there is a skater, Natalie Dunn
Natalie Dunn was a star of California's Ladies skating (Senior Int'l level) middle to end of 1970's. Her parents owned a roller rink in Bakersfield, she had unlimited access to the rink to practice, i don't remember all her placements but she won a lot of local competitions, medaled at Regionals and went on to Nationals. Bakersfield hosted several annual competitions, including a show-skating one - Gold Skate Classic, which was pretty much an event that was Artistic Skating - the routines were allowed to use fancy, sometimes extremely weird or extremely sexy, costumes and music pieces with voice were allowed. If i remember correctly Bakersfield Arena was often used for Regionals. Dunn Family's rink was used as an official practice rink, so a double whammy for Natalie. She was a very strong skater, more athletic than artistic, in her body built and in skating style, but for several years she dominated Ladies Senior Int'l in California.
Natalie Dunn from the USA is one of the greatest all round skaters of our time, and was at the forefront of ladies singles in the 70's pre the explosion of g...
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Yes, roller skating was popular into the mid 1980's, Nationals were even shown on CBS.... with top commentators covering it.
CBS Sports televised the 1979 and 1980 U.S. Roller Skating Championships. The 1980 Championships were held in Pershing Arena. Commentators were Gary Bender a...
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I always wondered how judges could actually mark figures in roller skating with any real success. Especially since they would have to judge in real time, as the skaters traced against patterns marked on the floor surface.
Unless their figures were video taped, it would be impossible to argue any results as there would be no evidence of what the skater had done afterwards.
yes, the patterns where painted on the surface. there were two sizes of patterns:
smaller
and larger
I have no idea how they judge school figures now (skaters still do them). But if i remember correctly, back in the 70's during competitions there was a light layer of white chalk powder sprinkled on patters. You can't see the powder on this video it's black and white and the exposure is not right, but you can see the skaters' ability to trace and what judges would be seeing.
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This is 2015 - school figures skated by a group of skater, with voice over instructions and explanations.
Instructional video with Don Gates
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In more recent competitions, i don't see any powder..... here is a video of a judged competition clips.
no negative comments.....sorry if its really long i couldn't upload each figure one at a time
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I think
@skateboy might remember how the figures were judges a lot better than me (he was younger and skated through the 80's.)
