Dipping my toe (stop) in...
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06 June 2011
I have to confess, if I you had asked me 6 months ago what I thought of roller derby in the UK I would have said 'They have roller derby in the UK?!' and if you had asked me the same question a year ago I would have said 'Umm, what is roller derby?'. But once discovered it didn't take long for me to start thinking that this was the sport for me. So, I had been to a bout, I had watched Whip it, I had traipsed the internet soaking up all the roller derby rules and checking out the skills of kick-ass derby girls, in short I was well and truly hooked. But have always been more of a do-er than a watcher and I was already desperate to get my skates on (excuse the pun, I'm allowed one, right?) and get involved.
So a few days ago for the first time I finally managed to take my shiny new skates out and find out if I can actually still remember how to use them.
I took the precaution of wearing not only more padding and protective gear than I have ever before worn in my life, but also my husband to catch me as I fell over my own feet. (He actually proved invaluable, if you can I highly recommend taking someone with you the first time you go out, if only to chat with while you wobble round). Excited, nervous, I packed up my gear and headed to Kennington Park. . .
I have to admit, as soon as I tentatively stood up I couldn't help but notice my striking resemblance to Bambi, every twig on the path looked like a fallen tree and every crack became the Grand Canyon. But I persevered and slowly (very slowly, in fact so slowly that I had to stop a few times to let walkers pass me by), but surely, I started to remember all the hard-earned skating skills of my mis-spent youth. Padded from head to toe, adorned with my bright pink helmet and clasping hubbies hand as I stumbled around, I did get the occasional odd look, which I simply chose to interpret as bemused but well-meaning (with my brightly coloured hair and haphazard dress sense I am used to getting them after all).
Despite a few moments when my heart leapt into my mouth as I buckled over a malevolent twig (my new arch-nemesis), I had a lot of fun and, at the risk of mixing metaphors, I genuinely think that by the end I was beginning to get my sea legs back.
As optimistic as I may sound, I'll concede that I may have felt shamed if a pro skater had wizzed past as I know Kennington park has a skate bowl (this is the reason I haven't had the courage to go to Hyde Park yet, as I always see some really great people there), but the skating Gods must have been smiling on me because thankfully I was spared that indignity on my very first time out. I'll just have to keep reminding myself that we all have to start somewhere.
