Scottish Roller Derby Blog (Posts about pacific roller derby)

SRDB - Vodcasts - Roller Derby in Hawai'i

SRD — Mon, 20 Apr 2020 19:40:00 GMT

A few weeks ago, we debuted the first of a planned series of SRDB Vodcasts, as we host chats with the Roller Derby community around the World.

We're back today with the third edition, featuring the Roller Derby community of Hawai'i.

Highlights include footage from 2019's Battle of the Islands (Hawai'i's state tournament), discussion of future directions for derby in Hawai'i [and how it's developed over time], and some Team Indigenous news towards the end!

We've embedded the video here so you can watch it without needing to go to YouTube:

and we'll be updating this with an audio-only version in the future.

The entire Series Playlist is here, if you don't want to miss out on future episodes: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsfV1BOiVrnF5TiOOxaWE696A_59gz1sp

If your region would like to be part of this project, please email us at scottishrollerderby@gmail.com to discuss, or get in touch via our Instagram or Facebook pages - we'd love to hear from you (and help the world hear about you too)! We're currently working on several regions for new Vodcasts, but we don't have a limit as yet.

Mea Culpa (29Sept)

aoanla — Fri, 04 Oct 2019 07:55:00 GMT

Whilst we try to catch all the highlights for a weekend, sometimes some escape us. Facebook's event search tools are not good at finding events unless they're physically close to you; and they've disabled or limited most of the ways of reading lots of data from their site. Instagram doesn't provide any way to search for events at all; and not enough leagues have websites with rss feeds or calendars that we can pull from to make this reliable. (And, whilst most games get listed on Flat Track Stats, not all do; and not all events are bouts, or bouts which are suitable for ranking!)

We'd like to encourage leagues, again, to email us, or Facebook message us, or Instagram message us (or join our Discord server and talk to us there) to let us know about your events; or tell us how to (automatically) track your calendars if you have them!

We'd like to return to a few events we missed last weekend, though, just to restore the balance.

Firstly, in Uppsala, first fixtures of the Division 2 Swedish Nationals series for 2019/20 saw the hosts ( Jackdaw City Rollers ) compete in a round robin with Örebro's Nerike Knockouts and Sundsvall's Demolition Rollers, over 2 days.

[FACEBOOK LINK] [FTS EVENT]

The entire event was streamed on the Sweden-based Solidsport platform, and at the time of writing, "replays" [saved copies of the stream] are available at: https://solidsport.com/uppsala-roller-derby/replays although registration is required to view them.

Div 2 Swedish Nationals
Team1	Score1	Score2	Team2
Uppsala	350	63	Örebro
Örebro	130	252	Sundsvall
Sundsvall	100	186	Uppsala

The next Division 2 fixture is in the December, and sees Uppsala face Helsingborg's Helltown, the final member of the series; before the division completes in the new year for the final games.

The hosts of this event, Jackdaw City Rollers / Uppsala Roller Derby, are currently experiencing significant difficulties with their training venue, having had their practice times and halls abruptly curtailed at short notice. For more information, and to support them by signing a petition, go here: https://www.mittskifte.org/petitions/rattvisare-fordelning-av-halltider-i-uppsala

Over in Brazil, Capivaras Roller Derby (of Piracicaba) hosted a double header event with guests Gray City Rebels of São Paulo on Sunday. The Capivaras have been avoiding Facebook Events, so we missed this when it was just a flyer...

[INSTAGRAM FLYER]

Action from Brazil (Photo: Gray City Rebels)

The Capivaras told us:

This Sunday’s (09/29) Match, which happened in Piracicaba, a city in the countryside of the state of São Paulo, was a friendly mixed match between two leagues: the home team, Capivaras Roller Derby, and the Gray City Rebels, from São Paulo, the state capital. A large part of the refereeing team was also from São Paulo. We held two mixed matches in order to provide the opportunities for all the skaters present. In the morning, we held a full-contact game with the debut of some players from the Grays and one from the Capivaras team, and in the afternoon a non-contact game with the return of some Capivara players to the track and the debut of some of the Grays' fresh meat! More than a great opportunity to put players in the track and train their abilities in the game; the matches were also an opportunity to make new friends and strengthen the full potential of the roller derby in Brazil!

Finally, a significant event which deserves more coverage, although being wholly-North-American, it's outside of our self-imposed limit on highlights...

Hawai'i saw their annual Battle of the Islands event last weekend. This year, the event was hosted by Pacific Roller Derby (O'ahu), with teams competing from Maui Roller Girls, Garden Isle Renegade Rollers (Kaua'i), and the "Big Island Mashup Team" (representing Echo City Knockouts and Waimea W ), as well as the hosts themselves.

[FACEBOOK EVENT] [FTS ENTRY]

Champions, Maui, versus hosts Pacific Roller Derby [Photo: Matt Radaker]

As well as the main tournament, run as a 4 team round robin, the event also featured a Junior Roller derby exhibition bout by the Honolulu LeiOuts, and a closing Black v White scrimmage. The Friday before the tournament additionally saw an Officiating Clinic, for all visiting officials (referees and NSOs), run by the very well travelled Mass The Ref.

The entire tournament was also livestreamed on YouTube, and we link to the video in each game in the table (none of these videos are full-length, as far as we can tell).

Scores were:

Battle of the Islands Results
Time	Team1	Score1	Score2	Team2	Video
0900 Sat	Maui	271	92	GIRR	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEe3Yj74eTU
1100	Big Island	148	104	Pacific	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szsRRbh4PQ8
1430	Pacific	148	149	GIRR	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3V3Qv5eR8Q
1630	Big Island	79	161	Maui	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNK5RiUNAfE
0900 Sun	Pacific	99	142	Maui	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IPptzux4OE
1100	Big Island	243	121	GIRR	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BHRhk-k4ME

Making the undefeated Maui Roller Girls the Battle of the Islands Champions for 2019!

We hope to bring you a detailed article on the state of Roller Derby in Hawai'i later in the year.

The Tomodachi Cup: A Chat with Pacific Roller Derby

aoanla — Thu, 26 Jan 2017 15:00:16 GMT

In our second interview of our Tomodachi Derby Cup series, covering each of the teams competing in Okinawa from the 24th to the 26th March, we're with Pacific Roller Derby, of Honolulu, Hawai'i.

Pacific Roller Derby were O'ahu’s first modern-day roller derby league founded back in 2008, and joining WFTDA the following year. As Pacific have grown, they have shifted from their early "All-Star" team, drawn from across Hawai'i, to fielding their own O'ahu-sourced A-Team, the Hulagans. Pacific Roller Derby are very proud of their Hawai'ian culture, and make a point of bringing Aloha with them when they travel for tournaments, or host their own.

The Hulagans will be competing in the WFTDA Sanctioned tier of the tournament, against host leagues Kokeshi Roller Dolls, Tokyo Roller Girls and Devil Dog Derby Dames, as well as Alaska's Fairbanks Rollergirls.

To hear our chat (with rather a lot of Pacific Roller Derby on the other end of the line)...

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The Tomodachi Derby Tournament - The Teams

aoanla — Thu, 19 Jan 2017 08:05:15 GMT

Last year, the Asia-Pacific Region saw its first ever Roller Derby Tournament, hosted in Okinawa. Whilst the Japan Open was a huge success, the host leagues were keen to hold another one, with even more direct control from the leagues and skaters themselves.

This year's Tomodachi Derby Tournament is the result - another two day tournament, now hosted by the new Japan Derby Tournament Committee, a collective of the involved Japanese leagues. As with the previous Tournament, the Tomodachi also serves a practical benefit to all the teams involved, giving somewhat geographically isolated teams a chance to play those from other areas.

We'll be bringing you more info with interviews with the attending leagues in the run up to the event on the 24th to 26th of March, (at Okinawa Comprehensive Sport Park), but we're starting (as with EuroClash) with an overview of the competitors... (a timetable is available on our technical annex, here).

WFTDA-Sanctioned Division

Pacific Roller Derby

Pacific Roller Derby are one of the oldest of the cluster of Hawaiian teams, dating from 2008, and a member of WFTDA since 2009! Due to the geographical factor, they mostly play the other Islands teams, especially at the yearly "Battle of the Islands" tournament. Based in the Islands' Capital, Honolulu, Pacific are currently 305th in the WFTDA Rankings (344th by FTS), partly, we suspect, simply due to not having had much opportunity to play non-Hawaiian teams. The Tomodachi will be their first fixtures against non-HI leagues since 2014!

Fairbanks Rollergirls

Hailing from their namesake in Alaska, Fairbanks Rollergirls are another member of the "Alaskan Derby" set alongside last year's Japan Open competitors, Juneau (who memorably attended with only 6 skaters!). A WFTDA member since 2011, the league has hosted the Alaskan "United We Roll" tournament for the last two years. We rate them at 1137th out of all teams (male and female, A and B) in the World which can be rated, whilst FTS places them 331st out of all WFTDA teams (a much smaller set).

Devil Dog Derby Dames

Local Okinawan Derby league, Devil Dog Derby Dames, (868th SRDRank), were a competitor at the Japan Open last year, although failed to defeat the non-Japanese teams in the WFTDA Division. (Their Home Team, competing in the Unsanctioned Division, defeated exhibition team Nippon Senbatsu.) The year before that, DDDD managed a win over fellow Okinawa league Kokeshi, which they'll be looking to repeat this time.

Kokeshi Roller Dolls

The first league in Okinawa, Kokeshi Roller Dolls, (700th SRD Rank) were hosts of the Japan Open last year, as well as organising hosting for the Tomodachi Tournament as part of the Japan Roller Derby Tournament Committee. At the Japan Open, they took a win over Alaska's Juneau Roller Derby; we will see if they managed to repeat the feat against Fairbanks this time around.

Tokyo Roller Girls

The first league in "mainland" Japan, Tokyo Roller Girls, (745th SRD Rank) faired as well as the Devil Dog Derby Dames at the last tournament. However, they've had a busy home season since then, with all three of their home teams bouting each other, and recruitment has been strong. (TRG skaters have also been behind much of the activity of Women's Roller Derby Japan, the governing body for the Japanese Women's National Team, including their impressively active outreach in the last year.)

Men's Division

Glenmore Reservoir Dogs

Hailing from Calgary, Canada, Glenmore Reservoir Dogs (Chinook City Men's Roller Derby) are the 17th ranked MRDA team in the world (65th SRD Rank), and are the men's component of Chinook City Roller Derby. Perhaps most recently known on the international stage as hosts of the 2016 Men's Roller Derby World Cup, the league as a whole also regularly host the annual "Flat Track Fever" (women's derby) tournament. Last year, the Reservoir Dogs themselves competed at the Mayday Mayhem (Colorado) and the O-Town Throwdown (Ontario), taking second place at the former.

NinJapan Rollers

The Japanese Men's National Team, and still the only Men's league in Japan, NinJapan Rollers have fairly frequently competed against the other Japanese teams (especially Tokyo), but have rarely had the chance to play non-National teams from other locations. In the 2016 MRDWC, NinJapan placed 17th, although their performance was very close to that of Puerto Rico, one place above them. The NinJapan Rollers have also (partly due to necessity) actively promoted Roller Derby throughout Japan, and have a comprehensive "off-season" training and recruitment system to build up their pool of skaters.

Unsanctioned Division

Yokosuka Sushi Rollers

A Tokyo Roller Girls "Home Team", this is the Sushi Rollers' first appearance as a travel team, let alone their first tournament. Based in and around United States Fleet Activities Yokosuka naval base, the Sushi Rollers were the founding team of Tokyo Roller Girls, and remain one of the strongest in intraleague contests. It remains to be seen how they will fare in their first bouts away from Honshu.

Pan-Asian Spring Rollers

The Pan-Asian Spring Rollers are a collaboration between the other (non-Japanese) East Asian Roller Derby leagues, with members from Beijing Roller Derby, Shanghai Roller Girls, Hong Kong Roller Derby and Bangkok Roller Derby. Several of these leagues participated in the first ever Roller Derby bout in China last year (hosted by Beijing), and so collaboration to attend the Tomodachi seems natural.

Team WRDJ

Team "Women's Roller Derby Japan" is a the open-subscription exhibition team, run by the committee for . It comprises skaters from the Neon Roller Monsters (Tokyo Roller Girls' Japanese-nationals-team), Tokyo Three Rollers (Tokyo's Open-To-All/Coed Team), Kokeshi Roller Dolls, Devil Dog Derby Dames, and a single skater from Hawaii's Echo City Knockouts (of Kailua-Kona).