Happy Anniversary

Remember this post? Yep, that's right. One year ago today I officially embarked on my journey to become a figure skating judge...out of the blue and just because.

And I am SO glad I did.

I love it. I absolutely love being a judge. I love putting all of my knowledge to use and actually talking to other people who know the same and care the same even too. Not many people care to keep up with the seemingly daily changes of the figure skating world - and if you do I recommend you start your judging career too. Or tech panel - or whatever floats your boat.

Since I started judging, I feel like I've done it all. Dived in as head first as I could with a little one at home, schooling followed by a full time job, etc. I think I've done a pretty decent job of it even. Since I took my first course a year ago, my "career" looked like this:

• Primary Judges Course - promoted in Singles in competition up to Preliminary level. 
• Novice Synchro Judges Course - technically not promoted yet, but after I hand in my papers this weekend I'll be able to judge synchro up to Novice, including Adult. 
• Juvenile Judges Course - promoted in Singles, Dance, and Pairs up to the Juvenile level - able to judge up to Sr. Bronze in noncompetitive stream (I think anyways...it might be higher, I can't remember!). 
• Novice Judges Course - just completed this in May and have to get a bunch of trialing in in the next few competitions - I'm trialing some Novice/PreNovice at this competition this weekend. After I complete this, I'll be promoted in only Singles and able to judge all StarSkate as well as up to Novice competitive. 

Other thoughts? I'm good keeping just my Juvenile Pairs/Dance where it is - I'm not confident enough to go higher than that at this point in life. Maybe that will be a challenge later in life. I will complete my Novice Singles promotion though hopefully this year. I'm also working towards my evaluator's status (able to judge at test days) and just have a bit more trialing to do that I didn't finish in the spring. That should be done by Christmas I think.

In layman's terms, I've come a long way in one year...and only one other judge has kept up with me from my first Primary course. They've officially switched in BC to CPC (the not so "new" system) for all events, except Prelim and PrePrelim (the little guys). That means I'm also officially judging on the system for the first time ever this weekend. Can you say nervous? Yep. I am.

Unlike the old system where you could glance at a quick deduction sheet and technically not got in trouble if you're off a point or two, the new system has a complex range of +/- scores you must recall and give appropriately. I really am nervous and really am studying.

Anyways, my water baby is almost ready to get out of the tub. She demanded to go in there about an hour ago and there she's been since. Time for lunch, picking up veggies, studying, work...eek!

kortney elise xoxo