knee update

I was hoping to be back in skating shape for practice yesterday, but my knee is being kinda stubborn on the healing front. I took part in the off-skate warm-up and accidentally touched my knee to the ground which caused my knee great displeasure. After that, I really didn't want to risk getting onto the rink and falling. Pain is there to tell you that you're doing something wrong, so I listened to it.

It wasn't a total waste of a practice though. I got a little bit of a work-out and then I helped coach some of the newest of the newbies. It felt great to be able to pass on some of the derby wisdom that was passed on to me by other derby girls.

there's an alien baby living in my knee

At my derby girl debut game, 5 minutes before the end of the bout, my knee experienced a moment of intense intimacy with the floor. The result, a swollen knee for a week, a super colourful bruise for over a week, and a bruised tendon that is still causing me considerable pain. I had a doctor check me out this morning and he's optimistic that i'll be as good as new in a little over a week. I'm hoping he's right because team recruitment is December 16th and I need as much practice as possible before then.

I'm optimistic.

the Sexpos are victorious

So my first game was AWESOME! The Montreal Sexpos kicked some serious ass. Tri-City Thunder put up a good fight, but we just fought harder. All the training and the double derby practice sundays really paid off. We played together very nicely.

We won 112 to 50. And of course, we won the after party. No one parties like Montreal derby girls. And the at the after after party, we definately left an impression...

t-shirt making madness

Stayed up late last night making Montreal Sexpos' t-shirts for a few of the people who will be coming to see the bout in Kitchener this weekend. I'm so very pleased with how well they turned out. I wish I'd made one for myself also. The detail work on the t-shirts caused my shoulders to tense up something fierce and today they hurt like a bitch. Lets hope the pain subsides by Saturday. Not that I'd sit the game out if my shoulders hurt a little. I like to think I'm a little more hardcore than that.

My level of excitement about this weekend is growing with every second. My uniform is tits. I even score some blue and red hockey tape to tape up my skates and pads.

first bout jitters

I've been practicing with the B-team these last few weeks. I'm starting to feel less lost when scrimaging. And this Saturday, I will be playing my very first bout. I'm super excited because I really don't want to wait until April (when the season starts up again) to play, but I'm absolutely terrified because Saturday is just so damn soon. I'm going to lose my roller derby virginity. Thinking about it too much sends shivers down my spine.

I'm feeling more and more like a real derby girl every day. I've got my crew of newbies who have now become really good friends. But I'm also getting to know a lot of the veterans much better. And the 7 or so hour drive to Kitchener with a couple of the girls from the B-team ought to help me get to know more people better. Its great to feel like I'm part of the league as opposed to being some shy little girl who's testing out the rollin' waters.

I'm also pretty pumped about the afterparty that will follow my very first bout. Win or lose, the montreal derby girls party like no one else.

I love my life.

my very own theme song

My birthday was on September 6th. And for this occasion, my darling younger brother wrote me a theme song. It was composed specifically with the intent to pump me up pre-derby bout. The tune itself is massive epic. Here are the lyrics:

Once upon a time

There lived a human being

Made of pure sweet delicious power

And she lived to fight

Kick ass with all her might

And drink your blood like it was lemonade

Her brains are made of diamonds made of gold

Her brains are made of diamonds made of gold

She is going to eat your soul

C-A-T-R-A-Z, Cat Raz!

If you took a god

And mixed it with hot lava

Stuck it in a blender with a moose

Pourred it on the open breasts

Of a hundred virgin lepers

It wouldn't even be similar to her

Her brains are made of diamonds made of gold

Her brains are made of diamonds made of gold

She is going to eat your soul

C-A-T-R-A-Z, Cat Raz! (x4)

the journey continues

Well, the journey of this aspiring derby girl is moving forward. My derby-related social circle is expanding. And the further I plunge into the derby world, the more I love it.

Last night, I scrimmaged for the very first time. It was a total blur of nerves, excitement and chaos. There was one brief moment when something just clicked inside me and I knew what I had to do. I ended up blocked the opposing jammer quite successfully. Afterwards, she even complimented me on my block. The encouragement made me feel like a million bucks. I also fell on my ass a couple times, but I was able to get back up and return to play. It was exhillirating.

In other news, I've made the B travel team. Of course, that's not much of an accomplishment because the only requirements are that you've pass minimum skills (check), you are available the weekend of the 1st game (check), you are willing (check), and you raised your hand when asked if who'd like to be on the team (check.) Still, its very exciting. This means that I will not have to wait until the beginning of the season (which starts in April) to play my first ever bout. I'll be playing a real live out of town exhibition game in just over a month. Booya! I'm totally psyched and totally terrified. Its going to be awesome.

Abby - my first massive derby bruise

Saturday morning, I got up nice and early, grabbed my gear and headed out to the park to do a little skating. Fun in the sun. When we decided to take our skates off for the day, I decided it would be a nice time to practice my baseball slide. However, having only done that particular fall a couple times, I kinda forgot how to do it, got fairly nervous and ended up falling on my skate. The result: a GIANT bruise on my left leg right under my bum. My first big derby bruise. I took a picture for the archives. And I've named it Abby. Its pretty gross. Multicoloured. I couldn't sit for a while and my leg even got somewhat wollen. I'm very proud of Abby.

In other news, yesterday's practice helped me get out of the funk that my horrible weekend (horrible due to non-derby related things) brought on. There's nothing like a good adrenaline rush to makes to blues go away. And a little rough-housing. Tempting Fate mentioned to me that now that I've made minimum skills, there's a big target on my back. So she tried checking me a little bit and I held my own very well on the blocking front. At one point, I got sidetracked and started talking to someone and she came up behind me and checked me when I least suspected it. My instinctive reaction was to hit her back really hard, which I did and she fell over. However, I fell over too. A lovely 2-woman pile up. I learnt a very valuable lesson. I must limit how much follow-through I put into my hits.

I'm leaving on a little roadtrip to Halifax this Friday, so I'll be missing both the next Sunday practice and next Tuesday's practice. I anticipate my muscles will atrophy and I'll colapse on my jello legs when I next put my skates on.

BOOOOOYA!

So, I passed my minimum requirements!!!!!! YAY! I am now a real live rollergirl. Awesome. I'm not on a team yet or anything, but I can now go to Sunday practices and I can now participate in the more hardcore drills. I'm pretty psyched.

trip to Long Island to support the New Skids

The New Skids on the Block were playing a game in Long Island this weekend, so I hopped in my car with a couple of friends and exclaimed "ROADTRIP!" with derby enthusiasm. We drove for hours, explored some of NYC and some of Long Island, attired ourselves in homemade New Skids t-shirts, watched a great derby bout, cheered louder than all the Long Island fans combined, and partied like only derby girls can. Twas a magical affair. The New Skids wipped the floor with the Long Island Roller Rebels. The final score was 165 to 75; 90 points is quite the massive gap.

Mae and I, as newbies, totally scored some awesome points by making the trek, making the t-shirts and screaming like maniacs. A couple of the jammers blew kisses to us in our suicide seats as they skated by. I'm really glad they appreaciated our support.

Now that I'm back in town and talk of minimum skills keeps increasing, my intense everyday training has begun. I actually set my alarm for 5:15 this morning, so that I could go skating at the skate park a few blocks from my house, but getting up that early on a Monday morning proved too difficult. I didn't give up my desire to get some training in everyday though. I packed my skates and kneepads in a backpack and lugged them to work. I put them on in the parking lot out back and skating at a decent pace for a good half hour on my lunch break. It was an excellent use of my lunch hour. There's a bike path that goes from the metro almost all the way to my house, so I'm thinking of skating home from the metro after work. My stopping may not be great yet, but outdoors, i'll stick to using my toe-stop as opposed to doing a t-stop, just to be on the safe side.

minimum skillz/derby madness week

At last night's practice, we did a run through of the WFTDA mimimun skills requirements test. I think I did pretty well. There are still things I need to improve. The first 2 tests involved laps around the track. We have to be able to do 20 laps in 5 minutes. I'm not sure how many laps I did in 5 minutes because I got there late, jumped on the track and lost count. My lack of endurance made that a horridly painful way to start a practice. Then we did 5 laps in 1 minute, which was not a problem for me. I did 5.5 laps in a minute. I think I could do better though.

The rest of the test was more chill. Of course, most of us newbies are super self-concious when we know the veterans are watching us, so we get nervous and fuck up. But that too will vanish with time and practice.

This is a totally derby-tastic week. Sunday i practiced. Monday, I spend the whole evening cleaning some bearings. Yesterday was practice. Today I wanted to go skating outdoors, but I failed at the bearing cleaning, so I need to acquire new bearings for my hybrid wheels before I can skate outdoors. I'll probably do that today. Tomorrow, I'm going skating on the F1 track. Friday, I'm leaving on my derby roadtrip. Saturday, I'll be watching the New Skids in Long Island. Sunday, I've got to drive back to Mtl in time for some rookie training with the Texas rollergirls. Never a dull moment when you embrace the derby lifestyle.

i'm back and i'm bad-ass

2 weeks of lethargy, congestion and a general feeling of unwellness have come to an end. I'm still coughing a little but i'm back on my skates. Yesterday, we had a wonderful newbie practice. We found a nice outdoor rink and monopolized it for a couple hours. There were only 6 of us, most of whom are still working at getting comfortable on their skates. So we kept it informal. A lot of skating round and round, practicing crossovers and sticky skates. I was breaking in my new skates, using them at a decent pace for the first time. And I love them. I feel more confidant with them on. Honestly what I need to work on most is getting myself in shape and building up my endurance. My endurance is shit. Even in high school when I played hockey or soccer 3 times a week, my endurance was poor. Now its beyond poor. But I'm working on changing that. 

Towards the end of our practice, we decided a little structure would probably help us a good deal. So we practiced skating in a pack, watching our surroundings, communicating within the pack. Once we got the swing of pack-skating, we threw a jammer into the mix. As the person there who is the most confidant on skates, I got to be jammer. I skated through the pack a couple times. My fellow newbies definately need to work on their blocking skills, but after a couple runs, it got more difficult to find holes in the pack to weave through. We're all learning. I honestly never wanted to be jammer, but after my little stint at jamming with my fellow newbies, I can see how its a super fun position. However, with my endurance being what it is and my experience with bodychecking, I think I'd make a much better blocker and I'm sure I'd love it. Jamming has got to be retardedly stressful.

I used my indoor wheels on the outdoor rink yesterday. I wanted to switch to my hybrids, but removing the bearings from my indoor wheels was proving to be too great of a challenge for the time being. Mae hooked me up with a set of bearings that her cousin had given her. They need to be cleaned and lubricated, but once that's done, I can put them in my hybrid wheels and then I'll be ready for more outdoor skating. 

In all honesty, I need to skate more often if I want to be ready for team try-outs in the fall. I was given a list of skills we need to be able to perform. I need to work on pretty much everything before my skills will reach a decent level, but there are a few things that I need to work on more specifically: endurance, stops, falling (and getting up without using my hands), squatting, and hopping. So these are the things I'm going to start focusing on. It would probably also be a good idea for me to brush up on the rules. I tend to read on public transportation all the time, so once I'm finished my current bus-book, i'll start lugging around the WFTDA rules with me.

On another note, post-practice yesterday, the 6 of us gathered at Mae's house for a vegetarian BBQ. I think its great that we're getting some quality newbie-bonding time in. Its good to have people to talk to who are just as new to this whole derby world as I am.

missed practice #2

After over a week of rest and self-medicating, I am still not well. So no derby practice for me tonight. Boo.

The doc said I wasn't dying though, so there's hope for next week.

missed practice

Despite the intense desire to try out my new skates at a decent speed (which cannot happen in my living room), a really bad cold prevented me from going to practice last night. Well, I actually went, because i'd offered a ride to 4 people and it seemed kinda bitchy to cancel at the last minute, but I stayed on the sidelines and watched.

I want my health back.

new skates!!!

So, I'm sitting at my desk at work this morning when our receptionist brings me a nice big box, not too heavy, but filled with goodies. And by goodies, I mean my brand new skates (Riedell 125s), a bright pink mouthguard, a shiny black ProTec helmet, wrist guards, knee pads, elbow pads, and an extra set of wheels (the indoor-outdoor hybrid kind). So exciting. And I'm thrilled to say that today is not a busy day at the office, so feel no guilt in fiddling around with my new toys.

The girl at Rollergirl.ca suggested that when I receive my skates, I put them on indoors and let the leather mold to my feet. That's exactly what I did. My feet are wheeling back and forth gleefully underneath my desk. And so far, I've done a little in-the-office skating (to the bathroom, to get juice out of the fridge, to the printer.) Already, I'm madly in love with these magical rollerskates. With them on my feet, I feel like I could fly.

I have practice tomorrow, so I'm probably going to leave most of my gear here overnight. Except my skates. Those I want to bring home and wear around the house a little tonight. Tomorrow's practice is going to be particularly exciting. First practice is proper equipment and good skates. I can't wait.

In other news, the championship game was this weekend. La Racaille kicked some serious Contrabandita ass. A lot of people must be sad that the derby season is over. No more games to watch for quite some time. Tragic, kinda. Not so much for me though. I'll continue practicing every week. And skating as much as possible. And soon enough, I'll pass my minimum skills test and I'll be able to participate in the more advanced drills. Booya!

waiver

The other day, the Montreal Roller Derby League asked me to fill out a little form (contact info, emergency phone #, etc.) and sign a waiver relieving the league of any liability in cases of injury. Most people vaguely glance over the small print before signing, but I like to know what I'm agreeing to, so I read the whole thing. There are 2 words that jumped out at me. The first word was used in asking for permission to film/photograph me without compensation. It was the word "exploit". That made me laugh. The second word was used in the paragraph that revokes my right to sue for damages if anything goes wrong. And this was the word "death". Apparently, I'm not allowed to sue MTLRD if I die on their watch. I laughed even harder here. I was then reassured that the league has not witnessed any cases of derby-related death. Yet.

So basically, with my signature, I gave MTLRD permission to exploit and kill me. They can film my death too. Yay!

intro

My name is Raz and I am an aspiring roller derby girl. I've been training for 3 weeks now. And I honestly think that choosing to take up roller derby is one of the smartest decisions I've ever made. And this is my derby journal.

Just to get you up to speed. So far I've only ever been on roller skates 5 times. The first time was after attending 2 derby bouts. I borrowed a pair of skates from a friend of a friend and tried to see if I could skate. Turns out that years of ice skating help with rollerskating, the basic principals are the same. Its just a question of getting used to the whole 4 wheel thing. But once I got comfortable on wheels, I was hooked. Since then I've been to 3 derby practices at the Recreateque in Laval and I went skating on the Formula 1 racetrack with a couple other newbies one time. So far, I've logged about 9 hours on skates. I've been using muscles I didn't even know I had. The exercise has cured my insomnia. And my ass looks better than it did 3 weeks ago.

I ordered myself some new skates and protective gear from Rollergirl.ca and they should be arriving within the next couple days. I can't wait. Just the idea of being fully/properly equiped is making me grin in anticipation.

Ah derby! I couple months ago, I'd never even heard of the sport. Now, i think about it everyday.

This Saturday is the Montreal Roller Derby Championship game. La Racaille vs the Contrabanditas. Should be exciting. I'll be working Merch for half the gig. Merch is probably one of the better volunteer positions one can have because you can still watch the game from the Merch table. And I think volunteering lets the league catch a glimpse of my level of committment.

I'll be back again soon with more updates on my derby progress.