derby mania

it's amazing what can happen when one watches a cheap "reality" tv show, such as "LA Ink".  in the first season in walked a girl who did roller derby to get a tattoo.  I thought to myself, I wonder if San Diego has roller derby.

guess what?  it does!  I found out about it from their blog here, and then their facebook page as well.

so I decided I would go to the game that was played yesterday (01-23-10) about three weeks ago.  then, they posted a notice on FB about needing referees.  that was an intriguing idea...

so I contacted the team captain, Lady Diesel, and she told me when to come down and discuss what I could do to help out.  I went down on Sunday the 17th, and Thursday the 21st where I became the Jam Timer.  and learned a LOT about roller derby in those few days!

it's kind of amazing to go from never seen a live match before to a rather important part of the game- I started the "jams" and stopped them if they got to the 2 minute mark.  that's a lot of pressure, for a novice whistle blower like myself, I must say.

here's the edifice that houses the rink.  I bet it has not changed since it was built, or at least the 70s.  the color scheme is exactly the same as every rink I've ever been in.  my friend Sharon called it without even having SEEN the inside!

when I got there the skaters were leaving.  this is one of the few rinks left in San Diego and I was surprised to see how many kids and parents were there.  pleasantly surprised, as I thought it might have been just hanging on to surviving.  seemed pretty healthy to me last night, though!  we all pitched in to get the place match ready and that happened pretty quickly.  then I had a ref's meeting with the head ref "McFly" but going by "Hooker Spit" tonight (sorry mom).  he was very helpful with the sixteen thousand questions I had.

here are the San Diego Starlettes warming up and scoping out the competition, the OC Rollergirls.

the bout started at 5:30, which is when I began blowing my whistle.  did anyone else know that there's quite an art to doing that?  I was a string player, never had to learn to blow into something before.

there are 2 thirty minute halves and a 15 minute halftime.  these women are TOUGH.  and great skaters as well.  a very pleasant thing was a lack of ego out on the floor- even between the teams, no tempers flew out of control (that I saw, anyway).

the OC Rollergirls took the match last night, by the way.  just in case anyone is interested, the complete phone number is 858-560-9278.