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.