Ask the Team: Burning Hot Derby Emotion and Other Strategies for A Cold Bunker

For the second “Ask the Team” question, we turned to a very topical subject: the temperature in the Bunker.

As PVRDers know, as the mercury drops outside, the indoor temperature also plummets—down as low as a brisk 40-something degrees. Other than moving really, really fast (“Skate!” said Gnome), what are the tactics skaters use to cope with the cooler weather?

A few said they relied on their love of derby: as someone put it “a burning hot derby emotion in my guts” (we advised them to talk to their PCP). Bitches Bruze said she didn’t need any extra gear since “her love of derby keeps me warm through the 49-degree practice space months.”

While a couple of skaters said they built insulation in the way of the bears, through stuffing themselves (“a diet rich in dairy fat—butter, cheese, whole milk.” “Excess body fat! It’s built-in insulation!”) others preferred Nike Pro Combat thermals, thermal underwear, fingerless mittens and HotHands in their wrist guards.

One particularly good tip for the thermal or long john-clad: “Make sure your knee pads are done up tight! Mine slid around the first time.”

“I add some leg warmers to keep my ankles, well, warm,” noted Molly Musket. “Other than that, I call winter ‘the months where I don’t sweat as much.’ Keep moving between drills to keep your muscles warm.”

And then there was the buddy-to-buddy strategy. “I stand next to Celia Casket! Oooh, baby!” said one skater.

Next up: Our skater’s favorite mouth guards. And whether anyone wears really small Pro Tech Dents.

Introducing the New Ask the Team Column

Lego derby by Bazooka Joe

It’s a common problem in roller derby. You’re into the sport—as a fan, an official or a player—and have a burning question. Who do you ask? Around the Bunker, there’s a simple answer: You ask other skaters.

As PVRDers gear up for practice, they often gather group wisdom on such topics as “What pads work best for you?” “How do those new gaskets feel?” “Where did you get those laces with bats on them?” “How much do nylon wheel nuts really cost?” and “Is it true that Honey Badger has strap-on mini-rockets for her skates?”

In the spirit of  such information sharing, the PVRD web team is pleased to introduce our new “Ask the Team” column. Every two weeks, we’ll select a particular question and post it on a whiteboard in our practice space. Skaters then have two weeks to add their answers. All of that collective knowledge then goes up on the blog for your reading pleasure.

Have a question you’ve always wanted to ask? Include it in a comment below!

What are your favorite wheels for skate court?

Roller Derby World Cup: A French-American Derby Adventure

Router Girl for Team France

By Router Girl

It’s still hard for me to believe that in about a week I leave for Toronto to join Team France and play in the first ever Roller Derby World Cup!

In fact, Team France will be playing the opening game of the world cup against Team Canada on Thursday, December 1st. We then play against Brazil and Sweden on Friday. After that we’ll see what the rankings bring…

Check out the bout schedule, player profiles and other Team France links in this handy PDF.

Thirteen countries are represented at the world cup: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, England, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland, Sweden and the U.S.A.

There are many people to credit for how I found my way to Team France.

Bitches Bruze #802

Age: 43
Hometown: Pownal, VT
PVRD teams: WMDs and Florence Fightin’ Gals

Bitches loves to use her peripheral vision and sense of timing to take out jammers speeding into the back of the pack (who believe she’s not watching them). She also loves the squeezebox, because she invented it with Ballistic Miss L. “It takes the complications of the track and pack dynamics and simplifies them,” Bitches says. “It is the backbone of any pack movement.”

Left alone on a desert island, Bitches would mill some wood for a nice sailboat that she could live on. She’d also fish, build sandcastles, swim, and have bonfire celebrations once in a while too. Her icon, Mini B, represents all the things she does outside of derby as a sawyer and lumberjill: “Now if I could only get her playing music at the same time, I’d be all set. Imagine she’s singing too!”

In the movie about Bitches’ life, Hilary Swank would walk around wearing a real raccoon tail.

Bitches joined derby to stay in shape and stays because because it makes all of her better and because she loves being part of this amazing thing that is so much bigger than her or even the team.

Find out where you can see Bitches Bruze in a bout or give her a big hello on Facebook.

Other info about Bitches:

The first flat track skater to hail from the 802, Bitches Bruze is the Green Mountain Woman force to be reckoned with. She’s a singer of songs and ballads, college professor, sailor of fortune, licenced breast examiner, harvester of hard wood, casual heroine, entrepreneur extraordinaire, dozer operator, part time scholar, jazz connoisseur, and all around bad-ass gal. Want revolutions started, governments run or bars emptied? Bitches Bruze is on the job. When she’s not on the track or schoolin’ some poor sucker in the consumption of whiskey, she trains junk yard dogs, repairs vending machines, organizes voo doo, programs computers, hacks systems, rigs slot machines, and rides and repairs Italian motorcycles.

More factoids:

The derby name comes from Miles Davis’ 1969 album Bitches Brew. She believes that track is the jazz interpretation of flat track roller derby.

The tail was added to her helmet at the end of her first derby season in the spring of 2008. Living in Pownal, Vermont, she couldn’t get much, but just up the road from her house was a little throwback of a roadside gift store called Mahican Moccasin where one of the local Mahicans, Charlie, mades shoes and sold trinkets. She went to his store to buy a feather headdress for bout introductions for her second season and, when she saw the coon tails there, she knew that was more appropriate. She’s replaced the tail and helmet several times since then. The tail gets its bounce through the use of a guitar string “spine” and is used to distract approaching jammers into misunderstanding the direction she’s turning my head.

She is currently the oldest active female skater on PVRD.

Facebook Page: http://facebook.com/bbruze802
MySpace: http://myspace.com/bitchesbruze
YouTube: http://youtube.com/bitchesbruze
Blog: http://promiseofderby.com