it’s pretty well just under a month until i jump on a plane and head back to Vancouver for this year’s Trevisani banquet. i think the new shirt and tie i picked up last weekend will have to make an appearance. that just leaves the matter of deciding whether or not to bring my two button grey or three button black. the shirt and tie combo go well with either. barney stinson approved.

this week i ordered some new wheels, some new bearings and a new skate tool. near the end of november I’m heading to a ref clinic prior to a double header exhibition and we have to do the WFTDA ref skills test. given that i know what’s involved in most of that test, I wasn’t too happy to know we had to do the lap trials on what has to be the slickest floor I’ve ever skated on. basically, we have to be able to skate 10 laps in a minute thirty five. not impossible, but made more difficult depending on the floor and your wheel set up.

fyi, skate wheels are graded by hardness (or durometer reading or something technical sounding like that). the higher the number, the harder the skate. the harder the skate, the less stick it has. on my 911s I’m rocking a full set of Atom Lowboys which have a 95a rating. my Diablos are fitted with Radar Speed Rays rated at 93a. originally, my Diablos came stock with Radar Evo’s at 95a. i can feel a huge difference between the two sets. I absolutely love my lowboys on my 911s, and I really dont want to have to switch them out, but I’ve skated the floor we’re using for the test with them before and it was a fucking nightmare.

so I opted for a set of these:

Atom Poison wheels. they’re relatively new and rated at 84a meaning they should stick like a motherfucker without having to put on outdoor wheels. I know one other ref who uses them and he thinks they rule. they look like the glow in the dark. I asked him, they don’t. in any case, they’ll be good for slick floors, which sadly, our new practice space is turning into. it had good stick when we first moved in there, and now corners two and four are death traps. another ref and i tried for the 10 laps in 1:35 last week. with a slick floor and slick wheels I managed 9 and three quarters. I also managed a lot of flail and “I’mgonnafuckingdieihatethisfuckingfloor”. I haven’t ever skated on really sticky wheels, so it should be interesting to see how they feel.

given that i have more sets of wheels than I do bearings already, I also ordered some Sure-Grip Qube 8-ball bearings. all of my other bearings are Kwik, so we’ll see how the Qube’s stack up. or roll up. hah. bad pun.

I supposed I’m going to have to think up something else I need derby wise to save for november cause then I can drop into the actual Rollergirl store again. of course that also means trying to avoid going up to the counter and saying “I’d like a pair of Riedell 195s to go with the 911s you set up for me, please.” though if they had a pair of 951 Phaze boots there… i’d probably have to ask them to help me leave the store…

although… a pair of colour lab Phaze skates custom made to go with a suit… would be LEGENDARY.

the likelihood of that happening isn’t that great. plus, i still need to replace my bike after it was stolen. and that’s just a whole other issue that i’ll probably go all specific over. gotta go stop by a MEC store at some point and check their bikes out. there was a Trek crosscountry bike I saw in Edmonton that I’d like to look at again, but I want to go see how the MEC ones are for reals.

right, well, it’s saturday, i have little to do for a while so I’ll probably head out to the shed for a skate.

following that, going to over to see Brown Dog and his Owner for some hotdogs and marshmallows roasting goodness.