Website Review: Sk8Stuff.com Figure Skater’s Website

Sometimes you have nothing to do at work or you’re dodging that big project and surfing the ‘Net instead. Maybe you’ve just attended a competition over the weekend and you’re curious how other skaters in the club did. Maybe you’re searching for photos from the competition or you’re wondering what competition or testing deadlines are coming up. Work – schmirk.

Sk8Stuff.com‘s webmaster, Mich. resident and USFS judge Don Korte, has been helping figure skating enthusiasts pass the time since he began his Figure Skater’s Website in 1995. You could spend many lunch hours on this site and never find the bottom of it.

On the front page of Korte’s site, you’ll find links to upcoming figure skating events, results from recent events, photos from competitions, and competition announcements. You’ll also find a list of Korte’s site updates: results, photos, and congratulations to skaters who’ve passed senior-level tests.

Korte’s site is full of USFSA information, but he does talk some about the ISI. In fact, I really like his post about the difference between the two figure skating associations.

He’s broken his site into parts: the brown links are for reference (rules, jump/spin identification, and clubs), the green links are specialized information (synchronized skating, adult skating, skating officials), the blue links appeal to skaters themselves (Mich.- related skating, skate exchange, partner search).

All of that information is great. It’s useful. I appreciate the education. But I’m not hanging out there.

I’m spending my lunch hour looking at the photos on Korte’s Results and Pictures page. If Korte’s at an event, you can be sure that he’s taking photos and posting the results. If he’s not there, he’ll accept results from a referee who sends them to him and he’ll take photos from other people, too.

The photos are like unexpected happiness. Korte sits in the judges’ box and gets the action photos of skaters that you’d normally pay for. If you find your kid among the many, many photos, he gives you permission to download the photo and print it for free. Do you know how much that appeals to a cheapskate like me? Korte takes hundreds of photos from the events he attends, so you can be reasonably sure that your kid will be somewhere on his site if he’s been an official. Most of the photos are from events in and around Mich., but some photos are submitted from other events, too. If you don’t want the photo up on his site, he’ll take it down by request.

Did I mention his photo and results archive dates back to the year 2000? And the results are searchable? You can type in a figure skater – almost any figure skater who has been competing in the last 10 years – and receive a list of that skater’s results. It’s not an official list and it’s not exhaustive. You’ll find gaps in the list because Korte only posts results he receives. But, still.

The site has a utilitarian layout, that doesn’t prevent me from eating sandwiches and looking at photos for dress ideas. Korte has packed the site with 15 years of information, events, and results. I really respect the dedication he’s brought to the project and the time he’s spent on it.

Sk8Stuff.com performs a valuable service to USFSA members and their parents. Sure, I can find out about the top-level skaters on the official USFSA site and results for those skaters who perform in big, televised competitions. But I can’t find the results from the Strongsville Spring Fling on USFSA’s site. I won’t be able to see photos from the Black Hills Gold Rush there, either.

Korte’s site fills that gap. The sport is full of figure skaters at all levels – from Snow Plow Sam to Adult. Sk8Stuff.com is for those figure skaters and parents whose skater isn’t on TV, but is on the ice. The site is full of information, upcoming events, results, and photos. And it goes great with a soup and sandwich.

As always, Rinkformation sites receive no money in exchange for a review. All advertising is separate from editorial content.

What do you think? Have you ever been to Sk8stuff.com? What did you think of it? I find myself wishing more referees would send Korte results and photos, but that’s just me.

Do you have a question for Ice Mom or a dilemma for the Advisory Board? I sure hope so. I have one for this Friday, but nothing for next week. Is there a post you’d like to read but haven’t yet? Would you like to write a guest post? Really? That would make my day. E-mail me at IceMom.Diane@gmail.com

Photo credits:

All photos are screenshots of Sk8Stuff.com, Don Korte for Korte Web Services, LLC.