MRDA’s June 2013 Featured Skater of the Month: Sutton Impact of Southern Discomfort Roller Derby (London, UK)

June 3, 2013

Interview by Malcolm Sex

 

What is your derby name?

I’m Sutton Impact. I chose it because my surname, Sutton, simply sounds a bit like “sudden” which in turn led to me thinking (which is hard for me) of other words I associated with sudden, and being a Clint Eastwood fan, Sudden Impact sprang to mind. I‘m just glad my parents didn’t name me Oliver (as in, “all of a sudden”)! Most people just call me Sutton which reminds me of my school days.

What number do you wear?

#3. It’s nice and simple and easy for the refs to call (hopefully, not often). I’ve also worked for the telecom company “Three” for the last ten years

What’s your pre-derby athletic background?

I played rugby for my school but spent most of my youth either cycling, on my Bauers stewarding at local roller discos, or street skating.

How did you become involved in roller derby?

Rollin StoneR (from the Royal Windsor Rollergirls) and I worked for the same company. He heard via mutual friends that I used to do a fair bit of skating, and as with many roller derby leagues, refs were in short supply, so he suggested I come along to a training session and the rest is history!

What is your preferred position on the track?

In the early days, I was alternating between jammer and pivot, but these days my preference is purely blocking. We’ve really been working on our general teamwork and walling which I believe has gone from strength to strength over the last few months.

Are you a founding member of Southern Discomfort Roller Derby? Can you give us a brief rundown of how the league got started?

Initially, men’s roller derby in the UK consisted of the refs from all across the country pulling together around mid-2009 to have enough players for some mixed closed door bouts.

In November 2009, this graduated to the first open door bout kindly hosted by the Lincolnshire Bombers (LBRG). During the following months, these bouts evolved further into “North” versus “South” contests with the Northerners skating under the moniker North England Roller Derby (N.E.R.D) and the Southerners coming together as Southern Discomfort. With the men’s game developing steadily, the core players from the London area met up in the famous Ace Café and agreed to formalise the league properly with the founding directors being Henry the Sk8th, Jay Pegg (now with Cowtown Butchers), and me.

How would you describe your skating style?

I’ve been skating for around 35 years. Being on skates is second nature to me. I’d describe my style as agile and sturdy with far too much backwards skating.

So, Manchester, Montreal, and Southern Discomfort are all newcomers to MRDA. I think it’s safe to assume that Montreal will be bringing lots of hockey-style skaters and hits to MRDA, but the UK isn’t exactly a hockey powerhouse, so it’s not as predictable what we’ll see in the UK skaters.  What do you see English skaters and teams bringing to MRDA?

UK skaters are a real mixed bunch of styles with artistic, roller hockey, jam, and street skaters coming together in a sport that is growing by the day. I feel the UK game has evolved from the “hit as hard as you can” mentality of the early years, and we’re seeing a more cerebral derby working it’s way through with well-drilled walls and strategies. But, rest assured: the Europeans still know how to hit. The acceptance of both Manchester and Southern Discomfort into MRDA will hopefully spur a large number of teams across Europe to join in the coming months. Most notable are teams such as Roller Derby Toulouse’s Quad Guards and Newcastle’s Tyne & Fear, who both performed very well in last year’s Men’s European Roller Derby Championships. They will, without a doubt, be eager to apply once they have achieved all the application criteria.

From following the New York Shock Exchange’s tour of the UK, I discovered teams in the UK and France have some amazing skaters.  Is there any skater or team we should keep an eye on?

Southern Discomfort has developed a rivalry with the Quad Guards that culminated in the nail biting final at the Euros last year, where Southern Discomfort came back from a deficit of nearly 110 points with only about seventeen minutes left to win in the final jam by two points! This is how rivalries are made! The Quad Guards are a disciplined team with great walls and very energetic jammers.

We all know that UK teams are relatively new to competing at the highest levels of men’s derby. In my estimation, it seems that you’ve all responded very well to the challenges you’ve faced and continue to get better as a result. What do you think teams across the pond need to do to start breaking into the top ten spots in the rankings?

Distance is the biggest challenge to getting the sanctioned bouts required to be ranked. I have no doubt that European teams already have the ability to get into the top ten if given the opportunity (Southern Discomfort is currently #10 on Flat Track Stats.)

What team is Southern Discomfort’s biggest rival?

As mentioned before, Southern Discomfort has developed a rivalry with the French team, Roller Derby Toulouse Quad Guards. The tally is three wins out of three bouts for Southern Discomfort, but the last two games were won by one and two points respectively! Also being European Champions does put a target on us as the team to beat!

If you were forced to play for another team in MRDA, but you could choose any one, what team would you play for and why?  

I honestly cannot see myself playing for another team. Helping form Southern Discomfort and watching it grow over the last few years is a relationship that I cannot imagine myself having with another league.

Looking forward to the 2013 season, do you expect any relatively unknown teams to take MRDA by storm and drastically improve on last year’s performance? Perhaps a new member team from the UK? 

Obviously, we’d love to make a mark in our rookie year in MRDA, but there are a number of teams out there that could create a stir. I’d love to see a non-US team make it to Champs in the same way Montreal and London have been threatening in the ladies’ competition!

The Shock Exchange did much to promote their “Shock the UK” trip last year.  Can you give us some highlights from your perspective?

Without the Shock Exchange coming over to the UK, there simply would not have been any European teams joining MRDA, so that in itself was a key outcome of the trip. In the short time they were in the UK, they were keen to bout or scrimmage as many leagues as possible, but the main highlight for me was the Southern Discomfort versus Shock Exchange bout as I feel we made them work very hard for their win and showed that European men’s roller derby belongs in MRDA.

Attending the WFTDA Eastern Regional tournament last year, I learned from many of the London Rollergirls that scheduling competitive bouts can be a real challenge.  Has Southern Discomfort run into similar problems? 

We have indeed found it a challenge to get bouts over the last few years, but this is getting better with the emergence of more and more teams around the UK and Europe. We recently played a closed door bout against the London Rollergirls travel team London Brawling which was certainly a challenge and great preparation for both teams. We’ll be playing each other again the week before we fly out to the US (LRG will also be commencing a west coast tour in June).

Do you plan to make a trip to the US this summer to meet your sanctioned bouts requirement? What can those following MRDA expect to see from Sutton Impact and Southern Discomfort in 2013? 

The Southern Discomfort players saved their pennies, fundraised, and received kind donations from the derby community, and were proud to visit the US last month! Southern Discomfort travelled to Eugene, Oregon for the Big O. The boys from the UK were greeted by what seemed like every roller derby fan or player in the area with warm smiles and thanks for travelling all the way across the pond!

We played the Drive-By City Rollers, Puget Sound Outcasts, and Deep Valley Belligerents with an additional hangover bout against the Lane County Concussion!

The initial bout against the Deep Valley Belligerents was the first men’s bout of the tournament and was a hard-hitting, closely-fought game with DVB emerging victorious 208 to 159.

Southern Discomfort’s second bout was against Puget Sound. We all knew Puget Sound would be a challenge, but Southern Discomfort held their own for the first half with the lead at some points, but Puget Sound showed their pedigree and opened up a lead after some power jams that earned them a well-deserved victory, 271-157.

The Drive-By City Rollers were up next, The L.A.-based team, made up of what seemed to be people that only knew how to smile, fought hard with the lead changing numerous times over both halves. With only a few minutes to go, Drive-By City eked out a lead of about 40 points (helped by Southern Discomfort not fielding a jammer!) Southern Discomfort utilized a late power jam to bring the game back to a 245 – 245 tie with one jam to go! Southern Discomfort got lead on the final jam, but due to a late call off and bodies flying in all directions, both teams were awarded two points! Southern Discomfort noted that a Drive-By City blocker had been sent to the box during the call off and used their official review (thankfully saved for this type of thing!) After the review that seemed to go on for an eternity, the head ref confirmed that Southern Discomfort got three points and the first win on US soil for a European men’s roller derby league, 248 to 247!

Finally, the host team from the Big O, the Lane County Concussion, had arranged for a hangover bout. Southern Discomfort now had the taste of victory and was keen to notch up another win! James Brains and the rest of LCC fought hard, but Southern Discomfort was unstoppable fighting through to a new high score of 544 to 76!

We originally hoped this would be enough for an MRDA ranking, but with the recent criteria change, we’ll need to get another sanctioned bout in to get ranked (fingers crossed for Manchester!) We were asked about the Mohawk Valley Cup but could only commit to one US tournament due to the travel costs.

Do you have any sponsors you’d like to give a shout out to here?

I’d like to give a big thank you to Double Threat Skates, the first derby-specific brick and mortar store in London, for sponsoring both me individually and Southern Discomfort as a league. They’re a crazy team that know and live derby (link to funny video), and I’d also like to give a shout out to Roller Derby City, who are amazingly supportive when it comes to supplying our uniforms and merchandise.

Is there anything I didn’t ask you about that you’d like to mention?

Skates set up: I am currently using both Riedell 695 and Bont Quad Racer boots. I have Reactor plates and gumballs on both with a selection of wheels ranging from classic old school SIMs 63 Rollersnakes, Radar Bullets, and Atom Jukes (from 88 through to 97 on both).

MRDA’s May 2013 Featured Skater of the Month: Seahorses Forever of Your Mom Men’s Derby

May 17, 1013

Interview by Malcolm Sex

What is your derby name?

Seahorses Forever

What is the history behind the name?

I heard the phrase ‘seahorses forever’ in a satirical video by Dan Deacon (contains cuss words) on YouTube a few years before I started playing flat track derby.  I thought it was funny so it found its way on a list of potential future derby names.

What number do you wear?

Number 7.

Why did you choose it?

When we started Your Mom, we had an 8, 6, 7, 5, 3, 0, and a 9er (A reference to a Tommy Tutone song.) I’m the number 7.

What is your preferred position on the track?

Blocker.

How did you get involved in roller derby?

My first involvement in roller derby was in 1998 on the television show Roller Jam. Roller Jam was a three-year trip on a seahorse starship. It was a crash course in the history of roller derby from some of its stars dating back to the 1950s, including Little Richard Brown from the movie Kansas City Bomber. Roller Jam was sports entertainment high on acrobatics and theatrics and an orchestrated story-line. After the show ended, I did what I could to keep up with, what at the time, was the almost non-existent world of roller derby.

I’m not sure how or exactly when I became aware of the flat track revival, but it was sometime soon after Roller Jam ended. The first person I knew involved in the revival was my arch nemesis from Roller Jam Mo “Quadzilla” Sanders. After Roller Jam ended, I moved back to Missouri and Mo moved back to Seattle, where he became involved with the Rat City Rollergirls. I kept in contact with Mo after the show was over and was aware of his involvement in the sport.

My first involvement in the flat track game was in Missouri in 2005. While attending some local speed-skating sessions, the rink operator approached me to start a women’s derby league. After a few months of convincing, I put some flyers together, started recruiting, and soon was coaching my first flat track derby practices. That’s where I began to learn and play the flat track game. I moved to Iowa to start playing men’s derby in 2010 with the founding of Your Mom.

What’s your athletic background?

My athletic background is mainly in skating. My father worked at a skating rink and both my father and older sister speed-skated on quads, so I was around skating before I could walk.

When I was two, I started learning to skate, and I skated my first quad speed meet when I was four. I’m now 35 and have been involved in roller sports consistently, competitively, recreationally, and on the manufacturing side ever since. I have competed in speed-skating indoors and outdoors on quads, downhill inline racing, jam skating, ball hockey on quads, puck hockey on inlines, aggressive inline skating, short-track ice speed-skating, legit banked derby, legit flat track derby, and sports “interwinement” theatrical derby. Out of all of these skating sports, over all, I have spent the most time speed skating. Besides skating, running and cycling are my favorite sports. I’ve run off and on since I was a teenager and cycled off and on since I was about ten. I’ve been running quite a bit lately and have been building a road bike to start riding again this summer.

Are you a founding member of Your Mom? Can you give us a brief rundown of how the league got started? Where did you get your skaters? How did you recruit?

Yes, I am a founding member of Your Mom.  Your Mom got started with a series of phone calls between Dante Muse (Frank Not Sohotra) and me. Dante and I were friends through speed-skating in the early 1990s. After we both quit speed-skating around 1996, we stayed friends, remained involved in roller sports, and kept in contact with each other. While catching up with Dante over the phone in late 2009, we discussed skating sports in general and our involvement in skating at the time. Dante had watched the development of women’s roller derby the last few years and knew of my involvement. I told him about the progression of the men’s game and about my plans for a men’s league, where I was living in at the time. Dante was interested in playing the game and putting a team together. It didn’t take much convincing from there to get me to move up to Des Moines and start a team with him. After all, he was one of my childhood heroes, along with his brother Tony Muse (Peter Pan.) Within a few months, I was living in Des Moines, and Your Mom was having its first practices.

All of Your Mom’s early skaters were involved at one time or another in skating at one of the four Muse family skating rinks in Des Moines, Iowa.  It was an interesting mix of speed skaters, jam skaters, hockey players, quad and inline skaters, and rink rats. Several of us were regional, national, or world champions.  Most of the early skaters were involved in Dante’s roller dodge ball league at the rink he manages.

What’s the history behind the name “Your Mom?”  A lot of people wonder about it, but your team website appears to leave that a mystery.

The history behind “Your Mom” goes back to roughly 2006 when I was coaching women’s derby in Missouri. Early on in my involvement in the women’s game, I was interested in starting a men’s league and playing. I thought about what the name and theme of this future derby league would be and what my derby name would be. Roller derby since its reincarnation has a pretty hardcore image, which is a reflection of the skaters who founded the flat track movement and its early adopters. The flat track derby revival was a vehicle for self-expression, and I’m more satirical in nature than hardcore. Consequently, the theme of the league I was envisioning was a reflection of that part of my personality. I decided to go against the traditional hardcore theme with a more lighthearted, satirical name and league theme. After deciding to go in this direction, some of the girls I was coaching at the time and some guys associated with the league, who were interested in playing the game, started coming up with lighthearted satirical derby names. By the time Your Mom was founded, I had a long list of satirical derby names to pick from. Some of the names on the list were The Fastest Rainbow Ever, Moon Flower, Mr. Bubbles, Star Catcher, and Sugar Boots. I think the first name I decided on was Dr. Sparkle or maybe Unicorn Master. I can’t remember. Years later, while talking to Dante about putting together a men’s derby league in Des Moines, I told him about the concept, and Your Mom progressed from there.  I believe it was Dante who came up with the actual name.

How would you describe your skating style?

My skating style is a combination of all of the skating sports I have skated and all of the influences I’ve had in skating. While playing derby, I use mechanics from every skating sport. Roller derby is the mixed martial arts of rollers sports, which is how I think the sport should be viewed in the skating community. I recently learned some of the footwork from artistic skating, which has helped my derby game a lot. Our coach, Mark Muse, is an ex-artistic skater. He helped me early on with my artistic techniques. My roommate is also an ex-artistic skater and coach, which has furthered my progression in artistic and figure skating.

Without giving away any secrets, what is Your Mom’s philosophy behind the game? How do your strengths as an individual skater fit into that greater scheme?

It’s tough to define our philosophy as a team because there are so many influences that go into our game. We have a lot of skaters with previous skating sports experience, and at least six of those skaters are former or current derby coaches. Having that mix of skaters, we have different philosophies on how to play the game at times. It’s through our coach, Mark Muse, that all of these philosophies come together to produce Your Mom’s game. Mark is the older brother of teammates and Your Mom co-founders Dante and Tony Muse. He was their speed coach and coached most of the other founding members at one time or another, including me. Mark also coached some of the stars of the women’s game, including Atomatrix and Urrk’n Jerkin. Mark coached the US national speed team and was inducted into the Roller Skating Hall of Fame as a coach. Mark is an experienced skater, who competed in artistic, speed, and hockey. At the moment, he is coaching men’s and women’s derby, speed skating, and hockey. Mark’s name was brought up early on in Your Mom’s search for a coach, and we decided unanimously to approach him to help us. Mark, at age 56, could easily make the top end of our roster but is of best service to the team as the head coach. Brothers Dante and Tony both have input into our gameplay, and they both run some of our practices, but brother Mark is the general. The combination of the three super Muse brothers makes Your Mom tough to beat.

So, we all know Your Mom won the MRDA Championship tournament last year. How does it feel to be on top? Do you think starting the 2013 season on top will affect the way you prepare for bouts?

Being on Your Mom is great, and Your Mom being on top of men’s derby is even better. Our success makes us more of a target than ever before, so we have to expect more pressure from opponents this year. Everyone wants to beat the current champs, so we will have to be extra prepared.

So, having seen a few Your Mom bouts, I’ve noticed you use unique skates. Can you tell us about the skates you use?

What you’re probably noticing about my skates is the boots. The boots I skate on make it appear as if I’m skating on off-the-rack rental skates, and that is partly true. My boots actually are off-the-rack rental boots, and my bearings are rental bearings. My boots are from Skate Corral in Springfield, Missouri, the skating rink where I grew up. Skate Corral was the home of the largest speed skating competition throughout the ‘80s and into the mid-90s. After learning that the rink was sold to be turned into offices to house a local construction company, a group of speed skaters met up to skate the final session at the rink. During the last session, we decided to have a final race. Most of us were one-time quad speed skaters, so we decided to race on quads. At the time, I hadn’t owned a pair of quads for roughly ten years, so I pulled a pair of rentals off the rack to wear for the race. After the dust settled, I came home with the championship belt and the rental skates that won the race. A few years later, when I got involved in derby and skating on quads again, the skates became my quad skate of choice. After my first year with Your Mom, I upgraded my plate from the original Sure-Grip rental plates to a set of roughly 30 year-old, out-of-production Italian artistic plates.  The plates once belonged to our Coach Mark. I believe they were the plates he competed on in the ‘70s but will have to check my facts on that one. The plates found their way to brother Dante and thanks to Dante eventually found their way to me. I’m using Snyder’s artistic toe stops at the moment because I believe they stop the fastest and Atom wheels because the chemist who pours their wheels has consistently produced the best wheels for the last 30 years.  Finally, I use Hartford rental bearings because I’m not particular about bearings.

What team is Your Mom’s biggest rival? Is there something about playing them that makes you enjoy those bouts more than playing against other teams?

Without question, it is St. Louis. We have had an in-region rivalry with them since the giddy up, which spilled on to the national scene in the 2012 MRDA National Championship. They were one of the first teams we played, and the team we have had our closest games against.

If you were forced to play for another team in MRDA, but you could choose any one, what team would you play for and why?  

I’ve watched and been involved in the inception and progression of skating sports prior to derby, and the progression of these skating sports abroad has been of particular interest. It’s going to be interesting to see how the sport progresses throughout the world, where it will grow the fastest, who will have the strongest programs, and how the international growth of the sport will affect the game. At this time, London and Montreal are the only other international MRDA teams, so I’d be interested in playing for either of them, especially experiencing the flat track movement from an English perspective.

Looking forward to the 2013 season, do you expect any relatively unknown teams to take MRDA by storm and drastically improve on last year’s performance?

Yes. I think there is a good possibility of a relatively unknown team taking MRDA by storm.  The Men’s Roller Derby Association is only three years old, so it’s still the Wild West. There’s the possibility of some unknown gunslinger walking  into town, shooting a bunch of dudes, then taking off with their stuff.  I think that’s how it worked in the Wild West.

Is it true the mayor of Des Moines honored Your Mom?

Yes. Everyone got to hang out with the mayor, and he declared Your Mom Day in Des Moines. It was rad. I think everyone got medals and got to go on a hot air balloon ride with him. I’m not positive because I wasn’t there and actually don’t know much about the subject, but I heard it was a good time.

I already mentioned winning the 2012 Championship above. Other than that, do you have any memories that stick out from 2012? 

My favorite memory, besides winning the Championship, was skating at Spring Roll. Spring Roll was my first men’s derby tournament. Beating the number one-ranked and defending national champion New York Shock Exchange was a highlight of the trip as well as meeting some of the Magic City Misfits. The Misfits are a team of pro and semi-pro jam skaters from Florida. While filming Roller Jam in Orlando in the late ‘90s, I skated adult sessions at one of the sport’s rebirth places, Semoran Skateway. Seeing the jam skating at Semoran got me interested in jam skating again, and I’ve jam skated off and on and followed the sport since. A few of the Misfits grew up skating at Semoran, so it was cool meeting and talking to some of them about their experiences in derby and jam skating. I finally got to skate against them in the semi-finals of the 2012 MRDA Championships.

Have you taken a step back or a break from derby at any point since Championships?

Yes. From November to roughly February. During that time, I skated a few practices here and there and played a few games but nothing consistently. I’d been involved in the flat track game for roughly eight years and was in need of a break. Although I took some time off from derby, I actually skated more than normal. I spent most of my skating time jam skating, sharpening up on my quad skating fundamentals and relearning inline speed skating.

What do you do to prepare for your games? Do you have any pregame rituals?

Before big games, I like to watch The Devil and Daniel Johnston, a documentary about my favorite recording artist.

You discussed your skates above, but do you have any sponsorship you’d like to let us know about?

I’m not interested in any equipment sponsors at this time. I like what I’m skating on and want to be able to skate on whatever equipment I want.