Some pictures from the German trip

Loony and Pia on top of Stuttgart

Beer in the sun

Exploring German North coast

Som dude screamed ''Rollschuen'' after us

I know... there are no actual pictures of derby, but at least we are on skates... Germany in five days was amazing, and I hope everyone that met us had a blast... we had a blast coaching and skating. Scrimmage during Rally in the Vally on Sunday was soooo much fun!
Now we are back in Malmö for a couple of more hours before we are heading to Stockholm, to see some friends and family and I'm crossing my fingers for some more sun! My tan still have a looong way to go before I can get ready for my winter gloom again...

On the road in Germany

White Team

I am sorry, I haven't written in a long time, but life been really hectic and there have been a couple of events that have been emotionally taking a toll and I have not had the time or the energy to write.

I just spent the weekend coaching in Stuttgart, at a boot-camp, it was great. I am always so pleased to see that European roller-derby is stepping forward... Step by step...  stride by stride... both me and Loony have also developed a crush on Titty Twista, but I guess that is just normal, since she is sooo adorble!

The bootcamp was a two-day affair with a three hour scrimmage finale... It was FUN and I got to scrimmage - and I really like that! And Stuttgart knows what I like - I got WEINSCHORLE!!!

Right now we have made it to Kaiserslautern - chilling by the American Military base, swimming in slimy lakes, getting on base and eating at Chilis and feeling like we are in little America.... whoop whooop...

Paris trip in pictures (the non-skating parts)

Crime City wins over Paris Rollergirls

It was quite a messy bout, both teams were quite penalty ridden - but it was good times and we ended up winning and the team still did look great. We have lot's to learn, I am slowly growing into the role as team-captain... even if i think the travel-team start to need a manager... sometimes I feel like I am spreading myself quite thin... but who isn't nowdays... I am finally back in bed, my own bed, after spending the past four nights on wooden floors, air-matresses and couch pillows... so my body loves me a little more now.
I have about 30 unread e-mails that needs answering, I am leaving for Stuttgart in a few days, since I am coaching at Ralley in the Valley... anyone need a ride from Malmö to Stuttgart?
If I have some more time tomorrow I will write more about the Paris trip and the bout, it was good times. 

Busy times... and Paris tomorrow...

Loony, Alotta and Me, photo by Pony

Worked away on Battle of the Nordic Light all morning, figuring things out that you never done before is always a challange, it is fun, and I am happy that everyone are being very helpful. Loony altered out bout-shirts and I answered a bunch of customer questions, and then we realized we had to get out, or we would kill each other... living in a studio apartment makes you feel slightly claustrophobic... So we headed over to Alotta Riots house to hang out with her and PinkPony (who by the way decided to give up rollerderby and start motorbiking instead). Pony was celebrating that her summer vaccation started, and I think that Alotta was too... so they twisted our arms and made us pet the dog (Ponys dog), the baby (Alottas kid) and have some wine...  and just chill and have a good time...

Tomorrow we are going to Paris because on Saturday Crime City Rollers are playing Paris Rollergirls...  We all were hoping to get to bout by hte Eiffel Tower, but were told it was to crowded by crazy tourists (like us) so I think we will have to spend Sunday eating wine and drinking baguette... Sadly enough my French is limited to: baguette, fromage, je ma pelle and voulez vou couche avec moi...

Stockholm vs. Kallio - bouting time

Twisted jamming towards a win

So as we all know me and Malou went to Stockholm last weekend and worked at the Stockholm vs Kallio bout, Malou as a fab announcer and I brought SwedeVix with me so people could try on skates and get amazing socks spelling out worlds like WHISKEY, VODKA, BEER, EVIL, BACON and GAY...  oh, and we had lots of other more derby related things too... well, I guess we also watched two bouts... well I watched and Malou had the pleasure to talk about them while they were going on.

I must say that Kallio are a very lovable team, they seem to have a great and happy attitude towards each other and the other team, even if I must say that their names are on the raunchy side, but you just cannot dislike a team that are called Rolling Rainbows... makes me think of unicorns, and we all know I love unicorns! And most things I know in Finnish are very offensive...

First up was Stockholms rookie team vs. Kallios rookie team, it was not a full length bout, it was just 15min x 2, and to be honest, the Stockholm rookies crushed the Kallio rookies, by lots and lots of points, I acctually don't even know exactly by how much, but it was by quite a lot. Looks like Stockholm has quite some talent among their rookies.

Second was the bout we all waited for, Stockholm vs. Kallio - two teams that previously had played each other and last time Stockholm walked away with a win, but that was a couple of months ago. It started off looking like it might become a nailbiter, especially after the Stockholm jammer got sent to the box and Kallio managed to put more points on the scoreboard than STRD, this did not last for long, since the Kallio jammer got sent to the box and Hyper evened out the score, and that was the closest Kallio came to winning the game. With 13 minutes left of the first period Stockholm was up by 55 - 21 and Stockholms jammers continously earning lead jammer status and adding onto the lead, point by point, calling it off in the right time, and with Kallio playing a very back heavy pack, this payed off,  by halftime the score was 55 - 24, in the favor to Stockholm.

The second period could have been a time for come-back for Kallio, but it wasn't - Stockholm continued to score and giving Kallio very few opporunities to score on them, the Stockholm pack playing tight and distracting the Kallio blockers who did not really get their jammer through let along stop the Stockholm jammers. With 12 minutes left on the clock Stockholm was up by 108 - 39 points, and I was quite confident that they had it in the box. Husse, Hyper, Blood and Twisted were a very successful jammer combination, and both Husse and Twisted are looking fierce blocking too... and I must also say that Kallios jammer who had the number 9 (Camilla T. Bagger) did a really good job too, since I have her jotted down in my notes.

It was great job by both teams, and I must say that I was quite weary in the end of the two bouts since it was about 40 degrees celcius in Visätra Hallen (where the bout was held) and that is funny, considering it is an icehall... yeah we joked about that quite a lot. I was about to melt away... but I was only wearing a bikini-top for quite a big part of the bout, considering they had an Aloha theme...

The afterparty was not as wild as I had expected, and I think that Jazz Ass, Husse, Twisted and a shoppingcart took the win... and the pony race was won by a VERY selfconfident Husse... there was also a human pyramid built at the afterparty... and I was in it, and I am happy I am still alive...

over and out...

the Stockholm vs. Kallio weekend in pictures

we took the ferry to the bout

we impressed ppl with our fashion

SwedeVix brought the cool stuff

STRD got introduced and then beat Kallio

I took a pony ride to the afterparty

and the next day we chilled in the Stockholm sun

My life is niiiice....

it's almost 8 pm and it's still sunny

I have an amazing girlfriend, I have an amazing family (that live a little too far away still) I have amazing friends, I get to coach a hardworking and motivated leauge, I get to skate, I'm healthy, my girlfriend loves me and I get to travel to coach derby. I think I am happy, I think I should be happy, of course there are things that I am not happy about, but sometimes I just think that I have to set all the negative things aside and live in the moment.

Of course I wish I was in Phoenix right now, playing with Team Legit, I was supposed to, but my monetary situation just don't allow me. It is sad, but I'll get to play with them next time. So instead I'm going for a run on Ekerö, by my mothers house and then heading over Visätra to set my SwedeVix table up to earn some money and watch lot's of Scandinavian derby.... see some of my really great friends play.

Don't forget to wash your helmet panties...

those lovley training panties are made by Mad Malooney

Yeah, we washed out helmet panties right before we took of to Stockholm.... now I'm no longer just head-coach of Crime City, but I am also hand washer of Crime City... life is full of accomplishments... but at least our helmet panties now smell minty fresh... ahhhh

Malmö has an outdoor rollerderby track!

Ninja kissing the track she worked so hard for...

I totally have forgotten to mention Crime City now have an outdoor track - and not just one that we painted ourselves - but a track that was approved by the city and painted for us in the skatepark... we have to fight some 14 year olds off to get to skate on it... but I think we might be intimidating enough to raise to the occation...
Now we all just pray for SUN all summer long...
Me and Fenix (and one morning Ankefar came along) have already been down there two mornings in a row and skated speedlaps before real life started... It's on concrete, and looks and feel really awesome... and we are all really excited for being able to hold practice outdoors and then go jump into the ocean... so we are just praying for no rain - the rest of the summer...

Well, now I'm off to Stockholm to watch Stockholm Rollerderby play Kallio Rolling Rainbow... yayaaaa... and I'm bringing a big part of SwedeVix with me... so if you are around come get some laces, bearings, socks or even a set of wheels...  and Malooney will be announcing while I'm working away...

Surfs Up!

Berlin Bombshells vs. Copenhagen Rollin Heartbreakers in Berlin

Photo by Michael Witting

I am always delighted to watch bouts, I do like playing them more, but I must say that it is fun to get to play. European Derby is still so new and everything is sort of unknown - and coming to a bout is always interesting, since you never know what to expect.
Teams that win with 200 points, get beaten by 200 points, and since there is no real ranking system in Europe, it is hard to know what levels the teams that are playing on, and you don't know if you are in for a nailbiter or a blow-out.

So me and Malooney and some Crime City girls just leaned back to watch this bout...

I was quite certain that Berlin was going to win, but I did not know with how much, and Copenhagen probably have one of the fastest jammers of Europe in Martattack. The first two jams made the game look like it would be more towards the nailbiting side, but after that Berlin took control and never looked back... Berlin has really good packawareness, trackawareness and strong blocking... Bones from Berlin had an amazing hit and so did MasterBlaster, and Heavy Rotation did what I apriciate most among blockers, kept a jammer behind her, lap... after lap...
Krazy Kris from Copenhagen had one amazing apex jump, but most of the time Copenhagen seemed to have a problem getting thru any other jammer but Martattack and Kris, and they really could not contain any of the Berlin jammers, Zany Zunders and Master Blaster both blasted (no pun intended) through the pack, and kept on evening out the few points that the Copenhagen jammers managed to pick up.
Oh, oh, oh... and it was fun to watch... and Copenhagens gold outfits are truly creative and fun. But I cannot forget to mention that the AFTERPARTY had a pool by the river, and once again a rollergirl misstook the river for the pool... but swimming in a pool in Berlin and drinking WeinSchorle with amazing derbygirls... cannot COMPLAIN at all...


  It is awesome to see all the ambition there are in European derby, I love to be a part of all this, even if I do miss US play, but life is what it is, and I am happy to be where I am, in very exciting times of rollerderby in Europe. I truly love rollerderby - there is nothign that is as amazing as playing roller derby!

Burnt out and now a new candle...

Me and Rotation at the Fairytale fountain

So the past weeks been just terrible -nothing special - but the effect of taking on to much work finally caught up and I hit a wall... not very pleasant... but I went to Berlin with Malou and hung out with Heavy Rotation and Resident Shevil... We just went to watch a bout (Berlin A vs. Copenhagen and Berlin B vs Hamburg) without being signed up to do anything.... we went on a real vaccation, with very minimal responsibilities. It was really REALLY nice, and I feel like I have new powers and I can stop being bitter about doing tooo much work that I by the way probably took on myself.

wroooom I am an airplane

My knee was hurting and I didn't get to do as much skating as I wanted in Berlin, but I guess that was for the best. We did get some time on the old Templehof Airport - it is quite cool to be able to skate around on an old airport... wrooom... i am a flight.... WROOOOM.. I totally recommend anyone going to Berlin that's bringing their skates to go to Templehof and take a lap or two... bring a picnic and soem friends... have a weinschorle and get a tan... oh, and we also go interviewed by NPR!

Team Sweden - first round

Now 17 girls are named 3 more to come...
Congratulations to all of your hard work!


Coaches:
Swede Hurt
Mad Maloony
Sloppy Boggins

Skaters:
Alotta Riot
Ankefar
Becky Lawless
Bess I'rv Cold
Fenix Fortsomfan
Firebird Steele
Fist Fucker
HussInsane
HyperNova
Jazz Ass
Jo Evil Eye
Kix deVille
Knickerblocker Glory
Ninja
Smashed not Strrd
Swede Hurt
Twist'd T