St. Albert’s Sharyl Rains is embarking on a huge, epic roller derby road trip this week.
Rains rolls with Edmonton’s Oil City Derby Girls under the name B’Elanna Torrid. She departs July 26 on an 11-day road trip to train with some legendary roller derby leagues in the United States.
She says that Oil City offers great training, but she yearns for a different derby perspective.
“The U.S., they’re basically the pioneers of modern day roller derby,” says Rains. “It originated in the United States so I was thinking well, maybe I should go down to the States and see if I can learn something from those people, because they are laps ahead of Canada in regards to roller derby.”
Rains’ friend, Theophany Marie, will accompany her on the journey Rains has dubbed “Destination Derby: 2013” to take photos and video of the training. The pair will also post updates on the Destination Derby: 2013 blog and @DestinationDerb Twitter account.
The 36-year-old recently returned to the track after a medical, and then self-imposed break from the pack. She took up the sport almost two years ago, and was sidelined for most of last summer by a couple of concussions. In the fall, Rains returned to derby at less than full strength and then decided to take some additional time off to heal physically, and also to evaluate her commitment to the sport.
Rains’ initiation into derby two years ago wasn’t exactly the experience she had hoped for when the man she was dating at the time introduced her to the sport and then wound up being her coach.
“I didn’t feel I was getting the proper training, I didn’t feel I was getting the proper encouragement and the proper support so that was a big reason why I kind of just stepped back from it,” she says. “So I said to myself I need to go at this in a better manner with a better attitude.”
Her recovery included increasing her physical stamina by training six days a week – something she still does.
“I wanted to go back more prepared for the intensity of the sport, because it is intense,” says Rains. “It takes endurance, it takes agility, it takes speed, it takes power and I think a lot of that I didn’t have the first time around.”
The blocker/jammer says taking the time to regroup worked because since returning to derby in February she has had a lot more success on the track.
“If I’m jamming and I start to get frustrated and the pack is coming up ahead of me, I don’t blast through the pack and just hope that I’m not going to get my head bonked on the floor again,” she says. “I just kind of ease into it and then I analyze the situation and then I go into it. So my attitude has definitely changed.”
The desire to learn and improve her skills is the reason for Rains’ derby road trip. She says she will share what she learns with teammates back home, but the road trip is more of a personal quest, not just information-gathering.
“This is more of a personal empowerment thing,” Rains says. “It’s more about me learning new skills as a skater so that I can be more efficient as a jammer, so I can score more points as a jammer, and when I’m blocking that I’m more efficient at stopping the other jammer.”
Rains said the American leagues she reached out to were all very welcoming and receptive to her request. She will train with leagues in Washington, Oregon and California including the Shanghai Roller Dolls in Oregon, the Bellingham Roller Betties in Washington and the San Diego Derby Dolls.
“I’ll be attending practice coming in as a guest skater so whatever they’re doing is whatever I’ve got to go through.”
Rains will also take her first laps on a banked track with the Los Angeles Derby Dolls in the famous Dollhouse featured in the movie Whip It.
“Each track is different so a skater has to come prepared,” Rains says. “Me being a little skater with short stature, I don’t have a lot of weight on me so I need to use softer wheels so that I don’t slide out of the corners. The only thing they told me about the banked track is that most of the time they’re sealed wood so they’re very sticky so I have to bring appropriate wheels.”
Rains raised the $2,500 for the road trip by kicking in her own money, signing-up sponsors and fundraising through merchandise sales. Her Boston Pizza co-workers have also chipped in, donating tips and purchasing T-shirts.
She is already planning another trip next year through the Midwestern United States culminating in a visit to the Blood & Thunder World Cup of Roller Derby taking place in Dallas, Texas in December 2014.
Rains says she loves roller derby because of the adrenaline rush, because it’s fast-paced and hard-hitting.
“It’s unlike anything I’ve ever done,” says Rains. “I’ve played soccer, I’ve played badminton, I played sports in high school and they’re all great sports, but roller derby is just so different.”
After her break from the sport, Rains has returned with a renewed enthusiasm for roller derby and a desire to take her skills on the track to the next level.
“You get out of roller derby what you put into it – that’s what our coach always says – and I totally agree with him.”
