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WFTDA Rankings

4th Quarter WFTDA Rankings

WFTDA released its 4th Quarter Rankings today!  Not too many changes or surprises!  Wait til next quarter when Santa Cruz debuts on that list!!!!!

New Skates....New Year!

New skate boots came in, just in time to break them in for the new year.  Not that I needed to boots, mine were only a couple years old, but I WANTED new boots.  They are SWEEEEET, they are shiny and new, and they make me feel like a superhero!

I can't wait for the season to start.  Team tryouts are right around the corner, and I am super pumped and so ready.  We've had a few retirements in the off season, but there are some pretty talented up chicks in our league, and I can't wait to skate with them. 

I've been coaching a little in the off season, and I love it.  Its given me the opportunity to give back and watch the girls.  My job as a veteran is to teach our rookie skaters everything I know.  Some of these girls are gonna skate on the All Star Team this year, and my job as a team mate is to get them to my skill level and experience.  Coaching also lights a fire under my ass.  These girls are gonna surpass me if I don't keep working as hard as I can.  There is no rest for us derby skaters, we have to continually grow and get better.  

We have a busy, competitive season ahead of us and right now "bring it on".  I am so ready to compete again, I am crawling out of my skin, I need something to focus on and work for.  Whether I am captain again for another season, my goal is to get us working as a team.  Teamwork, and skating ability is what wins games, and its what is gonna get us to Regionals this year.  Santa Cruz is a talented, dedicated, hard working league, and we deserve to go. 

We are heading to Vegas in February to play the Sin City Roller Girls, and I can't wait.  It will be our first WFTDA sanctioned game, then we head to Bremerton in March for Wild West Showdown, and we're off and running after that.  If we continue to work hard and grow together as a team and a league, Portland will be our end result.  Me and my shiny skates will be there!

Antsy or bored?

I’m antsy. I want the season to start already. I’ve always hated the off season. I don’t need an off season for skating; I need an off season for committee work. So I keep skating. We hosted our first ever open Black and White Scrimmage at the Warehouse. It was awesome. Tons of girls showed up from Sacred, and a few BAD, SVRG and Monterey girls were there. I love scrimmaging with people I don’t know and not at a practice. The pressure is off, it’s just fun. I feel like I skate better like that. I don’t feel like my team mates or coaches are watching me, making sure I meet their expectations. Sometimes I feel like at practice, people are watching me, waiting for me to make a mistake, or seeing if they can “beat” me, so they can point the finger and say “see she isn’t really that good”. Of they aren’t and I am so self centered that I think everyone is watching me. I am betting on the latter. Maybe I just put the pressure on myself. I am pretty humble about my skating, but I do know I am a good skater and derby player. And I deserve to say that. I put a lot of hard work into my skating and my knowledge of the game. I am a highly competitive person, and I want to be the best, but the one thing I won’t do is compete with my team mates. I will push them and I get pushed by them, but I don’t ever compete with them. I aspire to be the best Pivot, I aspire to be the best Blocker, and I aspire to be the best Jammer. BUT, I can only be the best me, and there is always gonna be someone better with then me, which pushes me harder. And, I know I am not perfect. I make plenty of mistakes on the track, but I own it, I don’t dwell on it and I move on, learning everything I can from it.

I watched a lot of really amazing derby last weekend. It was Champs, Rocky Mountain won, if you didn’t know because you’ve been living under a rock. Oly took second and Gotham took 3rd. That is what I predicted. All my bracket predictions were right, except for the BAD Texas game. That one broke my heart. I was cheering and screaming for those Golden Girls. They worked so hard to get to Champs. It was great to see them play. So, just a question…does Philly put something in their water? Those girls’ boobs are AMAZING, AMAZING! It was very distracting, and those uniforms just accentuate how endowed those chicks are. Sorry, their boobs are amazing! Ok back to the derbs. It was fun to watch some of my favorite skaters. I watch each of them and take little things that I like from each of them. It’s nice to also look at some of those skaters and say, yep, I can skate at that level. My dream is to skate at Champs; I just have to make it to Regional’s first.

Derby Depression?

I think I’m depressed…derby depressed. I have just been feeling weird lately, not my usual self. I haven’t been feeling my best, not THE best, just my own personal best. I had a blast at Besterns, I mean Western Regional’s. Seeing everyone was awesome, and watching amazing derby was awesome. But then I got depressed and pissed. I felt like I should have been there. The Bombshells should have been there. I was watching skaters thinking “I am just a good as them” and watching some of the teams thinking that the Bombshells are just as good, we should be here.

I really pushed myself last week at practice, Tuesday we really focused on one specific thing, and I finally got it. I figured out where to put my feet, and I pushed myself passed my comfort zone, cussing the entire time at myself. When we were scrimmaging on Thursday, I tried stuff and I flailed, and I probably looked like a kook out there. But, who cares, isn’t that what practice is for? I ended up at the Warehouse on Friday night, working on the same things we worked on Tuesday night, and it’s not as uncomfortable. Sunday night we had the shit kicked out of us, and I realized that I have NO endurance.

I also learned it’s hard for me to leave my comfort zone. I have to be the best, or it’s not fun for me. When I see people that can do something I can’t do, I get really bummed and pissed off at myself, and then I decide I am going to learn how to do it better. And it has nothing to do with anyone in particular, it’s just me, and how competitive I am. I guess that is good, it makes me work harder. Sometimes I wish I just had all the time in the world, I would just skate and travel. I am really working on becoming independently wealthy, but it’s just not that easy.

I am already thinking about next year. There are some Hellcats that are gonna surpass me if I don’t work hard this off season. Meaning, I still gotta skate 3-4 days a week and I really have to hit up the gym, I have gained some weight in the last few months, and I think that is where a majority of my depression is sitting.
Going to San Diego this weekend, some of us Bombshells are teaming up with some Bay Area skaters to play the San Diego Derby Dolls on the banked track. I am super excited. I always have fun when I skate on the banked track and I think it can be viewed live on http://derbydolls.com/webcast/. I do love a good road trip too.

We also have our last bout of the season on Oct 23rd. It’s a double header, against the Silicon Valley Roller Girls. I am having mixed feelings about this game. There is a lot riding on this bout. Both leagues want to win, we both just got WFTDA this year, and even though it isn’t a Sanctioned Game, there is still a sense of pride on the line. We’ve only beat them once in our first season, and they’ve beat us every other time. I think most of it is mental. They are our closest rivals, and sometimes I get the feeling that they are a little more serious and intense about the rivalry then we are. Which is fine, competition is a good thing; it just sometimes sucks the fun out of the bout for me. I am definitely serious on the track, but derby girls are my family, and derby is fun, and I wanna laugh and hang out and have fun. I mean, of course I want to win, and winning is fun, I don’t know, maybe it’s just the fact that we have played them WAY TOO MUCH this year.

Anyways, I just am sad that this season is almost over, right when we were getting our groove, but I can’t wait for a little time off, to come back twice as strong and twice as determined.

WFTDA Survey

Take the WFTDA Survey and support the Santa Cruz Derby Girls. Pick us from the drop down menu of WFTDA leagues.

http://wftda.com/fan-demo-survey/Feb-2010

Woo Woo!

End of the Season

I haven’t blogged in awhile, we’ve been busy, and I really haven’t had much to say. I don’t really have much to say now, but I feel inclined to vomit a little.

Ok, I’m tired, really tired. Here it is a week and a half away from the last bout of the season, a long season. I realized today that after the 24th, I will have skated in 12 bouts for Santa Cruz, whew! It has been a rollercoaster of emotion, mental deterioration and physicality. Even though this is my second season, I really feel it has been my first. This season I focused more on strategy, the rules, and learning everything, and I mean everything, I could about rollerderby. I watched every single one of our games, at least twice, watched all four weekends of regionals, and tried to get to any outside scrimmages I could. I overcommitted to everything at rollercon, taking 8 classes and skating in 7 challenge bouts. On top of derby saturation, I sit on our Board of Directors, am on the Coaching Committee and am Captain of our All Star team. Again, I say whew. This is all on top of working 40 hours a week, getting engaged this year, planning a wedding and becoming a stepmom. Yep, I am tired. The messed up thing about this is that, most the girls on our league are just as committed if not more, some of them work 2-3 jobs and go to school. Come Oct 26th, I am officially in the off season. It really couldn’t come any quicker.

I think as a league, we’re all tired. We went through a lot of change at the beginning of the season, which I feel put a strain on the All Star team and our connection with each other. Damn we are some opinionated ladies. I think after a few months we finally started to get our connection back, it started out slowly with the Jet City game, and every game after that we left the track more and more stoked on how well we are playing as a team. I am so ready for this game. I can’t wait to hit the track with my team kill it.

We are playing short this game, not the normal 14 person roster. We’ve had some injuries and retirements at the end of the season. Raven is out with a blown ACL, Kiki broke her ankle, Rowdy’s got some knee issues and Kicken retired at the beginning of the month.

This is the season where we’ve done it all and learned it all. We had our first travel game where we had to fly, we learned we need a deeper bench to accommodate injuries, and we’ve learned that we need to pull these B team players up faster.

I’ve learned a lot about myself too. I need to be more positive, more encouraging, I need to say what I mean without being mean when I say it, I need to support my team no matter what. It’s not my responsibility to yell or scream at them, and its not very nice. I learned that its not as important to win as it is to have teamwork and feel accomplished on and off the track.

Going into this next game, I hope to remember everything I learned and apply it. I hope to have time in the off season to work on my goals for next year. I wanna come out next season on fire and twice as good as I am now.

Post Rollercon Depression

Its hard coming back to reality after spending 6 days in Vegas for Rollercon. I spent 20 hours in 4 days on skates. I played in 6 challenge bouts, and took 7 classes, and watched tons of derby. I wish I played derby for a living, or, at the very least, I wish Santa Cruz had a huge wharehouse where we could set up a track and I could practice every day, for as long as I wanted. I love being on my skates, and I love playing derby. If I could do that for a living, my life would be complete. I am so jealous of the ladies that own there own derby related businesses. I could bore you with the play by play of my experience, but I think I’ll just give you the Cliff Notes version.

-Skating in 6 challenge bouts (Inked vs Holey, Irish vs Italian, Bacon vs Fakin, Nor Cal vs So Cal, Goth vs Rainbow and Vagine Regime vs Strictly Dickly)

-Taking classes from my derby idols (Annie Maul, Sadistic Sadie, Miss Fortune, Medusa, Atomatrix)

-Taking classes with my derby idols (Bonnie D Stroir, Ivanna S Pankin, Medusa)

-Skating with the RADDEST SONOMA chicks ever (D, PePe, Teach, Lady Sparks, Roxy)

-Hitting The Teacher during the Irish vs Italian Bout

-Hitting Bonnie D Stroir during a challenge bout and having her tell me I knocked the wind out of her

-Skating with Daddy’s Girls on most my challenge bouts and skating against her on one

-Skating with Demanda Riot on Nor Cal and skating against her on one

-Skating against Ivanna S Pankin, Trish the Dish, Jackie Daniels, Smarty Pants, Krissy Krash, Swede Hurt, Miss Fortune, Demanda Riot, Daddy’s Girl, Bonnie D Stroir, Blood Clottia and every other amazing skater I look up to

-Skating on Fremont Street with Strictly Dickly (Razorslut, Iron Maiven, Cherryliscious, VaVaVaGina, Miss Evil, Deranged, Psycho Babble, Carmen Getsome, Sheeza Brickhouse, Tara Armov, Aunt Flo, Isabelle Ringer, Dirty Deborah Harry, B Train, Retro Bruizin’)

-Hanging out with Bebe and Killer Vee and John

-Having Bonnie D Stroir tell me that I am an amazing skater (possibly the highlight of my year)

-Knocking Injure Rogers out of bounds during the VR vs SD bout and pulling a major on her

-Watching Boston completeley control the WFTDA bout against BAD

-Meeting and hanging out with derby girls from all over the WORLD

-Realizing that there is SO MUCH derby talent out there and I have SO MUCH to learn about
derby and also realizing that derby is every evolving and I will never know everything

Like I said this is the Cliff Notes version of Rollercon, every moment was amazing. Now, if I could only win the lottery and buy a wharehouse in Santa Cruz big enough to house a flat track and a banked track…

Oh and on a sidenote:
After watching Team Awesome play for the second year in a row, and taking a class from some of the players on Team Awesome, my derby dream (dare I say goal) is to play on Team Awesome just once, if it happened more than once AWESOME. To simplify, I want to increase my derby skill level to be good enough to play on Team Awesome (www.awesomederby.com)!

SCDG vs Bakersfield

Really? Another bout already? Didn't we just have one?

I am really excited about this game.

I am still riding the high of last weeks bout. I am so proud of my team. We played the best game of our lives. Everyone I've talked to said that was the best game they'd ever seen us play! I can't wait to play again with all my girls.

SCDG rocks, and we are so ready to kick ass!

Thanks Santa Cruz for being so supportive.

Don't forget to buy your tickets at santacruztickets.com.

See ya at the bout!

Amazingness!

Ok, so here we are coming of a loss and getting ready to bout again this weekend. I hate losing, no I REALLY hate losing. It sucks. And I am a sore loser. I spent most of last week screaming at people at practice. New plan, be nice to people! It’s hard, I’m frustrated, everyone is frustrated. Trying to maintain stress free this week, started off rocky last night with my 3 hours of sleep. I don’t want to live off energy drinks this week, I really don’t. I also don’t want to rely on sleeping pills to “naturally” fall asleep. I wish that my head would shut up at night. Why do I have to worry and stress out and be nervous?
The Wives and I decided we’re going to take a different approach to things. Everytime we do anything slightly good, we are going to make it AMAZING. We are going to make a big deal out of it. Why not? Let’s take a positive outlook on things. Maybe it’ll work, maybe it won’t. Don’t be surprised if you hear me shout out at practice “Oh my god, did you see that AMAZING turn stop I did?” Yes, I’ve earned the douchebag award.
Have a bout this weekend against Jet City Rollergirls. Home bout, gotta win, can’t lose at home. Can’t lost again period. See there I go again, putting the pressure on myself. If I don’t push myself though, who will? If I don’t push the girls on the team, will they push themselves? Do they want to win? Do they want to get better? These are the questions that keep me up at night. These are the questions that I want to ask my team, but I don’t like confrontation, so I’ll be passive aggressive about it and hope they read my blog.
One of the wives was complaining that my blog sucked because I didn’t write about the Wives enough. I promised her I’d write a something about the wives. I’m warning you know that no one will find it awesome except us because we are not cool. In fact, we are very uncool!
If you get a chance this weekend, you should check out our bout, its gonna be pretty awesome. We’re getting a key to the city, the mayor is gonna be there and maybe some other special surprises. Really, you don’t want to miss out.

SCDG vs SVRG

I can't wait! Come check it out!

Santa Cruz Derby Girls vs Tahoe Derby Dames

Our own home team the Beach Flat Betties will be playing the Tahoe Derby Dames in Tahoe this weekend.

Santa Cruz vs Santa Cruz

The Lost Girls vs The Beach Flat Betties

Its bout week. I could feel it at practice last night. Everyone showed up. The refs, nso's, all buzzing around. I'm nervous and scared again. But it's a different kind of scared and nervous. I know my opponents, I know how they play. I know their strengths and their weaknesses. This is my first home bout ever. I was injured last year for the Dollies vs Betties bout! All three of my wives are the opposite team. When I'm jamming, I'm going to look at the pack and see Eden's evil smile, Brawleys dertermined face, and Candies booty! I am going to want to grab them to help me through the pack, instead I'm going to have to dodge out of their hard hits. AND don't even get me started on Hell Louise, her butt's gonna come flying at me and I will be paralyzed by FEAR!

The Betties might be the undedog in this game. The Lost girls have a pretty good lineup, All Star Jammers and All Star Blockers, we are going to have to step it up.

The Lost Girls

Eden Yourheartout - Captain

Raven Von Kaos - Captain

Candie Hooligan - Co Captain

Brawley Parton

Cleopatra Catastrophe

Hallie Pena Popper

Hell Louise ( Countess Weezy)

Liv N Letdie

Pigeon

Pixi Painful

Salt Ann Battery

Sheila Princess of Power

The Beach Flat Betties

Lulu Lockjaw - Captain

Roxy Scarmicheal - Co Captain

Allda Rage

Blonde Claude Van Damme

Cinzilla - Injured

Foxee Firestorm

Kicken Red Vixen

Kiki Clash

Mojo Vixen

Pippi Hardsocking

Rowdy Roughrider

Shamrock N Roller