Autumn Classic International- Ladies

Overall, the ladies were less than amazing. I've got to be honest, I was bored half to death during the first flight of the freeskate. I missed most of the short programs, but I did watch all the freeskates. From what I've seen, it doesn't look like I missed much that first day.

Obviously, the highlights were Elizabet Tursynbayeva, Haruka Imai, and Angela Wang.

Elizabet is really making waves in the senior ranks. I've seen her at 2 senior internationals and she's won both, and really deserved to.

She's a really strong skater. She has good musicality, interpretation, and skating skills and her jumps are almost always strong. She had a few jump errors at both competitions, but overall her jumps are substantially better than the others.

I'm very curious to see what is going to happen with her at Skate America, she's ranked near the middle of the ladies overall (in the second column of the USFSA fantasy skating) but I really think she could easily contend for  medal if she skates anything like she did here and at summer skate.

The other two medalists were less interesting.

Haruka Imai is very good, but I don't find her programs to be engaging. Her skating skills aren't fantastic, and the PCS is where you really get me or lose me.

I know a lot of people who care a whole lot about the jumps when they watch a program, and they matter, but I really think there's far too much emphasis on the jumps compared to everything else.

I would genuinely rather watch a program with good choreography, interpretation and skating skills but bad jumps than a program that feels like a jump drill.

Haruka Imai is not that bad, but it's still not great, which is probably why I don't really remember her programs.

Angela Wang was also very good, but her programs are a bit of a snooze.

The other ladies were overall pretty disappointing. They don't have the best choreo, and on top of that the jumps were sloppy in the free.

Autumn Classic International- Dance

The dance event was a little lacking in the star skaters we see in the men's and pair's events.

The most exciting dancers were the brand new team Nicole Orford and Asher Hill.

Orford and Hill have only been together a very short time, but they match each other perfectly. They share the same gorgeous lines and beautiful edges.

Their programs are not my favourite. They are very classic but not the most original. That said, I still love watching them together, and less original programs can be forgiven in the first season of a partnership.

I really liked the freedance costume, which I didn't get to see at summer skate, but I'm not crazy about the short dance costume. They are such elegant skaters, they don't need outlandish costumes, the skating can speak for itself.

The other dancers were not the most memorable. Most of them were fine but not exceptional skaters.

Two teams had interesting short dances, which look like they're going to be few and far between.

As much as I love the Ravensburger, not a whole lot of teams seem to be doing anything different with it.

Two teams here did something other than pretty people skating to pretty music (which, don't get me wrong, has its place, but there's a few too many at this point).

The first team with an interesting short dance was the Spanish team, Celia Robledo and Luis Fenero.

They did a tango-esque short dance with a waltz section. It wasn't my favourite program ever, but it was nice to have it break up the monotony.

The other team with an interesting short dance were the americans Karina Manta and Joseph Johnson.

Though they skated to Prokofiev's Cinderella, it was dark. Even their costumes stood out from the pretty princess dresses we saw from a lot of the others. Again, there's nothing wrong with them, but I know we'll all be awfully tired of that by the end of the season.

I'm still not sure exactly what story they were trying to tell, but it was still interesting to watch.

I had some mixed feelings on the freedances. A lot of them followed the vein of the short dances in being light and pretty, a couple though, stood out.

Manta and Johnson stood out again with their Joplin program. It was fun and had some interesting movements we don't see a lot.

Manta and Johnson are new seniors, but they are definitely on track to stand out in the best possible way. Unlike other new seniors, they are not trying to blend in with others.

Autumn Classic International- Pairs

For a long time, pairs has not been my favourite event. For a long time, it was one of my least favourite events, but that has changed pretty dramatically.

Megan Duhamel and Eric Radford have done a lot to make pairs exciting. They have forced up the level of technical difficulty.

Having heard what their music was going to be, I have to be honest, I wasn't thrilled with their choices.

As anyone who has read this blog for a while will know, I can't stand Moulin Rouge. I cannot stand the movie, and I'm really not a fan of those versions of the song.

That said, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked their short program. That said, I would prefer the original version of Your Song, but it is one of the pieces I hate the least.

I really enjoy watching Duhamel and Radford skate. I know some people don't enjoy watching them, but I like their style, and they're selling their programs, and even though they don't have the best skating skills in the world, they still have good skating skills and choreography, not to mention their technical ability.

Their skates were not perfect, she doubled the sbs lutz in the short, fell on the quad salchow, and popped the quad lutz.

Their skates were a little bit disappointing but still very entertaining to watch and still strong.

They won by a country mile, beating out Castelli and Tran by almost 30 points.

Castelli and Tran have come a long way since last season. They had pretty strong skates this week in Barrie.

Castelli and Tran had some issues on the sbs jumps, but overall were very strong.

I really enjoyed watching both of their programs. They were fun and upbeat, and very entertaining. Though that doesn't suit everyone, this style works very well for them.

They've improved a lot technically, and they look like they're enjoying their programs.

The only thing I would say is that Mervin really needs an actual costume for the short program. Not anything too elaborate, just something more costume like than what he wore this week in the short.

The other three pairs in the event were not as strong as Duhamel and Radford and Castelli and Tran by quite a lot.

The third place team from the US, Pfund and Santillan, finished with a total score of just under 150, compared to Castelli and Tran's almost 178.

Jones and Regan finished in fourth place with a total of 144.55. They skated pretty well, but struggled a little in the freeskate.

Hayleigh Bell and Rudy Sweigers skated this week in Barrie, unlike in Thornhill.

They finished with a total score of 135.43, in last place.

They are still a very new team, and so they had a little more difficulty than the other, more experienced teams.

The biggest problem for Bell and Sweigers was their speed.

Especially compared to Duhamel and Radford, they were very slow moving across the ice.

Their speed had a serious impact on the quality of their elements. Their jumps weren't as high as they could've been and their step sequence was very slow and their edges weren't very deep.

Over time I'm sure we'll see their speed and synchronicity improve, but for now they stood out a little as a less experienced team.