Hello there, sorry I’ve been so quiet but keeping up with my dogs, work, school and the snow has occupied quite a lot of my time lately.

If you are ready to start playing roller derby, or just want to see what a practice is like and go from there, you can start on February 8th or 10th with Shoreline Roller Derby.

Here’s the link to the Event page with more information.

Also because I’ve been going to night school to learn lots of new skills, here’s a quick little commercial I made for Shoreline, I hope you like it and here it is!

If you’ve been to a Shoreline bout, you’ve probably seen Brooklyn.  She’s been in Shoreline for as long as it’s been Shoreline and she’s known for being hard to get around and I know she’s rocked my socks a few times.  Somehow between family and running her own business she has time to play roller derby, even sometimes filling out the roster with other leagues.  Here’s what she has to say about why she plays roller derby.

Derby Name:  Brooklyn / Jersey Number: .357

Q:  What attracted you to roller derby?

A:  I became attracted to roller derby after me and a co worker were talking about needing a aggression outlet and then we saw the add in the paper for Roller Derby coming to Groton CT and it was a done deal for me.

Q:  Everyone has a skill that takes them a little longer to learn, what have you had to put a little more work into learning?

A:  For me my skill would left sided turns.  It just not natural to me and I struggled for awhile to master the skill.  But I still don’t use it often.

Q:  What part of derby makes you feel like a rockstar?

A:  My rock star moments are when my clients come to see me play.  With my young clients that all say I’m so quite and patient and when I’m on skates I’m Brooklyn, I talk smack and I own a opposing player for two minutes.

Q:  Do you have a favorite bout moment so far?  If so, what?

A: Some of my best moments have been skating with The Belladonna’s we were a team that yelled, cried and came together in the face of challenge and pulled out wins we didn’t even think we could do.

Q:  What has surprised you the most about roller derby so far?

A:  One of the most surprising things about derby is it really is a all over body work out.  A month off your skates and I think we all start to see our bodies morphing back into pre derby bodies so we all start to get antsy after a week off skates to do some endurance or just scrimmage because our bodies crave it.

Q:  Is there anything you’d like to add?

A:  When it comes to roller derby and what you get from being a part of a woman owned league I don’t think you can get that anywhere else.  We have potential to make friendships, network, travel, help out in other players personal lives and have fun on skates. That makes the sport priceless.

Holy cow it’s Friday and I just realized I haven’t blogged at all, my bad.  I’ve been a little busy this week with things derby and non-derby and I guess the week got away from me.  Oh well, it happens.

Hartford Area Roller Derby has their annual Polar Run and Bar Crawl coming up on Saturday.  They are raising money and collecting items for a few battered women shelters in the area.  It’s a fun time for a cause so if you feel so inclined, check that out on Saturday.  More information here:  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/3rd-annual-hard-roller-polar-runpub-crawl-tickets-10284560397

If you listen to podcasts (or heck, even if you don’t) here’s one called Welcome to Connecticut.  This episode is about roller derby in Connecticut:  http://www.dsct.tv/welcomect/

It’s sort of business as usual here at Shoreline, we had another New Recruit Night and that went well.  We’ve got a bunch of new skaters ready and raring to go.  If you’d like to skate, our next New Recruit Night is February 8th. Also I should mention that I’ve been going to Connecticut School of Broadcasting since November which has added to my general busyness.

Instead of practice on Tuesday night I was using a huge fancy camera to get footage so I can throw a commercial together for us (look for that at Galaxy).  If I can figure out how, I’ll post it on here too.  Don’t expect anything crazy high tech or anything, it will be the second video I’ve put together so set your expectations sort of low, I haven’t even had time to watch what I recorded so far.

Also I should mention that Derbylite is starting up again in New Haven.  It’s a fun workout program on skates if you’re looking for something that’s fun and doesn’t involve contact, here’s the link to the site:  http://www.derbylite.net/register/

Well that was fast, another week come and gone, sands in the hourglass etc etc…..  Tuesdays New Recruit Night was fantastic, new excited ladies showed up to start skating and we’re glad to have them.  If you want to join Shoreline Roller Derby, this Sunday is another New Recruit Night  so come visit us at Galaxy at 6:30.

In non-SLRD news, Hartford Area Roller Derby has a fun event coming up if you like to run and then pub crawl.  Their 3rd Annual Roller Polar Run and Pub Crawl is on January 17th.  It’s not a fundraiser for them, it’s an event for two battered women’s shelters in the area; Interval House and Prudence Crandall Center, Inc.

Basically you wear a crazy fun outfit, run around the block and then go on a pub crawl.  The run starts at noon and after that the pub crawl fun will commence.  There’s prizes for the best dressed too!  Here’s the Eventbrite link for more information because I’m sure I’ve left out something important there.  Go run and have fun and help HARD help out others!

Happy New Year everyone!  I took a bit of a hiatus from the blog but I’m back in an effort to spread the derby word throughout CT.

So that’s going on in Connecticut’s roller derby world?  Lots of stuff, so here’s a quick list.  In alphabetical league order…

– Connecticut Death Quads are recruiting and just restarted their practice schedule after a break.  If you’re a man interested in playing roller derby, check them out immediately.

– CT RollerGirls are back in business and seem to be in the process of figuring out their teams since they just had their winter tryouts.

– Hartford Area Roller Derby had their tryouts too and already have their travel teams teamed up.

If you’re interested in joining or seeing any of these league in action, find them on facebook or check out their website as per usual.

As far as your friendly neighborhood Shoreline Roller Derby goes, we had our first practice after a break last night.  It was fun to be back on skates and a lot of us realized that we’d been a little under hydrated and over fooded during the break, but heck that’s what a break is for.

In any event, if you’re interested our next New Recruit Nights are Tuesday the 6th (7:30-9) and Sunday the 11th (6:30-8) at Galaxy Roller Rink.  We’ll have some protective gear you can borrow for the night but obviously you need to have your own mouth guard.  Also if you want to skate right away, you need to be 18 and have ID w/proof of health insurance.  I assume Galaxy will have someone there to rent out skates, but don’t quote me.

If you don’t have gear, or you’re not sure you want to start yet then that’s perfectly fine.  Or you’re like me and have never fitted a mouth guard before in your life and want to find out what gear to buy before you go nuts, then just come check us out.  You’ll see a practice (if that’s what the rest of us are doing, I really don’t know) and ask a lot of questions.  If skating or refereeing doesn’t seem like something you want to do, we always need Non-Skating Officials and any other volunteers who can help us out.

One more word of advice:  please note that the rink is kind of cold on Tuesday nights especially so you might want to be prepared for that.  Wear hot pants if that’s what your derby heard wants you to do but it gets a bit chilly in there.