[ 002 ] who took the bomp from the bompalompalomp?

How'd I get started up in all this derby madness?

Lots.. and lots of late nights glued to my phone. Not even kidding.

I looked up tons of videos on YouTube and sucked up any and all knowledge I could.. mostly about just skating in general! How to stand, how to stop, how to turn.. the basics, mostly. Great places are to start are the Devaskation videos, Indy Jamma Jones, and The Moxie Roller Skate Shop. At least those are the ones I remember off of the top of my head.. the Moxie one is more about the Moxie brand ( I want Moxie skates so bad for casual skating..) but they also have some good videos on how to completely take apart your skate and put it back together and stuff like that. Devaskation is all around derby information like how to clean your skates and pads, the difference in wheel derometers, different skate tools, etc. And then Indy Jamma Jones was pretty good for skating tutorials and she's also part of the Moxie girls, so I just love her videos in general.

I also spent a lot of time on the /r/rollerderby subreddit. I went here mostly for information other people had asked about what skates to start with, where the best place to get them was, etc. etc. Very informational, but probably not as much as YouTube was outside of just wondering what the best skates for a newbie was.

Reddit also introduced me to a Facebook group called Roller Derby Recyclables! Best. find. ever. BY FAR. People from all over the place are constantly trading and selling all sorts of gear on there for pretty good prices. It's awesome, and I'm completely addicted to it. Even though I have a complete derby set minus a decent mouth guard.. I'm always looking at whatever someone's posted when I get a new notification on my phone and gushing at all the awesome gear.

So there's lots of places where you can look up anything and everything about skates and roller derby. I have so much knowledge about everything it's kind of ridiculous since I'm not even an actual player or anything close to yet.

I also got started up... by actually taking the plunge and getting the gear!

Fun fact: Derby gear is HELLA. And I mean HELLA expensive. It's a serious investment. Skates alone can run you over $100 easy on a newbie derby pair like the Riedell R3's like I hunted down. Much less the elbow, knee, and wrist pads, a set of wheels for both indoor and outdoor (because you'll want both), toe guards so you don't scruff up the front of your skates, a helmet, decent toe stops.. oh God, you'll want those.. etc, etc, etc.

I was lucky enough to find an almost brand new complete beginner derby set on Craigslist for only $100 even. I'm talking over $300-$400 of only-used-maybe-once gear, and a complete set minus a mouth guard and decent toe stops at that. It was a sign from the almighty derby Gods when I found that listing. Another sign because everything was in my exact size and the exact brand/style of skates I was wanting. Complete. Luck.

Getting gear along with telling yourself to just fucking do it are the biggest parts to starting. Also flooding your Instagram homepage with derby stuff helps too, bahahah.