Sioux City Roller Dames vs. Norfolk Bruizin' Bettys

Friday started with driving from Norfolk (after Sk8 the State spaghetti feed & spending the night at Mo Payne's mom) to Gayville. 

Watertower!

We dropped off some stuff and the girls dyed their hairs to be ready for the bout. PBR, Dubbs and I continued to Sioux City, to take care of  the stage for the bands. We stayed at Rock Street, could it be more cooler?

Getting ready for the bout

Saturday, the bout day, started with a home coming party for Sk8 the State for MS. It felt like a good warm up for the evening.

The Sioux City Roller Dames were kind enough to accept me to their roster for a bout against Norfolk Bruizin' Bettys (finally I got that name right! :)). I met the dames 1 hour before the bout and had skated with only 3 of them before (in Sturgis). I was totally amazed how well we played together. I played pivot and blocker mostly, but they put me as a jammer to the final jam. I got lead and ended the bout with a 5-0 jam. The final result was 247-9. Norfolk team played with only 7 skaters. Myself and Cream Ur' Soda won the MVP's. They treat the Finn from Wisconsin like a princess here!

Photos from the bout by Jim Lee

It was easy to play with the Dames. I don't know how but we all were waterfalling naturally and I fit into the team like it was no big deal I was a foreigner (hehhe, inside joke). Everybody did their share playing the game. And the Norfolk team wasn't defeated easily, we all had to play our best game.

We went to Dalton's for the after party. They had 3 bands playing outside, which was cool. The Kornstalkers and some NSO's introduced me to the world of Darts. Little did they know, when they gave the 3 red darts in my finnish hands. My team didn't win the first game, even if some money was bet on it (after I had thrown a bull's eye). But we had another game, with no teams but 4 single players. I had no clue about the rules of Darts, but in the end our bench coach Rhino told me what to do and I followed his orders just like on track. That means I won!!!

the machine said: WINNER!!

On sunday I visited the Kornstalkers practice. Good times! Everybody were encouraging eachother and I can't remember giving so many high fives at practice before. Felt good, the guys were nice and despite the sweat factory, their warehouse concrete was awesome to skate on. 

Kornstalkers, triple D, Mo and I

Sk8 the State for MS - the last 5 miles

Triple Threat Derby Girls presented Sk8 the State for MS this year as well. Last year they skated South Dakota, this year Nebraska. Sum Mo Payne, PBR, Dubbs and Skinnerella skated 210 miles in 4 days to raise money for MS society.

Getting ready for the last 5 miles, Skinnerella planking!

We got the chance to skate with these girls the last 5 miles, cross the Missouri River bridge from Nebraska border to Iowa.

The local news made a story of the crew: KCAUTV.com

At the home coming party, I got to sing a bit. Played two songs for the girls, songs about "how important it is to make your dreams come true".

Tigre & Jim Lee, the official Sioux City photographer

Homecoming party <-- more pics of the party here.


Next year: Iowa. I respect these girls so much for doing this! In their words:

"Our Mission: To raise awareness and funding for great strides in Multiple Sclerosis research, treatments and support by taking great strides on our roller skates. We pledge to push ourselves up to and beyond our expectations, skating across a new state each year, in an effort to bring more public attention to this debilitating disease.

T-shirts & wristbands are available in many sizes and colors! Contact us today to get yours!!

To make a donation, stop at ANY Wells Fargo bank and contribute to the "Sk8 The State" fund!"

 

 

Helsinki Roller Derby ry also donated money for these girls cause.

the Two Faced Trixies vs. Madhouse Madams

Danger Girl and I was invited to play a bout in Billings, Montana. Madhouse Madams was short on skaters so they needed all the help. Two days before the bout our team went from 10 skaters to 8. We thought we should do it anyways, for the experience. The day we drove to Billings, the number went down with two more, so we had a team of six players. Two girls came from Cheyenne, two from Spearfish and two from Rapid City (myself & Danger).

welcome to Montana!

It was a fun drive to Montana! We drove 212 via Ashland, Lame Deer and what else. We ate indian tacos near the Custer Battlefield and took pictures of the border signs (Wyoming, Montana).
 

We drove pass Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. In Ashland we met local women in a bar (the only place where we could find a public restroom from!) who were excited about us playing roller derby. There's now at least 6 Helsinki Roller Derby stickers in Ashland, Montana. Sweet.

the outside rink at a parking lot

not lead jammer but I made points!

telling the team to stay close

holding back the jammer while Danger jukes through the pack

The bout itself was interesting. We had six girls against a full roster. The Trixies was a new team and almost all of the girls played their first bout. Our team had a various level of experience, I had only played two bouts before. I guess Danger was the most experienced one.

The bout started with a rock version of the National Anthem, a hard rock guitar squeeling version on tape so we didn't have to sing. The introduction was fun, we did nothing special but it was a good way to get orientated to the game. The Madams put me as a jammer in the first jam. It didn't go so well. I almost had it, but the Trixies hit me three times so hard that I was collecting my bones pretty much the whole jam. So, I played as a blocker from then on until the end of the game. Didn't leave the track really cos we were short on players! It was tough but good.

The first few jams I was completely lost! I had no idea of the score or who's leading. But when I heard the announcer say "22 for the madams, 11 for trixies", I understood that the gameface was now on. We had the game and decided to keep it that way even if it was pretty tough job with 6 players. Danger and Chaos Kid went as jammers after another, I don't know what these girls eat to keep their endurance so high!

We danced, had fun, played good strategies and won the bout 101-90. Danger Girl hurt her knee (boo!) but without her encouragement to "keep it up girls, we can do this!", I wouldn't have played the last 6 minutes seriously unless Danger would've told us to go on. She is a team mate for sure!

Go Team Finland!

The bout was held on a parking lot next to an Asian Casino, so we had our after party there. A girl spilled her drink outside and I was like: "hmm.. that looks familiar!" It was the map of Finland! And Ahvenanmaa! Seriously!

Ppl asked me about Finnish Ice Hockey and "what the heck are you doing HERE!!!" a couple of times... heh heh. That was fun. I told everybody I was in the neighbourhood...

BadAss DangerGirl!

The girls were so nice! They signed a poster for me. I really enjoyed the game, even if I was scared to death of the Trixies hitting so hard! I flew like never before, on my ass of course. But they showed a good sportsmanship when one of the Trixies helped me get up after a legal, hard, tough hit (the jam was called off the same second I fell).

On the way back we saw Delvils tower in the horizon. That was pretty cool. I had to drive cos Dangers knee and the bad drugs she took for the pain (don't do drugs, people!), didn't do good for her body. We took the Interstate 90 which was easy to drive. Next time I'm doing a roadtrip to Montana, I'll definitely visit the Devils tower and check out Yellowstone River more closely etc.

Thank you Billings for this experience!

ps. I am not afraid of the giant pig frog!!!

Upcoming bout in Montana

This saturday me and Danger Girl will play with Madhouse Madams in Billings, Montana.


MAGIC CITY ROLLERS Present: “Battle On The Blacktop”
An Outdoor Roller Derby Event
MCR’s Two Faced Trixies VS Madhouse Madams
*HOME* August 20th @ Manny’s


Can't wait to meet more derby girls!

This week we've been hiking, climbing and rollerskating in the city, tomorrow I'll try some horseback riding. It's been a busy & active vacation so far! I love it!

Rolling Sturgis - roller derby and motorcycles

Sturgis was the bomb. I got to do derby, meet so many cool and nice people, got rides on a motorcycle more than ever before, and did so many more things too. This will be the photo -update since there are not many words to describe all the stuff we got to do.

Scene from Danger's house

Finally I got to meet SumMo and Dubbs! The sweetest girls on earth. I also met the Bone Setter, finally (thanks for the neck treatment, Bone!), and PBR of course. These girls had built up Rolling Sturgis for a week before I came into the picture with my jetlag, bad nutrition and definite dehydration. We skated every evening and on friday morning we had a short bootcamp, lead by Mo Payne and myself.

PBR and I drank non-alcoholic pina colada slushs, got blue tongues and watched Rainbow Spite and Mo Payne swing like lovers. Sturgis treated us with a lovely weather except for a few storms. The security guys gave us warnings about a 75miles/h wind, but luckily it never hit the camping area or the Buffalo Chip venue. We missed Jeff Bridges concert though... but saw John Fogerty.

Spite and Mo swingin'

So when I finally got to play in Sturgis, there were two requests immediately for me to go & sticker guys bikes. So I did. The other guy went away before I got to take a picture, but Lyndon's bike became the centre of the first Sturgis nights photos.

HRD sticker on Lyndon's bike

The owner of the stickered bike and me.

We joked about making this modelling for bikes a profession. We'd never could have imagined that the next day we would be asked to do it for real, there's more pictures about that below...

On the 2nd day of scrimmaging (my second and the other girls' 6th) I played for both teams without changing the shirt and of course was more or less confused about who's my teammate. We did some fancy & entertaining stuff for the audience so it wasn't just scrimmaging in the end. There were girls from Sioux City, Rapid City, Texas, High City (Denver), some weirdo from Finland, you name it..

warming up

PBR was trying to teach me some new moves and she also gave me the coolest whip ever, it started as the waitress but she layed down on her back and I rolled over her spreading my legs wide.

Danger Girls daughter, Sunshiner, was playing with us. She was an excellent jammer and a great teammate. Didn't give up, and was always encouraging others. Sweet.

sunshiner showing us more than just derby skills

After the scrimmage I got to pose with these cool bikers. I don't know what else was so interesting in the sky... I guess derby chicks aren't always so cool...

 

 Sunset, PBR & me

I got to advertise www.tigerangle.com a lot, by giving stickers to everybody. One of them is now on a trailer door, with a bunch of other stickers...

On friday we got to go on a motorcycle ride to Badlands. It was a photo shoot for an insurance company. There were 5 couples riding and a few more guys. We stopped by at nice places, the day was H O T. Who would've thought I'd be a model some day?

SumMo, me and PBR

the photographer

the crew

I don't know what I was thinking when we got to Badlands, I didn't take any pictures! This is what it pretty much looked like: (http://www.wilderness.net/images/NWPS/BadlandsSD.jpg)

and here's a link to the wikipedia site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badlands_National_Park

Back at the buffalo chip, we skated another evening, being so tired after the bike ride. After taking a shower and drinking one margarita, I had to crash. I just couldn't stay up and watch any bands, the whole day was so filled with cool stuff to do that my energy level was below zero.

Luckily we did have a saturday evening still to spend in Sturgis. I got to practice some driving skills with a mini doodle bug. Not that much of an badass, eh? The best part of saturday was to take a ride on a zip line. I don't know how high or long it was but we rode it twice. We were swinging up high above the audience watching a George Thorogood concert.

...and all good comes to an end. Triple Threat Derby Girls had done a great job making Rolling Sturgis 2011 come true. I wish I could come again, I've received so many invitations to meet new leagues that I don't know if I get to do the same things all over again or if it will all be new planning and travels. We'll see. I enjoyed Sturgis nevertheless and I got a nice Golf Cart ride too, thank you Jordan :).

time to go, Mo and PBR riding a motorcycle back to Sioux City

Now I'm back at Rapid City with Danger Girl. Tomorrow will be mountain rock climbing day so I get to rest & eat well today. Thank you Sturgis!!!

New York, August 9th - Denver August 10th

From Brooklyn

I had 24 hours to spend in New York. I didn't take much pictures. I had just about enough time to get a prepaid phone & number so that I can keep in touch with my lovely american friends :)

I only had time to visit NYC so shortly that I didn't even try to do much - just went to Century 21st to buy some sports clothes (like Glory S. Bottoms had told me to do!). The cashier noticed my skate -tattoo and asked if I do derby. He told me his sister plays in New Jersey and he wanted to know my skater name. I rewarded him with a Tiger Angle -sticker!

Greetings to Betty / Tampere Rollin' Ho's!!!

Honestly I couldn't wait to move forward to Denver and Sturgis even if my host in New York was awesome (thanks Kati for setting me up with him, hehe). Mo Payne, PBR, the Bone Setter and the loveliest Danger Girl where there already waiting for me. I knew my holiday wouldn't start before I saw those chicks.

Flight to Denver went smoothly, I had a chat with Mitch, who sat next to me and was returning from his holiday from Columbia. We spoke about derby too and he got a sticker as well! Gemma, the producer of a documentary film about the Triple Threat Derby Girls (Open Road Pictures), picked me up from the airport and we drove to Boulder to get some sleep before the long ride to Sturgis.

On our way to Sturgis (took us 6,5 hours to get to Rapid City, had lunch in a local Fire Department House) we saw a storm, heard an enormous noise, took some pictures of it and went back into the car just before a heavy rain. We had a good chat with Gemma about derby, relationships and my music. We listened to the Tiger Angle EP about 7 times. There's no way one gets a bad self esteem around here, people are so nice to me! I get hugs and smiles all the time. I love it here.

Next blog entry: Sturgis...

The eye of the tiger

Like the Beatles used to sing: "I get by with a little help from my friends", it really stands for my case as well. Today is the big preparation day for my 2-month holiday in the States. I got three different amulets from my friends to bring good luck to me. I've received lovely drawings from my derby sisters children. How much more can I ask for? I must be the luckiest girl in the world.

I've borrowed a laptop (thanks, Lizz!), a suitcase (thanks, Ellu!), I've got Claire's hug reserved, and within the past week I've been blessed by so many happy thoughts that I can't even handle them all. Keep reading this blog, friends, so you'll stay close to me while I'm on my holiday. I'll see you soon again.

I'm so glad I got to see two of my favourite bands play live yesterday: Blast Ones and Creepy Crawlie at SlutWalk after party. Both gigs brought so many good memories from the 'good old days' :D! Thanks to Doris and Suvi for yesterday and a special thank you goes to Ice-S for giving me the eye of the tiger to carry with me. I'll compare it with Sauron's evil eye, none of HRD's moves can be done without me watching your backs. Hehhe :)