Bonus: Banners, Flower Crowns and Figure Skating - Transcript

Lae: So, all we've touched on so far have talked about banners that have been professionally printed and designed digitally, but do we have any advice on making handmade banners, such as what materials to use or is printing kind of the go-to?

Gabb: I use printed just because I have a degree for it. It's easier for me, I know how to work with printers. But you can easily just make handheld banners yourself using paper.

Kat: [laughs] Lae sitting outside the rink at ACI drawing Yuzu and Wakaba banners!

Becs: The 4am Wakaba banner sketching session!

Lae: Yeah, from experience, you can just buy an A3 size piece of card and buy some gold stickers and a permanent marker. Honestly, it's just the thinking and it's the design that goes into it.

Kat: It's the thought that counts!

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Episode 35: Photography and Figure Skating (feat. Interview with Joosep Martinson) - Transcript

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Becs: Good costumes are such a draw in terms of just being like "Yes yes you are worthy!"

Gabb: Especially if they're sparkly!

Becs: Yes sparkles please!

Kat: Aka Ice Dance ladies.[Gabb: Yes!] 90% of the time deliver with their costumes.

Becs: Yes. One thing that is so beautiful about picking who you're going to photograph is ah Ice Dance ladies and ladies in general show up looking usually fabulous most practices even so...

Kat: And then you have the men with like 80% black costumes or monochrome.

Becs: Yeah it's tragic, it's a tragic contrast.

Interview - Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson

In advance of their upcoming first Challenger event, Great Britain’s ice dance power duo Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson sat down with us for an interview to talk about last year’s fabulous free dance and how they feel going into the new season, as well as their individual interests and hobbies. The team garnered a lot of attention from fans as well as many personal bests last season with their 80’s themed free dance.

Read about that and more in our interview with them here!

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Episode 34: JGP Courchevel and Lake Placid - Transcript

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Evie: So guys, guess what? The season started properly! Woohoo, children! I'm just so glad we finally have some competitions to watch.

Niamh: Worlds feels like yesterday!

Evie: It really does. This off season, I don't know if it was just that our perception of time has shifted or something weird is going on in the universe, but it just feels like it's breezed by so freaking quickly. It's so weird that we're now two whole competitions into the season.

Niamh: Yeah, there wasn't the same space of time with no content.

Evie: But yes, we've had the start of the Junior Grand Prix and lots of kids have returned to us, and we've got lots of new kids.

Yogeeta: All the kids.

Episode 33: Figure Skating and Popular Culture - Transcript

Yogeeta: Even in post-Olympic seasons, they are basically only showing people who are about to retire or like someone who's still young and fresh and plans to keep competing. People can get to know them here in this space and then follow them into figure skating.

Karly: You know who I want to see on Dancing With the Stars? Jimmy Ma.

Maryam: Oh my god, he would be amazing.

Yogeeta: Jimmy Ma would be my favorite person to see on Dancing With the Stars.

Interview: Katarina Wolfkostin and Jeffrey Chen

In The Loop had the opportunity to talk to the promising new U.S. junior ice dance team, Katarina Wolfkostin and Jeffrey Chen, who graciously agreed to speak with us prior to their Junior Grand Prix debut at JGP Courchevel this week. Although they just teamed up earlier this year, Katarina is the 2017 US Intermediate Champion and the 2018 US Novice Champion with her former partner Howard Zhao, while Jeffrey is the 2018 US Novice Silver Medalist with former partner Gianna Buckley, and also the younger brother of 2017 US Champion Karen Chen.

Read about their programs, goals, role models and more in our interview with them here!

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Tales of the Blade: 19th Century Rinks - Transcript

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Evie: Well, you're not that far off, honestly. You're a couple steps to the left of what was actually used. Henry Kirk tried to emulate the feeling of ice using a mixture of materials and included in this mixture were salt, copper, aluminium and... hog's lard. Literal hog's lard - the fat from a hog - to make it slippery enough to skate on!

Niamh: Who's sitting in their kitchen one night thinking, "Oh, I know what I'll do, I'll make some fake ice using hog's lard!"

Evie: Obviously Henry Kirk thought that. So here's your ingredients: "30-50 feral hogs --" (hosts laugh)