The Top Ten Things I Learned at Champs

10.  There is always going to be somebody in the audience wearing a cape.  At Champs this year, I saw at least two people wearing capes.  What is it about capes people?  I also saw a sock monkey and some girl sporting Loki horns.  You people go all out!

9.  Setting up an interview with Rangeon is awesome, until she's announced as the MVP jammer of the tournament.  After that, I had to wait for every single human being to take a picture with her!  She's so awesome, and she made sure everyone got their chance!

Photo by Lesley Etherson

8.  Sitting on a concrete floor for more than an hour is a no can do in my book.  Good lord I was so happy to be able to get a seat in a real chair for days two and three.  My hat is off to any of you who sat on the floor all day Saturday!  I also have to thank Atlanta for setting up an extra riser between turns one and two; it helped so many backs!

7.   Take advantage of the opportunities.  When I saw someone I wanted to interview, I took the chance to talk to them at that moment.  I also snagged an interview with Amooze Booche by accident because I took the chance to ask her if she was from Naptown.   I'm a shy and reluctant person by nature, so approaching these amazing skaters was a bit daunting at first, but everyone was so open and nice, that I soon forgot about being shy.  Also, that scrimmage on Sunday was FUN!

6.  Always talk to the vendors.  I skate in Reidell's so I make sure I check in with them every time I go to one of these tournaments.  I was super lucky this time, because they gave me free pivot cup replacements for my plates.  Sometimes there are informal recalls in derby, and the supplier will be able to let you know if you need to update your hardware!

5. Sparkly helmets look amazing in person.  The video feed just does not do them justice, but I love the sparkly helmets.  I'm hoping that our team will jump on the bandwagon and get some red sparkly ones soon!

4. You can never drink too much water at Champs.  I don't know about the rest of you, but I was chugging water like a fiend, and I still got dehydrated.  Maybe it was because I was non-stop interviewing people, or the fact that I was screaming like an idiot at the Texas Denver game.  Who knows? 

3.  Nobody looks the same out of their gear and helmets.  After ECDX, I drew a cartoon helmet with a cut out face to carry around and identify people with.  Even with that piece of paper, I was still having trouble identifying people out of uniform.  I want to thank my Facebook friends for spotting people I needed to interview!

2.  You can always see something new in derby.  When I spotted the KC skaters with the tape around their arms, I knew I had seen a story waiting to happen.  I'll be getting more in depth with that when I write my article.

1.  Bonnie Thunders isn't human.  I'm not sure what she is, but I think she's some kind of cyborg or robot.  Actually, I think we need to make a new meme about Bonnie Thunders and replace all of the Chuck Norris quotes with her name.  You know....ghosts sit around the campfire and tell Bonnie Thunders stories.  Bonnie Thunders can cut a hot knife with butter.  Please share your own.

Since I have so much information to sift through, I will be writing about Champs for a while. but I thought it would be fun to share some silly thoughts as soon as I could.