Talk Derby to Me

"Talk Derby to Me!"

  I may be stretching the boundaries of "cultural" events when I write about the Roller Derby debut.  And, my fellow blogger, Margo, already writes quite charmingly about derby, from the inside, as a REAL derby girl (see her blog post here.)  But I figured what-the-heck, and thought you might like to see some of the derby shots if you weren't hip enough to go yourself.  

The derby event was on June 30, when the High Altitude Roller Derby (H.A.R.D.) team took on Dirty Verde Roller Derby and their guest skaters from the Havasu Hit Girls.  They won (but that was almost beside the point.)

Mary, Meghan, and me. 

That's me, Meghan and Mary on the right.  We were in 2nd row seats, and we were all sweaty just sitting there.  GoGo Liz, one of Flagstaff's killer jammers almost passed out from the heat.  (Of all the dangers of roller derby, high temperatures were not what I was expecting.)

The match was exciting.  It's cool to see athletic women, and everyone in the crowd was pretty enthusiastic.  I'd say the audience watching was almost as fun--a Who's Who of Flagstaff.  There was Dre, in his fuzzy boots, doing the MC job (post-bicycle crash, non-the-less) and just tons of beautiful people, dressed up in solidarity with the girls on the track.

But the real stars were the ballsy girls on the track.  You could tell they were a tight team.  Everyone of them was an athlete, and a lot of them were drawn to the sport when no other sport would do.  I was really impressed with their courage and tenacity... and there's just NO WAY I would get out there on the rink. 

Thanks ladies for one of my favorite cultural events of the year!

Lovely sisters Laura and Dawn.  Beautiful people everywhere