Each time her sharp silver blades step onto crisp, freshly cleared ice, veteran figure skating head coach Kari-Ann MacDonald still gets a rush, she says.听
鈥淚 love it,鈥� she says. 鈥淭here is not a day that I don鈥檛 love teaching skating. It is not a job. It is what makes me happy, it鈥檚 my passion.鈥澨�
MacDonald, a STARSkate, CanSkate and CanPowerSkate coach,听first put on figure skates and headed out to lessons at six years old at the rink in Powell River, her hometown.听
鈥淢y uncle married a skating coach,鈥� she recalled to The Chief. 鈥淗e bought me a dress and told my mom it was time I learned to skate. I remember being really excited.鈥澨�
She entered her first skating competition at nine years old.
Her first coaching job was in Houston, B.C. in 1986, and in 1993 she moved her family to Squamish, where she stepped on the ice with the 麻豆社国产Skating Club.听
She has never looked back.听
鈥淚 can teach a child to do something and see the success in the child鈥� and share my love for the sport and see it grow,鈥� MacDonald said, explaining what she loves about coaching.听
麻豆社国产skaters can begin lessons as young as two years old and CanSkate programs can take adults who want to learn as well.听
麻豆社国产mom Kerri Gray put her three-year-old daughter Kendall into skating lessons almost two years ago.听
鈥淚 think it is important to know how to skate,鈥� Gray said. 鈥淪he really loves it, she looks forward to it every Saturday morning.鈥澨�
Many of the 麻豆社国产Skating Club skaters look forward to the annual Christmas show. This year鈥檚 theme was 鈥淪anta鈥檚 Small World鈥� and performances were held Dec. 9 and 13. The shows are the club鈥檚 biggest fundraiser of the year.听
鈥淚 still believe in making it by donation,鈥� MacDonald noted, adding she wants to see as many people in the community come to the two shows as possible.听
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Young skater Lucie Perron, 5, was a lion and a monkey in the ice shows.听
She started skating this year. Her favourite part is 鈥渟kating with the drawings,鈥� when the coaches draw on the ice and the skaters follow the lines, she said.听
She is working hard at learning to jump backward, she noted.听
While Lucie asked to take skating lessons, her dad, Rob, told The Chief he grew up playing hockey and so also wanted his daughter to have the opportunity to feel the sense of community the local ice rink can provide.听
The family has found that rink-community in spades, he said.听
Because the skating lessons for Lucie were scheduled for Wednesday nights and her parents work late, they originally thought they would have to forgo lessons this year, but members of the 麻豆社国产Skating Club quickly stepped up to help.听
鈥淲hat has happened now is we have had people鈥� that we don鈥檛 even know offering to get her to skating,鈥� her dad said. 鈥淚t is kind of that thing where people pull together because a little girl wanted to go skating.鈥澨�
Things haven鈥檛 always been easy for the club.
听鈥淲e went through a real downslide in 2005-2009. We came close to closing the doors,鈥� MacDonald said. 鈥淚 worked very hard to keep the club going and we ran with no money in the bank, but now we are flourishing, which is nice.鈥澨�
Squamish鈥檚 increasing population of young families has led to an increase of skaters at the club.听
About 225 skaters were signed up last year, according to MacDonald.
For skaters of all kinds, ice time is an issue in 麻豆社国产and MacDonald and others have been calling for a second sheet of ice for years, she said. Members of the club sometimes have to head to Whistler to get more ice time, but they manage, she added.听
In her more than three decades of coaching, some other things have changed in the world of figure skating, such as the costumes.听
鈥淭hey have evolved a lot. They have gotten a lot glitzier and the spandex is so amazing,鈥� she said, with a laugh.
She recalled her early costumes that didn鈥檛 have any stretch to them at all.听
麻豆社国产Elementary School student Malia Stuart, 10, competes in the pre-juvenile U11 category. Though she represents the Vancouver Skating Club at competition, she started out with the 麻豆社国产Skating Club when she was five years old and still joins the club on the ice twice a week. MacDonald was her coach until this year.听
On average, competitive skaters range in age from eight to 18, according to MacDonald.听
Stuart said she likes gliding and jumping best.听
She was recently chosen to be one of the 18 young skaters who will be a flower retriever for the upcoming Canadian National Championships to be held in Vancouver, in January.听
鈥淚 am really excited,鈥� she said.听
Registration for the next regular 麻豆社国产Skating Club session starts Jan. 8.
MacDonad鈥檚 support staff includes dance coach Mike Whitehead, Kelsey Lovell, and her daughter, Brittney-Anne Jordan.
Jordan, 27, who has been a coach since her teens, says that if a parent is considering putting their daughter or son into figure skating, they should go for it for many reasons, not least of which is national pride.听
鈥淚 just think it is a Canadian thing to do,鈥� she said. 鈥淟earn to skate and learn to swim are the two biggest things that you can teach kids. You put a soccer ball in front of a kid, they will learn to kick it themselves, but put them in the water and they don鈥檛 know how to swim yet; put them on skates and they don鈥檛 know how to stand and skate.鈥澨�
Jordan added that through her time skating, she learned the value of friendships and respect for other people.听
鈥淎s much as it isn鈥檛 a team sport, you learn to work together. You learn to share the ice鈥� When you compete, you are the only one out there, but leading up to competitions, you have to share all of your space so you learn to respect everybody else.鈥�
For more on the club, go to or call the club鈥檚 registrar, Crystal Tress at 604-848-1249.
