Loka in Motion

Rolling Recruitment is just around the corner. I know those of you who plan on coming are super stoked! But then there are others out there who secretly want to join but are afraid that they won’t be good enough or maybe just aren’t comfortable meeting new people. I’m here to tell you to drop kick those fears out the door because this is everything you need to know!!!! 

1)      What to Bring!

• Skates: (quad skates) are always a good thing.  Yes, you CAN use the rentals provided at Fleetwood roller rink, however, it may be difficult to learn some of the stops on those wheels. So long as you don’t plan on using rentals for the entire rolling recruitment they are a viable option. 
• Elbow/ wrist guards: These are something that you don’t have to go out and get state of the art especially since this is a trial period and you may not want to do it after all (which I doubt cuz derby is AWESOME!)
• knee pads:Knee pads are something you might want to invest some more $$ in. I just used the simple triple 8 ones that came with the elbow/wrist guards but I had to buy better ones a short time later because my knees were getting bruised. Also if you have knee problems you don’t want to risk unnecessary injury. 
• Mouth Guard: This is something that a million people forgot to bring last year at rolling recruitment. Don’t be one of those people because then you have to pray that the Walgreens down the street has one.  A lot of us use the protech dent mouth guard. Like I said though you don’t have to get real expensive gear right away or at all the 99cent ones will suffice. 
• Helmet: Okay so I must emphasize the importance of getting a skateboard helmet. It’s just better protection. I mean you’re not going to be getting hit but for beginner skaters I guarantee you will fall so be sure to get one. 
• Valid ID (18+): Okay not that we’re hating on the youngins (I was only 19 when I joined) but you do have to be 18 and out of high school.  I guarantee it won’t be like Whip It. You have to fill out paperwork and everything. However if you want to do derby and you’re not 18 yet we do have a junior derby league you can check out. The girls are just as equally great and equally fun to be around :D 

Along with the required gear here are some tips from the other derby girls: 

Bloody Elle: get a decent set of kneepads, realize the amount of time that derby is going to take out of your life, and don’t expect to be super amazing awesome in just a month or two – a lot of the girls on the league have been around for a long time and skills come as you work on them with time so don’t compare yourself to them. compare yourself to only yourself and monitor your own progress from week to week against only yourself. :)

Scream Printer: You can still join without knowing how to skate or play derby!

Brawly Shore: Everyone should know that derby is great because there is a place for everyone in the sport and in our league. It doesn’t matter your size, skill, experience…you can impact the sucess of our league on and off the track! You will get out of it what you put in to it, and that is one of the most rewarding things you can ask for! And I agree with everything Elle said above…I would beat myself up over my skill level all the time and its senseless because I’m new and learning and need to be ok with that!

Loka In Motion: Know that you don’t have to know how to skate and you learn and your own pace. You don’t have to pass every test right when it’s given.  Also make sure to bring water/Gatorade and wear tights or leggings something that covers your thighs. Short shorts look cute with your skates but it sucks to get rink rash. 

2)  What you need to Know/ Realize

Rolling Recruitment begins November 21^st  at Fleetwood Roller Rink. From 8:30-10:00pm

The Chicago Outfit isn’t just a roller derby team. It’s a family. We look out for our girls and you form great friendships especially with the girls that come into rolling recruitment with you. I am so thankful for joining when I did. I mean I was intimidated by the Syndicate because they have been skating together for years but I had my new girl group to go through it all.

There is a place for everyone on the team. If during the rolling recruitment you feel skating isn’t for you but you still want to be part of the team we’re always looking for Non-Skating Officials to help with the bouts. For more info on that email: referees@chicagooutfitrollerderby.com

One more thing that can’t be emphasized enough is the fact that you don’t need to have any prior skating experience. I barely knew how to skate in fact Goin’ Postal can vouch for me when I say that. He’d see me at the rink skating with my boyfriend (and by skating I mean holding his hand and letting him drag me around). But at rolling recruitment they taught me everything I needed to know and eventually i built up my confidence on skates. Now I prefer to be on skates than just walking around :D

So come on out November 21^st!  and I’ll keep you guys posted on when the Meet and Greet is. There you’ll receive more info about the Rolling Recruitment and the whole Derby experience. Til then you can either email me personally at dahliapiedra@yahoo.com or email outfitrecruitment@gmail.com

See you guys soon!

~Loka In Motion

Saturday was my 20^th birthday. My first thought was F**K YEA BLUE MAN GROUP!! But right after that my thought was okay, just one more year til I’m finally 21. My mom always says, “don’t wish your life away,” but that was hard not to do when I joined roller derby in November of last year.

The Chicago Outfit is a 18+ league, most leagues are 21+. I am by no means complaining but sometimes I still think it’s a 21+ league when I’m at home reading facebook statuses about awesome Outfit dance parties. But it’s not the epic dance parties, or rock shows, or spaghetti wrestling (which they are all awesome and you should go cuz i can’t) that i miss out on that gets me down, it’s the fact that I don’t really get to contribute to the team as much as I like. And in turn it’s like a bajillion times harder for me to earn offskates (huge exaggeration but it is harder).

Offskate hours- The hours earned for doing work for the league outside of practice.

Each month every skater is required to do a set amount of hours to even be qualified for the roster. We don’t have special workers to do our marketing, find us sponsor, pay for travel and coordinate our bouts. We do it all ourselves.

Anyways in the first month I was expected to start doing offskates I was nowhere near the six hours required and I’m pretty sure it was the same for the next month. I remember this one night where I signed up to go to the showing of a derby documentary, hosted by WCR (windy city rollers) at Lincoln Hall. I knew it was near DePaul University so I figured it was some random hall on campus…it was not. After a 30min car ride + an hour bus ride+10min walk in the snow I approached a door that said WE CARD HARD and that = one sad little Loka. I must have looked so awful and sad and pathetic  cuz the guy at the door let me in saying as long as I don’t drink I’m fine.

Since then I’ve just stayed away from all 21+ events…..well almost. But if you did see me in a bar, in the back of my mind I was thinking “I don’t belong here quite yet”’ and for a while I thought “maybe I don’t belong on this team yet.”  

After the season started getting busier and I finally started getting hours, I realized I was still questioning whether I belonged and I realized why. It’s not just the offskates hours I was missing out on but it was also getting to know the lovely ladies of the outfit. Every practice I went to it felt like everyone was just becoming closer and closer while I showed up to practice clueless of what went on over the weekend.

But my woe is me attitude changed. Rogue (who is the sweetest derby girl on the team) hosted a a bearings cleaning party (which was awesome cuz I had no Idea that I had to clean them). I got to know some of my teammates better. After that it was easier for me to talk to other people on the team. And now I feel like I’m part of the family.

As for my lack of age, well for now I’ll focus on skating in a bout, instead of wrestling in a pool of spaghetti ;)

~lil loka in motion

The only time i’ve ever blogged is when i was back in high school and i was bitching about what i thought was the end of the world. Anyways I’d like to start off with how i got into derby before i go on about my emotional and physical transitions.

It may or may not have had something to do with whip it….but mostly it was the movie the warriors. I always wanted to be in a gang and kick ass old school without actually busting out a shank or gat. I saw the outfit in June of 2010 and instantly fell in love. I knew i had to try out. It didn’t matter that my only experience was junior high skate parties and i spent the majority of it on my ass or over the rail… Anyways i got myself a pair of cheap rollerskates and started skating around my boyfriend’s neighborhood (mine is too ghetto). Day by day i started sucking less. Come august when they held the advanced tryouts….I most definitely did not make the team. In fact i received an email from Smashley stating i received a 24% (bright side, i was the only girl my size who stuck through the whole tryout) and she then gave me a long ass list of things i needed to improve on. So i worked on them. I saved up money and bought my vandals. I came back for rolling recruitment I became an official member after one month and then passed minimum skills (after several attempts at mastering cuts). 

I just noticed i skipped a major part of that little story…how i got my name. Well…I wanted to be Bettie Pain like Bettie Page. But then i thought Bettie Rage sounds way better. It was most definitely taken. Then i wanted to be Black Dahlia…also taken. So i kept thinking about all these other people i idolized and came up with embarrassingly awful names like Doris D-day. yea…that bad. So i gave up thinking on it for a bit and heard a Shakira song called Loca. I don’t really listen to her but i thought it was catchy. Then i noticed how several people said i was crazy for even attempting derby cuz i’m like tipping the scales at 110lb and am barely allowed on a roller coaster…let alone a bar. I have no clue where the rest of the name came from. I just thought hmmm motion sounds good with it. The “IN” makes it clever.  As for the k in Loka, well everything is just kooler with a k.

And the rest was history.

Stay tuned….next segment will feature graphic details of the severe asswhoopings i have received. but each week i get less and less bruised :)

~Loka In Motion