Member of the Month – June 2010

Congratulations to Fire Chicka Boom!!!

She has been voted our June 2010 Member of the Month!

Here’s what the league had to say about her:

“Our resident EMT!! She has been wonderful in taking care of our bumps, bruises, dislocations and broken bones. She is an amazing team player and extremely supportive of the rest of her fellow freshies. While skating with her, I find that I am pushing myself a little bit harder to keep up with her and also to make her work harder too! She has graciously volunteered her home for a couple different events and has come up with some really good ideas for how we can all become better. I am so glad that Fire Chicka Boom is a part of DDG!!”

Congratulations and keep up the good work!

Tales from the Fresh Meat Locker – RipTide Ride~Her

Still rolling on at 40….yeah, it is the new 30!

Trust me, my 40 year old body is feeling every second of being fresh meat! It’s a P90X on 8 wheels! I should be in great shape soon…thanks to our coaches! Trust me, roller derby is not for the weak and you will find that out on the first day of boot camp! Through all the blisters, sweat, bruises, and sometimes tears…I keep going back for more!

This is actually my second time around with the DDG. I had to leave the league a few years ago due to loosing my health insurance….I was a proud St. Brawlie Girl for a short time!

So here it is…my story. I grew up in Newport News, VA. My passion for skating started when my kindergarten class went on a field trip to Plaza Roller Rink. It was my first time on skates and I really sucked! I ate the floor many times but simply fell in love with skating! It was all I talked about, all I wanted to do! My mom enrolled me in lessons and before I knew it, I quickly became a “rink rat” at Denbigh Plaza.

The rink became my home away from home. I started working in the snack bar making pizzas and cotton candy. I guess they felt like they had to give me a job since I hung around 6 days a week! I made some fantastic friends growing up at the rink…friends that I still keep in touch with to this day. One thing is for sure, the rink kept us out of trouble!

Of course I watched the classic roller derby on TV. Yes, my hero was Joan Weston AKA “Blonde Bomber” I loved the Bay City Bombers and I dreamed of knocking a chick out while on skates! I had no idea that I would ever skate roller derby and had no idea that it would also be so hard mentally and especially physically! You have to devote time and energy to roller derby and it does not happen over night!

Why I do this…because I freaking love it, it’s a major stress reliever from a hard day! I am able to do this because I have such an awesome supportive family….my handsome son T.J and my life partner Kathy who just so happen to be my biggest fans…well, only fans! They give me support, love and most important time to dedicate to derby. Without them, derby would not be possible for me. I would like to thank them very much and tell them I love them!

I work in the medical field as a manager and by the end of the day…I can take it out on the track and not my family and staff!! This by far is the largest accomplishment that I can say I did for myself. I am proud to be part of such an awesome league and proud to skate with the best chicks in the world!!!

RipTide Ride~Her
(formerly FM Kristie)

Tales from the Fresh Meat Locker – FM Christy

Wow, how the heck did I get here?

1st, let me say that I am 15-20 years older than the vast majority of the women of the DDG, which makes my story even more weird and uber cool!
I loved watching Roller Derby on Saturday mornings when I was a kid! It amped me up even before I knew why. My dad took me to a bout at Scope when I was around 9 or 10 and I fell in love with all of it! He did the play by play for the Tidewater Red Wings hockey team and I went to every game and became seriously hooked on the speed and complete bad-a**ness of the skaters and knew I wanted to skate fast and hit hard, even at that tender age (with my face pressed to the Plexiglas just praying for someone to get slammed in front of me).

I started roller skating in white high top Roller Derby’s at Aragona Skating Rink at around 12 or 13. When I realized that only boys had cool low top black skates and wide wheels that were so much faster than mine I had to break out of the Danskin skirt/figure skater girly thing and find some small footed cutie who would let me try out his speed skates…that was it for me!
Girls simply didn’t speed skate and I took a lot of crap for wearing men’s skates and got thrown off the floor for speeding way too many times until I started coming to speed practices and showed my skills and “poof”, I was in. The only girl speed skater on the team-though I was not allowed to compete since there were no girls and no girl officials, etc. I pretty much lived in skates and at the rink for the next three years or so, until I started dating high school boys and my focus shifted a bit-as a teenaged girls’ focus tend to do. I hung up my Kangaroo boots and Blue Spruce wheels (still have 7 of the 8 wheels), but never forgot my love of skating fast.
Many, many years and three grown kids later my Fiancé told me he was doing some web work with “the coolest girl and she skates Roller Derby”! That planted the seed. When the boot camp rolled around she reminded Nick and said I should come see what it was about (then we rented Whip-it and something in me fell head over stupid for the whole idea that I could actually do this). When I walked in Jason’s Deli that day for the boot camp meeting I felt very old and intimidated, to say the very least, but the skaters were so cool and appeared to be normal everyday women only in really cool clothes (love black-love pink-love stripes and skulls) and for once I wasn’t the most tattooed girl in the room!! I fell in love-dreamy imagine the possibilities love, went to a bout that weekend, and never looked back.
I honestly feel that this has been what was missing in me all these years, but I was not ready (physically or mentally) to peek behind the curtain until now. Kids are grown, Nick is amazing and so supportive (and I think he likes the tough girl thing a lot too) and I can finally focus on myself. Now I wake up and think “do I get to skate today?” and just packing my gear case and taping up my right quad (so I don’t keep tearing it during fall drills) gets my heart racing and puts a big smile on my face…even when the two hour practice starts at 9pm after working all day. By the time it’s over and I am heading home (sometimes with a blister and a limp-always sweaty, hungry and red-faced) I feel so alive and so proud of myself just for showing up-not to even mention skating my butt off and doing drills over and over until I don’t even have to think-just react.
Coming in we are all different ages, socioeconomic levels, lifestyles, stages in life-but once we say hello and start gearing up and hit the track we are all one-one big awesome roller derby skater. We knock each other down (physically only) and pick each other up (mentally AND physically) and sometimes don’t even need more than a look to know exactly what we are feeling and getting one back that says “me too, but you are doing great and you can do this-and even if you can’t-it is OKAY and I will help you”.
I’m closing in on the end of my Fresh Meat run and preparing for evals really soon-the time has flown by. Next up, who knows? I will go wherever my coaches tell me to go, because I trust them and love them and most of all respect them like they are my blood!
Words can’t express how grateful I am for this opportunity to be a part of this sweet, fierce, tough (really tough-I have the bruises to prove it), strangely close-knit, funny and dynamic group of people and I love them all!

Member of the Month – May 2010

Congratulations to aero go POSTALe!!!

Here’s what the league has to say about her:

“She has shown great dedication to the league by teaching FM’s the NSO side of roller derby. She is very knowledgeable and patient with all of us. I’m sure she helps out more than us and she is definitely a great asset to DDG (how many people/non-skaters know all her duties so well?)!”

AND…

“I think she works hard at the NSO’ing and takes it very serious. It is sometimes probably a difficult position especially when you are accused of fudging the numbers”

AND…

“She is always willing to give a helping hand off and on the track, coordinating our NSO staff, baby sitting spawn when desperate derby moms are in a pinch, and lending moral support to all league members. She truly is an asset to us all.”

Congratulations and thanks for all the hard work!