Page 93 - On the Road to the Canada Winter (Part 2)

ISSUE : Issue 44

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1987/1/1

er without your foot touching. So the blade hugs, but your foot doesn't touch. These skates--that's all fibreglass in the bottom, and it comes up to here for sup? port. So that when you lean, your boot doesn't cave in, and your foot doesn't hit. It keeps your foot stiff, so then you can lean and put all your weight on it, and just fly. We have a certain pattern to follow. Two straightaway steps, and I guess about 6 comers, 6 crossovers in the (turn). When we were really moving--all we do is lean, put our hand down, and we whip right a- round the turn. Ramsay's Honda Shop 539-7644 * 480 GRAND LAKE RD., SYDNEY * 539-1730 Complete Line of 3- & 4-Wheeled Vehicles for Year Round Use Available Accessories: Trailers, Snowplows, Mowers * Great Utility Vehicles * * Great for Hunting & Fishing * HONDA nrrif BidetheBooghCoimtr]!' iiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiii PEER EDUCATION [ Commission on Drup Dependency (When did you start skating?) When I was 3. I played hockey since I was 5 years old. We had what was called the Glace Bay Com? munity Clinic. Midway through the year, when I was 6 years old, they picked an all- star team from each section. And they put us all on the bus, and we played in Port Hawkesbury. I was picked. I was only 6 years old. I can still remember it, too. I started playing bantam when I was- in Grade 1. You're supposed to start when you're in Grade 5. I'd go down to prac? tices with my brother. I had a few games. And then in Grade 2, I played steady all year. And then when the play-offs came, (the coach) said I was kind of small. But then in Grade 3 I played play-offs, I played everything. Oh, I loved it. But hockey in Cape Breton now is going to the birds. There's not as much interest in it. (What do you think killed it?) I don't know. A lot of it's cost. A lot of it's the parents aren't too interested. And a lot of it is the kids are more into computers, and watching tele? vision, and video games. I mean, when I was 6 years old, I came home from school. The first thing I'd do was go out in the bog. I'd be out there till 10 o'clock, playing tag, and playing hockey, until it got dark. I'd play tag after that. You get a few kids who are really interested in it, but not enough to keep it go? ing. (So where did the idea of speed skating come to you?) The Island Games. They had put a notice around the school, "Anyone wanting to speed skate, go down to practice." And I went down--I just had my hock? ey skates. And the first year, I won a silver medal. And last year, I started using the rac? ers. And I won 3 gold. I won every (race) in my age class. It was held in New Waterford. Sort of like a mini-Olympics. It was called the Island Games. It was a preparation for the Canada Games. (There isn't the contact you have in hockey.) No. But it's dangerous, it's really danger? ous . Because you're really fly? ing around that ice. And if you fall, your legs come out from under you, you can break a hip, dislocate a shoulder, just like that, if you hit those boards hard enough. (I take it that you have to be careful. When I see you guys on those turns, it's pretty crowded. Everybody wants the inside.) That's true, you want to be inside. (And if you're cutting around that curve, there's a lot of feet moving. What are the CONTINUED

Cape Breton's Magazine