Fan-Hitting...

Ah, derby drama.

My life is full of it at the moment. Which is a pain.

Things have been rather rocky with the Derby Dolls for a few months now. There were many events and many contributing factors to things going not-so-well. The overriding reason is that our banked-track league hasn't had a space to put up our banked track in almost a year. That's caused a lot of problems, and now things have come to a breaking point. Literally.

One group of girls broke away and have formed a flat-track league, which has attracted a lot of the Derby Dolls' "fresh meat" skaters as well as some veterans who haven't told the Dolls officially that they're thinking of switching leagues. The coach has left and is forming his own league. So far he has 6-7 really good skaters who want the intense training he gives. They also haven't officially told the Derby Dolls that they're going to skate elsewhere.

The morale of the Derby Dolls is at an all-time low. The two owners are literally ready to quit. Looking at things on the surface, I can understand why. But now I also have found myself stepping in and trying for one last chance to resurrect this monstrosity that I've dedicated almost three years of my life and sacrificed my career over. Why?

It looks like our track will be put back up on the rooftop of our former warehouse home. We can have as many practices as we want and have different focuses for those practices instead of having the one-size-fits-almost-no-one practices that we've had to have due to not having access to a skating surface for more than three days a week.

Since we don't have a place where we can practice and hold big events at, the team captains for the league are proposing a four-bout-a-year plan where we went out a place for a weekend and cramm as many people as we legally can so that we get out there, do banked track, get seen, get press, and get money to keep everything going.

For the moment I'm playing the part of inspirational speaker to the owners and the other team captains. Jeezus, how fuxxed up do things have to get if I'm the one telling people that we can get back on our feet?!

I'm giving this two more months. If those two main goals are on the way to accomplishment, I'll stay with the league. If not, I'm outta there. What I'd do next, I'm not sure.

Anyway, here are yet more photos from the SXSW bout. Which I'm still the most proud of for myself...I actually skated pretty damn well at that event:

Giving an illegal smackdown to jammer Betty TaRoll:











Getting dogpiled by the TXRD as a result. Three girls it took to get me down: