Meet the Golden Girl, Emiko!

Emiko has skated with California Gold for two years, her first year was the 2009-2010 Novice team, and this is her debut season on the Senior team. Emiko does not only skate with California Gold, but also volunteers to teach children at the Westminster Ice Palace on a regular basis.

In her little free time she enjoys cooking, gardening and most importantly volunteering. Combining her two interests of gardening and volunteering, this Girl Scout did a lot more than selling cookies. She recently attained her Gold award- planning and making a healing garden at the Los Alamitos Cancer Center. This serene healing garden, which held plants of specific healing essences, took over 65 hours of planning and work. Adding to her philanthropy, she also does charity work through the American Legion Auxiliary.

Emiko is a national AP Scholar as well as Girl’s Stater, ranking her in the top 500 girls excelling in academics and leadership throughout California. During the off-season of synchro, she is the varsity captain of her high school track and field team where she competes in the triple jump.

We are so glad to have this gifted and accomplished girl scout on our team!

Written By:
Melissa Lee - Senior Blog Writer
Senior Team 2009-Present

Meet Kaitrin

California Gold would like to introduce you to one of the newest members of our team. Kaitrin Curran is from Santa Rosa, California and started skating synchro in 1995 with The Pacific Skates followed by one season with Team Mystique. Unfortunately, the rink closed and the team moved too far away for Kaitrin to continue skating with them. She did stay on the ice however, and even played the role of Snoopy in Snoopy on Ice.

When it came time for college, Kaitrin decided to move down to Los Angeles to attend Loyola Marymount University, where she was an animation major. During her time there Kaitrin traveled to Japan and in place of skating took up dance and joined one of LMUs dance crews, B-Boy Status.

After graduation, Kaitrin says she decided she needed to look for something new to give her purpose and started researching synchronized skating teams in Los Angeles. She found California Gold and we're so happy she did! Kaitrin adds a lot of swag to our team and has quickly become one of our most vocal comedians. When she's not skating, breakdancing or drawing, Kaitrin works at the Apple Store and enjoys nerdy TV shows, such as Doctor Who.

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

Getting Ready for the 2011-2012 Season

Yesterday we had our last off-season practice! The whole team, both senior and novice, is looking forward to hearing the music on August 6th, the first practice of the 2011-2012 season. Working on last week’s focus of crossovers, a simple yet paramount skill needed in synchro, Coach Cipresso explained the intensity and sharpness of the style Cal Gold is aiming for this year. Not forgetting about the artistic side of skating, Coach Falkowski also explained the need for emotion to be expressed through the body and not only by the face. After moving on to one of the more difficult maneuvers, a pivoting block, Coach Falkowski also explained how new rules required the block to consist of four consecutive turns- as if it wasn’t hard enough! Pushing through the newly choreographed steps- literally! – the team managed to get through the block by counting and knee bend..

Overall the team is excited and energized to start the new season.
Go gold! (:

Melissa Lee
Senior Team 2009-2012

April Workshops

Synchronized skating is a fun team sport that skaters of any age and level can enjoy! Come try it out at California Gold's April Workshops!
Location: East West Ice Palace
Date: Saturday April 2 and 9

• Novice
• Time - 5:30 to 6:45 am (please arrive 15 minutes early)
• Requirements - Juvenile, Intermediate or Novice MIF
• Cost - $20.00 per session
• Preliminary/Juvenile
• Time - 6:45 to 7:15 am (please arrive 15 minutes early)
• No test required
• Cost $10.00 per session
• Senior
• Time - 7:30 to 9:15 am (please arrive 15 minutes early)
• Requirements - Junior and Senior MIF
• Must be at least 14 years of age
• Cost - $30.00 per session

2011-2012 Season Tryouts

Date: Saturday and Sunday April 16 and 17
Location: East West Ice Palace

• Preliminary/Juvenile - Team placement will be assessed at workshops
• Novice
• Requirements - Juvenile MIF and Must be under 18 years old
• Saturday April 16 - 5:30 to 6:30 am (Please arrive 30 minutes early)
• Sunday April 17 - 6:00 to 7:00 am (Please arrive 30 minutes early)
• Cost - $55.00
• Senior
• Requirements - Junior MIF and Must be at least 14 years of age (exceptions must be approved by coaches)
• Saturday April 16 - 6:30 to 8:00 am (Please arrive 30 minutes early)
• Sunday April 17 - 7:00 to 8:00 am (Please arrive 30 minutes early)
• Cost - $65.00

For more information, click on the links in the side bar connecting you to the California Gold Website or Facebook Page.

Nationals: Saturday

Cal Gold supporting the Adult Team!

Cal Gold Adult Competition

It was an early morning for both Adult and Senior, but the strong practices brought confidence to Adult going into their competition and to Senior who skated their official practice later that morning. The nice thing about having competition in California is that we can do off ice outside in the warm sun! When we skated, our program was solid and powerful which made us excited for the competition later that night. When we got back to the hotel, we had a little bit of down time before we left to watch Adult team compete. And didn't we look fantastic!? Every California Gold supporter was geared up with funky glasses and headbands! They skated with a couple bobbles, but all in all, we thought it was amazing!
Then, after coming back to the hotel and resting awhile, Senior got ready for competition and headed to the rink for the last time. Off ice was intense as we got into our warrior character. When we had our skated on and stood by the side of the rink, we shouted our motto for this season: "We will rise and rise again, until lambs become lions." Our program was not the best that it could have been, but it was still enough to maintain our fourth place finish. We held our Pewter medals with pride and 14 of the 18 on our team were ecstatic to have our first Senior division National title.

California Gold Senior - Pewter Medalists

As our season comes to an end, I look back on all of the amazing memories that have come from this team over that past eight months, and I would not take back one minute of it. This was one incredible season for California Gold as an entire organization, and I am so proud to be a part of it.

Congratulations California Gold!

Nationals: Friday

Today was an awesome day starting out with short official in the morning. We had a rough first run with a problem with the music, but stepped it up for an amazing second run through. We felt confident going into short program that night. We came back to the hotel for a little bit of down time, but got right back out to cheer on the adult team in their official practice. Their program has improved so much since sectionals and have added another skater too! They are very impressive for the ten practices they've had since they started.

Fans Cheer of Cal Gold

Then, Novice got ready for their competition and the Senior team sent them off with a "tunnel" to their bus. Unfortunately, we couldn't go and scream for them in the stands because we had to prepare ourselves for short program, but we were definitely watching on icenetwork! They skated an awesome program that got all but one of their calls! We are very proud of them!

Novice Competition (watched on icenetwork)

After putting our hair up and make up on, the Senior team stepped onto the bus and to the rink for a bit of off ice before we competed. We put our skates on and got on the ice and skated a smooth and powerful short program. We were very happy with our skate and accomplished our goal of getting 3's in our G.O.E. that counted. We are sitting in fourth place right now and ready to blow the judges away with our long program Saturday night!


GO GOLD!!!