#hamiltonrollerderby

Woo another two derby events in two days. I NSO’d the SubZero Sirens (their mascot was SubZero from the Mortal Combat video game) vs Hammer City Harlots bout on Saturday at Riverworks and man.....it was pretty hectic. We had a full compliment of NSO’s with alternates and full ref crew with an alternate as well. Refs and NSO’s hailed from QCRG (of course); Hamilton, ON; Niagara Roller Girls; and ROC City Roller Derby. It was a diverse and experienced crew. And then there was me! Just kidding. I was the lineup tracker again and it was awesome. It got a bit hairy for the first few jams. I think the team I was tracking took more penalties in the first 3 jams than the teams I had tracked in the previous two bouts combined. After that, it settled down a bit but there were a ton of penalties called. I held it down. Even got to laugh again. There were different announcers for this bout and they again mis-pronounced my name. I might just switch it to Georgerefer now!

T-bone, an NSO from Hamilton, who had talked to me for a bit before the bout as I was confirming the players on my list matched those who were actually playing, came over and assured me that all of the infield NSO’s laughed when they mispronounced my name. I assured him that those of us by the lineup tracker chairs also laughed.  I am going to get myself a bunch of friends to come to a bout and when they announce me with the incorrect pronunciation I want them to yell “GeogREFer like GEOGRAPHY!”  I suppose this is what I get for being a geography nerd. I’ll deal with it. I am honestly just happy to be involved. And if you can’t laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at?

Look at that giant screen. If you like derby, you need to come watch a bout at Riverworks. It is seriously amazing.

Since the last blog post I have also found out there is more mens derby out there than I thought. I have been told of movements to start mens derby in multiple cities near me. If some of the rumors I hear are true....I might be playing derby after all. Which would be totally awesome.

Last blog posts I mentioned I had something funky going on with my skate. It ended up being my insoles. My new insoles are a lot thinner than my old ones and gave me more room in my boot. Since I am already wearing skates a 1/2 size bigger than my foot, it was an issue. I went back to my old insoles for practice this morning and it paid off.  It was not an auspicious start. I fell twice during warm ups doing mundane things like skating and plow stops. I thought I was in for a rough practice. While I did continue to fall a lot, I think it was my best practice yet.  Our normal coach took a well deserved day off and we had a new coach in.  We worked on some transitions, turn around toe stops, skating backwards and then linked them all together with a few drills. At the end we did....wait for it.....wait for it............keep waiting.......LAPS!!!!!!!!

Before we did laps, we were asked if we wanted to do laps and this exchange happened:

“Who wants to do laps?”- Coach “I don’t know if you heard, but I love laps” - Me “Oh yeah?”-Coach “You also like getting punched in the face by me.” - Freudian Trip “I also like getting decked by Freudian Trip whenever I mention that I love laps” - Me. FT is pretty awesome and had another awesome line earlier in practice “Yes, I know I am going as slow as my grandmother.” “Now that I think about it, my grandmother probably can’t go this fast.”

We split into two groups and paired off. No one wanted to pair with the freak who loves laps so the coach was my counter and I went first. I didn’t fall this time and I set a new personal best, 26.75 laps in 5 minutes.  That’s .25 of a lap off of where I need to be for assessments.  I think I am good for that.  The benefit of having the coach as my counter is that I got some great feedback after the fact. I was told I had a great pace until lap 20 and then that is where my form started to go bad. I think Lap 20 is where I fell during my first assessments and that is still stuck in my head.  I’ll tell you what, it was great feeling to know that I set a new personal record.  The coach went in the 2nd heat.  She only did 29 laps. She said she was having a slow day.  “Only” 29.

Now that I am close to my laps goal.....it is time to own the cones.

I’ve been told by my fellow boot campers that I am learning much quicker that most. That inspires me but I also don’t want to discourage them because I came in in the middle of boot camp and have picked skills up fairly quickly. We all learn at different speeds. And you can’t compare how you are progressing with anyone else. It is a process and it takes some people weeks to get it and other people years to get it. But you eventually get it. And that is awesome, because roller skating and derby is awesome. No one is going to give up on you so you shouldn’t give up on yourself. I also fall a ton. But I subscribe to the derby philosophy of “If you ain’t falling, you ain’t tryin’!”  It’s our version of “If you can dodge a wrench you can dodge anything!”  A lot like snowboarding, learning to derby is about letting go of your fear of falling. Derby girls, guys and refs are proud of their derby bruises. I know I am.  

I’ve been trying to balance derby and family lately. Prior to having kids, I would always take my nieces and nephews for sleep overs, ski trips, camping...what ever.  Now that I am in a more difficult place in life and I have kids that need watching, people have stepped up to help watch my herd while I get to participate in derby and I really appreciate that. My sister has been amazing and I can’t say enough about what she does for me and what she means to me.  Sitters are expensive man. But I think I want to try to take them with me to practices because I feel like I am becoming a burden to those who have been helping me. Derby has kept me focused and well....sane, during a time where I could have crawled in a hole with a truck full of double stuffed oreos and consumed them in a night. 

Compared to other sports I play/have played, once you gather your derby equipment....your gold. Think about it...skiing/snowboarding you can pay 400 dollars and up for your gear and then every time you go it will cost you at least 50 dollars between lift tickets and food.  For me and my herd to ski it costs about 250 dollars a shot after lessons, rentals, lift tickets and food. That is only if I find a deal. Paintball? I used to play and ref that. After your initial gear purchase which is at least 300 dollars for everything you need....every time you play you are flushing at least 50 dollars down the drain in paint and air. That doesn’t include tournament/ event entry fees. Derby costs me my monthly dues and a yearly insurance (which is only a double digit figure). Depending on the league, your dues can be less than the gym membership you pay for each month that you don’t use. Another reason I want them to come to my practices is that I want them to see how hard you have to work to become good at things. They keep asking me when I am going to coach or ref and I keep telling them that I am not going to coach but as soon as my skating is good enough I can start learning the other things you need to learn to be a ref.  They were also excited by the fact that I found out a derby league in the Niagara peninsula has Junior derby that allows boys to play. I told my oldest this and his reply was “Since we are going skating tonight, can you teach me derby stance?”  Sure kid. I can do that.  He skated a lot better that night and then wrote this in his school journal when he got home:

 That last line says “I was really hitting some good speed and not falling.” 

Man, I love my kids.