final score; banked track 7, raven nothing

[raven]

i finally hit the banked track, but the banked track hit back. the banked track whooped my ass. i had a blast though. its so much more difficult than a skating rink, which duh, i knew it would be. its got more give than the skating rink thank goodness, but it still takes its pound of flesh. the one thing that was great was everyone was so helpful, and encouraging. no one was like you suck, boo, hiss, at least not til the game that night when the place was going apoplectic as honey sanchez's home team, squeaked by san francisco. it was awesome watching the audience go nuts as their home town faves were down by 5 going into the last jam and score 6 to win with 3 seconds left to go.
i havent watched since i was a child glued to the set every saturday, at 10am and 2pm. i have never been live either, and just like wrestling, it is so much better live. it was crazy seeing people i watched as a kid, like harold jackson, and georgia haas. it was great to have people come to the ralphie valladares classic, who was a legend in his own time.
this has motivated me beyond measure, and i intend to even the score with the banked track. i want to thank honey for letting me come down and skate and jim f and bill martinez for working with me

[raven]

Yes I was training quite a bit, I even went out to Vegas to skate and learn at Lolly"s home track. Her and her family were wonderful.
I realized though, that the bumps one takes in roller derby are much, much more damaging physically than wrestling (as I alway knew they were) and I cant afford the physical damage at this time from skating when I need to stay injury free for wrestling. When business picks up as I know it will, I will be out there on a track.
In addition, besides the costs of, flying to Vegas and staying in a hoteI while training with Lolly, I dont have a lot of free time on my schedule and what I do have, has to go to my wife.
That being said, when Roller Derby reaches the next level, and I know it will, I will be out there, busting my tuschie, because you know what, if Roller Derby had remained as popular as wrestling like it was in the 70's when I grew up, I would have been doing that instead.
Little known Raven fact; when I was 17-22, the coolest job you could have was being a bouncer. This was the early 80's and every jacked up stud in South Florida was a bouncer. You had to be at least 220 lbs and tough and that was back when almost no one was that size. There is no equivalent now. Every girl wanted to date the bouncers and every guy wanted to be one.
Wow, the times they have changed. Hard to believe that it was the rockin job it was. But I guess since the drinking age was 19, that had a lot to do with it. Every girl 17 or older had fake I.D. I had the worst fake I.D. ever, until I invented the perfect fake I.D. But thats another story.
I suppose you are wondering what this has to do with Roller Derby, well; the next closest job you could have in order of coolness was . . . wait for it . . . Floor Guard at the skating rink. It was like what Pre-Law is to being a Lawyer. Every 14-17 year old guy wanted to be the floor guard, and every girl wanted to date him. Crazy, Huh?
I was a floor guard from 17-19, until I graduated to Head Bouncer at the hottest club in town, but some of my fondest memories are of being a floor guard. South Florida was in 1982-4, to be cliche, Wild and Wooly. It was fighting drunken rednecks by night, cleaning up 6 year old's vomit by day. At least 3x a day while skating backwards as the job entailed in my b/w stripe shirt, trusty whistle in mouth, I'd trip over some 5 year old who had fallen and decided now would be a good time for a nap, and nearly kill myself.
I also loved getting out-skated by 12 year olds who felt rubbing it in was in order because they were to young, but mainly to quick, to be hit. (I kid about the hitting. I got 13 year olds to extract revenge for me. Hehehe!)
The one true nightmare was; it took probably 9 months for that blister- you know the one, the one on the inside of your foot that you get when you first start skating regularly; the one that hurts so badly you never want to skate again, but you know if you can wait it out, it will scar over like it did on everyone else's foot- to form on the inside of my foot, then pop, then blister, then pop, then finally scar over, so it would never hurt again. But those 9 months prepared me for Marine Corps boot camp, and every steel chair shot to the head I have ever taken since. The pain was indescribable. I prayed to the Gods of S/M that they rescue and appoint me as Masochist in Chief so i could enjoy my suffering.
I have to go to the airport, duty calls, or else I would elaborate on being a floor guard, b/c despite the above, it was absolutely one of the best jobs i ever had.
It really was.
Raven
Ps I guess the above still has nothing to do with roller derby, hmmm . . . but it is about roller skating . . . what the hell, close enough!
Raven

[Tim Patten]

Raven,
Have you skated since that ONE promo event?

[Handsome Clem]

Hey Raven,
Look forward to the day you put on a Brooklyn Red Devils jersey and work against the likes of Brian Gamble, Mark Weber, and especially the Atkinson cousins! Work at it right and I can see you being compared to the elite of the red shirts, most notably the Ken Monte/Bob Woodberry/Alfonso Reyes school! I can't wait to see that!

[Brian The Blade Gamble]

hey bro, last we met you knocked my ass out with a chair shot to the back of my skull. We had a couple memorable matches on Spike tv for TNA. It was me who received an education in those matches..... however I will be happy to reciprocate once I get you on the bank track big brother. You see, I was the captain of the Texas Rustlers and also played for the New York Enforcers and won the WSL Championship as the lead blocker for the Illinois Riot. - looking forward to skating again !!! C U there bro!

[Tim Patten]

Raven,
I hope you can get the skates on and train more. It takes about 7 months of training 3-4 days a week in order to master the basics of a banked track. Then it takes years more of working the plays in front of audiences to get the timing down that makes the audience pop.

Keep up the derby work.

[Lali O]

Hi Raven, I am glad that you got to skate on the banked track. I could remember the very first time I skated on the track I was so excited. And now I can't wait for my track to be put together again. It was nice meeting you. I am sure I will see you later. Take care Lali O

[Jim Fitzpatrick]

Hey Raven,

It was great working with you on the banked track this past weekend and supporting our game. I'm looking forward to getting together with you again. It will be no time before you're demolishing opposing skaters like you do wrestlers! I have a feeling there'll be a lot of jammers cutting the jam off early when they see you dropping back to defend!

Take care,
Jim

[Melissa "The Assaulted Peanut"]

You did a great job at practice sticking with it. The first time I was on Lali's track almost 3 years ago I could hardly skate at all. The next day I had to crawl down my stairs! Stick to it and you will do awesome!!! Nice to meetcha.