California Gold celebrates another successful season in 2012

California Gold Synchronized Skating teams conclude their 2012 season with both the Senior and Novice teams showing incredible growth.  December, they traveled to the Dr Richard Porter Classic in Ann Arbor, MI competing against teams from the US and Canada.  January, the Novice team traveled to the Pacific Coast Sectionals in Dearborn, MI and won the Silver Medal.  Days later, California Gold –Senior. Team USA, was off to Rouen, France for the French Cup.  The 2012 French Cup was a challenging competition with the top junior and senior teams around the world competing for the top monetary prize.  California Gold placed a respectable 7^th behind six world teams.  Both teams finished their season at the 2012 U.S. Synchronized Skating Championships in Worcester, MA.  We are so proud of all the accomplishments the California Gold skaters have earned this season. 

California Gold is looking forward to a competitive and enthusiastic 2012 / 2013 season.  They are seeking skaters for Senior, Novice, Collegiate and Adult Teams.  Synchronized Team skating utilizes and advances your freestyle and dance skills at all levels.  Additionally, California Gold has a Beginner team at the East West Ice Palace skating school.   If you are looking for a challenge - try synchronized skating! You can get information about California Gold workshops on our website, www.californiagoldteams.com or on Facebook: California Gold.

2012 US National Championships

This past weekend California Gold traveled across the continental United States to attend the Synchronized Skating National Championships in Worcester, Massachusetts. After a long flight, our Novice and Senior teams did a small amount of sightseeing at Quincy Market in Boston, but then it was all skating, all the time.

As a member of the senior team, my teammates and I were eager to improve on our scores from our international assignment in Rouen, France. Since France, our team had really amped up our presentation skills and hoped that we would see that reflected in our Program Component scores. All season we had worked hard to ensure that every member of our team understood our technical requirements, so that we would be skating smart, thinking about what needed to be done in each element. We knew going into our final skates of the season that a competition can be won or lost on those technical calls.

After several days of practice and preparation in Massachusetts, it was time for competition. In those two days of competition, we had several team talks and focus sessions, discussing reminders with one another and pumping ourselves up for the culmination of the season. We had practices both competition days between our official ice time in the morning, when the panel watched, and when we competed, to ensure that everything had been solidified.

Both our short and long programs were strong, clean skates that we are very proud of. I know that I feel incredible about how far this team came over the course of the season and how much each member grew. With a sixth place finish overall, we are pleased with out accomplishments and the wonderful season we had representing the Los Angeles area, the Pacific Coast and the United States of America. We will be cheering for the Crystallettes and Haydenettes as they represent the US once more at the 2012 Synchronized Skating World Championships! GO TEAM USA!

Its odd to have the season over, it feels so soon to me. Personally, I will enjoy sleeping in (far) past 3:30 a.m. for about a week and then be happy to trade in that lifestyle for more synchro practices!

Written by:
Emmeline Weinert - Senior Blog Writer
Senior Team Member 2010-Present
Co- Captain 2011-2012
USFS DREAM Skater 2011-2013

Cal Gold Wraps Things Up in France

At the beginning of this month California Gold senior had the amazing experience of traveling to Rouen, France to compete in the French Cup international competition. After the long flight we got half a day in Paris to see Notre Dame cathedral, the Musee d'Orsay and the Eiffel Tower. Then it was to Rouen for the next several days to practice and compete.

Participating in the event's opening parade and hanging out with our other Team USA members were so much fun. Our team grew in leaps and bounds while overseas and the experiences while there were priceless. We are so excited to have finished in the top half of the competition and seen the amazing international talent present on the ice.

While neither of our two competitive skates was flawless, we had some of the best official practices we've had all season and our presentation improved immensely. The team is motivated and ready to go into nationals with a renewed vigor from the experience of representing the US.

One highlight for me was watching the top senior teams compete in the free skate after we had competed. Many of my teammates had never had the opportunity to see teams like Team Unique of Finland skate before. I love seeing the choices that teams make in their choreography and style and it reminded me not only how much I love to participate in this sport, but also how beautiful it is to watch.

Written by:
Emmeline Weinert - Senior Blog Writer
Senior Team Member 2010-Present
Co- Captain 2011-2012
USFS DREAM Skater 2011-2013

Novice Team competes at Sectional Championship

The novice team competed at the Pacific Coast Synchronized Skating Sectional Championships in Plymouth, Michigan the week before last. After a rough early morning official practice, the team came together for many hours of off-ice practice. We made a list of all the sections of the program where we were unsure of the counts. The coaches clarified the counts and together the team ran through the sections again and again. We ended the day with an awesome unofficial practice. The team was definitely ready to compete. After some more off-ice practice in the morning, we headed to the rink confident with “a fire in our bellies,” as Coach Falkowski would say. Our great skate earned us a 12-point improvement from our last competition and the silver medal! The team was really proud of the accomplishment, especially since most of the points were earned through our off-ice the previous day. Our only disappointment was that President Obama didn’t come to watch us skate, even though he was staying in the hotel next door.

Written By: Emma Hamilton - Novice Blog Writter
Novice Team: 2011-Present
Senior Team: 2011 - Present

Anaheim Competition

Last weekend California Gold took the ice for our first competition of the season in Anaheim, CA. The senior team arrived early to cheer on our novice team as they skated (beautifully) to Stardust. The program earned the team a second place finish and beat their goal by 6 points.

After some time spent preparing for our own competition, doing our hair and make up, we returned to the rink to lend our support to our beginner team, the California Gold Nuggets. The Nuggets skated to music from the animated film Rio and were adorable in their feathered blue dresses. Coach Falkowski smiled up to the stands as the Novice team, Senior team, Gold Alumni and parents chanted “Nuggets! Nuggets!”.

 The senior team then left once more to make our final preparations and warm up for our competition. We did not compete against anyone this time around, as the Ice Kateers Senior team competed their short program and we our long. However, attending the competition was extremely beneficial as it gave us an opportunity to perform and get feedback on our program. Getting a chance to see how our program will be scored helps us to figure out which elements need to be altered or worked on the most. While the program certainly isn’t perfect yet and we know we have a long way to go, we were proud to put out a strong performance so early in the year. It’s going to be a great season!

Written by:
Emmeline Weinert - Senior Blog Writer
Senior Team Member 2010-Present
Co- Captain 2011-2012
USFS DREAM Skater 2011-2013

Happy Haunting from California Gold

This past weekend skaters on the Senior and Novice teams wore their frightful costumes to practice. From Herb Brooks to Pirates, various animals, batman, a gypsy and many others it was a scene unlike any other.

These costumes were voted favorites by the skaters:
The Black Swan
Elf
Twister
The White Swan

I am the shadow on the moon at night
Filling your dreams to the brim with fright
-Oogie Boogie Man, Nightmare Before Christmas-

California Gold wishes you an enchanted Halloween night.

2012 Team USA Monitoring Session Update

We had our official Team USA monitoring session this past Monday, October 3rd. We will be traveling to France February 2012 for the French Cup Competition, so we were very excited to get feedback from international panelists so early in the season, to help us to prepare. However, it being so early in the season, we were also a little nervous. We have had both of our programs finished for a couple of weeks and have been running them, however it still hasn't been much time.

We scheduled a special afternoon practice and showed off the hard work we have done so far to Dan Kruger, Karen Wiesmeier and Jeanette Davey. They were very understanding of the fact that since it is so early, we do not yet have our lifts integrated into the program and are still figuring out how best to apply new rules and requirements. We were given advice on how to alter elements like our wheels to make sure that we receive top credit. We were very pleased to get positive feedback on our programs, as well as helpful corrections and suggestions. We as skaters were given reminders of how much ice we need to cover and to always remember to commit to those body movements.

It was a great opportunity to put ourselves out there for this season and I think that it helped the team to prepare mentally for competition mode. We were all very pleased with our performance over the course of the monitoring session and our coaches said that we skated some of the best programs that we have so far this year.

Written by:
Emmeline Weinert - Senior Blog Writer
Senior Team Member 2010-Present
Co- Captain 2011-2012