Kozmic Diary

Derbyversaire 2 "Freaky Derby Day"

2012-03-05T13:00:00.022+01:00

Yesterday -- Sunday, March 4th was the official celebration day for the second derbyversaire of the Paris RollerGirls. This year because of the lack of sports facilities for skaters in Paris, the PRG couldn't take the risk to organize a bootcamp. However, an event was organized on the fly when we learnt a couple of weeks ago that we could book the hall where we usually play our games in Paris.

The actual derbyversary date of the Paris RollerGirls is on the 14th of February... Saint Valentine day. No use to wonder why Paris Brings the Passion: it was Cupid's birthday gift!

Just like last year, when the first derbyversaire was honored with the organization of the first bootcamp in France, this year witnessed the inauguration of the very first intraleague game of the PRGs. It was the occasion for our brand-new home teams to meet: The hip-hop Kiss Kiss Bang Bangs in fluo green and the Violet Vendettas super heroes in purple confronted each other in front of numerous spectators who came despite the lack of advertizing! -- we were short on time...
I've been missing for a few months and I saw the league grow from afar. Watching all these girls able to fight gathered on the same track and knowing that they were all of the same league made me realize that I had missed the league's teenage growth spurt! The game was indeed sometimes lacking maturity but had interesting parts and some of the new girls are quite promissing. Next step: experience and team work.

The event lasted all day (and all night):

The morning started with a special class run by Titty Twista of the Stuttgart Roller Girls and, just like the scrimmage that followed, was open for any rollergirl having their Minimum Skills Test: Most of them were PRGs but there were also Lutèce Destroyeuses (the second league of Paris) as well as Simones who made the trip from Orléans and Hell's Ass Derby Girls of Strasbourg. Only the home game of the afternoon was open to the public.

The Derbyversaire ended up with an after-party at the Troisième Lieu bar, the very first HQ of the PRGs. I can't tell you much about it because I went straight to bed instead!

"Deux ans déjà !! Deux ans de passion,

de bonheur, d'esprit d’équipe, de roller,

de coups de sifflet, de voyages,

de rencontres, de chutes, de victoires,

de défaites,de claquages de fesses,

de bleus, de rires, de pleurs,

de minutes perdues en prison,

de kilomètres roulés,

d'arrachage de cheveux, d'embrassades !!

Deux années bien remplies.

Deux ans de roller derby baby !!"

The event was also my first appearance into real life after my 4 weeks of military sports rehab at the CERS. I mostly wanted to make a surprise and say hi. I was kind of sorry and embarassed not to be able to help much because I was too tired. Still I (tried to) translate during Titty Twista's class, as fast and accurately as my soft brain allowed me. I declined the responsibility of speaking during the home game, and I'm glad I did because a growing headache nibbled my energy little by little as the afternoon went by. But this is another story!

One last thing: you must remember Gosh, the talented cartoonist and photographer who decided to start to cover us on the long run some months ago. He's offered us a great design to immortalize the league's two years of existence, and it is going to be printed on a limited set of tee-shirts.
For the modest price of 18€, you can become the happy owner of your own Derbyversaire 2 limited edition tee-shirt designed by Gosh. Of course, part of the sum will go to the artist because he's f*ckin' worth it!
Check out the design on the pic and if you're interested send a e-mail to merch@parisrollergirls.com for further information!

Roller Derby explained by PRG

2012-02-28T17:32:00.002+01:00

Most leagues have their own explanative video describing what roller derby *really* is. Now the Paris RollerGirls have one too thanks to the awesome job of our Media Committee.

The video is made of selected footages from bouts of the last season illustrated by a voice-over as sweet as professional explaining the basic rules of roller derby for neophytes. And on top of it you can enjoy the amazing soundtrack by Fishing With Guns and Akouphën!

WATCH THE VIDEO

on the Paris RollerGirls Website

I am Legend... am I?

2012-02-24T20:41:00.000+01:00

Lately, SebaSkates added me to the "Legend" skaters of the team!

Seba is my inline skating sponsor who, in 2007, offered me to enter the freestyle skating Dream Team, the Seba Team. Since then, I had the chance to travel around the world and take part in hundreds of freestyle competitions thanks to Seba. I'm still representing the brand each time I get the occasion, and I recently started to take part in SkateCross competitions under the Seba colors.

The "Legend" labelling is a great honor and I'm proud to achieve this position while I'm still alive (haha).

Have a look at my PROFILE on the SebaSkates Website.

...and if you want to know more about that addictive sport and the life I had before, check out my freestyle website: Close Yr E's -- It's all about rock'n rollerskating...

CERS

2012-02-06T21:18:00.000+01:00

First day at the CERS*.

Put my clothes in the cupboard. Single room with ocean view. Met the nurse. Met the doctor. Met the physiotherapist. Had a look around. Showered. Ate.

Now waiting for the real thing to start: physio-physio-physio from 8am to 5pm. Alternating with proprioception, balneotherapy and work-out. Every day. 4 weeks. Back in March.

Deep breath: GO!

* European Physiotherapy Center for Athletes.

EROC 2012

2012-02-04T23:25:00.004+01:00

The 2012 edition of the EROC took place in Berlin on the last weekend of January, and was hosted by the local league, the Bear City RollerDerby. Go HERE if you want a little "history" of the event -- if you can call it history so far...

The European Derby Convention is growing year by year: Have a look at the list of the registered countries and leagues if you're sceptical! 13 countries were represented by up to 16 leagues each (for Germany) -- and 7 for France!

The event started on Friday evening with an opening party at Wowsville bar where all the participants could meet and warm up for the weekend. I had forgotten what it was like to be allowed to smoke in bars! Although I convey it's pretty cool not to have to go outside and lose your fingers in the German cold, I'm not quite sure I'm liking it anymore.
By the way I would like to deeply thank all my saviors to whom I borrowed the gloves during the weekend: I really had underestimated the power of cold. Now I know that I'd rather concentrate on my gloved hands slipping on my crutches, than concentrate on saying to myself over and over that pain is just an illusion.
Anyway this is no dilemna now as I don't need my sticks anymore: I learnt to walk this weekend thanks to an intensive training consisting in at least one hour per day of waking in the snow.

I had booked a 10-bed dorm room with other French people at the X-Berger Hostel, the last one in which there was some room left. Although it was in the area, it was further than the other hostels proposed in the program. The bunk beds were creaking and I was a bit afraid the first time I found myself under Marvel-San whose matress was dangerously overloaded.
On the other hand the showers were equipped with high-tech motion sensor systems, but I would have liked old-fashionned taps better: I didn't really appreciate the "take-one-shower-get-one-free" offer... especially not after having finished to dry myself, unable to avoid the drops and pathetically hiding behind my towel while I was stuck in the cubicle -- which was 30 cm above the ground, i.e. too high for me and my lazy leg. Forget I told you this.
Still there were advantages: FREE COFFEES at the reception!

It was my first ever EROC participation. Having been elected Head Coach recently, I had been designated as one of the four representatives of the Paris RollerGirls, together with Cherry LieLie for the Sponsoring, No Name Jane for the Merchandizing and Amelia Scareheart for the Interleague relationships. The latter also ran a class on Line-Up Writing during the event. Three of our Refs, Watzé, Maëlstrom and Marvel-San, had also made the trip.

The two days were regulated by varied classes suitable for beginners and advanced, whether you are a player, a coach, a ref, an NSO or an organizer, with or without skates... The subjects were numerous and there were four classes at the same time in four different rooms.
As a coach I went to coaching stuff, particularly to the on-skates "Training for trainers - Advanced" (don't panic: I was sitting on a f*cking bench with my shoes on), and to the "Strategy Session - Advanced" which I found clear and helped me structure my mind on the breaking down of strategy stages. I also went to an "Off Skate" out of curiosity (and made the most in working my physiotherapy drills on the side): I had a nice surprise in discovering that the coach was systematically relating each drill to derby moves. However, the sports equipment in the room is just impossible to own when you're not a settled league with your own training venue. But it looked awefully FUN!

The scrimmages on Sunday morning looked even funnier. But there were so many registered that people didn't play that much. The advanced game had a couple of beautiful actions. I'm very impressed by the overal improvement of the European level. It's starting to be the real thing: USA, give us another couple of years and we're coming!

Credit: Michael Wittig - 2012

Apart from the breakfast and lunch times, there were two climaxes: One national climax at the very beginning of the weekend, and one European at the very end of it.
The National debate consisted in a national meeting with all the French people attending. Unfortunately we had only one hour to debate but we still found the time to bring up the main concerns:

1) We need to organize ourselved nationally with a board gathering representatives from each league.
2) We should make a public schedule with all the events happening in France.
3) Why not creating a convention based on the EROC on a national scale?
4) How should we cope with the French Federation of Roller Sports?
5) What decisions to take about the durability of the French Team?
But Concerns 3, 4 and 5 can only be resolved with the implementation of Concern 1.

Framed by Master Blaster, the European debate was tougher and particularly dealed with the clarification of the Facebook rumor saying that there would be a European Cup in August in Malmö, Sweden. To keep it simple, an individual who happens to be part of the Malmö Crime City Rollers (but the league has nothing to do with it) took the responsibility to book a venue but didn't seem to have done things in the right order. Apart from the UK representatives, nobody was aware before the FB leak. Despite the info apparently mentioning that all the persons in charge for the national teams who went to Toronto had received invitations, the coaches present contradicted it. The problem is that the booking cannot be cancelled and that most of the national teams find the dead-line too short to organize new try-outs, new trainings, new fundraising, etc. However people strongly encouraged to change the EuroCup into a less "official" event like a tournament or a bootcamp for example. Let's wait and see...
The second point that was discussed was the urgency to organize ourselves at a European level, which implies being organized nationally first. Yet most of us aren't. Homework for next EROC: Build yourself a national structure!
Now let's not forget the presentation of a wonderful computer tool developed by Riff Reff and Major Madness for European leagues: A multi-task calendar classifying the European teams according to a simple algorithm in their category level, etc...

Credit: Michael Wittig - 2012

On Monday I was saying to myself that I was glad to go back to France where the weather is mild. Unfortunately it seems that my country has decided to adopt its neighbor's climate... let's hope it'll change its mind soon!

MEDIA:

I Feel Free...

2012-01-21T19:26:00.001+01:00

Yesterday, the surgeon cut off my cast!

I Feel Free by Cream on Grooveshark

Oh by the way, when they say that the drill will cut the cast only, that's a lie and my shin is here to prove it. No blood spilled, but still a good 20cm line is crossing it. I had the pleasure of receiving a surgical band-aid unobtainable on the market, or so rare that it would cost me an arm and a leg. At least, that's what he said. As I'm not ready to also sacrifice an arm, I decided to trust him.

Once the cast taken off, not much to say about the overall looks of my leg than what I had already concluded three weeks ago. I struggled to put my shoe on -- first thing I did to recover a little dignity, but I should have taken it easy: I hadn't realize that freeing my leg could have drastic consequences on my blood pressure. I nearly blacked out. I was given a piece of day-old bread and canteen strawberry jam. Yummy.

My leg is now free but it doesn't know what to do anymore: It's been so assisted during six weeks that it's just waiting for the work to be done. And it's complaining a lot too. Every little piece of it is screaming like hell. I would have loved to make it shut up and suffer in silence but I'm not into painkillers, so I'm just waiting.

The longest part is over anyway: So far I've been through 2 casts of 3 weeks each, 6 blood tests, 39 injections, and bronchitis on top of it...
I'm glad I'm starting the next stage!

I'm ending up this post with a sarcastic touch of humor. I won't say the words because 1) Too many already did, 2) I don't want to be mixed up with them, 3) Just because it sticks to the subject doesn't mean I mean it... A pathetic compilation, i.e. totally worth being watched!

"In 1888, German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche coined a phrase

that would inspire lazy musicians for more than 100 years"

Complementary posts:

Paris RollerGirls Winter '12 Open Practice

2012-01-16T14:55:00.002+01:00

As part of the winter recruitment wave, the Paris RollerGirls open the doors of their gym for you to have a look at what Derby is and experience what it feels like to sit in the suicide zone around the track.

In-between the two workshops to prepare for the entrance test, you can go and witness the Monday evening 3-hour training in St. Denis, just like in last september when it went like THAT.

Open Practice

Monday Jan. 30th, 19:00 - 22:00

Gymnase Pasteur (10 rue Pasteur 93200 St. Denis)

Metro: St. Denis Université


Shot: Gosh -- thegoshphotographies.blogspot.com \| Art: Koz

Paris RollerGirls Winter Workshops

2012-01-12T18:47:00.002+01:00

Future Freshmeats, this is the second (and last!) chance of the season for entering the Paris RollerGirls! We are organizing a Winter Session made of two Workshops and followed by an Entrance Test.

It will follow the same pattern as the Summer Session (which is fully explained in THIS ARTICLE). The principle is also described on the flyer here (click to enlarge):

The workshops are meant to explain the different skills that will be needed to pass the entrance test. The content of both workshops will be identical, browsing all the basic individual skills: falling, stopping, crossing, jumping.

The workshops will start with a short hour of Derby Rules run by our Refs, and the three hours of skating run by our Coaches will be preceded by an off-skates warm-up.

These workshops are not compulsory but are a good review to avoid surprises on the Entrance Test day, and are a good opportunity to meet some of the main protagonists of the league and to get an idea of the overall atmosphere.

Write down the dates:

WORKSHOPS on January 22nd & February 5th.

ENTRANCE TEST on February 19th.

A 4-hour full workshop will only cost you 15€ which will go to the league -- ten times cheaper than what it's worth... Go for it!

For the location and the equipment, everything is already mentionned on the flyer.

For any further information AND for your inscription...

...contact the recruitment at recrutement@parisrollergirls.com

This is compulsory!

2012 Visual Identity for the Paris RollerGirls

2012-01-04T21:01:00.002+01:00

What better way for starting the year than unveiling the official shots of the PRG players? 30 girls, 30 personalities, 30 different stagings.

The displayed photos on the website are full length but there are complementary head shots for the rosters... be patient!

Enjoy the browsing HERE

All shots © Carole Dodeman

Let's not kick the habit of talking about ME, because this is my space and I say whatever I want in it! I chose to be represented reading a book about Janis* because she rocks, with my headphones around my neck because they just live there -- and for the record, with my mp3-player in my pants because my clothes were too tight and without pockets. I painted the logo of my band Akouphën on my shoulder because there's no reason why I can't proudly display my tattoos like everybody, and let kicked cones lying on the floor because I kind of broke my slalom-skating chains with success thanks to derby!

* A book that I strongly recommend by Jeanne-Martine Vacher entitled "Sur La Route de Janis"

Superman's Dead

2011-12-30T15:26:00.009+01:00

Yesterday they changed my cast.
Three weeks already and only three left. I’m half-way!

The surgeon cut the old one with a drill and wrapped my leg up with the same baby blue resin bands from my hip down to my toes.
Merry Christmas! Loving my extra present.

In-between, I had the opportunity to admire my dead-white leg.

“Ch-ch-ch-ch-chaaanges”

My skin is naturally white but I discovered that it could get whiter than white. I won a couple of extra hairs – I’m not a hairs-lover but I convey it’s kind of natural after three weeks in the warm cavity of the cast. But what bothered (and bothers) me the most is that my thigh and my calf are missing. Seems that they took some holidays for the festive season. I am *not* OK with it. At all.

COME BACK HOOOME! [call of distress]

In case you really believed that the holiday stuff was true, here is a more or less faithful reconstruction of what really happened:

Body thinking – “Oh she’s not using this leg anymore. Let’s cut off the supplies and save energy!”
That’s the pitiless logic of the human body: If you’re useless you don’t get food, you shrivel and nobody cares.

The good news is that bodies also have a memory: they get to remember as fast as they willingly forget. But still!! My poor leg is disfigured and I’m better off with a cast not to have to bear the sight of it. Hopefully, Nature knows best and I’ve got one leg left!

I put things into perspective a lot. I watched “The Horse Whisperer” yesterday. My case is definitely one big joke. At least it's not that serious.

But thinking over – I don’t do many things currently, except translating articles for work, going for walks to improve my endurance with crutches …and thinking! Thinking over, convalescing affects me psychologically more than I would have thought.

I’m just experiencing one of those revelation key-points in life. Like when you learn that Santa Claus doesn’t exist, or like when you realize that your parents are not super-heroes. I’m starting to understand that I’m not invincible. Too bad…

When I was ten I was a whisker away from dying. For real, the death for which you can’t insert coins to start a new play. Doctors didn’t realize soon enough that I had appendicitis and they saved me only a couple of hours before it was too late. But probably because I hadn’t unlocked all the needed key-revelations to reach that stage back then, the episode didn’t especially affect me although I stayed 15 days in bed at the hospital so that I had forgotten how to walk (one of the body’s logics) – the re-learning was fun! [In fact it did affect me *a lot* in the years that followed but this is another story.]

Superman Is Dead by Our Lady Peace on Grooveshark

Why-y-y-y yeah is Superman dead?
Is it in my head
We'll just laugh instead

Now, considering that I still have one valid leg left, and that I’m back home where aaaall my pairs of skates are hibernating… Can I wake up half of one for a crutches-and-skate ride?

News of my Knee for Nosey People

2011-12-16T02:22:00.001+01:00

Before dedicating an article to the World Cup in Toronto, I’d like to share an unfortunate consequence: My knee didn’t survive the tournament, which led to a couple of misfortunes…

I know the question is burning your lips: How did it happen?
I took a hit, fell on both my knees like a rock’n roll guitar player (hell yeahh). And basically that’s it: hyperflexion and bad luck.
It didn’t hurt. My leg just wouldn’t respond – which is quite annoying when you’re in the middle of a jam. Made me think it was not a big deal at first. But seeing no improvement whatsoever and still feeling no pain as days went by, I started wondering – eh!

As soon as I came back from Toronto, I followed the advice of the physiotherapist: I saw a good bunch of practitioners (thanks dad) and did a MRI.

Flash-back.

Military Hospital.

Psycho rigid Secretary (to my dad): “Is she over 18?” [Haha! FAIL] (to me) “Do you have a prescription?”

Me: “Nope, but I got a recommendation from ****”

Psycho rigid Secretary (checking): “I know I recognize his writing, but without prescription you have to pay!”

Another secretary, one phone call and the promise of a prescription later, it was my turn to go into the magnetic tube. The doctor plugged me with earphones forcing me to listen to a topical playlist – picture yourself lying on your back in the tube, to the sound of Survivor by the Destiny’s Child’s!

I'm a survivor (What?)
I'm goin'na make it (What?)
I will survive (What?)
Keep on survivin' (What?)

Yeah… pathetic, I know.

After reassuring a young secretary at the reception that she was not a heartless bitch – because the last patient had just told her so, I left the building and focused on the verdict: Torn posterior cruciate ligament. Sucks. But could have been worse. No surgery needed. Just rest and physiotherapy.

The next morning I had an appointment with a surgeon for advice – My family has kind of a history with him: he opened up my brother’s knee and he’s doing perfect now.

You can't beat it!

I was expecting advice.

I came back with a cast.

My whole leg in a cast from the toes to the upper thigh. Helps to hold the shin in the good position while it’s healing.

I’m very satisfied with it: not only is it glamorous, but it’s also very comfy, light, and not cumbersome at all. Tested and approved.

Six weeks:
Only five weeks and a half left. Never been closer to the end!

Think positive:

It’s winter-time and it’s raining anyway.

Toronto World Cup Coverage

2011-11-24T23:31:00.003+01:00

To the people who ask if / where / when they can watch the World Cup in Toronto:

YES YOU CAN watch the tournament live on Derby News Network.

If you're in Paris, you can also go and have a beer at the Moose, they should broadcast bouts live (to be confirmed).
Don't get it wrong with the jet lags...

Below you'll find the schedule for the preliminary groups...

i.e. for Thursday and Friday.

As for the rest of the event... Here is a short explanation by Blood & Thunder... of which, to be honest, I didn't understand a word but maybe it's for the best.

Preliminary Groups

"The teams in Pool A have 3 pool games that will be 40 minutes long. The teams in Pools B, C and D have 2 pool games that are 40 minutes long. After the pool play round, the top 3 teams will have a bye into the quarterfinals of the elimination bracket, the remaining 10 teams will play in the round of 13 with 5 advancing to the quarterfinals and 5 advancing to the first placement bracket."

Thursday, December 1st.

TIME	TRACK 1	TRACK 2
5 – 6:20 PM	Canada vs. France
5:30 – 6:50 PM		Germany vs. Australia
6:20 – 7:40 PM	Argentina vs. Ireland
6:50 – 8:10 PM		U.S.A. vs. New Zealand
7:40 – 9 PM	Brazil vs. Sweden
8:10 – 9 PM		Australia vs. Finland
9 – 10:30 PM	Stars vs. Stripes (U.S.A. expo bout)

Friday, December 2nd.

TIME	TRACK 1	TRACK 2
9:30 – 10:50 AM	Ireland vs. England
10 – 11:20 AM		New Zealand vs. Scotland
10:50 A.M. – 12:10 PM	Canada vs. Sweden
11:20 A.M. – 12:40 PM		Germany vs. Finland
12:10 – 1:30 PM	Brazil vs. France
12:40 – 2 PM		U.S.A. vs. Scotland
1:30 – 2:50 PM	Argentina vs. England
2 P.M – 3:20 PM		Sweden vs. France
2:50 – 4:10 PM	Canada vs. Brazil

At that point there will be a break to establish rankings and bracketing,

then the competition will go on until Sunday evening!

To keep it simple, have a look at the general run-down:

Thursday:
5 – 8:10 P.M.: Beginning of group round to establish ranking
9 – 10:30 P.M.: USA vs USA expo bout

Friday:
9:30 A.M. – 4:10 P.M.: Continuation of group round
5:30 – 10 P.M.: Beginning of elimination round

Saturday:
9:30 A.M. – 8:30 P.M.: Elimination and placement rounds

Sunday:
10:30 A.M. – 6:30 P.M.: Elimination and placement rounds
6:30 P.M. onward: Closing celebration at Crowne Plaza ballroom

I Left My Heart in Team France

2011-11-22T20:27:00.011+01:00

It was the name of the event organized by the Petites Morts of Bordeaux to raise funds for the French Team (btw, if you feel like donating go there) in order to help the players and coaches for their expenses at the Derby World Cup in Toronto next week!

The leagues which had players in the French Team

organized fund-raising events.

The Paris RollerGirls made the most of Halloween to throw a "Play Dead or Play Derby" party at Les Filles de Paris, with music -- Skarface (Ska) and DJ Set Dorian Darner (Electro-Rock) & Black Sifichi (Electro), with scary costumes, drinks, cupcakes, surprises and all.

Roller Derby Toulouse also did a party, the night before the Bordeaux weekend, soberly entitled "Support Your Roller-Derby Team" at the Dynamo, with concerts of I was a teenage alien (Pop-Punk), Bias (Punk-Rock) and MIL3¥ $3RI•VS (Seapunk/Electronique), not forgetting the After Beer Pong!

Bordeaux organized a different type of event:

The first ever match of the French Team... Vs. The Dark Side of France: players from French leagues who volunteered!

The event started the day before the bout with a practice/demo which gathered more than 30 rollergirls from all around France, run by Karla Karschër and myself with the help of Hell' Alaniak and Meryl Strip-Her, followed by a scrimmage on the Hockey Rink of the Docks of Bordeaux on Saturday, and with a surprise-party at the Broca 4 to end up the day. You would get free drinks if you were dressed in blue, and it was animated by the performances of Lispector, Mr. Crane and a Psch-Pshit DJ Set.

But the real thing was the day after, at the university sports hall -- where I used to train in Freestyle Skating. Brings back memories! There's still a news clipping about me there, which the skating teacher of the uni had pinned on the board, back in 2006.

The event had two aims: offering one last training to the French Team and promoting Roller-Derby in France (and in Bordeaux -- it was the first big derby event there). The gym was not actually down-town but still people moved their asses on a Sunday afternoon to watch this curiousity of nature they had vaguely heard of. It was a success. And no doubt it will be a greater success next time (I hope there'll be a next time)!

Sunday started with a demo of Unicycle-Derby (Yep.) I'd heard of it for so long, I was glad to witness a demo at last!

It was our last rehearsal before D. Day, and the first bout we were playing in our official uniforms. blue tank tops and red short pants. Hot stuff!

Lots of girls from the French team were missing, but we were enough to form a correct roster.

The girls on the opposite team, benched by Wheely Wonka and Belle Zebuth, still did a good job and improved their tactics all through the game. It's hard to play when you don't know your team-mates. I must say that some of them are promissing and I'm curious to see them play in a couple of months if I have the chance. Sorry, no names, I'm very bad at this.

You don't want the scores because it's not what matters. Just as one of the Dark-sided said "Team France: either you love it or you kick it. We proved that we loved it a lot".

Sud-Ouest (Mon. 21st, Nov. 11)

Media on the Event:

Pictures of Saturday's Demo:

Pictures of Sunday's Bout:

News Clippers:

On BordeauxConcerts.com "Roller Derby Baby!"
On Bordeaux-Communiques.com "Evenement Roller-Derby à Bordeaux"
On Bordeaux-Gazette.com "Le Team France Roller Derby à Talence avant de rejoindre Toronto"
On SudOuest.fr "Les Reines du Roller Derby en Piste"
On SudOuest.fr "Les Filles à Roulettes"
On SudOuest.fr "Le Girl Power chausse les patins" (Check out the picture!)

Derby girls, wild girls par Photostudio108

Stay tuned for more TV reports coming soon...!

World Cup Preliminary Groups Draw

2011-11-18T12:25:00.001+01:00

Haha.

Yesterday evening at 11PM, we were hung on the telephone, hanging out at the hockey rink on the docks of Bordeaux after practice, waiting for the results of the draw.

I won't insult you in illustrating this article with the picture of the original notes I took, because I really had a hard time writing legibly with my cold frozen hands -- I don't have the chance to have found me a deserted pair of gloves at the sports shop the day before, not insinuating anything of course. The illustration of Blood & Thunder, the derby magazine organizing this first-ever international competition, will do:

These are the preliminary groups for the World Cup. We'll play all the other teams of our groups to determine a ranking and be placed in the corresponding brackets for the real thing.

The unfolding of the event is still unclear, all we are sure about is that it's in Toronto, from December 1 to 4. There is a general run-down of the event on the "World Cup" part on B&T Website, which should soon be detailed better as they were waiting for the draw to do so!

Now, what are the conclusions so far?

We are 13 national teams to take part in the Cup. There are 4 preliminary groups, thus obviously the one and only group of 4 is being swindled. Of course we're in it. Let's see it that way instead: we're sooo lucky because we'll get to play mooore!

...At least for the preliminaries... before we get kicked out. (NB: Saying so is just a strategy to make believe the other teams we suck while we're just badass).

Anyway, whatever the draw, people would have always found fault with it. I'm more into the "That's the way it is and let's just do what we can with what we got" philosophy. I mean, let's be honest: Brazil, Sweden and Canada? We all know it's going to be a piece of cake. We could play the three simultaneously. But *shush* let's not say it out loud!
I'm fine with the groups. Actually I'm not: I wanted to start with the USA to get cool pictures of me on the track against them while we're still fresh. Just to brag about it.

Check out the amazingly fascinating video of the draw:

Check out the members of the national teams in browsing their websites: (I'd suggest you to start with Team France because they are quite awesome)

Argentina: Team Argentina Facebook page
Australia: Team Australia Facebook page
Brazil: www.rollerderbybrasil.com
Canada: Team Canada Facebook page, www.teamcanadarollerderby.ca
England: Team England Facebook page
Finland: Team Finland Facebook page, www.rollerderbyfinland.com
France: Team France Facebook page, www.rollerderbyfrance.fr
Germany: Team Germany Facebook page, www.rollerderbygermany.de
Ireland: Team Ireland Facebook page
New Zealand: Team New Zealand Facebook page, www.teamnzrollerderby.tumblr.com
Scotland: www.teamscotlandrollerderby.com
Sweden: www.teamswedenrollerderby.com
U.S.A: www.teamusarollerderby.com

Du Roller-Derby à la FFRS?

2011-11-17T13:08:00.000+01:00

Once doesn't make it a habit, but the following article is going to be in French. Anyway only French people will be interested as it is about the evolution of the integration of Roller-Derby at the French Federation of Roller-Sports!

I promise, next time I'll switch back to English!

Aujourd'hui, j'ai appris de source sûre qu'il s'est dit des choses intéressantes au sujet du roller-derby à l'AG de la FFRS (Fédération Française de Roller-Sports)!
Comme vous le savez, nous sommes toléré(e)s en commission "Course". Ce qui est bien mais pas top.

www.ffrs.asso.fr/

Petit récapitulatif sur l'organisation de la FFRS.
Elle est divisée en 8 catégories/disciplines: Freestyle, Artistique, Course, Roller Hockey, Rink Hockey, Randonnée, Descente et Skateboard. Il y a deux types de catégories: les commissions (assises depuis un bout de temps avec pleiiin d'adhérents dedans) et les comités (plus jeunes, moins pleins). Les commissions ont évidemment plus d'avantages que les comités, mais les deux ont droit à des aides et des subventions.

Le derby est donc toléré en commission course. L'avantage pour nous est que nous sommes affilié(e)s à l'association nationale de roller et que nous avons la licence, qui constitue notre assurance sur roulettes. Mais n'étant pas une "catégorie" à part entière, le derby français n'a pas d'aides (cf. galère financière pour la Team France, entre autres).

Il s'est dit à l'AG que le derby -- comme le roller-soccer qui en est au même stade d'intégration, toléré en course -- aurait droit cette année à devenir une sous-catégorie reconnue dans la commission vitesse!! Un premier pas vers la reconnaissance.
Ça va être une année test pour voir l'évolution de la popularité du derby français. Si la discipline continue de croître, elle pourrait bien exister en tant que discipline à part entière.
Les prochaines élections FFRS sont en 2013, ce qui laisse deux ans pour prouver que le Derby français est en pleine croissance et qu'il ne s'agit pas seulement d'un effet de mode.

Prochainement, nous pourrons donc sélectionner pour notre licence: Catégorie Course, Sous-catégorie Derby. YEAHH. En plus du fait que ça commence à l'faire grave, ça nous assurera une couverture certaine en cas de pépin lors de la pratique du Derby. Ce qui n'était pas forcément le cas jusqu'à présent -- Eh oui y'a écrit "course" pas "derby" qu'ils pourraient dire les gens... Un peu comme si vous vous blessiez en kite-surf alors que vous êtes assurés en pétanque (comment ça, j'exagère?)
Et, autre avantage non négligeable, ça nous permettra de nous recenser pour savoir combien nous sommes de pratiquant(e)s derby en France!

Affaire à suivre, je ne sais pas quand ça prendra effet mais ça devrait être mis en place dans les quelques mois (semaines?) à venir.

Retrouvez ce post sur le forum du roller-derby français

Commercial break Rock'n Roulettes

2011-11-15T13:25:00.000+01:00

www.citazine.fr/article/roule-pour-elles

This is a brand-new article written by Dorothée Duchemin for Citazine webmagazine, entitled "Rock'n Roulettes". The journalist attended our last bout against the Gent Go-Go Girls and mixed her feelings of the show with interviews and historical researches.

A captivating and lively article -- although you can spot a couple of mistakes as for the rules. But the atmosphere and spirit are there. And it makes you want to put your skates on!!

/!\ FRENCH /!\

Akouphën's 2nd album: "ΣLΣVΣN"

2011-11-11T21:47:00.001+01:00

It's got (almost) nothing to do with derby, but I cannot just go on as if nothing had happened:

I'm glad to announce you that my band's second album is out today. That's the way it had to be: ΣLΣVΣN was meant to be released on the 11.11.11.

The title stands for lots of things, the most obvious being that we're in 2011 and that it's the 11th anniversary of the band.

At first Akouphën was a crew intermixing different artistic fields, but as time went by it focused on music. I joined the band in 2005, we made a good bunch of concerts and we issued our first album "Face.A" in 2007 with Ozore Age/Pias. A great first step which I was very proud of, although I was aware that our sound was still a bit young and needed to mature.

I left that very year because I had to move for skating reasons, and I dedicated the next couple of years to my Freestyle Skating career. I put an end to it in 2010 -- switching to derby, and going back to my second passion: music.

We spent a year writing this second album, TBJ and me. He composed the music and I did the vocals and the lyrics.

Not being signed with any label anymore, we exploited our artistic freedom to the max as for composition, not sticking to only one music style: we kept the electro basis and we mixed it with as many references and influences as possible. The album is quite eclectic and I love it!

I particularly paid attention to the lyrics. True, the songs deal with the overused themes of love and hate -- this kind of feelings. But I made shure to express them with fresh words and stories, mixing irony, fate, and fun... in order to wrap up these usual themes with unusual images.

You can follow the adventure of a girl desperately waiting for a text, becoming so upset that she ends up drunk in her kitchen to kill the anger in "Textpectation"; that of a game-girl wanting a buddy game-boy to play with in "Game Boy"; that of a lousy flirt trying to hit on a drowsy girl in "Catch 22"...

I'm obviousy getting inspired by my every-day life and skating makes two appearances in the album: One on "Shit Talker", a song I already talked about in my article about old ladies who fuss with you for no reason; and one on "Gross Beat" which could be mistaken with the description of a hot sex scene but which is actually dealing with roller-derby!

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/akouphen12

No Manual .01

Roundabout .02

Game Boy .03

Make It Roll .04

Textpectation .05

Falling Up .06

Catch 22 .07

Shit Talker .08

Where Does It Go Wrong .09

(Not) Sorry .10

Gross Beat .11

[Bonus] .12

released 11 November 2011
Kloé : Lyrics/Voices
Turbo.J : Music
Mix & Editing : Akouprod
Mastering : Mobo @ Conkrete Studio -- www.conkrete-studio.com
Cover Art : Kaa -- www.kaalium.fr

I'm stopping the spoilers:
Discover the album by yourself with your own two ears on our Myspace and Facebook for full song previews, and get the album on CDBABY and Facebook MusicStore... as well as on iTunes!
-- Love it, Share it, Buy it (to support us so that we can press it), and "Make it Rock, Make it Roll, People!"

Opération Tonnerre: PRG Vs. Go-Go Gent

2011-11-01T13:23:00.000+01:00

I haven’t been writing much lately – I mean, actually I did write a lot, for work, which is why I couldn’t take care of this blog.

Still I take the time to report on the match of last weekend Opération Tonnerre, featuring the Paris RollerGirls Vs. the Gent Go-Go RollerGirls.

Organization and Bercy Gym

We had managed to get the Bercy Gym just like for Goldfinger against Malmö last June, after weeks of pleading and harassing for them to give us a second chance. We were quite late on the schedule last time and they didn’t like it at all.

This time we had learned from our previous mistakes and the organization was close to perfection, so that the keeper of the gym even came to congratulate the Paris RollerGirls’ organization and confided that he wished that all the clubs using the gym were as squared as us. Epic Win! …And Epic Reward for the girls who spent sleepless night sweating on the event - Marion could tell you more about it than me.

www.nantesderbygirls.fr

Opening Private Scrimmage

Scrimmage Picture Gallery by Nantes Derby Girls
The bout was preceded by a private scrimmage between the Parisians Rollergirls who had passed their Minimum Skills test but were not playing the game, and the Nantes Derby Girls. Unfortunately I couldn’t watch it 1) because I arrived late as I had to welcome my mum whose train was 1hr. late, and 2) because once in the gym I helped around. I heard the Parisians did pretty well, which is confirmed by the final score (86 to 36). Note: Let’s not forget that there were a couple of all-stars helping out the PRGs on the track.

1^st Period

Obviously, we chose the song "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" for the team's entrance... quite different from the Go-Gos' Beastie Boys stuff. Haha! Now let’s talk a bit about the bout. We lost 129 to 158… although we were leading something like ~100 to 30 (?) at the end of the first period! I’ve got a few clues about what happened, but no real answer as everything I am going to tell you is utterly subjective. Moreover, I only played two jams in the pack as a blocker, the rest of the time I was jamming, thus I saw everything from the outside and I don’t have this judgment from the inside of the pack.

www.gentgogorollergirls.be

The thing that’s certain is that the Go-Go Gent, born in 2008, knew how to play defense with a 4-blocker wall in the back, which, as a jammer, I found quite annoying. They were also keeping the inside line efficiently enough to force us, PRG jammers, to take the outside – and skate the no-zone goddamnit! Despite their defense we managed to lead the whole first period, scoring 30 points before they managed to score 1, thanks to a couple of brilliant jams led by Joan Get 27.

I had a hard time and I didn’t manage to get the lead once in the game (or maybe once?!) but still, I was always on the heels of the opponent jammer who couldn’t but call it off – at least they didn’t score many points out of me!

Break-time

We started the break with a minute of noise, kneeling down, in the memory of Velvet Bagheera, ending up with a lap of honor following the flag that we made especially for the occasion: a red flag (the color of her team) featuring a black panther walking solemnly.

We then had a team meeting, saying that we had to make room on the inside line and disturb their walls in the back for the second part of the game.

2^nd Period

The first jam after the break, we were only three PRGs on the track: Bloody and Pooky as blockers and me as the jammer. We did an awesome job, we had the perfect timing: they were making room for me each time I needed and I was seizing the opportunities. This was the only jam when I felt good. I did a couple of nice actions during the game (I jumped the apex on the four whistle blows and blocked the girl who tried to hit me at the landing!!), but this was the only jam I was leading.

Then everything went very fast… let’s note that with the second period we had switched referent refs for the teams. I’m quoting Absolut Vermine for her mathematical summary of the situation: “1st period: 17 GoGo Vs. 11 PRG in the Penalty Box. 2nd period: 11 Gogo Vs. 27 PRG!!!!” Some of us received unjustified Major penalties. A couple of rule points were problems as for their definitions and for their application, especially no-packs and out of plays. I think it pissed off most of us, which led to a more aggressive play and favored more penalties – deserved or not. Talking of what I’m sure, i.e. me, I know that I was more brutal as a jammer in the 2^nd p. and I was accused twice of major back blocking whereas I was just arriving faster, stopping closer… and touching people more.

The second period was a whole mess. The track was all red, with spots of blue here and there from times to times. The Go-Gos remained focused and united, while we grew irritated and helpless: We had the feeling that we could be arbitrarily sent to the box anytime. The Go-Gos took the lead and we didn’t manage to get it back.

by Gosh || thegoshworld.blogspot.com

At least we offered a great show to the public

with an unexpected reversal of situation.

There were some issues with the reffing, true. Now we should all be indulgent as this sport is brand-new for everybody here in Europe. Players as well as Refs need to be trained, so that in a couple of years we are all ready for the real thing. Yes, we are frustrated and we feel that we’ve been unjustly abused, but let’s stand back and remember that the whole building up of the sport is still in progress, let’s also remember that disagreements are meant to be discussed and fixed for the improvement of us all… and let’s not forget that despite the final score, we still did great actions which we have to be proud of!

Check out:

Facebook PICTURE Gallery by Marion Agé
Facebook PICTURE Gallery by Benoit Robin
Facebook PICTURE Gallery by Sabine Cayet
Facebook PICTURE Gallery by Nantes Derby Girls

Skate Cross in Haining

2011-10-15T13:18:00.001+02:00

Last week, I was in China for a Skate Cross competition.

"...A what?!"

I'm sure you derby girls will agree with the concept of the discipline. Actually despite all the differences, there's quite a lot of common points with derby. Despite that...

We use inline skates, no quad-skates.

You're alone against the world, no team.

The competition is unfolding on a street/skatepark, no flat-track.

The aim is as following:

You have a given circuit in the area, and you've got to do it as fast as possible.

The skaters go by groups of four, determined according to the results of the try-outs. The two first who cross the finish line can go through to the next round, the two lasts are knocked out.

WSX #6 Haining, CHINA from SEBASKATES on Vimeo.

Then... What does this have to do with derby?

Imagine the obstacles are blockers and the others skaters are three opponent jammers. Get out of the obstacles in first position to keep the lead, and stop the jam in crossing the finish line.

You're not technically allowed to hit your fellow-skaters... No tripping, no punching, no knocking with the head and other bullshits... but you can still make room if someone bothers you. Not that far from derby, finally.

Flash-Back

www.skatecross.net

Back in the days, Bladercross had witnessed its golden age, then fell into oblivion for nearly ten years.

Last year, SebaSkates decided to revive and structure it in creating the World Skate Cross Series... and I'm intimately convinced that the concept is going to spread out as fast as its big sister, the World Slalom Series, the development of which I took part in several years ago.

Now you want to know what the competition was like?

I'm proud to tell you that there were enough girls to make a female category, and that I ended up second, just behind my friend Marjorie -- which I find totally satisfying given it's my first go at skate-crossing!

It's fun to run on a skatepark, it changes your perception of it: you don't want to flip or fly, you just want to swallow everything to stay close to the ground and push as much as you can.

There is still a huge level gap between men and women but let's not lose hope!

Credit: SebaSkates

The trip was as ok as a trip in China can be...

I was asked by the officer at the border who looked insistantly at my shoulders if I was coming for a boxing competition,
I spilled my tomato juice all over me at the very beginning of the 11-hour plane trip and I had to spend the rest of the trip naked under my hoodie,
We rushed into a restaurant once we arrived (after two hours spent in a bus to drive us from Shanghai to Haining) and we waited more than one hour for our spaghettis to be served,
We witnessed fireworks at day to celebrate the competition,
We had to bear the same music compilation in the hotel for one week the main anthem of it being "My heart will go on",
We had nothing to do in Haining but going to the gym's, the swimming pool and the sauna of the hotel -- Have you ever seen a Chinese woman drying her pubic hair with the hair-dryer of the public changing room?
We had to shake off dogs that started to chase us because according to them skating on the road was a menace to their home sweet home,
We took the Maglev which is the fastest train in the universe reaching 431 kph and covering 30 fucking km in 8 fucking min,
We got attacked for 50 cents at the fake market because a thief of a guy tried to nab me and I was too proud to let go,
We admired the skyline and the Pearl Tower by night,
We saved a woman from being clubbed and kicked to death by a man down our hotel...

It's been one week,

this is a non-exhaustive list,

and I'm still in the recovery process...

Video Derby Invaders at the Disco

2011-10-10T17:23:00.000+02:00

Remember the OnWheelz disco party of last June?

Well... it went like this!

ONWHEELZ 11JUIN 2011 from rollerjim on Vimeo.

72-96-68

2011-09-28T10:01:00.000+02:00

Thank God it's NOT my measurements, but my results for a physical recovery test.

This morning I went to the doctor for the annual appointment to get my medical certificate proving I'm allowed to do sports...

He made me do the Ruffier-Dickson Test to ckeck my capacity to adapt to a physical effort. The test is very basic and you must have experienced it at least once in your life.

The test is run following three steps :

Take your Heart Rate at rest on 1 minute (sitting or laying down) (P1)
Make 30 up & down knee flexions within 45 sec with the feet flat on the floor.Take your HR on 15 sec (P2)
Rest 1 minute, and take your Heart Rate (P3)

Calculate the index according to the formula :

Index = (P1+P2+P3-200)/10

Index value	Adaptation to physical effort
>15	Weak
between 10 & 15	Average
Between 5 & 10	Good
Between 0 & 5	Very good
< 0	Excellent

I do that very test every year at the same doctor's and I'm used to be around 3.5. Which is pretty good.

Greater surprise this year: I'm 1.8! With my heart rate under 100 after activity.

DERBY IS GOOD

"Black Velvet, if you please..."

2011-09-26T12:41:00.000+02:00

Words are missing in moments like these.

"After silence,

that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible

is music."

Aldous Huxley.

...In loving memory of Velvet Bagheera, 7.7

Who the fuck is gonna call me 'Evil Goblin' now?!

Paris RollerGirls Open Practice on TV

2011-09-21T16:28:00.000+02:00

On Monday Sept. 12th, we organized an Open Practice in our "new" gym at Saint Denis, in the suburb of Paris.

I put "new" in brackets because in reality it's an old municipal gym, mainly used by the school next door, and by the local skating club during the evenings of the week. We managed to get a time slot on Monday evenings thanks to a partnership with the SDUS skating club.

This open evening was also our first official practice after the summer break. We were expecting more visitors, but it was for the best as the gym is quite small: it was crowded and sometimes the fright was worth the coming... wheels and plates were flying close! Haha.

The TV showed up and we had a nice report on CANAL+ a couple of days after. They made a cute edit, mixing footages of drills and scrimmages as well as interviews.
TF1, another national channel, came to get their bearings for an upcoming show... More information soon I hope!

Oh My GOSH !!

2011-09-20T14:38:00.000+02:00

A couple of months ago, Sailor Blood came across a badass blog with badass illustrations wrapped up with badass humor. I won't bother you with all the details because this is a long story about a google search, smurfs and latex -- Yeah... long AND freaky!

Gosh -- TheGoshWorld.blogspot.com

Anyway, she cliks on the link to the website, browses a bit and *WhamBam* she discovers an illustration of a super-stylish rollergirl. She can't help but contacting him and inviting him to a bout. As the guy does photography too, he asks if he can take pictures of a game some time.

Exciting, hu? Even more when she discovers the story of their mail exchange two days later on the blog, with an awesome fake cover of a skating magazine staging a roller-derby bout.

You're wanting a name don't you?

He is called GOSH and he's pegging away on

The Gosh World.

We all met him yesterday at practice, at last! The encounter is related through his first set of pictures of us on his photography blog, under the title "Hey Ladies... First Try"

Commercial Break RISE Magazine #15

2011-09-18T13:08:00.000+02:00

Rise Magazine #15

Yesterday,

I went to the Tattoo Art Fest

And I found out

that there was a picture of me

in the Rise Magazine

of this month!

Ironic,

given that I have

a virgin skin...

...Full article HERE...

Team France Donations

2011-09-17T12:26:00.000+02:00

At first, when you learn you're selected for Team France, you jump for joy. Then you start thinking and you realize that OMG you need money!

Indeed, just like the other national teams that are going to take part in the first derby World Cup ever next December in Toronto, each single one of us is paying for their own trip. And flying to Toronto is quite expensive...

The whole stuff is already well explained by yours truely

on the French Team WebSite...

We're looking for sponsors and for any kind of help, including yours!
Feel free to help: we'll be eternally thankfull and we'll hold you in our hearts forever (maybe a little less 'cause forever's a f***ing long time!)

Paris RollerGirls Entrance Test

2011-09-15T13:11:00.000+02:00

What's the finality of new recruit workshops?

The Entrance Test!

Click to enlarge!

To close the 4 workshops, the last being this Sunday (Sept.18), the test will take place on Oct. 2nd at Jules Noël Skatepark, a park under a dome tent, so that we just don't have to bother about the weather.

The test will be about all the drills that were explained during the workshops, to check the general skating ability of the girls. But if you know the basics of skating you don't have to worry: We're going to check if you know how to stop (T-stop, plow stop), how to fall (one knee, two knees, four points, 180° fall), how to jump (10cm), and how to slalom (10 cones, 180cm wide).

As for the equipment, unlike for the workshops, this time quad skates are compulsory, as well as the rest of the protections (knees, elbows, wrists, helmet, and mouthguard).

If you don't have all of these at home, you can still have a look at Hawaii Surf and you should find what you need!

If you're interested in taking the test,

just send an e-mail (compulsory) at recrutement@parisrollergirls.com.

BCRD Advanced Bootcamp

2011-09-01T00:23:00.000+02:00

Introduction: Fate & Planes

Sometimes fate can be as kind as cruel.

Sometimes bad things lead to even greater things than the ones you missed.

Remember the Epic Fail of the Paris RollerGirls Vs. the Berlin Bombshells in late July? When Destiny had decided that the Air France strike would affect only one flight, THE flight. It had to be the Paris-Berlin of course. And one complication leading to another, the bout had to be cancelled (again).

Remember my Epic Rage when I learnt that I had shortened my stay in Las Vegas at the RollerCon for a cancelled bout? I was lucky that I didn't have a direct flight, and arriving in Paris I rushed into an Air France shop to change my ticket… for a trip on the 27-28 Aug. Same date as the Advanced Bootcamp run by Swede Hurt and Suzy Hotrod. An exciting perspective which lessened my frustration for having left so early. The registrations had been closed the previous week, but the camp was not sold out and I managed to get my ticket.

26 days later, I’m entering the plane, searching for seat 3D. Given the number it should have been just behind the first class. No first class?! I realized soon enough that there actually was a first class, and that I was in it. Food and champagne in a 1:40-trip = Epic Win! (I’m more into tomato juice but the possibility of ordering champagne is just cool.)

Skate Store Opening

Paulina Pocket went to meet me at the airport and we went directly to the opening party of the brand-new Quad Skate Shop run by Master Blaster and Great Vengeance. Seems that Derby is here to stay, spreading and settling for good in Europe!

Schedule

Saturday morning 7 AM. The alarm clock must have rung. Didn’t hear it. The good point when you’re used to work at home is that you can wake up as late as you feel like. I might be exploiting this right a bit excessively.

7:30 AM – Pocket progressively turns on the volume of the radio to wake me up. Clever.

7:31 AM – I open an eye.

7:32 AM – I open the other eye. Hopefully I only got two!

We arrived at the venue at 9-ish to help prepare the halls: sweeping, washing and setting the tape for the track. I also tested the floor with my 88A wheels. Good. Why does everybody in Paris say that it’s the most slippery floor ever? From now on, if you tell me 80 I bring 84/88! Word!

There were a big hall and a small one in which we only had the inside line of a track taped. Groups A and B were alternating, changing halls and coaches. I was disappointed at first when I discovered the schedule because we didn’t have that many hours, but in the end with a little perspective my sore body of the morrow told me it was enough: 11 AM to 5 PM with a 1 hr. lunch-break both days, ending up with a scrimmage on Sunday afternoon.

After-Party

We had a little skating “after-party” with Suzy and Pocket, in showing up at the Berlin NightSkate. Rollergirls are pussies: we were only three out of the whole bootcamp to take up the challenge. We stopped after a good hour to jump in the metro and join the three quarters of the girls who were having drinks in a bar close to the venue.

I remember why I have dropped the habit of going to night skates: it’s boring. But at least we can say that we skated Berlin. I did, with my brand-new Mojo wheels. Not very pink anymore. Nor very grippy I’m afraid.

Teaching

I just loved the way the classes were run. To quote Coach Suzy Hotrod, the aim was to show us as many elements as possible, so that we could pick up the ones we wanted, and bring them back home to share. Then we should make our own recipes with the chosen elements, bake, and we'd get an original cake in the end: Our Style. Perfectly fits to my vision of teaching.

The classes were unfolding as following: starting from a basic stance or move, we were progressively building up in adding elements, tips and variations, so that we had progressive drills leading to a final concept. Very pedagogical. The drills were lasting just enough for us to integrate the concepts, so that we could understand the patterns and work them back home.

Sometimes Swede and Suzy showed us the same types of drills. But it was all the more interesting to see how each one was coping with the breaking down of a same technique, according to their feelings and visions: in fact it was quite complementary for us to have different versions to mix up.

Scrimmage

Quite a lot of girls had left prematurely (that’s what I was told). The technique to make even teams was just brilliant: each of us had to pair up with someone of equal level/experience/position. Then the couples had to separate, one player in each team. I was in Awesome Black Power Team led by Swede. I don’t know if the Whites led by Suzy had a nickname too?!

The game was rough. People were falling *a lot*. At the beginning the Whites were much more organized than us, building efficient 3-blocker walls in the front. We were a lot messier but it got better with time, jam after jam.

Anyway the game was so awesome that people asked for 10 minutes more at the end of the game. But we had heavy losses in the Black ranks and half of our team was agonizing on the bench: Matadora hurt her knee real bad, Pocket’s elbow was destroyed but she bravely (or foolishly?) insisted to go on, Maloony had an asthma crisis… We dropped from 2 ½ lines to hardly 1 ½ line in the end. Swede’s condition for 10 more minutes was that the Whites lent us two players. Deal. So here we go again!

Now guess what? At the end of the extra time we were still begging for more… Amused, the refs finally accepted one more last jam. Joan Get27 and I had the honor of playing it.

The game was close: 68-69 at the half time. The Whites won with 161 to 148 (approx.).

The scrimmage was very instructive, with strategies exchanged in the lines, and ultra-patient Dr. No-No who even offered a story-telling break to go back on an unusual case that had just happened.

Credit: Ethyl Trash

Epilogue: All good things come to an end…

Fate can be as cruel as kind sometimes too…

My plane back was two hours late: two technical problems in the left engine just before the take-off. We had to go back twice to the parking to get it fixed. I was scared to death when we finally took off….

Useful Links

Music break Fishing With Guns TEASER

2011-08-25T18:18:00.000+02:00

A couple of months ago a bunch of Paris RollerGirls had the opportunity to take part in the incredible experience of shooting a music video with the soon-famous FISHING WITH GUNS !! You can meet the guys on facebook, they're supakewl.

While the video is being edited, here is a short (but efficient) teaser to make your mouth water!

Now I'm sure you will have recognized, apart from the crazy FWG guys, Absolut Vermine, Bone E. Vicious, Cherry LieLie, Dixie Pixie, Kozmic Bruise, Krokett Rumblebee, Nicky Strike and Whisky Mamy. If not... Then play again ;)

Holidays in the U.K.

2011-08-25T17:41:00.000+02:00

I haven't been very talkative lately because I was on holiday in London. Ten days to chill out, go shopping at Oxford Street, clean out second-hand CD shops, smoke chicha, ride motorbikes, but above all to SKATE!

I usually go to England every summer -- Don't ask me why I don't go spending my holidays in the Spanish sun just like every normal French people... My rebel side tells me to go North when everybody goes South. The weather is not worse than in Paris... after all England in the rain is just a myth (okay, I convey that sometimes it's not).

For three years there's been this annual freestyle skating event called SkateLondon in which I used to take part. This year SkateLondon hosted the European Championships and I decided to go as a visitor (yet, I ended up as a judge to give a hand for the Classic, but this is another story...)

And the weekend before there was this unmissable Derby Bout: The Rocky Mountain Vs. The London Brawling.

The video is unfortunately not available on DNN but you can have a look at the French Textcast by Francey Pants. The level difference between the two teams could be felt but still the game was powerful, fast and dynamic: The final score was 228-49.

Let's note the great feat of Kami (London) who, during the second to last jam -- at the beginning of which the Rocky were leading 194 to 24 -- gets the lead and scores 25 points, i.e. half of the points in the whole game, while the Rocky jammer, DeRanged, is in the box. This was the emotional moment of the evening: the whole crowd standing up and cheering the London jammer!

We had the opportunity to skate at the London Rollergirls Sunday practice two days after. Three hours in a gym in the suburb of London. We mixed the teams twice, first period was the short-haired Vs. Long-haired, and second period was born-before-july Vs. born-from-july-on. In-between we had a 30min-free practice break, which I think is a great thing to work on what you want and give you new ideas.

BaySixty6 - K.Zhargham

Now don't think we only played Derby in London!

We went for a Freestyle Slalom Session in Hyde Park with Millefeuille and Joan Jet27 who actually tried slalom-skating with inline-skates. Beware!

And we also took part in a session at Bay Sixty6, a complete skatepark under a bridge, with ramps, bowl, tables, etc. Awesome!

Check out KEANOUSH ZARGHAM's PHOTOSHOOT of that day.

The only thing missing was a rollerdancing night at the Vauxhall Roller Disco... Next time!

Commercial break WAD Magazine

2011-08-03T15:23:00.000+02:00

WAD #49 "Wadabout Sports"

After having been the subject of a big file,

two weeks ago,

in the Slimming Section of ELLE Magazine

saying "A skatingly fun phenomenon"...

...The Paris RollerGirls

are on

WAD Magazine today!

"Paris RollerGirls"

Texts both in French and English

Paris RollerGirls Summer Workshops

2011-08-03T14:55:00.000+02:00

In order for the new recruits to get ready for the integration test, the Paris RollerGirls organize workshops in August and September.

click to enlarge

The integration test, the MIST (Minimum Individual Skills Test), is a mere security formality. It will deal with skating basics such as falling, stopping, jumping, crossing... The workshops are not compulsory, but they are meant to point out and explain the drills that will be specifically needed for the MIST.

The idea is that as a Derby League, the Paris RollerGirls are going to teach you how to Derby, not how to Skate, so that you need to have a basic skating level to start the real stuff :)

The workshops will be run by qualified Coaches (Amelia Scareheart, Kozmic Bruise and Wheely Wonka) with their assistants (Cherry LieLie, Joan Get27 and Truck-Off Pooky) for the On-Skate part; and by the Paris Refs (Brute et Peste, Maëlstrom and Watzé) for the Rules part.

All the sessions will have the same content -- you can see the program on the flyer -- but run by different coaches so that there will be different hindsights to the drills. They will take place on Sundays from 11AM to 3PM, i.e. a short Off-Skates to warm up, 3hrs. On Skates and 1hr. of Basic Rules. Check out the flyer for the dates!

A session is 15€: which means 3,75€ per hour...

Ten times cheaper than normal private skating lessons!

The money will go to the association to pay for bout trips or course material.

You won't need quad skates for the workshops, inline skates will do!

But please come at least with protective gear: knees, elbows and wrists. Helmets and mouthguards are welcome but not compulsory.

If you are interested (as I'm sure you are), contact the coaches at recrutement@parisrollergirls.com to register or to ask for further information.

RollerCon 2011

2011-07-31T19:04:00.000+02:00

Miscellaneous

4 tracks and a huge off-skates room
A gigantic hotel in which you can get lost just like that (tested and approved)
Waiting lines to get tickets to attend workshops
Over-secured check-in – too bad for you if you don’t gather on time your ID, your RC pass, your Workshop ticket and your RC sticker on the left side of your helmet
Stickers, badges, goodies a go-go
A crowd of rollergirls AND rollerboys from all over the world
Tons of love, tons of flashy “lift-n-separate” short pants, and tons of workshops’n scrimmages all day long

The experience was very instructive, attending such a huge event, observing the organization, remembering tips and drills of the workshops I took, meeting people I didn’t know, meeting others I knew and I hadn’t seen in a while. I was there only for two days, but I tried to enjoy these 48 hrs as much as possible.

RollerCon 2011 (July 27-31)

Riviera Hotel

Las Vegas, Nevada

Workshops

I went to 3 on-skate classes and 2 off-skates.

I liked Quadzilla’s on-skates best, probably because this guy is an all-rounded skater, not just a derby player. Some of his skating technique tips adapted to Derby in his “Is a bird ‘showing’ off when it flies?” and “Spin to Win” classes piqued my curiosity, and I’m going to work on them. Lulu Lockjaw’s “Grasshopper Jamming” class was less exciting for me because her techniques don’t match my skating in general, but still it was well run and must have been extremely interesting for toe-stops lovers (which I’m not at all – but this is a question of tastes).

http://www.rollercon.net/

As for Mercy’s off-skate, I’d say the other way around: the content was interesting with lots of varied exercises both individual and interactive, but the 1h-class was 100% focused on thigh building-up, not varied enough and it turned into a free thigh slaughter, which I don’t think she realized (or then she knew it too well) because she didn’t do the drills with us. Hopefully, there was a “Derbyoga” class following to stretch. Seriously, I’ve got powerful thighs and she just killed me, I can hardly walk. I just don’t want to know how bad the others are today.

My legs hurt to this point only two times in my life: First time was before the international Beijing Slalom Open when I had to jog on the Great Wall of China because we started our tour a bit late and we were afraid that the doors would be closed ; Second time was the day before the Freestyle Slalom Skating European Championships in Moscow, when I did a stupid but awesome trampoline session. Hardcore, told you.

Regrets

I’m quite satisfied for the sports part, but a bit frustrated as for partying:

I could stay only two days – remember that we were meant to play against the Berlin Bombshells on Saturday… And I was jetlagged because I didn’t try to adapt to local time, not fighting tiredness in the early evening and getting up at 5AM… on purpose so that I would still be a bit human and not totally zombified on the track on D-Day. Damn!

If I had known, I would have certainly partied a bit more… and I would have taken part in the open scrimmages. I was dying to do one, but they were scheduled “too late” in the evening (9PM) and I wouldn’t risk getting hurt out of tiredness 2 days before the bout. This is my biggest regret of the trip, far bigger than the party stuff.

Brand: Crazy -- Model: DBX

2011-07-30T14:23:00.000+02:00

This is the name of the prototype I’ve been testing for 2 months.
New brand coming on the market. And it’s hot!

The boot prototypes were extremely promising, with two revolutionary major points: rigid for a better reactivity, and super comfy. They had a couple of drawbacks which have been fixed on the last prototypes I saw, a couple of days ago at the RollerCon when I met the guys at last.
The skates look just awesome – they didn’t have my size… so I’m just guessing. I tried them (two sizes too big), and compared to mine the pressure points around the ankle have totally disappeared, it’s not biting the Achilles tendon or the malleolus anymore.
It took me weeks to break the prototypes in, but the new ones will only need a couple of hours.

DBX Boot prototype + Roll Line Variant Plate

Eagerly waiting for a whole set-up in my size, with the new version of the boot – and the plates this time.

CrazySkates is an Americano-Australian brand, very close to SebaSkates, my inline freestyle skating sponsor. I was lucky with the circumstances: I shifted from freestyle to derby at the time when Crazy was developing the brand.

Oh, and don’t worry, the skates will definitely be BLACK!

Paris Vs. Berlin (Destiny's Vengeance)

2011-07-29T13:40:00.000+02:00

The 30^th of July should be celebrated as Bad-Luck Day! Half of the Paris All-Stars showed up this morning (Friday) at the airport to fly to Berlin one day in advance. The Strike is back with a vengeance: Air France cancelled their flights… to Berlin ONLY!! “Isn’t it Ironic, don’t you think?”

Credit: Bone E. Vicious

Destiny is against us. Just as if it was punishing us for having dared trying to make it happen against its will no matter what. We had even found an alternate solution for bench managing… Now, the game is cancelled for good, as too many girls cannot get a replacement flight on time.

I’m living all this catastrophe scenario from afar, physically, as I was in Las Vegas (now in the airport on my way back home, blogging to kill the time) to attend the 2011 RollerCon!!!!! I was supposed to catch my plane to Berlin at Paris airport on Saturday morning, after a 20-hour trip to reach Paris… I’ll try to change the dates of my tickets when I arrive in Paris if I can – already got a couple of ideas, haha!

Such a shame. I wanted to baptize my new pair of short pants…

Paris Vs. Berlin (Part.2)

2011-07-24T15:37:00.000+02:00

by M'zelle Tout Court - Artwork:Koz

Guess what?!

The most head-banging situation...

This is all just a (very) bad joke: Air France is finally *not* striking this weekend!!

After a quick consultation, we came to a final decision given that:

The gym is still available
The girls still have their plane tickets

"Let's go and see!"

Only Fifi Lafoe was far-sighted enough to take the ticket-insurance and she got refunded. She's the only one who won't be coming... which I think is quite sad because she's leaving in September and it was going to be our last bout with her :(

12 girls should make it to Berlin, which is the minimum number for an official WFTDA game.

We still have to solve the problem of the missing bench coach -- Yep: Brute et Peste should have been the one in charge but she got stolen her wallet with her one and only ID paper in it 10 days ago... Too short to get a new one in time to take the plane!

Man, this is Rock'n Roll...!

2011 French Team

2011-07-21T15:04:00.000+02:00

The selections for the French Team took place last weekend at Le Hangar Skatepark in Nantes.

There were 20 places and we were nearly 40 to try our luck: 10 from Paris, 9 from Toulouse, 7 from Bordeaux and from Metz, 2 from Nantes and Montpellier... not forgetting the expatriates with 2 girls living in the US and two others in the UK.

The schedule of the try-outs was intense:

Starting at 2PM for us to register, get our number-of-the-day (mine was #29 and it remained at least 3 days on my shoulder... bloody permanent markers!), get used to the floor...

The atmosphere was unpleasantly heavy, as if it was some kind of audition -- I had this weird feeling to be brought back years ago, at the time when I was a ballet dancer at the national Conservatoire. Hopefully we managed to relax it little by little.

However, the real beginning was at 3PM, here we go for 2 hours of skills analyzed by our judges: Amelia Scareheart, Slash Gordon, Bravehurt and Brute et Peste. Agility, Team work, and Blocking'n Helping were the main points.

After a well-deserved break we had still the second part left, alternating between Scrimmage and Theory written test. All the girls had been divided into four teams and while two teams were scrimmaging a half-time, the two others were working on strategy questions. I found it *extremely* frustrating to be mixed with girls I didn't know at all (from their names to their skills). The first half-time was a mess, and it hopefully got a little better on the second half-time as we had had the time to observed each other.

The afterparty was at the BPM bar-club, with a cosy atmosphere in the basement where they were playing some swing music and old beats.

The following day was quite busy too with two scrimmages (newbies and advanced), organized in a gym quite far away -- far enough to get lost twice. This second scrimmage of the weekend was a blast!! Much Funnier than that of the selections. My team managed to build efficient walls and the opposite jammers had a hard time trying to get through a good bunch of times. As usual I went to the box a couple of times (I should stop trying to jump the apex... I would cut the track less often). Whisky Mamy hurt her knee at the very beginning of the first half-time, and she had a go at bench managing, which was very welcomed!

The weekend ended up in the traffic jams on the way back. We got stuck hours and hours arriving in Paris at midnight. I was sore and bruised all over on the next day but it was so worth it.

Roller derby : sélection de l'équipe de France à... par sportdating

Now, the results:

The selected girls had the answer yesterday evening but we were instructed not to reveal the list before 2PM this afternoon.

French Team:

Bambu Sengoku (Roller Derby Toulouse)
Bestia Loca (Roller Derby Toulouse)
Belle Zebuth (Les Petites Morts de Bordeaux)
Bone E. Vicious (Paris Rollergirls)
Bloody Vuitton (Paris Rollergirls)
Butch Shan (Paris Rollergirls)
Cash Pitashe (Roller Derby Toulouse)
Chakk Attack (Roller Derby Toulouse)
Cherry LieLie (Paris Rollergirls)
Dual Hitizen (D.C. Rollergirls)
Emi Wild (Les Petites Morts de Bordeaux)
Karla Karschër (Les Petites Morts de Bordeaux)
Katy Fury (Paris Rollergirls)
Kozmic Bruise (Paris Rollergirls)
Frenchy Pants (Montreal Roller Derby)
Joan Get 27 (Paris Rollergirls)
Maggie Yo Teen (Roller Derby Toulouse)
Meryl Strip-her (Paris Rollergirls)
Truck-Off Pooky (Paris Rollergirls)
Whisky Mamy (Paris Rollergirls)

Alternates:

Router Girl (Pioneer Valley Roller Derby)
Feroce Satine (Roller Derby Toulouse)
Hell Alaniak (Les Petites Morts de Bordeaux)
L'ascleuse (Roller Derby Toulouse)
Dee I. Why (Roller Derby Metz Club)

** TORONTO, WE'RE COMING! **

Useful Links

(French): Report of the French Try-Outs on Nantes' Website

Pictures by Insane Motion: Day 1 and Day 2

Paris Vs. Berlin ABORTED

2011-07-20T14:23:00.000+02:00

Although we were impatiently waiting to play against the Berlin BomShells, we have just cancelled our last game of the season...

Honestly: What were the chances to be a massive strike on the same day?!

Yesterday, the news announced that there was going to be a concerted strike, confirmed and signed by the Air France unions, for July 29, 30 and 31 (the game being on Saturday 30.)

The information was confirmed by our undercover agents, Absolut Vermine and Meryl_Strip-Her.

We came to the conclusion that it was safer and wiser to cancel and postpone the game to another date around September-October... *sad*

Skates and Planes

2011-07-13T18:29:00.000+02:00

I took the plane last weekend. All my little habits came back to me, but it had been a (relatively) long time since my last visit at the airport and a flash crossed my mind: I definitely don’t understand the efficiency of their security system.

1. Luggage Check-in

First of all, you have no choice but spending your whole trip away from your baby-skates: they will be choking in your luggage under a pile of suitcases in the trunk of the plane, while you will be (comfortably?) seating on a chair. And why is it so? Because your frames/plates are weapons.

True, I’m so into stabbing the eyes of the pilot or exploding the windows of the plane with my trucks.

Although I think that it’s a little extreme, I suppose that there are no distinctions in the rules for the different kinds of skates, and that ice skates could be enough to crash a plane. (!!!)

2. Customs Control

While you experience palpation because you unfortunately forgot a metal object in one of your pockets, your hand bag is scanned with X-Rays. Now don’t you forget a tiny little skate tool in your bag (skaters always have spare tools with them): you’d never see them again. Ever.

I had to say goodbye to a poor little key… it was so small that when I had checked a couple of minutes before – at the luggage check-in – it had slipped through my fingers: I had saved two bigger brothers but not the youngest. I obviously tried to soften the employee up but, obviously again, without success.

Now... What's the use of all of this if they keep on serving meals with steel cutlery on long flights?

French Connection

2011-07-02T15:13:00.000+02:00

Roller Derby Toulouse

Presents...

Bordeaux Vs. Paris Vs. Toulouse

We spent the weekend in Toulouse for the FRENCH CONNECTION: the event included a derby tournament gathering the Petites Morts of Bordeaux, the Nothing Toulouse, and the Paris RollerGirls on Saturday, as well as a workshop led by Lola Vulkano and Sky Rockit of the LondonRollerGirls on Sunday.

I changed mode of transport twice before deciding how I would go to Toulouse. I was meant to go by bus from Paris with the 50 PRG going on Friday night. Then, in-between, I decided to spend the previous week in Bordeaux. Bordeaux being 2:30 far from Toulouse, it was a waste of time and money to go back to Paris to take the 10hr.bus. I changed my Bordeaux-Paris Train ticket into a Bordeaux-Toulouse… but then the Petites Morts told me that they had one place left in their cars to go together on Saturday morning. I cancelled my train ticket for good and I hit the road with them.

The gym was in the suburb of Toulouse, in a Leisure Base called La Ramée but nicknamed the Lung of Toulouse: it’s green everywhere and there’s a huge lake. We finally arrived after 22 humps on the Leisure Base Road.

Registering, lunching, getting dressed, warming up, meeting for the refs and captains (because I had been designated captain for the game against Bordeaux)…

This time we were playing in red, Toulouse being in cyan blue. We had new shirts printed, this time with a visible number. And we even had a new (red) flag for the occasion, but *someone* forgot it in the municipal bus…

Basically we had two “B-Teams” of 13, but some of the girls couldn’t make it and finally we had to make 8 girls play twice.

PARIS: 142 | BORDEAUX: 15

We were playing the first game, against Bordeaux. And it didn’t turn out quite like expected… The Petites Morts were in numerical inferiority and they grew tired quickly which is propitious for injuries. At the end of the first half-time, three of them were hurt – i.e. the three-quarters of their jammers: a broken wrist for Belle Zébuth, a twisted ankle for Alka Trace, and a bruised liver for Karla Kärsher. The latter will recover quickly enough to play the last game against Toulouse and cause a stir! They were only 6 left for the second half-time, and rather than killing themselves one by one, they wisely gave up to regain their strengths for their second game.

PARIS: 248 | TOULOUSE: 38

The next game was the Paris RollerGirls against Nothing Toulouse. The organization of the Bench improved a lot compared to the bout against Malmö! The line-ups were efficient and we had a better comprehension of what happened in the Box, and of the counting of our players’ penalties. We were far better focused on the track too and we played together like a team is supposed to.

On the other hand, the Ref Team was extremely severe and we found their sentences a bit exaggerated from time to time. Like that time when Fifi Lafoe got a Major for having put her pivot panty on inside out – i.e. the white stripe was simply white instead of being glitter white… That’s all it changed. Or that other time when Pixie had a Misconduct for having showed she was surprised to get a Major. Or again that time when I got a Major for having cut the track with half a wheel on the fourth whistle blow… The sentences were a bit expansive in my opinion. Anyway, Refs’ words are golden… I went four times to the Box, including three times in three jams in-a-row while I was jamming, which is bad.

BORDEAUX: 103 | TOULOUSE: 92

Now it was time for the Revenge game to start: exactly one year after their first game together, Bordeaux and Toulouse were meeting again! Bordeaux being only 9 (two other players had arrived in-between), the other teams clubbed together to offer them a couple of players to swell their number! Lara Von Rapt and High Wheels, two of our freshmeats who had played only the first half-game, joined them, as well as Crash Banditcroûte of Metz and Phoenix of the Malmö Crime City RollerGirls.
The game was super-tight and I really had a blast watching it and cheering Bordeaux – all my apologies for being biased but a bit of my heart and soul stayed in Bordeaux… [Actually this is funny because when we play against Bordeaux and when I hear people cheering “Go Bordeaux Go” I take it for me too, it’s just like having double-cheering! Haha!]

Toulouse led with a couple of points ahead most of the time. Bordeaux managed to tie around the middle of the second half, and from then on both teams kept on exchanging the lead. At one point, Bordeaux had a bad jam finding two of their blockers and their jammer in the Box: they lost a good bunch of points and I thought it was over. But then the Toulouse Jammer got sent to the box and Bordeaux was offered a power jam for the very last jam… and Karla Kärsher managed the amazing feat of scoring a dozen points and making her team win! Very emotional.

The afterparty took place in the center of Toulouse, at the Opéra Bouffe bar-club. Wheely Wonka was taking part in the workshop of the morrow so we didn’t stay very late, and we slept at a friend of mine's whom I hadn’t seen in four years. Super Great.

On Sunday a good bunch of players gathered in the Compans Gardens to have lunch, chill out and break the record of relays to McDonalds. Meanwhile, there was the Bootcamp going on. I heard that the courses were very well organized with progressive drills, but apparently a bit easy for some of the PRG attending…

They came back from the Bootcamp in the early evening and we drove back to Paris by bus. I slept non-stop lying in the center alley. Not bad. That’s one of the advantages of being a smurf: you can sleep anywhere and for real!

French Connection on the French TV News

Old Women

2011-07-01T21:22:00.000+02:00

I went to my band’s rehearsal this afternoon. I was at the front door of TBJ’s building, patiently waiting for him to get out of the shower and open to me, when a couple of old ladies arrived, chatting and looking for their keys in their bags. I smiled politely and stepped aside to let them enter. This is when they paid attention to my skates…

Now, instead of the expected “Thank you, dear” I was treated to “Are you the one who jumps in the staircase?” – Beg your pardon? “You are the one making that awful noise in the staircase, aren’t you?” I answered, half appalled and half perplexed, that I was respectful enough to be careful when I go up or down the stairs, although I conveyed that skates make a bit more noise than shoes but that it was far from being the deafening noise that they were describing, and that no I wasn’t the one as I wasn't that noisy.

The accusation was so violent that I couldn’t surrender because it was unfair. I went up the stairs behind them and they even added that I was “going to damage the stairs”, which really pissed me off this time, and I answered that my skates would not damage the stairs more than her shoes, “Ma’am!!”

The AkouRehearsal finished, I went back home. Guess who I met going down the stairs? “You should be careful” – I opened my mouth to say that it was kind but that they didn’t have to worry for me, and then I realized that I was really stupid to think that old selfish ladies could actually care about me. “Oh and there’s lots of noise at night too!” they added accusingly.

Okay, so now I’m responsible for every single noise

in their bloody building.

How come I can make noise at night when I’m only here from 2 to 7, during 4 days once a month? She didn’t even pay attention to my answer and she wished me a “good evening”. Did she really think that, because I'm a skater, I am dumb enough not to detect the sarcasm?

They must be very bored to care about such details and amplify them that much.

GrolandSat - Les Vieux par tsubasa_403

Whatever.

This is not the first time...

...and it happens all the time!

In my own residence I have to take off my skates, so I go up to the 4^th floor by sock: I could “damage the fitted carpet”, y’know. Worse: It was a neighbor of mine, a girl in her 20s, who told on me to the caretaker! Sometimes I really feel like calling S.O.S. Racisme...

A couple of months ago I got told off by an old woman while I was waiting for the traffic light to turn to green. She seemed to have associated the notion <skates> to those of <irresponsible> and <vandal>. Like the others, she just put a label on me because I was on skates. The apex was when she told me that I would “end up in a wheelchair” and that it would “serve me right”.

Why so much hate?

I skated back home, and I wrote down all these things I would have died to tell her… They ended up in a rap-song about old women who fuss with you at the traffic light just because you got your skates on. I called it “Shit talker”. Haha!

I'm very respectful. However, when you're treated that way it's hard not to answer back. I'm keeping it all to myself, but I understand more and more why old people think that young people are insolent and rude. They are kind of pushed to be so, sometimes...

Note: I’m just realizing I’ve never been annoyed that way by (old) men… No idea of what conclusion to draw from it.

Bad Habit...

2011-06-23T23:53:00.000+02:00

My good habit turned into bad habit.

When I feel myself falling, I anticipate before I touch the ground in positioning myself in a secure position. It's instinctive. I've acquired this habit along my dozen years of inline freestyling without pads. I'm thus used to land with optimal positions to preserve my knees, buttocks and wrists.

Good habit, right.

My Top-3 landing techniques:

American Splits: (my fav. by far) it's the best one to disguise your fall into a super-stylish cartwheel at low height ending up with smooth American splits... and up!
Push-ups: using my arms like springs to smoothly get lower as possible and get up.
Save-Yr-Ass Technique: That's the very one about which this whole article is about...

Now, parameters have changed. To play derby I *have* to wear pads.

My techniques have now become useless -- or at least there's still this aesthetic advantage, and people still wonder sometimes whether I did a trick on purpose or I fell for real but disguised it. A couple of years ago, I learnt that in China people called me the White Cat because a falling cat always lands on its feet... flattering -- If ever they knew the TRUTH !!

NOW. Not only has this habit become useless (in a practical way: I got pads to do the job) but it has even become dangerous... Another parameter has changed too: I'm not wearing inline but quad skates!

There is one landing position in particular which troubles me now: my Safe-buttocks technique, consisting in bending my leg just under my buttocks in order to create some kind of spring effect to cushion the landing. Just like on the pictures.

A 100% success with inline skates.

NOT working with quad skates...

...because you save your back but you sacrifice the "front", as the wheels and the trucks jute out from the boots, if you see what I mean.

And it hurts...

Royal Rolling

2011-06-19T23:40:00.000+02:00

And... Here is another Roller-Disco event!

Two in two weekends, never seen that. This time, I really enjoyed it. The place was very small, it was in the shooting studio "Abel 14". It was organized by the Artdicted Group. The theme was 80s and 90s revival. I should have been a go-go dancer for the evening (i.e. being paid to rollerjam, that's all), but I had freestyle demos during the day and couldn't make it on time for the relooking session. Finally it was probably better this way, given the looks of my friends who got the "job"!

Lots of Derby girls showed up too -- including a couple of Swedish, the music was very efficient, there were off-skate go-go dancers who were impressive...

KEWL! Impatiently waiting for the next one!

Goldfinger

2011-06-18T23:37:00.001+02:00

Paris: 78 || Malmö: 91

We played against the Crime City RollerGirls of Malmö...

What a game!

No surprise as for the scores. I guess we all saw it coming. We haven't been training since Stuttgart... 3 weeks's a long time! No scrimmaging, no strategy preparation, we could feel it on the track: We were not united as a team and we didn't work in couples like we're used to.

The changing of bench managers was also unsettling: Our previous manager, Justin Beat-her, had to quit because she had no more spare-time, and we tried without rehearsal to work with Ban'Anna (ref) and Wheely Wonka (gf and future awesome sk8er) who had to learn everything on the fly. Lots of tensions, pressure, and chaos on the bench -- also due to the fact that we were losing.

Actually, no. We were not losing: the game was tight. We had strong skaters in both teams, the game was exciting and with suspense. But they were far more prepared than us and far more disciplined, and they won with merits.

We could have beaten them, and we were close to take the advantage back: it was just a question of a couple of jams if we played well. We had a fatal lapse of concentration during one jam at the beginning of the second half-time, when they scored *a lot* of points. This was the turning point!

Anyway, we learned the lesson well, and we still got lots to learn. Our league is new, we're still looking for landmarks, and what we've done so far, despite the communication/organization crisis we're undergoing, is a lot!

I think it's a good thing to lose: it pushes you to get better and go further, bringing you new objectives. I think (hope) this will trigger changes!

I'm very curious about seen the re-run of the bout. I guess the general impression was amusing: big Swedish giants against little Parisian smurfs!

I'm quite satisfied with my jamming, I did funny dodgings. Less proud of my pivoting, I was lacking a little "rehearsal".

I played most of my jams as a jammer against Mad Maloony. Super tall, looking nice, and above all very tactical. It was extremely interesting to watch her play and I got to study some of her tactics! Her gf, Swede Hurt, a ruthless powerblocker, was the other strong point of their team. In fact, all of them knew how to skate and how to hit!

OnWheelz DiscoRoller

2011-06-11T21:39:00.000+02:00

In France, there are no roller-rinks, no roller-discos, no real flat indoor spaces devoted to skating... From time to time some punctual events are organized and we can go clubbing on wheelz! The OnWheelz Discos are organized by my friend Jim (whom I rollerdance with). He used to do three nights per year until last year when the place he used to book became a municipal gym.

Just like every year, there is this big LGBT event called the TIP (Tournois International de Paris) gathering sports teams and associations from all Europe, with animations by all the represented sports.

-- By the way, I had the indescribable chance to find myself on one of the promotion flyers saying "Chloé does sport to fight against discriminations, come and join her!"... Long story.

The only LGBT skating association, Les Enrolleres, where I give Slalom-skating lessons, was taking part in this huge event. And along with Jim they decided to organize a new edition of the OnWheelz as part of the Tournament. The biggest difficulty was to manage to get enough people despite the early hours: having become the city's property, the gym had to close at 00 AM... This time, the OnWheelz is going to be a "Before" party.

The originality of this edition was the Roller-Derby Demo at the end!

I was in charge of it, having to take care of several organization stuffs and coordinating the PRG and Jim. I had been named Captain of Team Awesome, and my friend Cherry LieLie was Captain of Team Amazing, so things got quite simple because we easily agree with each other. We found tee-shirts for the two teams on which we drew the numbers of all the girlz. I made a music playlist for the show. We agreed on a little presentation -- which didn't turn that well because it's tough without rehearsal haha.

Other things didn't turn out as expected... little misunderstandings here and there. But it got better after explanations.

** Check out the pictures of the demo by Philippe Leroyer **

Anyway... Organizing sucks. Because you can't have fun!

We ended up the night having dinner at some f*cking expansive restaurant at Bastille to celebrate LieLie's birthday... and that part of the evening was probably the best: no more pressure!!

Paris RollerGirls Logo

2011-05-31T14:25:00.000+02:00

So, this is it! Our final logo.

We had had problems with our very first logo because it showed the Eiffel Tower in a circle -- which reminded too much of the Paris Saint-Germain logo. We had a provisory logo (the same but without the circle... which I found was still perfect: sober, symbolic and efficient).

I'm summarizing a bit here. But finally we had a contest, for which we received lots of logos. We then had a vote, after a first selection by the head of the association. And this is the one that was selected.

Personnaly, I liked the old one far better. This one is too common. I think that somehow it's a shame because it doesn't reflect anything. But on the other hand I just don't care because I'm here to play derby, not to sell t-shirts with logos on.

Paris Saint-Germain | First PRG Logo | Provisory Logo

Cobbler Shop

2011-05-20T14:21:00.000+02:00

I went to the cobbler's to protect the leather of my Minx boots. They covered the perimeter with some hard rubber stuff. It was f*cking expansive but I don't need those toe guards anymore! Great.

Kein Pardon!

2011-05-14T14:15:00.000+02:00

Paris: 137 || Stuttgart: 49

We were going to play against Stuttgart Valley Rollergirlz B-Team (with a couple of All-Star players in fact), and we knew it would be tough. We were ready to lose, and our aim was:not defeating with more than 50 points of difference.But the scenario unfolded very differently than expected!

We left Paris at 5 in the morning, by car. Our car had had a sleepover at Katy Fury's, preceeded by a big japanese dinner at Dixie Pixie's (yummy!).

We arrived in the early afternoon, checked-in at the hotel and went to the venue where we ate a bite. We had to face some intimidating looks and remarks such as "Oh why did you bring your flag? Is it for us to burn it after the bout?". We couldn't try the ground before the official trainings to know which wheels to use, only two PRG were allowed to test it.

Nevermind, we warmed up off-skates, we sang the Marseillaise and Amazing Grace to unstress, and we went into the gym for the on-skates warm up.

And when I saw them warming up I said to myself that maybe we had a chance: they were less tough than us, we looked physically stronger -- though there was a couple of BIG girls, and their skating skills, except from Tease the Tiger's, didn't impress me at all.

The game started at last. And we led from the beginning: In a dozen of minutes, we scored 58 points before they managed to score one! At the Half-time we were leading 96 to 30. So we changed our strategy for the second half: making them lose time. We scored 40 more points during the second half but it was not our priority: We spent our time teasing and tiring them. We really did a great job.

Such a shame that Dixie Pixie couldn't play because of her broken rib (from the bout against Bordeaux two weeks before) and that Fifi Lafoe wasn't available that day...

We had the afterparty in a teenage rock bar-club. It was just as if a time-machine had brought me back 10 years ago. Fun!

Check out some cool pix by P-Mod and other cool pix on the SVRG Website!

...and the summary by the SVRG below:

I broke my plate!

2011-05-08T14:14:00.000+02:00

"...doing street rollerdancing..."

After only 8 days -- i.e. a bout, four derby practices and half a rollerdance session.

So I went to the skateshop... and this is when the real sh*t began.

I asked not to have the same model in exchange because I didn't trust the plates anymore. Ok... but they had no other derby plates in size 4. Damn!
And what about Lazer plates? Not my size either.
Artistic plates seemed the only option left: designed for jumps, they wouldn't break. But: 1) The thread for the stops is specific to artistic, so I'd have to wear (big) artistic stops and 2) Bearings size 7 only, whereas I can have bearings size 8 for free.
I dropped the option when they found a Dynapro Powerdyne plate size 4 hidden in a corner. Woot woot so happy! Until we tried to put them on my boots. My feet are too small and the stops jutted out from the boots. Well.
As there was nothing satisfying, I asked them to give me the same model I had broken, at least to have provisory plates for the bout against Stuttgart the following weekend, and not to have to pierce new holes in my boots for plates I wouldn't like -- which I would change eventually (and make a new set of holes for the final plates). Unfortunately, they didn't have my size in stock, at all.
Back to the only option left: the artistic plates! I had to pay them and they will refund me the price of the plate I broke. I had no choice anyway.

My Babies are back...

...after a little plastic surgery!

Bordeaux RollerGirls: Les Petites Morts

2011-05-06T14:05:00.000+02:00

This week I was in Bordeaux, my hometown, to rehearse and record with my band Akouphën. I made the most in poping to Bordeaux's practices.

That's kind of funny because I wouldn't have moved to Paris, I would belong to that team...

I attended two of their practices on the docks at the hockey rink *memories*, showed them some off-skates exercises and on-skates drills. Nice!

Bons Baisers de Paris

2011-04-30T14:01:00.000+02:00

Paris : 121 | Bordeaux : 22

We had our very first bout on Apr.30, in Nanterre at our gym, against the Bordeaux Rollergirls aka Les Petites Morts. And it was awesome.

We had been preparing a lot for D-Day, training 4 times a week at least. We were seeing each other almost every day for scrimmaging, rehearsing strategies, improving skating skills... and every one of us got striken by the frenzy of collecting everything that's blue. Haha! Obsessed!

I think almost every single PRG got involved in the organization of the bout. We had girls for the tickets, the merch store, the lottery, the refreshments, people filming and photographying. We made a big banner Paris Brings the Passion with my girl Wheely Wonka, and the flag with the help of Whisky Mamy!!

The media showed up too: We had television (TF1 and M6) and magazines (Elle, Les Inrocks).

See Inrocks Article (FRA).

300 people had reserved their tickets but luckily not everyone came, which was better for security. However the tier was full.We didn't deceive our supporters and offered them a great win!

Minx

2011-04-29T13:54:00.000+02:00

"Gone for wheels, back with skates"

I went to Hawaii Surf that morning with my friend Jim with whom I rollerjam to buy narrower quad wheels for dancing.

After having asked to show me all the wheels they had, we made the most of our coming to the shop to try the new arrivals of quad skates, including the Antiks and... the Minx! The very ones I had tried one week before, because Amelia had just bough them. My feet dangerously and instantly merged with the boots so that I had only one option left: buying the 450€ skates. And they were so worth it that I hardly hesitated!

A couple of months ago I had to buy quad skates, and not having had a crush on any I chose the cheapest ones waiting for love at first try. I finally found them! The heel is a bit upswept so that it reminds me of inline skates, and the chassis is quite high too. Like, like, like! And they are so reactive that I can even slalom with them. Haha! Beware!

I couldn't help but baptize them the following day for our first bout. I'm proud of them, they did well for their first ride =)

"Paris Brings the Passion!"

2011-04-19T13:48:00.000+02:00

This is the slogan of the League. Don't ask me how they came to this, I'm sad enough not to have been there when it happened -- I was giving a slalom workshop the whole weekend...

But here it is, and Man it rules!

EDIT: Ok so now I learnt how it came from... Amelia went to a bootcamp in Germany and described us as very tactile, always hugging and kissing each other, caring when one of us falls or takes a hit... which kind of stroke her at first. And she concluded her description with "Paris brings the passion".

Derbyversaire

2011-04-18T13:45:00.000+02:00

We had our first bootcamp about 2 months ago, it was the first bootcamp in France, and it was huge! I was also a means to celebrate the first birthday of the PRG: it was our Derbyversaire.

We had various workshops during two days, ending up with scrimmages. Everybody from the PRG was in a team with special missions, all the Advanced took part and it enabled us to meet our future opponents.

My girl filmed the two days and I found the motivation to edit the rushes a couple of weeks ago. The video was just published two days ago... Good memories from our first big event!

Paris Rollergirls Derbyversaire 2011 from Paris RollerGirls on Vimeo.

Derby Training

2011-04-17T13:44:00.000+02:00

Training Schedule

The Paris RollerGirls have two official trainings per week in the gym, on Saturdays and Sundays: 7 hours/week to scrimmage yeah! The ground is soft and sticky, which is quite tiring but we say to ourselves that it's just a 2-in-one training+extra work-out...

During the week we are responsible for our personal trainings (on and off skates). Now that the sunny days are back, we are meeting outside to skate together, and I must say that we see each other nearly every day now!

We have the incredible luck to have three amazing American Derby girls to coach us: Amelia Scareheart, Fifi Lafoe and Dixie Pixie -- Mimi, Fifi and Pipi (er--yeah...)! I feel really honored to have the priviledge to have such quality training. All the more that it's the first time I have coaches: With Freestyle, I'm used to train on my own in the streets, come rain or come shine, and coaching myself. It's a big luxurious change to have somebody behind your back to tell you to do this and that!!

I rarely Freestyle now. I really need a break, I came so near from being disgusted... But I still skate a lot, to go from one place to another... and I try most of the time to do it with quad skates to become more and more agile with them.

I'm having a go at street roller-dancing too, and I really like it. It's a bit like doing Freestyle but with quad skates on. New challenges, and I need to work on my upper-body... very interesting work.

As for the off-skates workout, I'm doing body training, jogging and stretching!

All-Star Roster

2011-04-13T13:54:00.000+02:00

Yeah! We all met at Pooky's to shoot our individual pictures for the roster of the bout against Bordeaux!
Aren't we badass?

Why I Started Derby

2011-04-12T13:40:00.000+02:00

My derby name is KOZMIC BRUISE, Number B612...

...and I'm proudly part of the Paris RollerGirls.

I dropped by about one year ago, I liked it and stayed a bit... but then we had to face a terrible but common problem for Parisian sports(wo)men, and this during a good bunch of months: no gym to train! We had to stop training during automn because wind and drizzle don't mix very well with skating...

Luckily enough we finally found a (provisory) gym in the near suburbs on a campus, and we could resume our trainings for good in January.

It was a second try, we lost girls on the way but new girls arrived. I came back too, more motivated than ever, after difficult automn months when I had to make an aweful decision -- quitting freestyle skating competitions because I was choking in there little by little, my passion was becoming more and more poisonous to me...

I clung to Derby to forget Freestyle, yes indeed, but also (and above all) because I found self-confident, amazing, improbable, and loving people coming from everywhere in the World.

This is all new to me because I never practiced a team-sport. I've always done creative individual activities (dancing, freestyling) so this is quite a new challenge and I'm really curious about it!

Presenting Myself...

2011-04-11T18:53:00.000+02:00

Name: Kozmic Bruise
Number: B612

I wasn't far from being called Sadic Machine, because I'm the off-skates (work out) coach and I love being tough... No: I love being tough and smiling at the same time!

But the name happened not to be very original... if you have a look at the official list of Derby Names, you find a lot of machines and sadistics.

I finally chose KOZMIC BRUISE as a tribute to Janis Joplin's Kozmic Blues, because I love music and passionate voices.

As for my number, to stay in the Kozmic dimension, I picked up the name of an asteroid, that of the Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupéry: Asteroid B612. It's cute but don't judge a book by it's cover...