Hey guys I disappeared for a bit but I’m a tattoo apprentice now here’s my recent flash sheet

Yessss I have the t-shirt from that 2012 ECDX and I turned it into a cropped tank for practice since my team colors are now blue. It's my fav.

The Great Collection of Roller Derby Posters / part 2

AHHHH Love the tank girl one

The Great Collection of Roller Derby Posters / part 3

👁️🌋🦆

Hey girl, are you a roller derby injury? Because you make me weak in the knees.

Ok. Get right there. Good. Don't look down, look at me and listen. Good. I'm right here to help you. Don't worry. You're strong. You'll be just fine. Just put your hand here. Hold onto me if you need but try not to grab too hard. Loosen up a little. Get ready to move, if we need. No, we're good. Just bend your knees and get ready. I'm here. Yes. Good job. Stay strong. You got this. Keep your knees bent. Head up again. Watch your hands. It's ok. You're doing great. Just a little lower. Yes. Nice. Just like that. Just like that.

watching this jam over and over and realizing I need to come in much hotter on my second passes. I'm fast. I just need to be fast and more in control of it and use the speed and not slow down myself as much as I did going into the park on that 2nd pass.

Jamming it up in Roller Derby

Had I been in this rink before? If so, it was back in Junior high school in the late 1970s, when roller skating added music, lights, and fun to a teen’s life. If you were lucky, the rink dimmed the overhead lights so strobes and fluorescent lighting illuminated the ground where your quad skates slid across the wooden floor. But today was 2024 and this ole 59’er hadn’t tried roller skating since she was a teen, making this new sport of Roller Derby an interesting prospect. The thing that happens as you approach your sixth decade of life is your center of weight shifts as your weight increases. Sure, I run half marathons, but that’s easy when your feet hit the pavement and nothing is rolling beneath you. I think my last 8-mile run, which took over an hour, was easier than standing on roller skates for one hour. New experiences give you realistic points of view you wouldn’t gain otherwise.

So, there I was, along with one other 50-year-old woman celebrating her birthday by trying roller derby, and twenty 20- and 30-year-olds, prime for the adventure. The women there were fantastic – friendly, some apprehensive like me, some excellent at the sport already, and accepting of all others in the room. No matter your size, age, gender identification, or skill, every woman was welcome, just like rugby. The Central New York Roller Derby organization based in my hometown of Rome, NY was well organized and coached. Their leaders made sure we had the essential equipment on – helmet, elbow pads, mouth guards, wrist guards, knee pads, and quad skates. For $50, you get all the rented equipment plus eight weeks of lessons and activity making it a reasonably priced sport to try. They were patient and helpful with the newbies.

Like every sport, we began with warmups. I particularly liked doing pushups and sit-ups with roller skates on. It added some weight to the exercises. Then it was time to stand up and try gliding on the skates. I say this with the hesitation that’s intended. It takes a while to find your center of gravity and fearlessness to push off, glide, and stop without falling down. Okay, I did fall two times until I figured out to lean forward not back in my stance. Like anything in life, you have to adjust to new centers of balance. Then we got off our skates and learned about the key derby positions of jammers and blockers and did a few activities like getting into positions as blockers to stop the jammers and how to become a pivot blocker if you receive the jammer star/cover when it is handed to you. What I learned only from this small exercise is I need to watch a YouTube video on roller derby to piece it all together so I understand it better the next time I try it. I did this before trying rugby and it helped my comprehension level immediately. Don’t call it necessary due to my age, but rather because I learn best by seeing, and not hearing.

As our two-hour stint came to an end, we gathered for a group photo as buddies who experienced something new and fun for the first time. I vowed to go back next week to try it again since I felt it needed more time to say I tried the sport. I already have a new group of Syracuse roller derby sisters who want to carpool to Rome and a new roller derby name to try out – Pinky Habanero. Every roller derby chick has a nickname. I met Squash, BAM, Dead, Sunshine, Meli, and more. All I can tell you is if you want to feel young again (in some ways) and old (in other ways), try out roller derby at your local skating rink. Put on those four quads, helmet, and find your center of balance, smile, give yourself a badass name, and get into the rink. I promise you’ll smile, laugh at yourself, and even realize you can be humble, and somewhat graceful while trying something new.

skrt skrt

Just keep skating bro. You'll get there.

curious. anyway,

Going through all my roller derby team mates’ headshots to send out to some opponents for an upcoming game and all of them are just… so unbearably cool. They could all murder me with their bare hands. I love them.

My teammate, Rebel Bowie. She takes to the track in her blue jersey, adjusting her helmet and staring at something the viewer can’t see.

When you send a video of yourself playing derby to your online d&d group who has never seen modern derby. (Low Tide is my Tabaxi monk)