Silver Skates Championships - SoCal SSC

[Laura (Lori)]

Oh, Lordy, what a night we had at the rink! Nothing I've ever done with SCSSA was quite like this - it was mostly our local skaters competing, and I was a finish line judge. I was in charge of watching and noting the helmet number of the 2nd place finisher in each event, and sometimes it was a close call. I was told that I might get so wrapped up in the competition that I'd lose my head, and it did happen once - in the Master's Division. I wrote down the helmet number of the winner and had to call my ticket back to correct it. *slapping forehead* "Oh, sh!t, I was supposed to be watching the 2nd place guy..."

One competition note: Our sweet Lezleigh Jaworski, the only elite female skater in the competiton, had to compete against the guys! She did an admirable job, and in the relay she pushed Walter Rusk - tall, strong and BIG... whenever that happened, the crowd started grunting, which was quite funny!

I thought that the excitement of the competition would be the highlight of the evening, but NOT... as soon as I got settled in for the first race, I had a tap on my shoulder and looked up to see that Skaterswaltz and our friend Nancy had decided to come to the event! Can I say BONUS!~

We had a blast! There was quite a crowd there, and most of them were 'older' - I was told that there was a banquet afterwards, and we were invited. (And we didn't even have to BEG!) Shortly thereafter we realized just what an elite crowd we were with. As we entered the banquet room, the walls were FULL of photos and newspaper articles about the people who had been surrounding us during the competition. Several had flown cross-country to attend. It was called the Silver Skates Championship, and has been contested for many years - the 'veterans' we were sitting with were Silver-Haired, but they had Golden Hearts.

Many, such as Stan Fail, were former Olympians in 'speedskating' - before Short Track was called 'Short Track'. It was a little confusing trying to decipher the technicalities of the sport prior to our current interpretation, but we truly felt we were in the presence of 'royalty'.

I watched one of our current skaters perusing the old articles - many, if not most, were from the LA Times. He seemed duly impressed - his comment was something like "Man, look at all these articles - we'd never get this kind of coverage now..."

I truly wasn't expecting such a memorable night, so I didn't bring my camera - I expected to do my job and go home. But Skaterswaltz did get some 'money shots' - Jerry Search even asked her to send him one of her photos of the 'Olympians'!

One More Thing (and this should please you, Mtnme!) One of the female honorees saw Skaterswaltz' Rocker Fund badge (yup, she wore her 'blue jacket'), and she recognized it!