From the April 28, 1994 edition of The New Castle Record
by Gwen Johnson staff writer
Bars, beams and summersaults are the things that fill the time of local gymnast Christine Surface of Craig County, a competitive gymnast for Roanoke Academy of Gymnastics.
An honor student at McCleary Elementary School, Christine is the daughter of Tommy and Nacy Surface of New Castle.
“We are very proud of her. We think it’s admirable that she is able to maintain honor roll status considering the amount of time she spends in the gym,” said her mother.
And that adds up to about nine hours a week for regular classes plus two hours travel time for each of the three days she attends. In addition, she added extra one-on-one practices on weekends with her coach in the fall to prepare her for competition that begins in December of each year and goes through May of the next year.
“As far as local competition goes,” said Nancy, “she’s consistently been in the top three in the All-Around category for the nine to 11-year-old age group.”
All the long hours and hard work paid off when her most outstanding accomplishments so far came in Gatlinburg, Tenn., in February. With gymnasts from ten states competing, she earned medals in four categories in her age group for Beam, Vault, Floor Exercise, where she took second place, and in the All-Around category, where she came in 7th.
According to her father, “The Gatlinburg meet was judged very strictly and the high score of nine was very hard to come by,” Christine won four medals there.
She started when she was a toddler. AT 3, Christine began ballet and continued that for four years. By age 5 she had added gymnastics to her schedule along with ballet classes.
It wasn’t long before she had traded ballet for gymnastics classes.
Two of her favorites have always been the vault and the balance beam on which she has mastered a Level Five already and actually can do a walk over on the balance beam which is a Level Six skill.
However, she will compete on a Level Four in the upcoming State Championships at Virginia Beach May 22.
She ash her eyes set on a gold medal, and oddly enough her strongest skill now seems to be the bars, which were her greatest challenge.
“I think they’re fun but hard,” she added.
“The thing that scares me is when she does a long hang kip, said Nancy. “Simply put, this is done by standing on the low bar and jumping to the high bar.” But no matter how scary it may be for her mother, Christine seems to have no fear.
Last year in state competition she placed No. 13 on the balance beam for the 9-1/2-year-old age group, and in the last home meet, the Good Luck International held in May, she came in second All Around.
In spite of a room full of trophies and medals, Christine say that what she really enjoys is life on the move that includes motels, swimming pools, eating out and all the fun things that go along with traveling and the real bonus is that she gets to meet friends from all over.
“We tend to look at tall this as an educational experience as well,” said Tommy.
“Last year the state meet was close to Washington, D.C. and we got to see a lot of historical things that they have talked about in school.”
The family agreed that it was fun that they got to do everything together as a family. “We’re on the road so much that these trips really afford us quality time together,” her mom said. In spite of how it may seem, life isn’t all one big trip though. Christine said that when she ahs spare time, which is rare, she likes to spend it with her girlfriends and go shopping or to a movie.
As for the future the young gymnast is not exactly sure where all of this will fit in but hopes that somehow it will. She plans on following gymnastics through to the college years, and just maybe somewhere down the road there will be a scholarship in this field that will really make it all worthwhile.
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Prepared by Shelly Koon