Outdoor skating... yeah... again...

I know, I probably bore you to death by keep on posting about my outdoor adventures... It is summer in Sweden, and it is amazing to just go and skate, stop on the cliffs and jump into the water... Ninja did her Laura Croft pose and the sun just kept on beating down on us, not to bad of a day. Days like this I wish I lived in Barcelona or somewhere where the season lasts longer. Here in the north, we grab onto every second we have, we turn our pale faces towards the sun and we try to skate as much as possible.

Outdoor practice - you better dress in jeans

picture stolen from facespace, from practice yesterday

We have smooth concrete on our practice track, but outdoors and concrete still means that when you fall, you fall hard. So my advice is to wear tights and jeans shorts... Just will make you lose less skin, I know some people are under the impression that rinkrash is cool, I'm just under the impression that it hurts. I have had rinkrash a couple of times, not to talk about the snow/icerash I got during the summer snowboarding... NOT fun - just painful. So covering up my skin against rashes, is not really rocket-science to me....

I once again want to say that our track is aaaamazing, and I am gonna start using my narrow poisons on it, after the bout, because my Pure wheels are so heavy, and skating is feeling sluggish!

Don't miss out on Battle of the Nordic Light

It is only a month away, time flies when you are having fun... the tickets will be more expensive at the door, so don't be scared, just get them online HERE!

One year ago

The one really fun thing with writing a blog is that you can go back and see what you did exactly a year ago... and exactly a year ago I played Madison with Gotham Allstars...

Oh, and dear readers, I created a little poll to the left - please go ahead and add in your answer to my simple question!

Crossdressing in Rotterdam

Fisty and Loony got the real sized glasses, I totally lucked out

Guess who is who!

I did it! I got Major Madness to wear pants... and I must say that his skirt is VERY comfortable! His boots are a probably 3 sizes to large for a girl like myself... yeah... (and for you who don't know Major Madness, he's a referee from Essen and very prone on wearing man-skirts he also told me Merby is VERY bad for his nails)
Rotterdam party was fun, Loony, Fisty and this girl KickAss decided on some public peeing from the dock that the after-party was held at and I did not score a big beer glass - the bar only had three and Fisty, Loony and the medic managed to get to them before me. Apperently people in this part of Europe drink beer out of very small glasses, I am not sure I approve of this! I prefer the German way of doing it... but then I want good beer, I am quite a beer snob. Just ask Loony, but she likes it, she just asks for the same beer as me! But more about Holland, that language is crazy - their way of say kitchen sounds like the Swedish way of saying kuken (and that means cock in Swedish)... so yeah, since we (me, Loony and Fisty) are such teenagers we ended up standing around the bar saying (maybe yelling)'' KUKEN, KUKEN, KUKEN'' several times...  the bartender was kind of ''what do you girls want from the kitchen?''
Oh, and I forgot to mention that Fisty had to fight the medic out of her bed... (that just came out wrong) and the next morning Blauwe Bill (the guy who made it all happen) couldn't find his wallet, but later on he aperently discovered it in his fridge....

Oh, I love derby - now on my way to coach with Loony at our outdoor track - and she just finished printing the shirts for the bout this weekend. It is sunny outdoors and I have spent all day catching up on sleep we missed out on driving to and from Rotterdam (about 24 hours all together ) and catchign up on e-mails - both SwedeVix work and stuff for Crime City Rollers!

I am a hoovering bench-coach

Prepping for coaching tomorrow in Rotterdam

Long walks in the sun in Rotterdam

For some reason we have been sitting around the dinner table and chatted about Major Madness balls, how Fluke Skywalker is his light twin and how Blauwe Bil forgot to buy plates for the food and Loony bought hairdye from a scetchy store on the corner. We also decided that NSO's and Referees are getting a nice off-skate session with Fisty, and so are the more advanced girls too... they are getting treated to an entire hour of off-skate. Me and Loony are feeling nice, so we are NOT going to start the practice with the Black Widow...
Bill made us really amazing food, and now I'm gonna go to bed and NOT think about ball, because there are no balls in derby... so we are just gonna watch the Real L-word.... better than porn, I think it can actually be classified as porn, but there are no balls in that show either.
yepp...
over and out
ZzZZzzzZZzzzzz

Running rollerderby bootcamp in Rotterdam

Rotterdam late afternnon

Me, Loony and Fisty (not to be mistaken for Fisti from Gotham) have travelled all night in my trusty Volvo all the way from Crime City to Rotterdam. Tomorrow we will be caoching some fiiiine rollerderby in a bootcamp that is ending in a public bout/ scrimmage. We are super excited to be on the road again, and continue to coach... not that we ever stop coaching...

Next weekend we will be playing London Rockin Rollers in Malmö, it's Crime Citys thrid bout, and we are really excited to play our long-way visitors. It sort of sucks with training halls right now, we just don't have any, so hopefully there will be no rain next week, so we can get ready for the bout on Stapelbädden and our lovley outdoor track.

Crime City is now in the WFTDA AP program

This is not a part of the scrimmage...

Hard work pays off! Yayaaaa!!  We celebrated our new status by having a practice on our out-door practice track! Getting ready to play London Rockin Rollers in a 12 days... and we don't currently have an indoor practice space... but hey! We do have a WFTDA regulation track painted for our pleasure in Stapelbäddsparken! Thanks to Malmö City.... coolest city in Sweden, increadably supportive of rollerderby!

And also a HUGE thanks to WFTDA that have accepted us into their AP program, it means so much to us and we are ready to work really hard to become full members! It is AMAZING! Hard work is done and more to be done! And also a big CONGRATULATION to all the other leauges that made it in!

Weekend in Crime City

Bonnie Bompa, Pia and Finnish girls

Bonnie Bompa, Evil Eye, MadFist, Kneebender and Juicy

Me and Loony had one of those rare weekends that we acctually were in Malmö, the entire weekend... but no rest for the wicked...soo...
This weekend we as in Crime City held a little bootcamp, we had girls from Gothenburg Roller Derby, Aarhus Derby Danes, Kallio Rolling Rainbows, Copenhagen Rollerderby, Stockholm Rollerderby and probably somewhere else attending. And it was the best time ever... it was FUN and we all had a blast. It started up with advanced on Friday, while Saturday was our basic day and ending with Sunday being advanced drills ending in Scrimmage - White vs. Black.
It was good for us, since we had a chance to let the girls, that are skating against London Rockin Rollers on the 23rd of July, skate together. We are running a little of a newer roster since some of our skaters are going to RollerCon in Vegas.

Well, the weekend was a success and everyone seemed like that had a great time, and once again I must say, like I have done so many times before, that it is so amazing to see how European Rollerderby is coming along and how everyone are pushing themselves, each other and developing.

I got to enjoy hanging out in parks, jumping into the ocean all derby sweaty, drinking peoples beers, talking rollerderby and not-rollerderby with a whole bunch of amazing people... and in the end we cut Maloonys hair... but that was not even during the weekend anymore... and Bonnie Bompa supplied her and the two crazy Finns with two bottles of vodka...

After bootcamp swimming....

There is a Derby Street in Copenhagen

35 km skate did happen (that's 21 miles)

Kris is inspecting the lack of tan

We sat by the airport and watched the flights land

Copenhagen is a great city to skate in, today started with a beach skate and we ended up by the airport watching flights land... it was quite cool.... we all got a nice knee-pad tan... and we are EXHAUSTED. Maybe not the best thing to do before a two hour practice! Yayaaa....
Krazy Kris and Mad Maloony is really INSANE company to take on the streets with...

Heading South in Sweden and Derby Boot Camp

Always fun to meet and skate with different girls!

After exploring the nature all morning we (me, Loony and Krazy Kris) jumped into the car and are heading back south... Stockholm is done for this time and hopefully we will be back next month. This weekend Crime City are running a little bootcamp, we have girls from Aarhus Derby Danes (Denmark), WestCoast Bombshells (Sweden), Kallio Rolling Rainbows (Finland) and some other random girls coming for the weekend to share som rollerderby fun.
Saturday is for everyone, some basic drills (that you never can do too much of) and endurance and, and on Sunday we also invited some of the Copenhagen girls, since we will scrimmage. This is going to be super duper fun....

It was nice to be in Stockholm and not coach a derby camp, it was nice to talk to people about something else but derby, even if we did sneak in some derby... there is always derby to be snuck in!

Rollergirls in the Nature

Exploring the world without the skates.... Me, Krazy Kris, Jazz Ass and Malooney went on an adventure in the nature.... We almost got eaten by a sheep and we fed a horse som grass, and some mosquitos totally fed on us... we felt VERY accomplished...

Derby wedding... HussInsane and Krazy Kris

finally married

Finally it is offical, Husse and Kris are now real derby wives, it is the second derby marrige I have had the honor to administer, the first one was Fenix and Bea....

The sauna re-visited

Two Danes and parts of Team Sweden

So yesterday was my annual Midsummer non Midsummer party - and as it always tend to happen, everyone ended up in the sauna with beer, rosé, gin&tonic and me and my wineschorle... the up and downs of the drunk... we had a beer relay where Jazz crashed into the grass and we did semi-nude jumping into the lake... Krazy Kris and Enoc were our play-leaders and made us play merrily in the sun... we even had a game of soccer going for a while...

For some reason I volonteered to get all the meat for the the party, I don't think why I thought I was qualified to do that, considering I was vegetarian for 10 years and Loony still is... so we walked around the supermarket aimlessly and just picked up some random meat... and of course I ended up being the BBQ girl too... yeah... I don't know why people want to get food poison so badly that they let me be in charge of those things...

My new AMAZING socks

Vix and Loony drinking weinschorle in Rålambshovsparken

Yesterday we also spent a little time in Rålambshovsparken, has som wine with Vix Viking (well, WEINSCHORLE) and chatted. Vix is the other half of SwedeVix Skateshop and used to skate with London Roller Girls... She is tiny... OH OH OH OH... and I got new yellow mustasch socks... HOW EXCITING is that! I am almost peing myself looking at them... Like seriously! So Awesome.... good things with owning a shop.... product testing... even if I'm not really sure that you need to product test socks... but I swear to you all! They are fab!

Chillin in Stockholm

So one day we spent in Malmö, before we headed up to Stockholm (that is a seven hour drive) to see friends and family, but also to host the annual ''non-Midsummer but Midsummer party''. So yesterday night was chill, since the party is tonight, so we just hung out at Jazz Ass place with CalaVera, Smashed and Twisted, had a beer or two, made the very Swedish dish tacos, almost went to a dive dyke bar to watch dive dykes, but ended up watching Fight Club... I fell asleep on the floor despite the fact that I made the strongest coffee (and most disgusthing)...

So we have 24 people coming over to my mothers house - to eat drink and celebrate that we are going towards darker times... and of course the law of alla jävligheters jävlighet - the water pump has broken, and we have no water... So now we gonna pretend we are little scouts and do what Tim Gunner would tell us ''make it work''...

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