Derby Tour Update 2011

I've done a craptastic job of updating this blog regularly, as in most of 2010 was missing. I'm trying to pick back up the slack and get back to regular updating, but one of the fun projects has fallen seriously out-of-date.

In case you don't remember, I started my Derby Tour project in 2009 when I began skating with DDG. The tour includes 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.

Since I'm a few months behind in this blog in terms of my derby-associated travel, let me update my travel summaries....

1. Sin City Rollergirls -- Las Vegas, NV [April 2009, April 2010, June 2010]
   
2. Ohio Rollergirls -- Columbus, OH [April 2009]
   
3. Roller Girls of Southern Indiana -- Evansville, IN [May 2009]
   
4. Hard Knox Rollergirls -- Knoxville, TN [June 2009]
   
5. Sintral Florida Derby Demons -- Orlando/De Land, FL [June 2009, July 2009]
   
6. Nashville Rollergirls -- Nashville, TN [July 2009, 2010]
   
7. Memphis Roller Derby -- Memphis, TN [August 2009]
   
8. Mobile Roller Derby -- Mobile, AL [August 2009]
   
9. Classic City Rollergirls -- Athens, GA [September 2009]
   
10. Carolina Rollergirls -- Raleigh, NC [November 2009]
    
11. Chattanooga Rollergirls -- Chattanooga, TN [December 2009]
12. Burn City Rollers -- Phenix City, AL [February 2010]
13. Oklahoma Victory Dolls -- Oklahoma City, OK [March 2010]
14. Houston Roller Derby-- Houston, TX [May 2010]
15. No Coast Derby Girls -- Lincoln, NE [June 2010]
16. Green Country Rollergirls -- Tusla, OK [June 2010]
17. Panama City Roller Derby -- Panama City, FL [September 2010]
18. Tallahassee Rollergirls -- Tallahassee, FL [September 2010]
19. Little City Rollergirls -- Johnson City, TN [June 2011]

I'm back to 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!

Puerto Rico poster!

I'm getting excited!

Puerto Rico or BUST!

One of the great things I love about Roller Derby is the fact that its a hobby that allows us all a new avenue to travel and explore different areas. This was the inspiration behind my "Derby Tour" project, to skate with as many teams as I could all across the country... and the WORLD. (I need to do some updating of my Derby Tour notes, yikes I'm behind)

To that effect, I was majorly bummed to have missed the trip last year to Hawaii with the rest of the girls, but always wanted to make a trip to my homeland of Puerto Rico and have been searching for a start-up team there for some time now.

Thanks to the wonder of Facebook, not only did I find a team there.... I found several! They've organized together into the Tropic Terrors of Puerto Rico. This consists of about 5-6 teams spread out across the island in San Juan, Mayaguez, Ponce, Arecibo, Bayamón, Caguas... a BUNCH of rising derby on a pretty small little island! That's exciting to me!

The Reckless Bandidas in San Juan is the team that I have been working with on a Pan-American game versus DDG. They are all very new to derby there, and will be using this as one of their first public debuts to the sport. We've set up a bout for October 22 in San Juan, and are really excited to be skating on the island!

So.... there's a bunch to do in just a short time to get there, and a few of us DDG's are trying to come up with some ways to support getting the team there. Look out for a benefit show to be announced soon!

In the mean time, if you can help throw a few coins into my Puerto Rico or Bust piggy bank below, I'd be MUCHO grateful!

WEPA!

Down & Derby in Phenix City

Ahhh, the first bout of the season! Always good for some butterflies and a few opening night jitters. I figured that starting the season off at a mixed-team scrimmage bout was a great way to get back into bout mode without some of the pressure of a sanctioned, points earning bout against our WFTDA competitors.

The teams were a mixed group comprised of skaters from Burn City (Auburn, AL) Tragic City (Birmingham, AL) Chattanooga, and of course Cakeface Killa, Erica SLAPton, Brigitte Badonkadonk and myself from Dixie. The bout was a memorial bout for Sally Slaughter from Tragic City Rollers and Danger S of Tallahassee Roller Girls, and the proceeds were donated to Spread the Love for cervical cancer research.

Trying to organize a line-up with 14 people of all different teams isn't the easiest thing to do, so there was a little confusion before the bout on how to get everything rotating smoothly. I ended up Jamming and playing middle-outside blocker in the 6 line-up rotation. I'm almost not used to that much bench time between jams, so it was refreshing not to be winded up on the jammer line. The track was concrete, and wasn't too slick at all, which made it a really fast surface to skate on. Overall, that was great, ...except for coming off turn 4 when you have less than 4 feet of out-of-bounds room to try and stop in. Let's just say I got a nasty blister from carpet burn of slamming into and sliding down that wall. Ouch!

Performance wise, for a group of girls who have never played together before, I think we did great as a team. We traded point exchanges back and forth most of the game, and came out just short in the final jam when our jammer was sent to the box. Personally, I wasn't having the best game... especially blocking, but I managed a 12 point jam, took lead jammer several times, and only went to the box once for a track cutting major. I've had some persistent shin-splints this season, and I felt like I just couldn't get my skates solidly beneath me this game. I have some major work to do before our first DDG bout for sure.

The other great thing about this bout is that it was held in my old stomping grounds in Phenix City. I hadn't been back much since I left in 2007, so it was great to have my old friends come cheer me on down there. I'm pretty sure they didn't quite know what to think of roller derby. Thanks for coming and watching!

The after party was held at the Sports Rock, but unfortunately I didn't attend that one, so I don't have any excitement to report in that department.

(Photos: Melissa Humble)

View eRacer X's Photo Gallery

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DERBY WORLD TOUR NOTE: Phenix City, AL (Burn City Rollers) becomes stop #12 on the Derby World Tour.

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.

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.

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!