GERMAINE LEER – you are our Dolly of the month!!!

Now you are a celebrity, it’s obligatory that we interview you…

Congratulations on being our Dolly of the month – how do you feel about this amazing accolade?
Surprised and happy and excited – it’s really canny of you to ask me.

What are you doing right now?
I am home after practise where lots of skaters had their min skills ticked off and it was a super-posi night.

Copyright © Pete Florey 2014

You have made a seamless transfer from the lovely CCR to DRR, being a transfer skater can be quite daunting – do you have any advice you can give to other transfer skaters?
It is scary moving leagues, but it’s best to try to forget being nervous and try to get to know people during warm ups, and go along to any socials afterwards. Take time to settle in, and be enthusiastic and volunteer for a committee, but don’t fret about remembering everyone’s real and derby names, it will come in time.

As one of our most vocal skaters (hehehehe) what advice can you give to skaters that are still trying to find their derby voice?
Oh, so you noticed I talk a lot – this question could have come from reading any of my old school reports ha.  Good communication on-track is vital, both as a blocker and a jammer, and if you’re new to it, you can start by just telling your team where the opposition jammer is. On bout day, you need to be calm, clear and concise and my top tip is if you have a dog, use the voice you use when your dog is being naughty when you’re communicating to your team mates on track. Totally works. If you don’t have a badly behaved pup, or find it embarrassing to be loud, just try giving audible one-word directions, which is way more effective than shouting a barrage of words that no one can understa

Who is the skater you dread meeting on track the most?
Anyone who has zero craic… even when you’re playing seriously on bout day it’s still ok to smile and enjoy the game.

When you are not being a roller derby super hero what do you for really?
I’m in my final year of Midwifery which is why I moved down here from the North.

Had you ever done sports before you took up roller derby?
I only did yoga and the gym before roller derby, and skated as a kid on amazing baby blue My Little Pony roller boots. Those boots were beautiful.

If you can tell someone new to derby just 3 things – what would they be?
1) Enjoy all of the firsts and keep that enthusiasm as you progress
2) Go to boot camps and bouts and attend as many practises as you can
3) When you’re one of the ‘older’ skaters, try to remember what it was like to be new, and act accordingly

If you could pick any song you wanted just for you for your skate out what would it be?
Rebel Girl by Bikini Kill.

What is your most favourite roller derby moment so far?
There have been LOADS of brilliant things. Going to the first roller derby bout in the UK and being inspired to start MMR.  Going to Rollercon with my best mate the year after. Having my 30^th birthday during the Blood and Thunder boot camp. Playing at Track Queens in Berlin with CCR. And now joining DRR. It’s never boring with roller derby.

What Derby plans do you have for the future?
I just want to keep training hard, and working on building a super-posi league with my team mates. Oh and also take ownership of new skates, which I’m finally upgrading after 5 years of hard usage – goodbye squeaky plates and creaky wheels!

Thank you for your time and for this interview, we hope it will inspire budding authoritative (loud) skaters the country to become as awesome as YOU!