Le Patin Français Triple Header

On December 14-15 took place the official public kick off of the 2014 Team France of Roller Derby. The team was announced in late August and the 40 of us had met once at the occasion of our first training a few weeks ago.

PRG Quedalles (121-177) Rollergirls of the Apocalypse

Team France Blue (301-122) Les Restes de la France I

Team France Red (213-67) Les Restes de la France II

The presentation of the French Team was organized as a Double header with an introduction game. That is to say THREE BOUTS in-a-row for the lucky spectators who managed to get one of the 700 tickets that were sold out in hardly 30 minutes on the Internet... The venue was the same as for the Paris RollerGirls All-Stars' last home game of the 2013 season against Team Unicorn which had encountered the same sold out problem last June.

2013 WFSC World Champs UNCENSORED

For more journalistic write-ups on the competition itself, check out the REPORT TRILOGY on worldslalomseries.com by yours truly:

• 2013 WFSC DAY 1: Speed Slalom & Pair Classic
• 2013 WFSC DAY 2: Freestyle Classic
• 2013 WFSC DAY 3: Freestyle Battle
• 2013 WFSC DAY 4: Slides & Medals SOON
  

MIXING WITH THE ARTISTIC WORLDS

speaker to the left of me, stage to the right,
here I am, stuck in the middle with food ♫

The 7th WFSC were held in Taipei from November 5 to 8, 2013, at the second level of an arena also hosting the 58th WORLDS of ARTISTIC SKATING at the first level. We were treated to a common OPENING CEREMONY, or should I say : We were tolerated, on our third day of competition, to attend the Artistic's opening ceremony, which was convenient as we added national flags to their list of participating countries. All the freestyle banners had been previously removed and no freestyle VIP was invited to get on the stage where were sitting the Artistic officials.

We also had the opportunity of sharing a COMMON BUFFET at dinner on our first day of

competition... which turned into a shameless (or shameful, depending on the end you place yourself) karaoke night for artistic skating VIPs. The least to say is that the shock of cultures was hardcore. Nevertheless, it was an interesting insight into the various levels of socially acceptable behaviours according to the different cultures. More practically, having to endure 60-year-olds bellowing Asian songs out of tune and wiggling on a stage 2 meters from me and my plate tends to put me off my food.

My 2012 World Freestyle Skating Champ's

A short summary: judging, writing, sleeping, eating, judging, writing, judging, eating, sleeping, judging, judging, writing, etc.

JETLAG

After my trip in the USA for the RollerCon and the rest (here and there), I crossed the Earth to the other side to go to China. Do you know the ping-pong jetlag effect? From -9h California to +6h China!



from -9 to +6

Hardcore? Surprisingly not that much... Reaching a certain point, being jetlagged becomes a non-countable fact, period. You are not a bit or a lot jetlagged, you are just jetlagged and you deal with it. Especially when you arrive the afternoon before the World Championships of Freestyle Slalom and you have to judge them!
And even if you had to suffer a 23-hour trip with one train (Paris-Brussel), one international flight (Brussel-Beijing), one internal flight (Beijing-Wenzhu) and one shuttle bus (Wenzhu-Lishui). Alone.
Don't pity me on the loneliness though, I love travelling by myself. I was just trying to be pitied a bit more.