*I wrote this a few weeks back.  Its a rant on newbieness and confusion.*

At some basic level we are all moths happily enthralled by that pretty bug zapper over there.  And when I saw Atom's new side padded, Kevlar knee pads I was drawn in like a nerd to . . . Kevlar.  Seriously, Kevlar, seriously.  All-in-all Atom's Elite pads are about as shiny as knee pads get, and if you have drooled over them as I did no one can fault you.  I was ready to save up for them, since my knees are not in the best repair and I want to do all I can for them.

The first whiff that the Atom Elite were not for me came from Hermione Gank'ya.  We were chatting while watching the North Central Region Tournament last week.  Atom was marketing the Elites full force, Hermi and I had fallen for the advertizing and were scheming about making them our next derby purchase.   Then the bomb-shell.  Our ref Megapickle, who was attending the tourney, had gotten a chance to look them over and reported to Hermi "They are meant for players who don't fall."  Well if watching Windy City Rollers, the best team in the region, had shown me anything, even the elite fall.

Those overlong last two paragraphs are to illustrate my thought process as an average Derby newbie.  Skates and gear are confusing.  Half the words have new strange meanings; truck,  cushion.  And half the gear has no consensus on what is best.  When in doubt the shiniest, coolest, Kevlarest item is what I will purchase.  Because by this point I have heard a different suggestion from every Derby darling I have asked.  What looks the best and what is the best are, well, you probably figured out the end to that bit of wisdom in elementary school.

With the Roller Derby World cup coming up in a few months, it is possible to say the first wave of modern roller derby is coming to a close.  From what I have researched is has been an amazing time of women forming not only a sport, but a community out of thin air.  Its the greenest of grass roots.  It makes gals like me feel like we are doing something risky and underground. (A decidedly awesome feeling)  But at the same time because Derby has had to figure out thing on their own; it does not have the century of science behinds it that say, Football does.  I've been alive long enough to see significant changes to the rules, gear and procedures of American Football.  As injuries happen and science progresses Football incorporates the new information. (A fluidity I hope the WFTDA allows)

The original Derby Girls  had to make things up as they went.  Which is probably why there is little consensus on everything.  The WFTDA (Woman's Flat Track Derby Association) has standardized rules and minimum skills required not to kill ourselves, but they are new, like our sport.  Which brings me back to those Kevlar bug zappers.  Equipment is serious business.  It keeps our bodies safe.  WFTDA requires us to fall on our knees.  Most of us are not petite.  I fall and I have 160 pounds plus momentum driving my knees into the floor.  As long as knee falls are required (A great debate on knee falls can be found here) WFTDA or another governing body should require a numbered rating on pads.  Roller Derby doesn't have Nike devoting a whole R&D department to keeping us uninjured.  In the mean time us newbies need an understandable rating system for gear.  Because one wobbly Fresh Meat taking a planed fall on a sticky floor can still go horribly wrong if they don't understand the equipment they are placing their continued health in.