2012 Black Rock City Roller Girls- BOOOOOOO!!!!

Flat track roller derby.  At Burning Man.  This will be the 7th year we have the scrimmage at the Black Rock Roller Disco.

This year it's on Thursday evening at 6 pm.  That's an hour earlier than we have done it in the past, because it gets dark too fast and we can't see where we're skating.

Also, this is the first year I haven't gone to the playa in 7 years. BOOOOOOO!!!  Husband's supervisor won't give him time off from work, DOUBLE BOOOOOOO!!!!  You guys suck cause I have to stay home while you're having fun on the playa. If I could hold up a sign here I would.  

Oh wait- I can!

Thanks to my teammate Dirty Little Trick, booing in true Bay Area style

Enough whining.  I'm still gonna finish organizing the thing, here is the link for skaters to donate for shirts and stickers.  If everyone can put in $10-$15-$20 or so, everything should be covered. Here's the link again, in case you missed it.  Now everyone donate so we can get this together in a month! And don't forget to heckle the refs for me.

 

p.s. if you play roller derby, read this if you have a minute.  My favorite piece from HellaRad of all time.

Razor's Custom SkateWear Helmet Panties

First off, check out my Facebook page for the most updated photos: 

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=102083549870279&aid=2741

Queen of the Rink helmet cover

I am a one woman show. I do lettering for scrimmage shirts, uniforms and booty shorts, plus I do helmet panties for roller derby. AKA helmet covers. I have done countless sets for my league and I love making them. For jammer stars I iron them on first, then I stitch them on and I've never had one come off. I overlock all seams so the seams are strong.

A full set of panties is $50 and consists of 2 jammer and 2 pivot. Each team should have at least 2 sets (i.e. one jammer and one pivot in red base with white contrast; and one jammer and one pivot in white base with red contrast) because you never know when you might need a different color scheme. Having a full set of each color scheme is even better (that's 8 panties total) because you can have one set on the track and one set for skaters the bench to put on for the next jam.

My league played in a tournament in Tucson last year and used all 3 sets of panties in 3 different color schemes. Below are photos of some that I've made, click on the photo to super size it:

Photos above are courtesy of Jim Cottingham and Axle Adams. I can't figure out how to list the credits right underneath the photos, sorry guys!

Email me at steffinrazor@gmail.com if you are interested in some custom panties in a color of your choosing. I love fancy fabrics, patterns, metallics, etc. Just let me know what colors or patterns you want and I'll find the fabric. I can do reversible jammer panties for $3 more each, this means there are stars on the inside as well as the outside in case your jammer puts it on inside out(if the stars aren't showing, she won't receive any points). Also, check out my blog for info on other uniform-type things I do!

Derba luv,
Steffin' Razor

Razor's inspiration for her derby little sisters...

I started derby 8 weeks after I had my daughter in 2007 (Knuckles and I started on the same night), I hadn't skated since I was a kid and I pretty much sucked. I went to every practice and felt super guilty when I missed one. Because SVRG didn't have any kind of training program at the time I even attended BADG's training camp to supplement my SVRG practices. I learned a lot, but those coaches are tough, not sympathetic at all because they deal with so many skaters.

I didn't expect to excel right away and I wasn't too hard on myself about it. Although I did make the roster for SVRG's very first game against Santa Cruz, I could tell that I wasn't at the level of my teammates and I didn't get to play. I spent the next 6 months as an alternate on our one team and reminded myself that at least I got to play at practice. Don't forget that! I know everyone dreams of being picked for a roster and playing in public, but you ARE playing roller derby at practice.

Razor's first formal scrimmage against Santa Cruz Rollergirls, February 2008. I sucked.





















Then, after I had been skating for a year we had a game at Sac City where so many of our regular skaters were injured that it was more of a B team who got to play (we still only had one "A" team). That's the first time I pivoted, the first time I played a lot in a game and I kicked butt! We won that game 145-39. What Panda had been yelling at me for the last 6 months had finally sunk in. "Look behind you!" "Match the speed of the jammer!" I was just a slow learner and it really took me that long to really "get" the game, to be effective and to get play time. I was probably a pretty passive skater for a long time and when I started really pushing myself to do things I couldn't before, knowing instantly what needed to be done on the track, the coaches noticed it.

Razor booty blocking the Sac City jammer, November 2008. See how I'm finally looking behind me?
















Really try not to compare yourself to other skaters, everyone learns at a different level. Some girls are naturally athletic, learn super fast and are bouting 4 months after they strap on skates. Some girls take over a year to be ready. I always trusted my coaches' decisions, never complained or asked for special treatment- instead I asked what I needed to improve on so I could make the next roster.

So last year I ended up as Co-Captain of the brand new KillaBytes and I continued to play a lot. I even played the majority of the Dot.Kamikaze games last season. I had knee surgery in December and I'm still recovering, it sucks watching the Dots and Killas play games without me- especially since they're going to 3 tournaments while I'm still injured. This February at my second practice back, I was trying to skate cautiously but I tripped over a cone and gave myself a concussion. How's that for a recovery?

Killas at Santa Cruz, Aug 2009. I'm holding back their jammer as Smack assists our jammer.
















Good luck in derby! Don't give up, go to practice, keep your mouth shut at practice, be diplomatic when dealing with other skaters, play with all your heart, listen to your coaches and veteran skaters who give you advice, ask for feedback, push yourself farther than you think you can and skate outside all the time. Don't drop out of pace lines!! And don't give up. Derby is the first thing I've done that was really hard and that I've fallen in love with so much that I've stuck with it. I hope you do too.

Steffin' Razor

8 weeks after surgery, doctor says I can skate!

I went in for my 8 week checkup last week, and the doctor says I can skate! I can't say enough good things about him, I didn't even have to ask about it- he brought up the skating.

So Weds Feb 17 will be my first practice back. Gonna take it easy and try not to fall.

2 Gimp Knees, Sore Shoulders and Armpits

Last Weds I went in for surgery on my bum right knee, but boy was I not prepared for it. I figured I'd be walking in the next couple days, skating in a month, at least ready to scrimmage by February. Ummm..... no.

Can I just say how awesome my anethesiologist was? He looked like Sam Elliott. Without the cowboy hat.










Those guys are really good at finding out what you're interested in, then asking you questions about it until you pass out. Everyone seemed really intrigued that I play roller derby, and surprised that they don't see more derby related injuries. Oh yeah, and I had to explain a couple dark bruises on my arms. I think they bought it :)

My symptoms were excess fluid around my kneecap, swelling/stiffness and occasional pain. So the dr told me that he was going to go in and drain the excess synovial fluid (synoviocentesis?), fish out excess chips of cartilage that the MRI reported missing from my femur (chondrectomy?), and possibly score the bone where the cartilage was missing to encourage scar tissue growth (microfracture). They did all of that, plus the condition of my cartilage was worse than expected so they cleaned up a ton of shredded cartilage from behind my kneecap and on the end of my femur (chondroplasty).

Here is the shredded cartilage behind my kneecap:

















And the yellow part is missing cartilage on my femur.















I thought this thing would be a breeze, and that I'd be back on skates in 4 weeks. I can't even walk on my own til 10 days after surgery! The 2 days after surgery I was on pain meds and felt ok enough to finish projects and go to SVRG's christmas party. Saturday I hit a wall and have been in bed since. My left knee aches from having all my weight on it, plus my shoulders and armpits ache from the crutches. And today I lost the cable remote and got pretty upset. Plus with christmas 4 days away I'm freakin out because I didn't get everything done and we're having family over on christmas. Note to everyone out there: Christmas is NOT a good time to recover from surgery.

Good news is that the dr says this was not caused by derby, since I had this before I started skating. She said this took a long time to develop. Anyway, it is feeling better today and I haven't taken pain meds since last night so that's a good sign. The vicodin makes me feel hung over so I prefer my knee's achiness to a yucky stomach.

At least I went out with a bang, the Red Red Holiday tournament on Dec 12 was SO. MUCH. FUN!!! I had girls from Sonoma, Sac City, Battle Born, Sacred and Central Coast on my team and they were all awesome.
http://jwcotting.smugmug.com/Roller-Derby/RedRed-Holiday/Orange-vs-Brown-12-Dec-2009/10636959_xM2wv#740440344_6tWJN-A-LB

Magic School font

Sometimes you have no idea how friggin' cool a font will look until you test it out. Here are the 2 versions of the Magic School font and they kick ASS!! Our names need to be 2" minimum so I usually do all caps, but sometimes using lower case is aesthetically better.
The bottom font is Sparkly Diner which I'm really liking as well.

Razor's Font Of The Week

I'm in love. With a new font. Its called Space Out.
Did I mention I like it? And its even got numbers!!







Click on the pic to see a dazzling large view of this font.