The Roller Girls
The South East corner of Ferns park is a spectacular part of the universe where 3 cool sports collide in one tiny area.
Hole #1 for the disc golf course starts right at the corner; the handball courts are 100 feet away, and in the center of the action we have something special- Roller Derby.
Everybody in this corner of the park can hang out together, and somehow all the different radios blasting music at the park gel together into one very special place. It’s like Saturday in the Park every day. And surprisingly, the disc golfers have the fewest tattoos!
The roller girls had put up signs advertising thier Open House, so I decided to check it out. They were playing a bout, had a meet and greet with the roller derby girls, and lots of fans watching- just a cool open house event. I’m a sucker for any free event at the park where I don’t need to pretend to know the family to get a slice of cake, so I joined in.
Most of the girls (‘Derby-ists?’) had war-paint on their face in purple, pink, or blood red. Fully padded up and ready for battle. They all had cool names on their shirts- my favorite was ‘Stabitha’. Imagine being on roller skates while Stabitha is trying to hunt you down…much better than having ‘Aunt Flo’ chasing you relentlessly- she was out there too.
There was a lot of mayhem out on the track. I had no idea what was going on, but I watched one woman skating through a gap between two opponents, and she got hip checked and smashed to the ground by someone who has thrown a lot of hip checks in her life. Just general mayhem, with roller skates.
This part of Ferns Park is special. Lots of people playing their own sport, while coexisting with everyone else. The people out here are all great, doing things they love. This is the coolest corner of any park I know.
And a shout-out to the roller girls for being a big part of it!
Disc of the Week
I’m always looking for a fun new disc, and some of my friends know it, so they tell me what’s up.. I got this text the other day.
So I bought a Rollo. I had a vague idea of what it should do- roll. I have never thrown a roller before, so I didn’t know if it would work out.
Man! This was way better than I expected! The disc is really easy to roll! And the rolling is more…accurate…than I expected. It just keeps going in the right direction. I had a roller on #9 go right up to the basket- which is further than I can reach on a throw.
If you like to watch discs fly, try a Rollo- it’s just as much fun to watch them roll.
Steven was right- I really like the Rollo.
Disc of the Week: Rollo
