Mabee's still got it
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When Chris Mabee retired from competitive skating four years ago – officially in December 2008 – he talked about what it was like turning pro.
The 23-year-old had just started a short-term job with Disney’s High School Musical, The Ice Tour, and planned to stick with that until his first cruise with Royal Caribbean International in March 2009.
“I kind of look at it like this – I paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to learn how to skate,” he said in 2008. “And now I’m being paid to skate. But the best part about it is that I’m still learning at the same time, so I’m kind of getting the best of both worlds right now. I’m going to make it last as long as possible. I’m going to do it until I feel I’m ready to let it go and start something new.
“I just remember at one point, at the end of one of the (High School Musical) shows, I got to look out at the crowd and I remember thinking, ‘I am made for this. I am made for show skating.’ I just knew the decision was right when it felt so good doing it.”
Four years later Mabee, 27, returned to the Kinsmen Memorial Arena as a guest skater in Tillsonburg Skating Club’s 2012 Holiday Showcase. And the feeling hasn’t changed.
“I’ve been doing cruise ships for four years as of March (2013), and it’s been pretty much straight through. A few breaks here and there, but it’s been really good.”
He will begin his sixth contract in two months on Liberty of the Seas, based in Florida, then cruise to Barcelona. All of his contracts have been with Royal Caribbean, the only cruise line with real ice.
“You go six months straight on a ship. Seven-day trips, usually. Basically, let’s say a ship comes in on Sunday, we go away for a week and come back the next Sunday. Then we unload everybody off, we clean the entire ship top to bottom, and then we load the people back on. Same day.
“When you live on ship there is no real ‘weekend.’ Everyone works seven days a week. We’re lucky in entertainment, I don’t perform every day. Usually four times a week, sometimes five depending on the size of the ship.”
Shows are typically early evening, something to see before or after dinner, with nearly 800 people watching a typical show.
“When we’re not performing, we do other things on the ship. There’s also a production show in another theatre and we help them get in-and-out of costumes, do spotlights, etc.
“There’s also public skating on ships available for guests where we hand out rental skates. We run that event as well.”
He usually gets two vacations each year and, just returned from the Caribbean, his current vacation (from Dec. 2) is his longest so far.
“I think I have seven or eight weeks left…”
It’s also his first Christmas back in Ontario since he became a pro.
The six-time men’s senior national skater, two-time World Junior skater, and frequent international Grand Prix skater agreed to skate two solos Friday night during his former club’s Holiday Showcase, giving back to the club he represented throughout his competitive skating career.
“The skating program looks like it’s turning around,” said Mabee after Friday’s show. “It was nice to see the skaters here.”
Friday’s solos were his first on full ice in four years, and he was a trifle winded after both.
“Ohhhh, man…” he laughed. “Yeah, I was feeling it. By the end – not even by the end, by like three-quarters of the way through – I couldn’t even feel my legs in that last one.
“I’m built now for a 45-minute show on a smaller ice rink,” he said, describing an area that might extend from blueline-to-blueline in length, and the distance of the centre circle in width.
“My body just isn’t used to doing the (full-ice) sprint any more. There was a lot of steps tonight, not a lot of breaks in it. The second one, I started with easier jumps and worked myself up to harder jumps. The first number I started with harder jumps and went down to easier, which is easier to do when you’re tired.”
The audience was treated to a double axel, triple loop, triple toe, triple flip and triple lutz in his first routine.
“Other than triple axel and triple sal, those are the exact jumps I competed with… so, yeah, I still got it,” he laughed.
“I don’t do a triple axel every show, but I still do it. As I’m getting older I pick and choose the days I do it – on days when I’m feeling well and feeling strong. I can still land it – it’s still there.”
He’s still on target for ‘seven years’ performing on cruise ships. Four years ago he figured 30 would be a good age to reach as a cruise ship performer.
“I still believe that,” he smiled, more than half way to his initial objective.
“Honestly, if my body is still holding itself together fairly well and I’m not tired of it, of course I’d love to continue to perform. But I know there’s going to be a point where I’m like, ‘okay, time to start something else.’”
Each year, younger skaters join the cruise tours. But Mabee’s not feeling the pressure yet.
“They want reliable skaters. What they want are good, talented, reliable skaters, skaters they don’t have to worry about or babysit. Strong, independent skaters, and yeah, just reliable. As long as you’re continuing to do your job, and you know you’re doing your job well, then you’ll continue to get work.”
For the past year-and-a-half he’s been promoted to ice captain.
“It’s my duty to make sure the show looks clean, to make sure it continues to get better and improve over time, and to keep the cast up to date on ship information and things that might change.
“I’m hoping for a few more years of that, and we’ll see where my body’s at. Eventually I’d like to be the one to install the shows, to come in and teach the cast the steps and choreography, set movement, and all that stuff.
“Eventually I’d love to get into casting or something like that. Maybe with a little coaching on the side, we’ll see.”
His only injury in four years occurred during a performance last March, on a Mediterranean/Canary Island cruise, and he had to spend six weeks in England recovering. Injuries are not common, he said, but they do happen.
“On the Allure of the Sea, the biggest ship in the world, during a cast changeover, a girl did get her leg sliced. She severed an artery, some of her tendons and some nerves in her foot. It happens, but as long as everyone’s aware, and everyone knows what’s going on, and where they need to be, then there won’t be any injuries.”
Four years ago, when he talked about getting into coaching, it probably would have been closer to home, which is now Ingersoll.
“I’ve actually started to look into figuring out how I could become a technical specialist for the events, Sectionals, eventually working up to (Skate Canada) Challenge, and hopefully Nationals. With the new judging system they have a technical panel, usually consisting of past skaters who are aware of the new system, and basically they have the ability to call an element for what it is. Entry level is Sectionals and you have to work your way up to the National level.”
Asked if he missed competing, the quick and emphatic answer was ‘no.’ There will be no competitive comeback in his future.
“I do miss the audience at a competition. I perform on a ship in front of 800 people, but at big international competitions they have thousands and thousands… so I miss that. But the day-to-day training, it’s just not for me any more. I definitely don’t miss that, and I don’t miss the stress in competing.
“The adrenalin rush, I think it made me feel ‘aware.’ It’s what makes competitions so exciting. You have sooo much adrenalin going through your body that it either works with you or works against you.
“It’s all about managing the adrenalin… and being able to focus within all the excitement. If you go out there and you have no awareness, you’re not going to manage anything because you’re not aware of anything.
“Now, as a professional, I don’t have as much adrenalin but I’m used to the people and I know how to focus and do what I need to do. In professional skating you eventually become used to skating in front of people all the time. And you become very aware. I actually think I’m more consistent now than when I was competing.”
But, again, no comeback.
“If solos were only one minute long and they cut the ice in half, I would think about it,” he joked.
He still sets a high standard for himself on-ship, and still has all the jumps/spins he competed with.
“But if I miss it, it doesn’t seem like the ‘end of the world’ anymore.
“Staying in the showbiz aspect of it, that’s what my ideal goal would be. Ship life isn’t for everybody, but I just really enjoy it.
“Everyone’s been very supportive. My parents have had an opportunity to come on a cruise, and I think they’ve really watched me grow as a performer. I think that’s something that’s always been my strong suit, and to see it evolve into something more, I think they’ve been really happy with that. And I’ve been really happy with that, too.
“It’s always rewarding when someone, who has an appreciation for what you do – still doing the same stuff in a much smaller area – tells you that you’ve done a really good job. It means I’m still working, still developing and getting better. I’m such a different skater than I was when I competed.
“Years ago when I retired and I told my parents I was going ‘professional,’ my dad (Paul) and my mom (Diana) as well, they both said ‘you’re hired with these certain jumps, and even though you might not be performing each of them, you’ve been hired to go from ‘this to this’ and by the end of the contract you still need to be able to go from ‘this to this,’” he said, noting the importance of not losing his skills. “I just kept that with me a long time. I feel like that’s why, sometimes when I haven’t tried a triple axel for a while, I start getting nervous. I don’t want to let it go. I want to show that ‘I still got it.’
“Starting in showbiz re-started my love for skating. And I think that’s why I feel so attached to it, because it got me from the point where I didn’t think I was ever going to do this again to the point where I don’t even think I can stop. I think that’s why I really appreciate the show aspect and that’s why I want to be there and watch other people go through that process as well.
“With the younger ones, you hear a lot of people saying, ‘I’m just coming in to do one contract and then I’m going to school.’”
He laughs, “A friend of mine said that four contracts ago…”
The 2013 Canadian Nationals will be in Mississauga this year, and Mabee plans to watch.
“It’s funny, I have a much different perspective now. Now that I’ve been out of it so long, I find that I hardly look at the technical aspect of it any more, the jumps and spins. I look more at quality of turns, lines, toe-point… just little things that, having turned professional, I’ve had to focus on myself.
“One of my choreographers… he’s really into the Art of Simplicity. He’s shown me there doesn’t have to be a lot going on to make a big impact. So I really look for that when I’m watching competitive skating now because I feel like it’s kind of lacking.
“Right now in competitive skating, I feel like ‘more is more.’ They think more is better. But from an audience’s perspective, it just looks like more. I don’t know… I’d like to get back to a time when things were a little simpler. But they’ve got to get their points and they’ve got to do what they need to do, so all power to them.
“I’m just happy I don’t have to do that any more,” he quipped.