Two esteemed roller girls in the GGRD league will open a new skate shop right here in Queens on May 5th. Very exciting news for those of us locals that need gear and good news for NYC’s growing derby community!
Five Stride Skates
30-90 14th Street
Astoria, Queens
In Key Largo on vacation I got two days of skating in at the local YMCA’s skate park. It was walking distance from our hotel. I got yelled at upon arrival because you have to get a notarized liability waiver to skate there. Luckily, the UPS store in the strip mall around the corner was happy to notarize my form for $10 (I think that they liked my outfit too). The highlight was watching the pimply teens stare at me… after all, I was decked out in protective gear and they were skating with their helmets unhooked which is WAY more cool (especially when you crack your head open).
We also got in a full three hours of skating at the first ever LATE MIXX night skate at Super Wheels in Miami. Yes folks, this was an effort by Super Wheels to jazz up saturday nights with some late night skate from 11:30pm-2:00am. Complete with live DJ and disco balls galore. It was totally awesome because only 30 or so people showed up and by 1:30 in the morning Dan and I had the entire rink nearly to ourselves. Dan’s blister took nearly 3 weeks to heal but it was worth it!
Day one of our FL vacation was earmarked almost entirely for roller derby equipment shopping. We were driving from Ft. Lauderdale airport to our hotel in Key Largo. Google maps had us darting all over south FL for the day going from one skate shop or sporting goods store to another. The weather was warm and sunny…
… and by the end of the day I had a margarita in hand and a bag full of equipment. Glorious.
Commitment re-established. GGRD opening bout last week at LIU affirmed that I officially have the roller derby bug. So here goes… I begin again.
My interest in derby started just after the new year. I was jealous that Dan had gotten so involved in soccer and was loving both the exercise and the rad group of friends he was playing with. I wanted to get involved in a team sport that would be exciting but also a challenge – something I would stick with.
First order of business getting ready for derby was all the equipment. The list is long and pretty expensive and right away I discovered it would be tough to find what I needed (especially for skates) in the city. I also had a nostalgia hangup – I was optimistic that I could upgrade my grandma’s skates (circa 1960) to get back into shape with my skating.
Two key issues that I was not aware of: 1) dance skates are not ideal for derby because you want flexibility in your ankles for pivoting etc. and 2) finding someone that would have replacement parts and knowledge available to do this job would be totally impossible.
So there I was in mid-February stuck just on equipment set backs and no progress. Online research on how to get started in derby proved to be utterly frustrating. It was off-season here for the outdoor rinks and New York has only two remaining year-round indoor rinks – Roller Jam in Staten Island and Hot Skates in Long Island – both long commutes. I had gotten nowhere and was losing interest fast.
But Florida would be a fix…
For those of you with whom I have shared my early RD name ideas (Sarah, you know who you are)…. very important news.
I just found out that I can’t register my RD name officially until I get on a team (#$%^&*!) so keep it on the down low – k y’all?
I’m 33.
I’m out of shape.
I used to be a good roller skater.
Today I started training so that someday maybe I can try out for Roller Derby.
I am taking Japanese classes.
I love Japan and Japanese things.
…and food.
This is my first blog and I don’t expect anyone to be interested.
