Wistful for winter

Once the snow comes Alexis Thornhill, 11, and Jennifer Kearns will be on two different sides. But for the moment they are both striving for the same goal.
When the season starts Kearns will be training at the Spruce City Skating club and Thornhill will be competing with the Prince George Figure Skating Club. But this weekend the girls will be joined by 20 members of the Spruce City Figure Skating Club Summer Skate program in Burnaby for Summer Skate 2002, an international competition.
Summer skating is a program for skaters who want to continue their training during the off-season.
For Thornhill this is the first time she is taking part in the program.
“I just skate with this club for the summer. It’s pretty good they are really nice people. You make a lot of friends in Summer Skate,” said Thornhill who has spent three weeks training with the club.
Kearns went to the Summer Skate last year and said the experience was great, including the clinics and guest instructors.
“It’s really fun then you can impress your coach when you come back with all these new technical stuff,” said Kearns.
But overall, the Summer Skate is a chance for skaters to come out and meet new people and develop friendships.
“You get involved in this so you can do the big competition in Burnaby and you get to be involved in a whole bunch of things. And meet new friends,” said Kearns who is looking forward to seeing some of the people she met last year.
Even with fun being the objective of Summer Skate a lot of time is spent training both on and off the ice. But on a hot summer day the best place to be is the cool ice as far as these skaters are concerned.
“We do spend some time outside. Our off-ice trainers do take us outside for practice when the weather is nice,” said Kearns. “But if it’s too hot then it’s not fun to be outside.”
Kearns has been with the summer program for five weeks.
Thornhill started skating when she was three years old but she started jumping when she was six.
“I got into skating when my sister started skating. She started skating then I started skating. And I started enjoying it. I just stayed with it. I used to dream of the Olympics, now I don’t care. I just want to skate. I’m doing it for fun,” said Thornhill.
For Kearns the best part of being involved with figure skating is just spending the time at the rink.
“I just love the ice and falling. It’s just really fun. And you just feel happy when you land something. That’s the best,” said Kearns.
The girls begin competition today and will continue until Sunday at Burnaby Eight Rinks. Then the two will go their separate ways back to their training and their own clubs for the start of the season.