ICELAND, coaching in the land of snow

I went to Iceland in February with one of my close friends Frozen Chosen. He is sort of a cool guy, plays roller derby and work as a stuntman, no big deal. But that's not why we are friends, it's something about just being comfortable in each others company. And we spent lots of time together last year, when I hijacked his garden and made everything grow there.  I had not seen him since I hung out in Alaska in August, so I was more than excited to see him, I even cried a little. Yeah, I am an emotional person!

Oh, well... before I went to Iceland I got in touch with the Icelandic rollerderby team, and checked if maybe we could come and practice with them. And we were told that we were more than welcome, and in the end they asked if we maybe could run one of the practices. ANd since I really love coaching and I am excited about ALL the Scandinavian rollerderby there can be. I have never coached with Frozen before, and I have nver realized what a great coach he is. We ended up coaching and then we got to scrimmage some too.

After the first practice we went to, we were taken for some beers, and they have some good local beers on  Iceland, and after the second practice we went to, we were taken to go swimming at one of their many public baths. All the pools are hot and heated from the ground, they are after all living on an island that's on fire... forged out of ice and fire... Iceland is breathtaking, I want to go back, and I will go back... 

EROC 2016

Me and Only talking about Team Structure at EROC 2016

I have been to EROC more than once, more than twice, more than trice... I've been to EROC a total of FOUR times, and there has been SIX EROC. I really love EROC, and this year I came to represent Track Advantage and to run two seminars, one by myself and one with Only.

It is so interesting to see how rollerderby in Europe is developing and growing, how we face new challanges and leave old ones behind us. I truly love to observe that we truly grow and are becoming a force to reckon. Everyone has worked so hard on making their leauges stronger and trying to figure things out. EROC is such a wonderful place where we all can meet and talk, get together and see that problems are easier to go trough and solve when you don't have to do it by yourself.

I am always happy to see so many of my friends and acctually realize what a positive influence rollerderby have had on my life. We all work towards the same goal, together to become something amazing and more organised, to take ownership of the sport we like.

The WFTDA discussions are always interesting, and we work towards a great goal, to be able to steer the sport towards the goals of what we want. And who are we, WE are every skater that stepped into a pair of derbyskates and fell in love. Driven by passion to create an inclusive and revolutionary sport, rollerderby is athletic and fun, it's friendship and togetherness, and all of this is something I fins at EROC, every year... and yeah, we are getting older... the parties are not as wild and we are happy to have it hat way. Well, at least I am, but yeah... of course I will drink some wineschorle... because its so tasty...