Bonnie Boaz began her second career in figure skating at age 49. She had competed in ice dance as a teenager, but quit to go to college. More than 20 years and two children later, skating was still her passion.

"As soon as my youngest turned 13, I felt like I could let loose again," Boaz said.

Now a teacher at Durham Academy, Boaz is one of about 100 adult skaters (ages 21 and older) from Maine to Florida who will congregate this weekend in Hillsborough at the 2006 Eastern Adult Sectional Championships.

The competition's unlikely arrival in North Carolina shows both the popularity of adult figure skating and the sport's burgeoning community in a state just beginning to discover winter sports.

This weekend's competition is not only the first time that the Easterns have been held in North Carolina, but also the first time that such a major skating event, drawing skaters from Florida to Maine, has been held in the state.

"It's quite a coup for us to have them down here," said Waylon Dudley, general manager for the Triangle SportsPlex, which will host the event.

For the top skaters, there's a chance to win a berth in adult skating's national championships, held in Dallas this year by the same group that runs Olympic-eligible skating. The most advanced competitors can land double jumps (and, once in a while, a triple) and do complex spins.

But adult skating events are not as much about outjumping competitors as about camaraderie.

Skating is a relentlessly individual sport for perfectionists, and most adults cram practice around work. That means waking at 4 or 5 a.m. to spend hours alone at freezing rinks, polishing the tiniest moves.

Skating events, then, become a celebration, a rare chance for lovers of the sport to congregate and show off their progress.

The competitors cheer lustily for one another. They shower the ice with teddy bears and Beanie Babies -- and, as a joke, little bubble-wrapped bottles of vodka.

"Everyone is serious about their skating, but we don't take it too seriously," said Lori Drum, 41, a Cary technology analyst who started skating at 31. "We have a blast."

Like competitive skating for youngsters, interest in adult skating boomed after the Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan controversy before the 1994 Olympics.

In 1995, the U.S. Figure Skating Association held its first national adult skating championship in Wilmington, Del.

"They thought they would have 40 people, and they had hundreds," said Ann Dougherty, the skating association's national vice chair for adult competitions.

Now more than 600 skaters compete annually at the national championships. Most of the competition is open to all comers, with lower-level events that focus just on spins or the simplest single jumps. Each competition is also divided by age groups.

But at the top levels, skaters must win a spot at nationals at one of three sectional competitions, like the one this weekend in Hillsborough. Hosted by the Central Carolina Skating Club, more than 50 volunteers and 15 judges will work an ice rink where time is so precious each event is timed to the minute. (One men's event, for instance, lasts exactly from 10:46 a.m. to 11:03 a.m.)

Expensive pastime

Skating isn't a cheap hobby. The sport is notoriously expensive at the elite, Olympic-eligible level, with coaches, choreographers and equipment easily topping $30,000 a year.

But even adults often spend more than $10,000 a year for costumes, travel and lessons.

Despite the money -- and the inhospitable practice times -- skating is getting more popular in North Carolina.

In part, you can thank two Yankee imports: The Carolina Hurricanes and Northern newcomers.

The Canes brought hockey fever to the state, and a number of new ice rinks opened, including the Garner Ice House and The Factory in Wake Forest. The RecZone in Raleigh hopes to add a second sheet of ice. And all of this is in a state with fewer than a dozen ice rinks total.

That means more practice times are available for figure skating.

In addition, transplants from farther north are bringing their love of the sport with them.

"Even the Southern gals are getting into it as a nice hobby and a way to be cool in the summer," said Boaz, who is also president of the Central Carolina Skating Club.

Many adult skaters, like Drum, say they are drawn to the sport because it requires so much thinking. Skating requires absolute focus, leaving no room for worries about work, family or daily life.

"When I started, my goal was to be able to do simple things, like a two-foot spin," Drum said. "That's what this sport does -- it sucks you in little by little. ... Now it's just a huge part of my life."