Blogs

So, Evilicious Diva (or Evil as she's known more widely) may have touched on this not long ago...but as the League secretary, I am the lady who registers all our names and numbers. It's the question all the new Freshmeat or Lambs will hear from me. "Have you come up with your name yet?"

Along with giving them the website where they'll find the international derby name register and advising that they check their name for uniqueness, the next best thing is to start a list of ideas or inspirations.

In derby you can get away with a lot of things that you can’t get away with in real life:

I can tell someone to give me their panties NOW aka their helmet cover

I can skate into someone full speed and bash them with my shoulder (legal move as long as you don’t hit them in the back)

I can wear fishnets, frills and/or lipstick while I play sport (hint- lipstick smudges on your mouthguard)

I’m looking at the way we can overcome the mental barriers that stop us from skating. This entry will look at the many fine Excuses one can formulate.

It’s cold outside. It’s raining. It’s miserable. Why would anyone want to leave the house in this weather? I’m leading my heater around my flat like a puppy dog counting down the minutes until I should be at training. Notice the wording...until I should be at training.

My friends are having dinner out and I know the restaurant is warm...which means I wouldn’t have to change into an outfit that’s barely there and skate around in a cold basketball hall. In fact, I wouldn’t have to change at all, but I would have to go outside. And then it occurs to me, that [insert favourite TV show] is on tonight! Crap, I can’t miss that! And come to think of it, it’s the only night I can see my girlfriend/boyfriend [pick your preference] this week! Plus my [insert reoccurring injury] is acting up again so I probably shouldn’t be skating anyway because I don’t want to make it worse.

When life is good play derby, when life is hard play derby.
Easy enough to say - but it’s all about keeping the drive and the motivation to do it!

Roller derby takes a lot of time and commitment, which I didn’t realise when I first got involved in March of 2008. There are trainings and meetings to attend, not to mention social gatherings and fundraising events. And when it gets close to bout time... kiss goodbye any friends or family who are not involved with the league!

You’re not a fully fledged derby girl until you have a derby name and for me this has been a long time coming.

It’s been seven months, and over that time I’ve come up with some cool original names only to find out that someone had snapped that name up before me. I’ve tried out con vicious, concusser, and my personal favorite Evel Conevil, which I was gutted to find out was to similar to another derby girl in NZ. I had it all planned out with evel con evil and was going to have 151 as my number as that was the distance in feet that the crazy stunt devil made it across the fountains in front of Caesar's Palace before plummeting down and nearly killing himself. I think the original evel probably spent more time breaking bones then he did mending them, he was one amazing stunt man.

I’m a newbie to derby – Fresh Meat as we are officially called. Which conjures up the image of crafty gnarly lions awaiting their next meal of juicy steak! I guess that’s an incentive to join the pride or technically ‘pack’ in derby. Yes Siree learning derby is no picnic – first there’s the staying upright on your skates (tricky), then there’s the rules of the game (challenging), and taking the hits (breathtaking) but nothing is more baffling than the jargon – blockers, pivots, bout, jam, jammer panty (more on that later) and the very intriguing term ‘derby wife’.

One aspect of joining a DIY league like Richter City means a fair amount of commitment - and I'm not talking just training. When the first season of bouts was happening, us freshies were asked to pitch in and help get things running smoothly on the nights. I jumped in on the merch girl bandwagon - selling shirts, trucker caps, posters, badges and some sweet patches. Cheesy, but it was nice to feel involved and like I could do something. It's something I jumped in on again when we were at Blood and Thunder camp - and it was a great way to get our league out there to the diverse crowd of derby girls and punters alike.

I am a child of the eighties. Cabbage patch kids, Michael Jackson bubble gum cards, Madonna, Garbage pail kids, K.I.T.T.

One Christmas somewhere between ’85 and 87’, Santa bought me a beautiful pair of yellow and blue roller skates. They were amazing. I spent hours and hours skating on our driveway. And then, I grew out of them and Santa never bought me another pair.

18ish years later I started to see and hear of roller derby leagues in the states. Eventually I hear of some derby enthusiasts in little ole’ NZ and discover some leagues starting up around the country. My little sister joins one in Christchurch immediately. Still….. I ‘m not yet ready. In fact, lets be honest, I am a pussy. I don’t like to be hurt, and I don’t like confrontation. And lets face it, there is a bit of a difference between skating in your driveway as an 8 year old to skating with fully grown women clad in fishnets trying to STOP you skating!

6 months and I haven’t missed a training yet and it’s all in the hope that one day I’ll be awesome on my skates or I can die trying. To me life is all about challenging yourself if you don’t challenge yourself life just gets boring.

Last year I ran my first ever half marathon crossing that finish line was the biggest achievement ever for me because I’m the type of girl that cant run 2 minutes down the road without getting the stitch or gasping for air. So after completing something I thought I’d never do I was ready for my next challenge. Reading an article about Richter City Roller Derby, a group of Wellington girls who started a Wellington roller derby league I knew this was something I definitely wanted to be apart of.

Last night, I passed up a big work shindig in favour of going to derby training. Now, we're not talking regular after work drinks on a Friday... this was a no holds barred casino night, complete with high roller gaming tables, costumes, a free flowing champagne tower and a g-e-n-uine crooner. Normally, I'd be one of the last sad cases left at the end of the night, demanding the dj play the theme song from Dirty Dancing.

But this particular Friday, I gave that all up so I could go skating. Very out of character! And it got me thinking about why I love going to training so much.