After 18 months and two continents of searching for the perfect partner, Liam Dougherty will finally hit the competitive figure skating scene again next month.

Dougherty, who got his start in figure skating as a child in Whitehorse, now trains in ice dance under coach Julie Marcotte, in Ste. Julie, Quebec.

Although they won the 2003 Canadian junior ice dance championships, he and former partner Melissa Piperno went their separate ways in the spring of 2004, after a disappointing seventh-place finish at the senior nationals.

'I don't hate her, we don't hate each other,' the young athlete said in an interview at the time. 'I felt that I was being held back. I was starting to not improve as much as I thought I could improve. I wasn't happy.'

So while Dougherty knew the risks involved, he went on a search for a new partner. Unfortunately, months of effort failed to yield a new partnership in time for the last skating season. Not wanting to miss yet another year, a frustrated Dougherty began looking outside of Canada last May.

Since it's been almost two years since he last skated for Canada internationally, at the Cup of Russia in Moscow, he would have been free to represent any country next month.

'I love Canada and I never wanted to skate for any other country, but I wanted to skate, so I decided to go look in Europe,' he explained, in an interview from Montreal.

Two tryouts had been arranged for Dougherty at a rink in Lyon, France, where current Canadian ice dance champions Marie France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon train.

A German coach from Berlin had also heard about his visit, and persuaded Dougherty to spend several days with another young woman, but that didn't work out either. He finished his European tryouts skating at a Budapest rink, hoping for something to arise there while visiting his relatives.

But he returned home empty-handed.

'It was a good trip, no matter what,' he said of the European tour. 'But it didn't pan out the way I wanted.

'I had travelled all over the world, looking everywhere for a partner. I started thinking, What's going on?' I was pretty depressed. Then, out of the blue came Terra.'

Dougherty knew of 15-year-old Terra Findlay roughly, through the Canadian skating circle. Many aspiring skaters come to the rink in Ste. Julie to work with Marcotte, who is a talented choreographer, in the summer.

And Dougherty was approached by Findlay and her then-partner John Mattatal to help them with choreography for a noncompetitive number.

Findlay and Mattatal were actually the 2004 Canadian junior pairs silver medalists.

'There had previously been some talk about us getting together, because everyone thought she had a lot of good ingredients to be an ice dancer,' said Dougherty. 'But she was doing pairs, a completely different discipline.

'Then suddenly, she and her partner decided they weren't skating with each other anymore. It was a complete shock.'

A lot of success in pairs is dependent on how small the woman is, and Findlay was growing at a fast pace, putting a lot of strain on her.

So in August, Findlay's coach convinced her to give ice dancing a shot, and also convinced Dougherty to give Findlay an informal tryout. Dougherty went into the tryout with 'zero hopes,' but figured he had nothing to lose by getting in the extra practice.

'After the first day, my coach said, This is exactly the kind of girl you need.' By the end of the first week, it was pretty clear to both of us. There are only so many good partners that come along and I knew that if I didn't grab Terra, I would regret it down the road.'

When Dougherty split up with Piperno, he and Marcotte sat down and made a list of everything he wanted in a new partner. While the initial list was extensive, the Yukoner said over the following months, two very important prerequisites came to the front.

'First of all, you need the presentation, that something within certain people, where your attention is just drawn to them. They just have that intangible spark. You either have it or you don't. The other thing is work ethic.

'Terra is just beautiful. Naturally, people look at her, no matter what she's doing. She has great presentation. As soon as I saw her, there was no doubt. And after skating with her that week, seeing what she was willing to do ... she was giving up everything she knew, just for the chance to skate with me.'

Findlay, who is from Echo Bay, Ontario, had to leave behind her family, move to Montreal and start studies at a new school. She also had to master sufficient ice dance skills to pass her senior level dance tests, in just over a month.

'I originally didn't want to skate with someone with little experience,' admitted Dougherty. 'But first of all, for her age, she has a tremendous amount of skating experience and she has all the potential we wanted in a dance partner. She was really enthusiastic, too.

'We had about two and a half months to get ready for provincials, so we were really packed for time. But she just jumped headlong into that.'

On Sept. 22, Findlay passed her senior test with flying colours, dancing with Dougherty to the demanding tempo of a fast-paced Flamenco. They will make their official debut at provincials next month. Then it's on to the Canadian championships in Ottawa in January.

The programs are definitely coming along, said Dougherty, and they should have all the pieces in place by provincials, though he admits they won't be as sharp as they hope to be come January. More than posting great results at provincials, the duo just hope to have a positive experience at their first competition together.

'I'm definitely stressed, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't. I haven't competed in a long time. And she's worried because she's never done ice dance, so she wonders if people will judge her because of that.'

Dougherty said it's hard to nail down specific goals because it's their first year together, and improvement comes so fast at this stage of the game.

Obviously, results are nice, he said, but the most important thing is for them to feel good about their programs and the way they skate.

'We definitely want to be in the top 10 (at nationals), but it's mainly just about skating as well as we can and making an impact, getting people to notice us. We want to be labeled as a team to watch in the future.'

After 18 months off, talk about the future is music to Dougherty's ears. While he never seriously thought about quitting the sport he loves, he admits there were definitely low points and the low points started coming more and more often in recent months.

'You start thinking, It's me. I'm obviously not good enough.' But with every failure, it just made it more clear in my mind that I really want to be doing this. I want to offer what I feel I can offer to this sport.'

And now that Dougherty has found a new partner, all of the months he spent waiting seem worth it. While he had a few opportunities before Findlay, he's glad he didn't take any of them he knew he couldn't skate with someone just to do it for one season.

'I knew I would rather wait. I didn't want to settle. I wanted to find the best girl possible. I didn't want to settle with somebody I could do less with.

'Call it fate, call it whatever,' he said of finding Findlay in unusual circumstances. 'I'm just extremely happy that it happened.

' This is a long-term thing. It's not a quick-fix solution. That's what ultimately brings the best results.'