Swedish Championships 2015

The third swedish Championships was played last weekend, in a town five hours north of Stockholm called Sundsvall. I got a ride up with one of my best friends from Stockholm Rollerderby, Becky Lawless. Seriously, the car was so hot that I think we all melted away, BUT luckily we are in Sweden where the sun doesn't set in the summer (well, not until about 10.30 or so) and we stopped by a lake and soaked ourselves. well, at least me and Tess got in it, while Quad and Becky  did some serious gas station shopping.

Since I nowdays play for Gotham and not Stockholm, I wasn't going to play, but I was going to ANNOUNCE, and I do really like announcing. I think that and coaching is what I wanna do when I no longer want to play rollerderby competativley. Well, nevermind... when we got to Sundsvall we put our sleepingbags out on the floor of the classroom. All volonteers and players were housed in a High School... delightful... I probably should have brought my blow-up queensized matress... because I was busy packing pretty outfits for the announcing.

Me and Salivet announcing Gothenburg vs. Stockholm getting our tan on
Photo by Camilla Höög

I was scedualed to announce with Saliva, and our first bout was the semifinal between Stockholm and Gothenburg. Stockholm was the clear favorite in this one, and did not have much problems with pulling of a win. I was VERY impressed by a few of the Gothenburg skaters, this one girl whos name I never seemed to be able to get right, but she was #71 did a great job as a pivot/blocker, I would probably have jammed her more, since she was greatly sucessful everytime she got the starpass. damn those ladies in their lower twenties and all that talent. Well, me an Salivet were dressed nicley and we went with a flowery theme. It was really sunny, and I got a nice tan.

Elitseriekval Norrköping vs. Luleå See me and Salivet announcing in the background
Photo by Rickard Höög, 

That was the only bout that we announced on Saturday, even if I for sure watched the other semifinal where Crime City effortless beat Dock City. In the night me and Salivet took a round to look if there was anything fun to do on a Saturday night, and we probably would just have been better off just staying and laying on that classroom floor.

Sunday was the day of the final, the battle of the GOLD, the game that was going to decide if Stockholm would become Swedish Champs for a third time or if it was Crime Citys turn. AND I was going to announce it, and for this I had brought my fanciest dress! Well, nw I'm getting ahead of myself, we started out with announcing the Elitserie Qualifications. Sweden has an internal play, and currently it is Elitserien as the higest six ranked teams play in and Division 1 that are the six lower teams. In the end of the season the number five in Elitserien play number two in Divison 1. So it was Luleå Rollerderby (5 in Elitserien) playing Norrköping (2 in Div 1) to vinna eller försvinna (to win or disapear). It was SUCH a great bout, I haven't seen Luleå play for years and I never seen Norrköping before, and I was really impressed by both teams! It was fun to anounce, even if I had a little trouble getting all the blockers right in the beginning. AND it was sooo close, WOW!

The bronze game with Gothenburg and Dock City was REALLY exciting, especally the first half, before Dock City showed that they still are the number three team in Sweden. but Gothenburg showed that they are a true contender. At times Swedish rollerderby makes me teareyed, I love this sport so much and I love how everyone playing are pouring so much time and soul into it. AMAZING!

THE THE FINAL... it was REALLY great to get to annonce the two Swedish teams I've been a part of. I know almost all the players from both teams and there is so much talent and brains on both teams. Both teams went to US this year, Crime City to Beach Brawl in Florida where they DESTROYED their opponents and Stockholm to ECDX where they beat both Charm and Detroit, teams ranked way above them. When the new rankings are coming out in a few days this will place both those teams in WFTDAs Division one, meaning that they are both going to head back to US, to playoffs. I am SO excited that little Sweden has TWO DIVISION ONE teams! Dreams do come true.

Well, well... After the first ten minutes Stockholm had taken a clear lead, both teams played really awesome, but Crime had one too many penalties. In the end Stockholm pulled away and took a clear win. Ahhh... amazing! I was supercold... brrrrrrrr...

Me and Salivet announcing the SM final!
Photo by Martin Sörensen

Hm, I am trying to remember who got the MVP's and so on... I think I missed someone.... but this is what I remember...

Quad Shop MVP: Lil Slinky (Stockholm)
Quad Shop MVJ: Curly Håår (Crime City)
Peoples Choice: Anja Knees (Norrköping)
Sticky Skates MVP: Stopless (Gothenburg)

Awards Cermony
Photo by Camilla Höög

Back on skates in Stockholm

Smashed, Calla, Becky and Amy for breakfast

Got back from Brazil on Friday and a few hours later I'm at Stockholm Rollerderby practice. It was delightful and amazing to be back with my old team and it was amazing to be on skates again. It is always amazing to be on skates, but after over a month of not skating, it was extra awesome. I spent the night at my derby wife's house and got two blankets! Talk about luxurary... In the morning Becky and her gf came by, and we had American pancakes with fixings. Me so happy.

I am still unsure of my 2015 personal goals, but I'm certain about one thing, and that is: that the world of Rollerderby is expanding.

I'm currently trying to get out of bed so I can join Stockholm for scrimmage. Sometimes it's just not the easiest...

Vagine Regime Nordic in Helsinki

I had such a great weekend playing with friends against Kallio Rolling Rainbow this weekend. Pick-up teams are fun when everyone are great skaters and you just all of a sudden start to play so well with each other.
I really had a SUPERFUN weekend, and I was excited to see Only and get to hang out with her and catch up...

This bout was a charity promoting Equal Marrige Rights in Fnalnd, and it was announced by Miss Gay Finland, two things that are really cool! This really turned out to be one of hte best weekend in a long time, of course I love playing with Stockholm, it's my home leauge and we have longterm goals and strive to climb into Division two and up... With Vagine Regime Nordic it was about gettign to skate with other fellow amazing skating queers and just have fun! It was of course extra fun to win, but it was not the main point.

Bout really was fun and superphysical and we ended up only being 10 ppl on the roster, due to some injuries and last minute cancellations. Everyone seemed to ahve sooo much fun, and everyone just played so well! We sold all the merch we had printed and enjoyed an afterparty with Samiakki, longdrinks, lipsyncing trannies and great company!

Oh, I was awarded Best Blocker, Loony got best Jammer and Chaos got MVP - so I guess the Stockholm Queers really represented... but everyone did amazing, Sabo did some amazing offence while Martattack probably are one of the best positional blockers in Europe, her footwork is sooo amazing, I want it! It was also superfun to get to share some tracktime with Becky, since we usually never play in the same line. Oh and I had ONE penalty the entire game, not as good as when I played Paris last weekend when I only NO penaltys... but one is good and MUCH better than lots of bouts I have played. Penatlys are BAD, and I wanna be a good girrrrl...


We totally will get the Queers together again if anyone wanna play us again! Thank you so much Kallio for inviting us, it was a freaking BLAST!

AND it's just two more days until my girlfriend will be in Stockholm... I am sooo excited and a tiny bit nervous! Like damn, meeting my family and celebrating Christmas together!

So it is...

Time to make decisions, time to move forward, time to figure out what I want. It's hard when there is so much I want and only limited time!

Spent the day with Becky, Kix and Kim watching lesbian movies and eating - now off to scrimmage with new rules...

Drinking coffee with Kristina and Becky 

There is snow and cold outside... I love it! 

Life changes - and it's not that bad

Life is full of ups and downs - and 2012 was a down, down, down... Of course there ha been highlights and fun times, but I have had a struggle. I was burned out, I didn't stop and I possibly still have not stopped.

Friends, you are amazing - thanks for all the times you been there for me, and sorry for being such a mess.

 I will be there for you when you fall - just call! Thank you to all of you, you know who you are, you made me believe that trust and friendship is worth it!

Dinner at the derby collective with Kix, Becky and Madde

Suprise! We also got cheeeeze.. .adn some pears for Becky...

Last night was amazing, so unplanned and just great. We had dinner, and talked, ate some more, chatted, massaged each other, talked, and most important of all, we laughed and I felt alive, I felt at home.

Yesterday...

Went for a long walk in the dark and then home to make vegan cinnamon buns with Becky... Ended the night by sleeping with my trustworthy panda, who always loves to be spooned by me... Yeah...
Life is gooood... Beer is gooood and people are crazy....

Baking in a dress... hm... I'm content

Becky testing the vegan buns wearing her Christmas sweater

Stockholm by night

I have had panda since I was 9, we are close friends

WFTDA Champions watching...

Waiting for Gotham vs. Denver - Becky, Kim and Kix taking a nap...

During Oly vs. Minnesota

Me and Becky - we are broh's

Vegan venison stew... Becky, Dingus, Amy, Red and Kim

If you one day wanna play like the best, then you gotta watch and learn... so we spent all of the Saturday watching Championships... and it was great... Well, first me and Becky went running intervals, and then we went and watched the Royals bout...

Working out with Becky - Saturday morning

 

 

 

Becky trying the outdoor gym

Me trying the outdoor gym

Picture of 11/10/2012

Waiting for the vegan meal to be ready... best place to eat, and Becks is great company

Rugby Practice - a new sport?

When i was younger I was not so into sports - except from snowboarding and I would do some off-snow once in a while, just becuse I knew it would make me a better snowboarder. So for a few months 10 years ago I practiced with a rugbyteam here in Stockholm - I sucked, I was both scared of the ball, the other girls and the full contact part...

So I don't know what happened - but I love to work out - I feel shitty if I don't, and it makes my body feel great. I guess I use it as an excuse to eat everything that my heart desires... And my heart does desire lots and lots of candy, vegetables, marängswiss and more rice cakes...

So me and Becky were talking about that we should try rugby - don't ask me why - probably because its a full contact sport and we love a good challenge... And a week later I found a "try rugby with us" event on Facebook and knowing I should know better we signed up....
 I once dated a girl that I met when she was with her rugbyteam on a pub crawl and she was totally batcrazy (but also really AWESOME)... Yeah... but that did not end so well, but I guess all rugby girls don't have to be like that, and I'm not about to date anyone, just play the sport... I probably should know better than get involved in another full contact sport! Well, well...but  Ankefar from CCR also plays rugby - and her being one of Swedens best jammers - sort of made us quite sure that rugby at least wouldn't be bad for us...

We got there and the girls were superfriendly and we got to run, throw the ball, that really is not round, and therefore it's not a ball, we alls got to tackle big blue cushions - and even if I might have gotten a slight headache from teh violence of me throwing myself onto this big round cushion throwing myself to the ground, I was having a blast... It was wet and a little cold and I was really having a REALLY GOOD TIME! It was also quite nice to suck really bad, and just try, and try and try and fight to learn somethign new without any expectations to have any answers at all...

It was SUPERFUN - I loved it! Not as much fun as derby - but I always have room for more sports in my life...so maybe an option for those Tuesdays and Thursdays when I don't have derby practice...

Oh, and if you happen to live in Stockholm and wanna go try it next Tuesday... do it! I think we might go again...

If it's not round, it's not really a ball... right...?

Loony and Becky gettign ready to tackle our new sport...

Fun, fun and being exhausted...

Going home from practice, on the bus that take 30 min and then 10 min on the subway! Gonna make some food and watch Minnesota vs. Windy City... Yay... I am a nerd!

I was feeling tired and in a shitty mood e when I came to practice - I didnt really wanna be there at all - I would just rather have been home in bed. My throat is a little achy and I'm just exhausted from never getting enough sleep.

Still I go to practice - and almost every time I feel so much better after... Skating lifts my spirit - and we now have started to have off-skate practice 30 min before practice, I know I'm silly, but I love love love offskate - especially when I get sore! Mmmm... and windsprints...

Twins, twins, twins, twins...

And we also match... it is getting colder... Helly Hansen will keep us warm...

Back from Rainy City

It's important to warm up before bout...

The team after the bout

We did so great - I am s proud of every player - each one of us! We played so well and it was a tight game, and we poured our souls and sweat into it! Becky and Twisted did a great job on the bench - and we loved to have them there. I will write more tomorrow... we might not have won the bout... but we for sure won the afterparty...

Packing - washing - leaving for airport

This year I was supposed to do less traveling, it did not really work out like that, I just done different traveling. I've travelled less for coaching and more for my own selfish rollerderby pleasure, and that is sad and fun at the same time. I love coaching, but at the same time I miss to just skate for my own damn sake and learn from others...

What to pack? does those look like Stockholm to you?

Still, this weekend Stockholm is playing Rainy City, and they have their venue right outside Manchester, a new travel first... so I'm once again washing and packing and getting ready for another airport ride to Arlanda to get on another flight. Airports has sort of lost their charm, but at the same time I have a special love for them.
So I have to remember passport, flight confirmation, the few pounds I have left from last trip, skates, pads, armbands, boutshirt, something to cover the ass up.. .what... hm.... boardshorts, hotpants, skorts, jeaggings? I miss packing with Loony - she is so much better at this than I am... I probably will finish packing about 10 mins before I have to leave for the airport... oh, I need to bring line-ups and my helmet too... ugh... what else... does everything fit in my backpack? Do I need more than one pair of shoes? If only one pair of shoes... converse or Nike?
Will it be sunny? Or will it rain? Should I bring a jacket? Wheels? What wheels should I bring? Stingers? Will they be to grippy? Should I stick with G-rods? I do like slide... ugha!
Oh, and painkillers, since I had an incident the other day... Kimizooka our new girl, who now is mine and Beckys Bro and personal trainer has given me some... oh...
I love to go on team trips... this is gonna be exciting.. .except from all those choices and the packing... ahhhh....

Happy Pride on and off skates...

Husse, me, Becky, Kim and Enoc being pretty...

Dress to success... This year we were quite a bunch in the Stockholm Pride Parade - it for soem reason always makes my eyes water a little, right before the parade starts... when I look around at all those people that are just like me, and so different. But we are all proud for what we are, and we are allowed to stand up for ourselves and our friends and all those that can't. I am very lucky to be born in Sweden, and I am very lucky to have such a caring family and circle of friends.
Being different, just hte slightest is not easy at all teh times, but being different is not a bad thing, we are all uniqe!
But a big thanks to my friends who made this Pride so amazing and fun... I have had dinners, pre-parties, mellow nights, crazy sweaty dancing and crazy colorful rolling parade-time... each one of you my friends are making my life worth living.

Variety of Swedish Leauges represented... Rollerderby rules!

Swedish Midsummer with skates on - traditional

We are VERY traditional... dancing around the pole... 

The derby hair in STRD

Becky and Only has it...

Lonni is a hipster and keep it short on one side

You cannot deny Ice going all the way

But to be fair - Jazz really is the all that

And Husse for sure does it...

They all do it... shave a side, two sides, half a side... something is at least shaved... and they play derby... I really tried to find photos of the ladies in the full hair glory - but apperently shaving your hair also entails wearing something on the head... bummer...

And everyone are for sure not pictured... I just got to lazy to find pictres... but also Saliva, Amy, Red, Ryssen and probably someone else that I have missed has it too... and I see more of them in the future... summer and shaving is easy...

Not to miss that our referee has joined forces...

Outdoor skate with parts of STRD

Ice, Becky, Swede, Kix and Only (Loony holding camera)

Yesterday was the first outdoor-skate of 2012... It happened around the new rollerderby collective, and involved some coffee, some running on grass and some falling down stairs...

Me and Loony started the day with a run, and my poor brother could not keep up, and then we did the crazy outdoor skate (there was snow here last weekend) and we rounded of the night with practice... Fun, fun off-skate with some explosive jumping... and on-skate preparing for Glasgow this weekend, working on things we realized we had to improve after playing London.

I think I will be a little sore today during accounting class... ahrgh...

A few things... of today

I'm not really well, I have a cold that seem to linger and never fully let go of me, yesterday Ifelt extreamly bad, but Istill made it to practice that I ran together with Becky Lawless. I have a really hard time not going to practice if I'm able to stand up.
First hour was our intermediate group and we just worked with lots of juking and speedcontrol, and then had the combined pracice with blocking exercises and some jammers hell before the advanced group got to do their thing, and our thing was fun, even if Ijust got to watch with my skates on...

It is SO frustrating to not being able to skate at times, not only because you are running practice - but also because you are feeling crappy and sick. Especially the days when half the teams attention span seem to be limited to 5 seconds...

On the brighter sidewe found out today that we are getting another practice space in the middle of April until July, that is much better and cheaper than our current Go-Cart Hall. I must say I will not miss having to shout intructions over the running engines of 10 go-carts going fullspeed on the track next to our track... Imust say that photos taken in the Go Cart Hall do have some cool grassroot feeling to it... and from all I know - we might be back in the Go Cart Hall again in August... senior non-elite sports for women are not really high on the priority lists....

Another fun thing of today is that it's Alotta Riots B-day... or as we like to call her Aloha! I miss her and I hope she is havign an amazing birthday! You can also find her blog here if you just wanna say Happy Birthday to her...

Stockholm Rollerderby Bootcamp

Kix and MadFish getting ready to skate

So as I mentioned in the last entry, we had a bootcamp here in Stockholm, it was during the Stockholm Winter Games, that is a big sports exhibition in Älvsjö, we were given a whole lot of space, so we were able to have two tracks, one regulation and one 90% and a little information/merch table. We had girls from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden and from about 17 different leauges. So it was super-exciting! It was the first larger boot-camp that I worked that I also got to lay down the timetable for. So with all the things in mind from the bootcamps I have worked the past year, I did my best to give everyone a variety of on-skate classes, but also some off-skate classes that are valuable for everyone.
We parted the girls into three different groups, Blue, Yellow and Red, and everyone got a ''wristband'' in the color of their group, to make it easy for us to indentify and for them to remember...
As most of you that reads my blog on a regular basis, you know that I think off-skate exercises are SUPER IMPORTANT for becoming a successful derby skater, so all levels got to have an off-skate session. For the girls that hadn't passed minimum-skills (rookie girls) we also let them do sock-derby (but with shoes on) as a part of their off-skate session. Sock-derby is, for you that doesn't know, a scrimmage in full-gear, but without skates... so instead of skating everyone is running. It is superfun! All regular derby rules apply, but we shortened the jams down to a minute.... me and Loony had a blast refereeing this!
The intermediate and advanced girls both got to scrimmage, an hour each day, and we made sure it was not the last thing of the camp, since it usually ends up in exhausted girls getting injured. And during the scrimmage all the referees that had their little referee camp got to practice calls and all what they do, so that worked out really well. We had invited Riff Reff up from Stuttgart to lead the referee camp - and we had referees of different experiance from allover attend, and from what I saw, they were having a great time!
We also had Fluke run an off-skate Rules class for the intermediate and rookie girls, since there are always lot's of questions about rules, and who is a better person to answer them than a referee? HyperNova was kind enough to come and go over the basics of gear, she is a little of a gearhead and always a good person to ask about different wheels, plates and boots.
Becky Lawless, Twisted T, Mad Maloony and me ran the onskate classes, and we did everything from crossovers to hitting and jammerline starts. Our last class the girls really look exhausted, but I guess that is a good sign, that they got lots and lots out of the classes and a work-out. Loony ended every day with a partner-strech that was amazing, since we all are very likely to forget to strech if noone makes us do it.
In the end we had three prizes (sponsored by SwedeVix) for three girls that just stood out a little extra, I do think that everyone worked so hard and did such a fantastic job, but sometime there just are girls that stand out, just a tiny bit more:
Best Attitude: Mrs Knuckles - Umeå
Hardest Worker: Obnoxious Li - Gothenburg
Most Improved: Cursed Nurse - Norway
Overall I must say that I loved the vibe of the weekend, everyone had such a great attitude and skated so hard and really listened, and I appreciate that.
 I had a really great time putting on this bootcamp, and everyone else did too, so I hope we have the opportunity to do it again. And it felt really good to be able to send some of the girls from remote or really new leauges off with a whole set of new tools! I also wanna do a speacial shootout to Sleaze and Hell for being our event coordinators, making sure we had what we needed and a little extra... and of course to all the STRD skaters that volonteered. Oh, and then we had a GREAT afterparty... with dancing and all that jazz...
Amazingly fun everyone!

Stockholm Rollerderby Bootcamp Weekend

This weekend we hosted and put on a bootcamp in Stockholm, during Stockholm Wintergames. It was superduperfun, lots of work with three different group skills... I made a really nice colorcoordinated scedual and Loony, Becky, Twisted and med coached on-skate classes and benchcoached while we had Hyper teach gear and Fluke rules... it was overall a really fun time... I will write more about it when I get back from lunch with my non-derby friend.