Dear Derby Santa

Dear Derby Santa,

I've been a bad good, good rollergirl. How about getting me a few gifts to shove in my fishnet & stiletto stockings? You know, it IS the off-season training time, and what better time to break in new gear than as I sweat off all those holiday hangovers extra pounds??!?

Tell Blitzen & the rest of the reindeer pack to plow-stop right on over to my place! It really isn't much!

• ZÜCA Starz and Pink Sport Frame & Bag
• Triple Eight Brainsaver Rubber Skateboard Helmet --Medium
• Pro-Tec Street Gear Skate and Bike Wrist Guards --Medium
• Bones Swiss Labyrinth Competition Skate Bearings
• Radar Mojo skate wheels 62mm - Pink
  

Hits & Bruises,

eRacer X

Chain Gang Train Wrecks the Junktion

Another great bout weekend, this time I was lucky enough to participate in Chattanooga's first Roller Derby expo bout as a guest skater. The Chattanooga Rollergirls are a newly formed league, filled with some great skaters with a lot of great things happening for them.

Dixie was the first team they ever bouted against when they came to play us at the Thrill-HER bout. I was really excited that I also was able to play with them in their other first, at their debut home exhibition bout.

The bout was a huge hit! CRG had already presold over 400 tickets, and had more than 900 people show up to watch and rally behind their new roller derby team. The Chattanooga girls were split into two home teams: The Chain Gang (black) vs. The Junktion (white). I was on the Chain Gang team, and was really excited that they made me a super nifty CRG reversible jersey with my name and number that I got to keep. Way cool! Black/White jerseys are always handy to have for scrimmage purposes with other teams, so that will get to see a LOT of usage.

In addition to the CRG teams, myself and 3 other NRG (Nashville, TN) skaters joined in to guest skate. Smith and Wesson was a Chain Gang member with me, and 5Scar Jeneral and Fully Addomatic joined the Junktion team, coached by Miss Murder from Hard Knox Rollergirls (Knoxville, TN). The Chain Gang had me on the line up rotating between Jammer and Pivot. I haven't played jammer really very much lately, so I was a bit concerned. Okay, I also haven't really been scrimmaging lately. We're on our winter wind-down practice schedule, so things haven't been too intense at practice, and how quickly you get rusty in this sport!

My jamming was pretty weak in my opinion... I had a heckuva time trying to get around 5Scar Jeneral, and took a pretty good beating. I haven't played Pivot too much, but I didn't seem to awful at that position. The Chain Gang played great defense, so we entered the half up. The second period would see me jam even more (yikes!), but I managed a few leads and scored a few points. Our team worked together great, and we finished up with the victory.

Final Score: Team Junktion 66, CHAIN GANG 81

Way to go Chattanooga! I'm looking forward to watching you ladies grow and playing with you in the coming season!

Watch a clip from the bout: Chattanooga local 9 TV.

View eRacer X's photo gallery.

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DERBY WORLD TOUR NOTE: Chattanooga, TN (Chattanooga Rollergirls) becomes stop #11 on the Derby World Tour.

ROLLER BALL 2009

Roller Ball is Dixie Derby's annual season ending bash, and 2009 quite the doozie.

Awards were given, food was plentiful, and drinks were flowing. I had a great time with my girls, and got to get crazy for the last time with my derby fiancee, Asian Invasion, and my Hell Razor, who have decided to move on from Dixie Derby.

Ian McCalister did a fantastic job shooting the action and making everyone look great. Here's his album: http://edited4tv.com/rollerball3/

>>>View Roller Ball 2009 Album<<<

Sending the Bootleggers limping...

Its been a heck of a rookie season for me, but the official Dixie Derby season is finally OVER.

What a way to end on a really kickass note too! We headed up the road 10 hours to play the Carolina Rollergirl Bootleggers in Raleigh, NC. This would make twice in just a few months that I visited the Raleigh area. I had just been there a few weeks back for my cousin's wedding and to visit my best friend, so I was really excited that I'd have some cheering support for this game.

We actually went into this bout a little psyched out. Honestly, since CRG is ranked #5 in the east, we knew they were a high caliber team. Due to the travel strains, only 10 of us were able to skate for this bout, so knowing we were playing a fundementally great team also short was a little un-nerving going into it. But sometimes, if you try, you even surprise yourself.

BOA and I left after practice to get a jump on driving, and did a bonzaii run to Carolina straight through the night. The valuable life lesson gained: 2 Full Throttle Energy drinks + 1 NOS Grape energy drink = one seriously wired skater (incidentally, it also = a MAJOR energy drink hangover the next day, but whatever, we made it!). After some quality time with my bestfriend and her family, it was game time on Saturday.

The Carolina Rollergirls play at the historic Dorton Arena. This is probably one of the COOLEST venues I've ever skated in. The floor was unpolished concrete, and fairly grippy, but the best part was the late-setting dusk sun flooding through the windows during our early warm-ups. We arrived at 1:30pm for our 5:20pm bout start time, which felt like an eternity, but it allowed me some time to get my skates cleaned and ready and all the other pre-bout preparations that I didn't get to do while visiting my bestie.

For this bout, I was playing the Middle Out position, which I hadn't ever played in a game before, but I am liking more and more every day. My pack consisted of Blazin' Barbie, Ebbin Flow, myself, and BOA with CU Afterclass as our main jammer. This was one of the best, most cohesive packs I've ever worked with. We really had great communication and teamwork going on, and it felt GREAT to play with those ladies.

We jumped out on the first 2 jams to an early lead, and held strong the whole game. I haven't seen the stats yet for the game, but I know I had a few great jammer takedowns (YAY! My can opener finally was effective!) and only went to the box once the entire game for 4 minors. I did take the jammer line once, and managed a quick 4 points before it was called off, but CU and ChaChee were rocking the jammer line all night with no issues!

The final score was 86-76, with DDG never losing the lead during the bout. For a game we thought we were coming in as severe underdogs, we did excellent! I feel as a group, we were able to learn a lot about ourselves from this bout.

The afterparty was at a bar called Alibi, and of course was a good, crazy time. Who knew Chocolate Demolition was such the showstopper on the dance floor?!? A couple of PBR's later, it was off to bed and homeward bound.

UP NEXT: Guest Skating with the Chattanooga Rollergirls for their debut intraleague expo bout December 12th.

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DERBY WORLD TOUR NOTE: Raleigh, NC (Carolina Rollergirls) becomes stop #10 on the Derby World Tour.

DDG's 1st Annual Powder Puff Football

We have some awesome new freshmeat, who are really spirited and coming up with some great new ideas to implement. Zombie Kitty and Erica SLAPton came up with the idea to host DDG's 1st Annual Powder Puff football game.

With fall in full swing, and football fever at its height, we figured DDG needed to hit the gridiron for a little action ourselves. About 14 of us signed up to sqaure off into two teams and play some good ole flag football. Carlos and Carson (coach and guard, respectively) from Huntsville's Womens' Football league, the Tennessee Valley Tigers came out to help coach us and ref the game.

The teams looked like this:

THE BOMB SQUAD (black)

• M'Shell O'BombHer
• Legally Bombed
• Snidely Bitchslap
• Blazin Barbie
• Nookie Monster
• Erica SLAPton
• Brutal Honey
• Coach: Carlos

BAMA BITCHES (pink)

• Bama Brewser
• Tallulah Skankhead
• Brigitte Badonkadonk
• eRacer X
• Pinky Tuscadero
• Zombie Kitty
• Bama's daughter, Sidney
• Coach: Carson

After a quick rules overview, and a few quick run-throughs (the extent of our practice for this game) it was coin toss time and away we went. Since catching and running seems to be my forte, I took on the Wide Receiver position.

The Black team had first possession, but we got in there for a safety, and the early lead. Back in our territory for our first possession, Sidney threw me a great pass that I was able to run in for a touchdown on the 2nd down. Some more great runs by our team put us up 22-0 at the half.

Second half, we came out just as strong. Black's defense was improving, but some great running plays by Sidney, Badonkadonk, and some great blocking by Zombie Kitty, Tallulah, and Pinky continued our scoring run. We even organized a beautiful pass-fake run that allowed me to run the ball down the field for my 4th touchdown of the game. There was some great teamwork on both sides, and I know they'll be plenty of good-natured ribbin' until next year's event.

I was pretty excited when they voted Sidney and I game MVPs. Kinda makes me want to give some Tiger Football a try next.... hmmmmm!

Final Score: 44-0 Bama Bitches (pink) over The Bomb Squad (black).

Up Next: Our last away game of the season against the Carolina Rollergirls in Raleigh, NC.

Shot at as an X-Pistol

Note: I'm a little LOT late finally finishing this blog, so this is pretty old news, but better late than never!

Mission Accomplished. I had a fantastic time at the X-Pistol vs. Assault Rivals bout with the Nashville Rollergirls. Being that I'm a first year newbie skater, I was a little concerned that I might not be able to hold my own against their advanced All-Star players, especially since they had pre-warned me that I was going to be on their jammer rotation for part of the game. But it turned out not so bad at all.

Don't take me wrong. I got pummelled pretty well by some of the Rival powerhouses. Sexy Slaydie sent me completely airbourne on more than one occasion. And of course, skating against my own Asian Invasion is never easy. R2D2 was in attendance, and I'm sure he approved of some of the jedi-style yard sails I was doing.

The original plan in the locker room was that I'd be jamming in the first period and blocking in the second, but that really never happened. I ended up on jammer rotation for the entire bout. Nashville is a very fast skating team, which made my job all the much more difficult for me. I don't really know the stats from the game, but I scored a few points and managed lead a few times as well. That made me really happy personally with my performance, because I've really never had the opportunity to jam in a bout against A team players.

Besides loving the Nashville girls, and being really honored to have been ask to skate with them, I was really excited about the learning potential from this bout. It was a packed house in Nashville, and their fans are pretty spectacular. Seeing the game from a different team's perspective and learning a different style is something I think will be beneficial to my quest to become a better skater. I learned a lot and played around with adjusting my own style of skating to see how I could improve. It was also a great way to gauge my progress this season, a sort of benchmark that I don't get to experience in game situations very often.

The final score had the Assault Rivals taking the win 83-62, but the score isn't really indicative of how close the gameplay felt.

Sadly, it was the last X-Pistol/Assault Rival/Distress Damsel game Nashville will be playing, as they phase out interleague play. But I'm very grateful for the chance to have played with NRG!

View more photos:

Hungry Photographer -- Roller Derby Pictures -- DeWeese

Guest Skating in Nashville

Talk about TIRED.

I'm at work and barely functioning this morning. Took a quick bonzai run to Nashville last night to practice with the Nashville Roller Girls. I've done it once before, and I really love practicing with them because I get to learn a lot of things that you can't get from skating with your own team every week.

This time, my excuse to go practice was because myself, Asian Invasion, and Hell Razor were invited to skate with Nashville in their season ending Intraleague bout, the X-Pistols vs. the Assault Rivals. I wanted to get in a little skate time with the Nashville girls I'd be playing with this coming Saturday, and figured I'd be some extra work out time as well.

Nashville is about 2 hours from Huntsville, so I took off right after work. I didn't make it home until about 12, so I'll be needing some catch-up sleep tonight.

If you happen to be in Nashville this weekend, come out and cheer us all on!

Date: Saturday, October 17, 2009
Time: 6:00pm - 9:00pm
Location: Tennessee State Fairgrounds-Sports Arena

Doors open at 6pm. The action starts at 7pm. Tickets are are $10 online and $15 at the door, but don't wait until the last minute. The venue routinely sells out, and they expect a full house! Be there!

Whip-IT

This weekend was the opening for the major motion picture, Whip-IT, Drew Barrymore's directorial debut and feature flick dedicated to the wonderful sport of Roller Derby.

I'm pretty excited to say that I was a part of roller derby before it went mainstream, an idea which we have been preparing for since we got word over a year ago about the movie and its potential influx on our sport. That I'll get a front row seat to watch WFTDA grow leaps and bounds will be an added bonus to the benefits I get from playing.

This weekend, our team (Dixie Derby Girls) teamed up with Rave Valley Bend to do some joint promoting of the movie out front of the theater. Though there wasn't enough room to set up a mini-oval, we did stick some cones out for some mock drills as people were coming up to the theater. Jumping, Blocking, Whips....

We all piled into the theater (on skates, mind you...) and gave a brief intro before the movie to let the movie goers know that Huntsville does indeed have a local team to support come April when our home season kicks back off.

Then it was onto the movie...

The summary seems to be the go-to Hollywood coming of age flick. Bliss Cavendar (Ellen Page) is your average 17 year-old rebellious teen in small town Texas, driven by her beauty queen mother Brooke (Marcia Gay Harden) to compete in pageants in effort to mold Bliss into her ideal of a presentable woman. Joined by her best pal Pash (Alia Shawkat), a fellow waitress at the local BBQ joint, Bliss struggles to break free of her mother's 1950's inspired idea of womanhood and find her calling and ticket out of suburbia.

Enter nearby Austin, TX eccentric rollergirls, the Hurl Scouts, whose flashy and carefree personas entice Bliss into sneaking away and checking out her first TXRD bout, and ultimately taking her spot next to the hard-hitting ladies of roller derby as "Babe Ruthless", her derby alter-ego. Though some of the derby action was a bit misleading (Clothesline plays only qualify for ejections), the action and gameplay was overall realistic and well explained to the audience.

The movie did a great job of navigating the common misconception and stereotypes of a rollergirl, captured by Bliss' mother's beratting rebut of who would employ, marry, or otherwise condone the behavior of such a group of women. Without overly dramatizing the issue, Whip-IT delivers the counterpoint... that roller derby players can still be mothers and professionals, while embracing the fact that above all they are capable, strong beings, and proud adversarial competitors. The film does a wonderful job of portraying the women as strong and ruthless without diminishing women in general as overtly weak by nature. Though the girl-power chord rings strong, it is not watered down by sugar-sweet stereotypes.

Perhaps the most realistic aspect of the film to the current roller derby landscape is how all-encompassing derby life can be to its participants. Enter the very real conflict with the many non-derby people in her life, Bliss finds it hard to balance when Pash takes offense and just fails to understand the level of commitment Babe Ruthless displays in her new passion.
There is a small hollywood-esque love story to make the coming-of-age equation valid, but thankfully it plays a backseat to the storyline and doesn't detract from the flow and overall message of the film.

All derby bias aside, the flick was a great debut for Drew Barrymore, who not only directed, but also played a convincing Hurl Scout (Smashley Simpson).

Four Skates out of Five!

View eRacer X Whip-IT Gallery --- View Dixie Derby Whip-IT Gallery

Another win at Classic City!

Another great weekend of derby! I could really get used to this whole winning streak thing!

Asian Invasion, BOA and I all rode out extra early to Athens, GA on Saturday morning to take on the Classic City Rollergirls. Its about a 4 and a half hour trip, but we lose an hour because they are on Eastern time, AND I was quite a bit paranoid of traffic jams due to the UGA game that was blocks from the venue. We actually made great time, and ended up there a few hours early to nap in the parking lot.

The venue is the local Skate Around USA rink, and was unfinished hardwood. A little more slippery than our rink floor. It was also a LOT warmer than we're used to, which is going to come into play in just a sec... This bout was considered an advanced B team game, so I was playing power for this bout. After a string of bouts as a jammer and one middle inside bout, I was a little frustrated in our only practice for this bout trying to retrain my brain for power. It's a completely different skating style and frame of mind between how I prepare for jamming and how I prepare for power.

The bout was great! We all are really meshing as a team. It was HOT out there, but since I'm a FL girl and love heat, and because I'm used to jammer conditioning, the blocker pace didn't affect me. We led at the half by a little over 20 points. BOA, ChaChee, and CU Afterclass were doing a great job of getting through the pack and scoring well, but the heat definitely was affecting them.

BOA asked at the half if I could take over for her jamming -- which I gladly did! I ended up with 24 points total, and another 15 point power jam. I really am liking this whole jamming thing! I ended up in the box only once with 4 minors, unfortunately it was while jamming, which is never a good thing. But overall a great game! FINAL SCORE: DDG Ragin Rockets 96; Classic City Rollergirls 75


The afterparty was right up the road at a bar called Fat Daddy's. It was really a great little bar. Since I'm new, I had never met most of the Classic City girls. I was told that their visit to Huntsville last season was one of the best afterparties many of the girls have had, and of course they proved just that at this one.

After some very yummy pizza and some PBR pitchers that really hit the spot, we took over the stage on Karaoke. M'Shell O'Bomb-Her sang Sir Mixxalot's Baby Got Back and had the crowd going. Then the Classic City girls got up on the mic for a great rendition of Touch Myself. Knowing how silly I get, I'm sure you are not surprised to know that my song of choice was Vanilla Ice- Ice, Ice, Baby. I also tried some Paramore, but I'm not really sure how that was received.

The venue was literally a few blocks away from the UGA stadium, so when we decided to leave and all piled into the vans to head back to the hotel, we weren't exactly thinking that the game had JUST ended, and that the streets were lined with some really *excited* Georgia fans. It took us a good hour and a half just to get out of the Athens area. I've never seen so much red and black in MY LIFE. I was pretty darn tired once we got done with a late, late night snack at Dennys, so I promptly crashed.

I wish I could find more photos to share, so I may be updating this post later, but enjoy the link below.

View eRacer X's Photos

UP NEXT: DDG-B at Central Arkansas Roller Derby, October 17th

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DERBY WORLD TOUR NOTE: Classic City becomes stop #9 on the Derby World Tour.

Derby World Tour

Possibly one of the best added perks of being a rollergirl (like you needed more benefit than the obvious badassedness!) is the amount of travel associated for someone with wanderlust such as myself. What's better than being able to travel city-to-city kickin some serious ass!

As I get to travel quite a bit for work and many of my other exploits, I've now made it my personal goal to go on a Derby World Tour. (and for your added amusement, I'm going to blog about it too!) My tour will include both scheduled away bouts in other cities as well as my random drop-in to a league practice in another city that I may be wandering through. For those that don't know, it seems to be common derby courtesy to allow visiting rollergirls to attend a practice to meet their attendance requirements while traveling. I'm taking full advantage of that courtesy to both boost my skills training and to meet some awesome people and see how derby is done across the world!

Not only are there HUNDREDS of leagues across the US, but there are quite a few across the pond in Europe, Australia, etc. It may take me some time, but I hope to do a skatebag trip to Europe and skate with as many leagues as possible while I'm "Skatebagging" through Europe.

Since I'm a few months behind in this blog in terms of my derby-associated travel, let me catch you up with my to-date travel summaries....

• Sin City Rollergirls -- Las Vegas, NV [April 2009]
  While in town for work, I was able to make it out to a practice with the Sin City Rollergirls. They practice outside (I can't imagine skating in that summer heat!) on a roller hockey court at the local park. Pretty dusty, so next time I'll bring my outdoor wheels/bearings.
• Ohio Rollergirls -- Columbus, OH [April 2009]
  My very first bout. They skate on sport court, which is much different than I'm used to skating on.
• Roller Girls of Southern Indiana -- Evansville, IN [May 2009]
  One of the nicest teams around. They skate on sport court, in the Ice Arena.
• Hard Knox Rollergirls -- Knoxville, TN [June 2009]
Had the pleasure of skating with their B team as a fill-in skater. They skate in the convention center on polished concrete. Perhaps one of the slickest tracks I've been on to date.

• Sintral Florida Derby Demons -- Orlando/De Land, FL [June 2009, July 2009]
  Orlando is home to me, so anytime I go down to visit family I've been dropping into their practice. Very cool team, they skate on a concrete rink floor.
• Nashville Rollergirls -- Nashville, TN [July 2009]
Not only are they just up the road, but they are a great group of skaters. I went up and joined their scrimmage practice and took plenty of notes. They skate on polished concrete at their State Fairgrounds' gamehouse.

• Memphis Roller Derby -- Memphis, TN [August 2009]
I joined a full day of mini-bouts at the Honky Stomp this year, 6 hours straight on their polished concrete. We'll be headed there again in October for our WFTDA game against them.

• Mobile Roller Derby -- Mobile, AL [August 2009]
  Always nice to be able to lay on the beach AND play a mean ass game of derby all in the same day. They skate on a concrete rink surface. Nice team too!

I will be tagging all Derby World Tour stops and compiling a map... look out for future stops! And if you have any "Gotta See It" suggestions on stops I need to make, let hear them in the comments section!

Thrill-HER Double Header

What a weekend! This by far turned into my favorite bout weekend yet.

Dixie Derby closed out our home season with a doubleheader this weekend, dubbed "Thrill-HER" as a tribute to Michael Jackson.

To kick it off, our "B" team, The Ragin' Rockets, took on the Chattanooga Roller Girls. Again, some of our recently graduated freshmeat made their derby debut and did exceptionally well! I was put on a 4-jammer rotation for this one, which was very different for me as I felt extremely well rested throughout the game. Besides a small incident in my first jam of the 1st period (I broke another finger... AGAIN), I felt great for this game. Our super speedy stats people have already distributed the stats (kudos stat nerds!) I jammed a total of 7 jams, got lead jammer 4 of those 7, and scored a total of 32 points. Not too shabby! Only landed in the box twice... once for an alleged forearm major and once for a major track cut. No minors, which means I played a damn clean game! (or I didn't get caught~ mmuwahahaha) Might be liking this whole jamming thing a bit more again. The final score was Ragin' Rockets 110 - Chattanooga 56.

During the final jam, I escaped to the locker room to do a super quick change for the between game Thriller performance. Everyone was really excited and the performance went really well! It landed us a spot on several TV stations, and the crowd went wild with it. That was really fun to do, and I'm super glad I got to participate in the performance. It looked great with all the smoke and lights. We even had our own great Michael Jackson lookalike... it worked out perfectly that it all happened on what would have been Michael's 51st birthday too.

After I got my zombie on, it was time to race back to the locker room and get ready for Bout #2 with the DDG All-Stars. Yuppers, I skated in BOTH games. I wasn't jamming in the All-Star game, but let me tell you... that marathon Stomp weekend really prepped me for this. 2 bouts back-to-back? Cake!

So they had me playing the middle-in position for this game. I hadn't ever played that position, and its not really one I'm comfortable with, but I guess I didn't do too bad. I managed 3 or 4 take-downs, which for a beanpole like me isn't the easiest thing in the world to do. Wooohooo! I was pretty excited! Stats say I again didn't commit any major or minors at ALL in the All-Star game, which means either A) I'm not hitting enough or B) the refs seem to not see me, haha. Oh well! The game was really intense... we battled back and forth with the mixed team of Smooth Criminals, but in a buzzer beater they pulled out a one point victory. Final Score: DDG All-Stars 115, Smooth Criminals 116.

We didn't have time to really be down about it, because a special guest grabbed the mic right after the final buzzer. Big congratulations to (BOA) Bitch on Arrival who was proposed to (and accepted) at the end of the All-Star game! Much derby love!

View DDG Photo Album **** View eRacer X Photo Album ****

More DDG photos

Up Next: DDG vs. Classic City in Athens, GA -- September 12th

Photos: Ian McAlister, Angela Zaborny

THRILLER from GO Magazine & Huntsville Times

Just a sneak peak at what's coming this weekend...

Go Thriller

http://videos.al.com/huntsville-times/2009/08/go_thriller.html

I'm also going to be zombied out for Thriller, just another reason to come watch us get our zombie on!

Mobile Madness

This weekend, Dixie Derby's Ragin' Rockets (B-Team) headed down to the LA (Lower Alabama) coast to take on the Mobile Roller Girls in Mobile, AL.

The trip is about a 6 hour drive, and the team was all scattered among several different cars heading down, so we all arrived at varying times.

I rode down early with Asian Invasion, Hell Razor and BOA so we wouldn't have the stress of sitting in a car for 6 hours before the bout. We arrived in Mobile around 10:30pm on Friday night. Ever the lame-o, I decided to crash out early so that I'd be in tip-top shape for the bout on Saturday night while the others explored the hotel amenities.

Not one to ever let a chance for sunshine, ocean water and white sand escape me, a few of us headed out to the beach in Gulf Shores for a little R&R before the game. I'm kinda glad I left early that morning, because apparently while I was laying on the sand and letting the ocean breeze blow, all hell was breaking loose at the hotel.

Talk about a commute from hell... some of the girls chose to leave early Saturday morning, and encountered engine failure about 90 miles from Mobile, leaving 4 people stranded on the side of the road only 3 hours before the bout started. So, after much logistical nightmare, Therapissed's hubby drove out to pick the stranded hitchhikers up. They made it in time, and we'd worry later about getting them all home. (Pain Russell had her own scary return home as well, when a tire exploded on her)

The bout was only the 3rd B-team game of the season, and was the skating debut for 4 of our recently graduated fresh meats: Blazin' Barbie, Chemical X, Zero Factorial, and Therapissed. They did awesome in their first bout!

And what a bout it was... it was the first game in which I stayed on the jammer rotation for the whole game. It felt GREAT to get through the pack! I managed a 19 point jam (YAY!) in the beginning of the first period, which put us up and we never looked back! There were some pretty intense plays, with a lot of our girls taking high blocks to the face. The bout was pretty physical and tempers were getting pretty high, but we finished with a victory of 111-86! I am so proud of all the great teamwork from all the girls and what a great job Hell Razor did coaching with Bama Bruiser as bench manager.

The afterparty was at a bar called Veet's, conveniently located about 3 blocks from our hotel. They had an awesome Captain Morgan statue right in the doorway for some seriously hilarious photo ops (more to come when I get ahold of Asian's camera). The Mobile ladies hosted a great party along with the tradition of Indian Leg Wrestling. Our own D'Sassy Apache was a BEAST in the leg wrestling wars and took down player after player... way to represent for DDG, Sassy!

Around 11, we all headed back to the SkyView Lounge on the top floor of our hotel, because we were tipped off by the awesome staff at the Holiday Inn that Absolut Vodka was going to be there giving away free shots all night. Free Booze + Derby Girls = 1 hell of a good time. We even gave a brief preview to our upcoming Thrill-HER show on the dance floor when Bama Bruiser, M'Shell O'Bomb-her, and I pulled out some of the Thriller dance (not easy, as it was the radio version and not the video version). All said and done, I think I ended up in bed around 3:30am. GREAT night!

More eRacer X Photos from Mobile -- Dixie Derby Girls Photos from Mobile

Up Next: Thrill-HER! Saturday, August 29th VBC South Hall -- Huntsville, AL

THRILL-HER

Its coming up fast... you're coming, RIGHT?!? Who in their right mind would MISS this?

DDG Thrill- Her promo

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=61882631

Derby Awesomeness

What do you get when you have 6 derby teams, an entire auditorium worth of floor space at the Rocket City Rumble and the CUPID SHUFFLE comes on?

Derby Dancin' AWESOMENESS!

Derby Dancin

Bust ASS in Hawaii or BUST!

So a few of the Dixie Derby Girls are heading across the ocean to do battle with the Pacific Roller Girls in Honolulu, Hawaii over Labor Day weekend.

On August 30th, there will be a Burlesque show put on by some individual skaters (Cathouse Canaries) to help raise funds for Hawaii. Trust me, you don't want to miss this! It will be held at Partners at 7pm.

Can't make the show? If you can spare a latte or two, please donate here:



THANKS TO ALL FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
HUGS & BRUISES,
eRacer X, Asian Invasion, Hell Razor, Sweet Lucy, Lola Pihrana, Ebbin Flow, & Miss Trie

Honky Tonk Stomp

I just got back from probably one of the cooler derby events I've attended thus far in my short derby career, the Honky Tonk Stomp. It's the Tennesee state championship tournament: Memphis vs. Nashville vs. Knoxville. This year was Memphis' turn to host, so a bunch of us Dixie Girls drove up to watch.

I personally love watching the Nashville team play. They are phenomenal this year, and they have a very distinct skating style that I really covet. I always learn a lot from watching them play, and this weekend was no exception. They ended up winning the Stomp and taking the State Championship. Congrats NRG!

Saturday night, we headed out to the afterparties. Yes, as in Parties: PLURAL. The hosted event was a pub crawl, which is what we started off with... but we quickly hopped a cab with the Nashville girls to Beale Street and hit up a club there. Around 1:30am, about 12 of us piled into Hell Razor's Escape to hop back to the hotel (I was in the trunk with 2 other people). The hotel had a wonderful pool, so Asian Invasion and I continued the party out there with the rest of the Nashville girls. Somewhere around 5am, I finally hit the pillow...

That being said, my 9am wake up call came entirely too early. Sunday's activities were a full day of mini-bouts (7 total), which ChaChee, Asian Invasion, Hell Razor, Blazin' Barbie, FemiFist, Pinky Tuscadero and I had all signed up to play. My apparent insanity for derby caused me to sign up for all 7 bouts... yes, 7 back-to-back, full tilt bouts equaling out to a record 6 hours on skates for me.

The bouts were "themed", so our Dixie team was mixed up among the different sides along with skaters from all different leagues in the region. These were the bouts (the teams I played with are in BOLD):

• Steak vs. Tofu (Carnivores vs. Vegetarians)
  This was a tight bout, coming down to the last jam. Our jammer was in the box, so we didn't get to score in the deciding last jam.
  Final Score: 53-61


• Dumptrucks vs. Beanpoles (No explanation necessary)
  This was the bout that I originally had much anxiety over. The idea of facing off against the powerhouse blockers was a little scary, I'll admit it. Everyone had expected to watch the beanpoles get pumelled, but us little bean poles held our own against the biggest, baddest blockers out there! Wooohooo Beanpoles!
  Final Score: 75-25


• Generation X vs. Millenials (Born in 1979 or earlier vs. Born in 1980 or later)
  This was a fun game... nothing noteworthy that I remember. I tried to eat a banana before this bout and was feeling pretty quesy.
  Final Score: Not sure, but Millenials won!


• Inked vs. Clean Slates (Tattooed vs. Not-Tattooed)
  This may as well have been Dumptrucks vs. Beanpoles Part 2: Revenge of the Dumptruck, because let me tell you, they had some serious power on that team with the extra force of some really solid jammers. That was by far the roughest most demanding bout of the day, compounded by the fact that we only had 8 skaters on our team. I just wanted it to be over.
  Final Score: 109-19


• Breeders vs. Baby Eaters (Skaters with kids vs. Skaters without)
  This was the most exciting bout of the day. Most of our Dixie team was on the Baby Eaters team (with the exception of Femi), so that was comforting. ChaChee was trading scoring runs with Memphis' Lil Cinner most of the bout, and at the end of the regulation jam period, the score was tied. ChaChee faced off against Lil Cinner again in overtime, and squeaked out a victory over the Breeders with the help of Hell Razor, who delivered a massive critical hit to push ChaChee to the front.
  Final Score: 44-45


• Bizarro Derby Black vs. White (Everyone skates clock-wise)
  Bizarro was exactly that... BIZZARO. I think the bout was pretty evenly matched because most of us were just trying to get used to skating and blocking in the opposite direction. The refs had a little fun with this one too... we were edged out at the last minute on this one.
  Final Score: 32-35


• Fresh Meat Black vs. White (Newbies vs. Newbies)
  I was really looking forward to jamming on this one, but after only about 4 hours sleep and playing for a solid 5 hours, I just didn't have the fuel in the tank to make it happen. I jammed twice, but took myself out of the jammer rotation because it was more than I could exert myself at that point. I concentrated on playing power, which is my new favorite position, and where I feel most comfortable. The white team had some really good newbies, and our team had some really fresh meat girls playing for the first time, so we couldn't answer their runs.
  Final Score: 37-106

Overall, I'm very proud that I accomplished the insane task of skating for 6 hours straight. I'm sore as hell, but I feel pretty accomplished and learned a ton.

View photos of eRacer X from the Honky Tonk Stomp

Next up: Dixie Derby's Ragin' Rockets are playing Mobile away in 2 weeks!

Hi I'm eRacer X #X9!

Well, since Roller Derby has now become such a big part of my life, it makes sense that it now take over its own niche blog.

For those who know me as Erica Ortiz, the drag racer, you may not know that during the off-season and while the crappy economy has me sidelined, I've picked up another high speed, adrenaline rushing sport.... ROLLER DERBY.

I always loved skating, but after middle school, felt like a tool going to the rink without borrowing someone's tween or kiddie to "chaperone". So, I hadn't put on a pair of skates in probably upwards of 15 years when I heard about the Dixie Derby Girls here in Huntsville, AL.

Instantly, I fell in love. Hard hits, fast speed, fun personas, and cute ass attire..... I'm hooked. I started attending practice in December 2008, and in April I skated my first bout as eRacerX #X9. My goal is to become a badass jammer, but you know... adjusting to a track with corners and curves... yea, that takes some time. I'm used to my speed in a straight line and balls to the wall!

I picked my derby name eRacer X as a play on Speed Racer's mysterious brother Racer X. Originally the first racecar driver in the family, Rex Racer went to the dark side of mysterious by faking death and coming back as Racer X, a vigilante determined to put a stop to corruption on the track. Known as the Harbinger of BOOM-- fast and dangerous, erasing the competition just comes easily... Since Racer X drove Car #9, I adopted my number as X9.

So this blog will probably be a commentary on my life as a Dixie Derby Girl...and trust me, what happens at the afterparty WILL be the talk on the internets for days!