About Me: The Jukes on You

My floating head…

Hello! I’m Jukes, and I’ve teamed up with Richard Hurton to help spread the word about the wonderful world of Roller Derby and to assist in giving you all an up to date and useful product. Richard has poured his heart and soul into making the most detailed and most inclusive list of roller teams from all over the world, and he does it because he enjoys doing it. I’m ridiculously excited to work on this project with him and hope it brings more connectivity and positivity to the derby community.

So, as titled, here’s a little about me. I first heard of roller derby back when the movie Whip It came out. Yep, I was one of those people that heard “roller derby” and immediately thought of Whip It. I will not lie though, I absolutely loved that movie; however, I could have been blinded by my massive crush on Ellen Paige. Either way, I’m still a huge fan of the movie.

Fast forward to 2011, (FYI, Whip It, came out in 2009) when I had my second encounter with roller derby. I was a week away from graduating college in New York when I saw a flyer for a roller derby bout. Unfortunately, the game was scheduled the weekend after my graduation and I was leaving the state right after the ceremony. I kept the flyer though. It really tugged at me that I was not able to attend.

It wasn’t until moving to Washington state, (I have learned to clarify state versus D.C.) in May of 2012, that I had my first opportunity to see live roller derby. It…was…awesome. I went to my first practice two days later and have been a part of roller derby ever since. We have such a unique community filled with endless diversity, and this fuels my motivation to reach out and connect with skaters around the globe.

Those of you, who are regulars to the site and the Facebook page may have noticed a few changes. Bare with us. We’re trying a few thing out and are working a few things to get the database updated and get the word out. Ultimately, we are striving to give you all the best product possible. Stay tuned for a future post that will outline some of the changes and goals we have here at DerbyListing.

Stay derby weird, peeps. – Jukes

About Me: Richard Hurton

I am Richard Hurton. Well, that’s my current derby name, at least.

I first heard about the resurgence of roller derby around 2003 via the Comedy Central show Insomniac with Dave Attell. I honestly didn’t think much of it. Looked like fun, but there wasn’t any roller derby in my town so I promptly forgot about it.

Then in 2006 my partner and I moved to the MidWest. She had reconnected with a highschool friend (thanks, Facebook) who conveniently lived at the half way point for the cross country move. I only mention this friend, because she was gung ho for roller derby, and was a skater on her local team. It got my partner excited to learn more about roller derby. Unfortunately, the small town we moved to didn’t have roller derby… so after a short while, I forgot all about it… again.

In 2009 we found ourselves moving again. This time to Salt Lake City. Prior to moving I had made contact with a person in SLC via LiveJournal (oh how I miss LiveJournal). She and her partner just happened to be the announcers for the local roller derby team (Salt City Derby Girls). Through them we finally made it to our first derby bout! A little late to the party, but at least we made it.

We went to a few more bouts, but 2009 was a tumultuous year for roller derby in Salt Lake City. The local league split. Out of that split emerged Wasatch Roller Derby (WRD). Alongside WRD a recreational league started, The Red Rockettes. By coincidence one of the founders of the rec league happened to be one of the first people we met in Salt Lake City.

In 2010/2011 my partner decided that she would give recreational roller derby a go. I, in full support of my partner, volunteered to NSO. And thus began our deep dive into roller derby.

My original roller derby name was Unkle Sammich. Later, I decided to complement my partner’s derby name, Liz Tailher; so I changed my derby name to Richard Hurton. If you still don’t get the connection, google “Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton”.

In 2012 I started researching derby leagues around the world. I wanted to get a better idea of how many leagues played under the different rulesets. That research eventually resulted in this website.

–Richard Hurton