Tillsonburg skater headed to ice dance nationals

Tillsonburg skater Summer Homick will be competing with her partner Nicholas Buelow next week in the ice dance division of the Canadian National Skating Championships. (Contributed Photo)

Jeff Helsdon, Editor

A Tillsonburg skater will be competing at the 2025 Canadian National Skating Championships.

Summer Homick will be skating in ice dance with her partner Nicholas Buelow of Barrie in the event in Laval, Quebec next week. She will be on the ice on Jan. 15 for the first day of the competition, and then back on the ice the next day for the second portion of it.

Homick will be competing in the junior level, which is for qualifying competitors under the age of 21 from across Canada. The first day’s competition consists of a 2.5-minute rhythm program, which is scored. This score is combined from the free dance score on the second day for a final score. This isn’t Homick’s first trip to the national championships. She competed in both junior and senior in pairs with her former partner Marty Haubrich, finishing second in pairs. Since then, she made the switch to ice dance and is excited for this competition.

“When you have a new partnership it changes things,” she said.

She expects competition will be tough, noting, “Everybody wants that podium”.

Homick’s training starts with four hours of skating in the morning with the Mariposa School of Skating in Barrie. This institution has been home to national champions, Olympians and world champions, including Elvis Stojko and Brian Orser. After the morning skate session, 17-year-old Homick goes to high school for the afternoon. She is taking one class on line and receives one credit for skating through high performance education. Following school, she is back to the arena for a second session. This can include stretching, ballet, hip hop dance and other training.

“We’re fortunate because our school is connected to the same parking lot as the arena so I just walk back and forth,” she said.

Homick started skating in Langton at age four, and then moved to private lessons in Tillsonburg with Penny Jelsma as her coach. Her mother Jennifer skated in Ilderton and London for many years, while her father Darryl was involved in various sports. But Summer had high goals in skating since she was young. She skated in Tillsonburg until she was 13 and then moved to Brantford for pairs competition.

The main difference between pairs and ice dance lie in their focus, elements and choreography.

“You still have some lifts but they are more unique,” she said.

Last March, she moved to Barrie at 16 years old to start training as an ice dancer.

“I was approached by another dance coach who I used to work with in pairs and he said, ‘You should try ice dance, you would be a good ice dancer’,” she recounted. “My pairs coach also approached me and suggested to try another ice dance at another club.”

She tried out with Nick in Barrie and a week later ended up moving there.

“I came here and switched my life and my partnership for this discipline,” she said.

Admitting it was a scary to move away from home at 16, she said the support received from her parents, the Buelow family and the skate club helped.

Homick and Buelow have experienced impressive progress since last spring. They finished seventh at the Next Gen Camp in July 2024, their first competition. Building on that success, they earned a silver medal at Sectionals in Kitchener-Waterloo the following month. Representing Canada at the Junior Grand Prix in Poland, they finished seventh. Their momentum continued with a first-place finish at Oktoberfest in Barrie, followed by a second-place finish at Skate Ontario Sectionals in October. Their fifth-place result at the Skate Canada Challenge in December qualified the pair for the nationals, as the top 15 qualify for this prestigious competition.

Junior skaters are one level down from senior, where Olympic competitors are chosen from.

“My goal is definitely the Olympics,” Homick said. “I’m hoping for 2030 that would be amazing. That’s been a dream of mine since I was a kid, since I started in Tillsonburg.”