too dark at ex gala. Or maybe darkness wasn't a problem, just lights which didn't shine on skaters.

klarification wrote:

aoi88 wrote:

Btw, I wonder where Pochi is. I haven't seen her around lately.

Yeah, I miss her and her witty commentaries.

aoi, klarification...sorry for my absence. I've been working on my new Mao video (not a comical one which most people prefer, sorry! ) There's a link in the figure skating montages corner. It's based on 'Bells' again...which some of you don't like so much, sorry again. But it's the performance she did at Nats last season. Remeber what a brilliant come back that was after having troubles in GP, and missing Finals last year? I hope she'll return to us like that soon after her jump reforming is completed. I'm sure she will. She's not a consistant stable skater, but she amazes us like that Nats performance come-back from time to time, doesn't she?

Skate Canada mens' competition was even worser than Yuna getting higher scores than Mao for that FP at Worlds last season. I'm not angry at Patrick, although he seemed to have made comments like:

Quote :

Chan acknowledged his role as a judges' favorite, saying he's grateful to be recognized for his skating skills.
"It's a good position to be in," he said. "I know [coach and choreographer] Lori [Nichol] speaks highly of me to judges, and I want to perform the way she says I can.

He also had the nerve to mention Mao's name here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uubkysR1IM (around 1:59) saying he's seen skaters come from behind in SP but coming back in the FP. Yeah sure. Mao has done that quite a few times, but in her case she performed her FP close to perfect in such cases. Whereas Patrick had a fall and his other jumps had some pretty shakey landings too. How dare he say he did the same as her!

But as I said I'm not angry at him but at the judges. Even if, and I mean IF, they think they scored him fairly according to the protocols, it's not good to let a skater win a competition with 4 falls. This is a sport so everyone is supposed to be judged under the same rules. I'm saying that even IF Patrick's performance was scored in that manner, and as odd as it seems, his winning couldn't be avoided, I still think they shouldn't have let him win. This is because FS is not just an ordinary sport. It's also a performing sport. Falling that many times would easily distract the audience from appreciating the pro. Unless you were a nationalistic Canadian person, anyone would've felt and it seems they are actually feeling that Patrick did not deserve to win. The judges should acknowledge that how the audience feels plays a large role in this sport. Even if that audience isn't all a bunch of know-it-all FS fans, but just some people who want to see a good performance.

I felt a bit sorry for Kevin missing the podium, but as much as I am one who loves to see quads, if all the other elements are that bad, in his case missing the podium was unavoidable. Although he got more higher scores for that 2 quad SP than not only Adam but even more than Dai and Jeremy at NHK cup, if I were to make a list of which of their SPs I'd like to see again in order, Kevin's would be the 4th. I like the fact that they are giving more scores to quads now, but I like quad jumpers who does all the rest very well too. So his 2 quads covering all his other faulty elements, resulting in scores higher than Adam, Jeremy and Dai was also a joke to me. I've always thought that quads and 3As should be valued more, but this was a bit too extreme for me.

I thought Nobu and Adam did quite well. They may not have been at their best, but great job for the beginning of a season. They were into the music and had lots of power. Patrick and Kevin were not into the music it seemed to me. Kevin even looked like he was just jumping with some BGM, he wasn't skating to the music. And to me, Patrick's performances look almost all the same. He's just showing off his techs...in a bad way. He has no idea what he wants to express to the audience through his performances. And he still waves his hands around too much looking like a scarecrow. It's so hard for me to believe that it's Lori who's making his pros. The way Patrick is skating them are making them look boring.

I've read in some other forums that Patrick has been saying 'I think the judges want me to...' or 'the judges are sending me a message saying...' whatever! And I'm starting to feel that Patrick is only skating for the judges. Of course all skaters want to be valued highly by judges, and trying to make that possible is good. But Patrick seems to care only what the judges think of him, and never minds about us FS fans. That's probabaly why he's got the nerve to say bad things about other skaters, being bashed by us for that, but still goes on speaking ill of others. I heard he criticized Dai for not jumping a quad in his SP, even though he had been jumping quads much more longer than him. It was very surprising to have a person who's been saying there's no need for quads so loudly last season, question others for not including a quad in SP.

Anyway, this became one of the most memorable men's competitions ever for me.
Seriously, not just about Patrick. It made me think of alot of issues in FS. GOEs and quad issues of course, not to mention PCS. But to be honest, even though I didn't enjoy it, I'm glad Kevin succeeded 2 quads in his SP and FP if I remember correctly. Because I'm sorry to have to say this, but after seeing his performances, I think all the stupid people who have criticized Plush and Joubert as skaters with nothing else but quads will probabaly shut up!

Quote :

I agree there was too dark at ex gala. Or maybe darkness wasn't a problem, just lights which didn't shine on skaters.

I was at the gala and it isn't as as dark as it appears on tv. Although, with the spot light on them, I doubt the skaters can see anything either way.

Oda was awesome to watch. I never liked him before, but he has amazing skating skills and enormous height on his jumps. I think he's not outwardly expressive, but the quality of his skating is impeccable. He definitly should have beaten P-chan. I think Rippon was fairly marked although some people think he should have won the event. Although he is very artistic and has very clean jumps and edges, he comes off as less polished than Chan or Oda.

The most memorable performance for me was Alissa Czisny's lp. Her skating is absolutely gorgeous, her spins and spiral totally blew me away. I think she's the only non-canadian skater who got a standing ovation from the entire audience.

Welcome Back Pochinko

Um Patrick~~, Mao never won a competition with four falls, so don't you dare think she's among the likes of you!
On a side note, his eyes still freak me out.

I think Chan did very well with his LP. I guess that’s partly or wholly because of his confidence. He knew whatever happens judges would favor him. On the other hand, Nobu was nervous and tense. Psychological factors significantly affect athletes.

While I enjoyed Chan’s skating skills, it was laughable that he was so devoted to showing off his gorgeous skating skills that he totally ignored to express the music.

I think Nobu will do much better as the season progresses. He’s improved dramatically and I believe he will become a world champion sometime soon.

But I’m concerned about the psychological factor related to judges’ favor. There are some skaters who seem to be favored by judges and you are going to compete with them. It’s very difficult for you to control your mind and it easily happens that you lose even before the competition starts.

This tendency was apparent last year too, which is really suck.

Chan's SP has also revealed that the final podium placement can be adjusted by a caller. We never know if a skater fully rotated or not. If a caller says it's not rotated, it's not rotated even though the jump looked rotated "as clean as a whistle" on our TV screen. Even when a skater's stumbled jumps spoiled his entire performance, if a caller says his stumbled jumps rotated fully, the skater can stay in medal contention.

oh... I wanna cry for skaters who are sincerely working hard to win the competitions.

I agree with you guys that Patrick should definitely not have won. I didn't get to see the SP, but I heard he didn't do very good there either. I actually thought the Spanish guy was the best personally! But he was 6th in the SP, so I guess jumping up much farther than he did wasn't too realistic. I don't remember if he even had quad either. He probably didn't.

I'm happy for Alissa! This is the Alissa we all love, but rarely get to see. The Alissa who won nationals in 2009. People had high hopes that she was back on track back then before she spiraled back down and hit bottom again. Hopefully THIS time this Alissa is here to stay. When she's on, you can't not love her skating.

I'm really liking Ksenia! I think I've only seen her skate once or twice before, but I see her quickly becoming one of my favorite skaters if she keeps this up. I felt pretty bad for Cynthia. She did so great in the SP, but just lost it all in the LP

As for the pairs, I really loved Kirsten MOORE-TOWERS / Dylan MOSCOVITCH LP! That lift at the very end - WOW! The Russian pair was great too. Wow, watch out for these young Russian teams! Russia is definitely getting back on track. There are some great teams in other countries, but for the most part, I see China and Russia being in a league of their own in pairs in the years to come.

linglang wrote:

But I’m concerned about the psychological factor related to judges’ favor. There are some skaters who seem to be favored by judges and you are going to compete with them. It’s very difficult for you to control your mind and it easily happens that you lose even before the competition starts.

This tendency was apparent last year too, which is really suck.

Chan's SP has also revealed that the final podium placement can be adjusted by a caller. We never know if a skater fully rotated or not. If a caller says it's not rotated, it's not rotated even though the jump looked rotated "as clean as a whistle" on our TV screen. Even when a skater's stumbled jumps spoiled his entire performance, if a caller says his stumbled jumps rotated fully, the skater can stay in medal contention.

oh... I wanna cry for skaters who are sincerely working hard to win the competitions.

Today half of figure skating is the judge's favor while the other half is skill. I use this as the major justification for Mao's low scores during her perfect performance at world's last year. The judge's favor her but not as much as Yuna.

It's almost like and idolatry; you know, like when you're a little kid and you think someone is particularly cool or awesome, so in your mind everything they do looks WAY cooler than it actually is? That' kind of how the judges treat certain skaters.

But i thought Patrick did fine, however i was really betting on Nobu to take Skate Canada