2 posts tagged “roller skating”

Last weekend we attended the local roller derby team's first home bout.  It was a great opportunity for me to see the rules of play in action, since I had seen and read about the game, but not seen it live.  Before the bout began the announcer and teams ran through a demo 'jam' to show spectators what the game is about.  I got it on film, with my shaky camera hand and all.  A better video is the one that was put together by a local website, Tahoeticker.  They had music and interviewed Sister Slayer, the president of the team.   It's a good group of women who have really welcomed this (tattoo-less) noob, and I'm looking forward to actually playing a bout sometime soon.

A  few weeks ago I was asked if I wanted to play roller derby by a guy who's in the swim class I coach.  While I first thought it was because I have big shoulders (good for shoving?) it was more because I play sports. Apparently the team is always looking for more players with athletic backgrounds.   His wife is on the team, and he figured that since I have bleached hair and silver Dr. Marten boots, I'd maybe be more interested in it than some of the more jam-band loving hippie types that tend to populate mountain towns, who might not find appeal in derby.

I got on skates for the first time in 20+ years on Tuesday, and was surprised by how quickly it came back and how much damn fun it was.  Today's practice was only my second, but instead of being relegated to wobbling around the perimeter of the track I was invited to try to keep up with the Tahoe Derby Dames as they practiced for their upcoming bout next Saturday.  This involved skating fast around the track as they scrimmaged, pushed and occasionally fell.  I skated relatively fast, but avoided the whole pushing and falling thing, as that's a bit beyond my comfort zone.

To be honest I'm more scared of the tiny shorts that comprise the team uniform than the actually contact sport part of it.  I fall skiing and mountain biking, but I don't tend to embrace tight things on my bottom half.  Heck, even my speedo swimsuit is baggy.  So that will my mental hurdle to overcome.