Falcon Punch started Roller Derby in Montreal in 2011 and has been part of Montreal’s A-Team, The New Skids on the Block, since 2015. She was a skater for Team France during the 2014 B&T World Cup in Dallas and represented Canada at the 2018 Roller Derby World Cup in Manchester. She’s been a jammer since day one but loves working on blocking to become more versatile (and because it’s so much fun).

Her sports background is quite diverse and totally unrelated to roller sports or team sports. Falcon practiced gymnastics, horseback riding, snowboarding and Muay Thai. “Roller Derby was my first experience at a team sport, and it changed my life. Not only does it include all the things that I love in sports (strategy, agility, flexibility, strength, and aggressiveness) but it also gave me the opportunity to travel and meet some of the most incredible people I know”.

In 2010 I got lost in a new town and found a sign that said “roller derby here” at a little skate rink in the middle of Springfield, MO. I was living a sedentary and unhealthy lifestyle, suffered from insomnia, anxiety, and depression and had little/no naturally athletic talent and 0 skating experience. It took me over a year to pass my MSTs (when it was still only 25!) and started playing for Springfield RollerGirls who were newly WFTDA and played my first game in 2012.

Fast forward a year, and the girl who was afraid to crossover moved to St Louis and joined Arch Rival, and made the All Star team in July 2013. Since then, I’ve played in every All Star game. In 2013 I played in my first ever tournament, WFTDA playoffs. In 2015, I played in the last jam against Rocky Mountain to make Arch history and place 3rd to advance to champs. In 2016, we did it again, and then again in 2017 – each year placing higher and higher. I’ve put countless hours (years, sweat, tears & toe nails) with Arch leaping from lower #20s rankings to current #5. On the track, I tend to be hardwired for sticky defense with situational offense, and am a key role in communication during gameplay. I’ve gotten the privilege to be on Team Missouri, coach the Gatekeepers “Central West Friends”, be a 3 year sponsored skater for Roller Derby Elite, advance from playoffs to champs for 3 years in a row; dab my helmet off in the WFTDA tv, and am a current member Board and coaching committee for Arch Rival (and pretty much all the others…) and coach clinics and share the track with so many amazing and talented athletes.

As a skater, I love using my frame in my favour as both a blocker and jammer (2016 I even jammed at champs in the actual rotation!) and find beauty in training all body types in making it their size their strength! As an “unnatural” athlete, I love helping newer and struggling skaters to unlock their potential on new things. My goal is to make derby fun for all, and finding a space to leave your anxiety and dark clouds behind, which can be hard in such a physically demanding sport where you literally get knocked down.

Gal started skating with her local Oregon junior league in early 2012. Having immediately fallen in love with this new sport, she spent the next 6 ½ years dedicating all of her time to bettering her playing.

By the time she moved to Portland after graduating High School in 2016, she had played for 8 teams in the Pacific Northwest of the States. (Shout out to Willamette Roller Derby, West Sound Roller Girls, Emerald City Junior Derby, Junior Team USA West, Northwest United, JRDA Allstars, Northwest Allstars, Oly Rollers).

When Gal aged up into the WFTDA, the Rose City Rollers welcomed her with open arms. In October of 2016, she was drafted to an RCR home team—The Break Neck Betties—and in March of 2017, she was selected for the Wheels of Justice.

She has been honoured to play in every WOJ game since. Gal has spent the past 2 years honing her lateral movement, sharpening her very own jammer tricks, and leveraging her height (or lack thereof) to become the most dependable pivot that she can be. Gal can’t wait to share her enthusiasm for dynamic, versatile, and strong derby with everyone at Derby Fest 2019!

Once upon a time…
In a land far far away called Los Angeles, I discovered the magically brutal sport of roller derby. It was the year 2007.

This unfit, smoker, drinker, party girl (thats me) decided to take on roller derby with full force. By 2009 I was an all-star playing for the LA Derby Dolls. I even landed myself a role in that roller derby Movie Whip It (Manson Sister..whats up).

In 2009 I started teaching roller derby players how to not just play derby but how to actually be a roller derby ATHLETE.

It started when I realised that practice wasn’t enough. I needed to cross train and eat right if I wanted to stay in derby for the long haul. After making some small and sustainable changes, I felt better, more energised, leaner, and fitter. Simple things that changed my life and my performance. I then committed my life to helping others learn how to do the same thing.

Over the years I have learned that how we do anything is how we do everything and that all the skills and know how of being fit and health for roller derby actually apply to everyone out here in the real world who wants to accomplish anything.

Once we accept that we are not perfect beings and we begin to understand that perfection is actually not required for massive success, the whole game of life changes and becomes a lot more fun.

I am excited to help you change your game and your life.

Miss Tea Maven (Maven) has dabbled in many sports in early childhood. Soccer, Basketball, Volleyball, and baseball. She was terrible at all of them (she even broke a girls leg once in soccer). Maven was very energetic and was the “Gym Class Hero” in school – often trying too hard without any particular skill or talent. “Where there is a will, there is a way.” Was her motto with training and trying to get better in sport, Maven would never give up. This trait carried over to roller derby when she first started skating in 2012. Maven had never skated before going to her first roller derby practice and fell many, MANY times. Never giving up, she continued to get up from every fall and work towards her dream of one day being a great player like her idols Bonnie Thunders and Suzy Hotrod.

After failing to make the Gotham Girls Roller Derby League in 2012, she skated for 1 year at Long Island Roller Rebels, where she worked her way from the “Fresh Blood” beginner squad (as a Dedicated Pivot) to their WFTDA ranked Travel Team as a 4th string Jammer in the rotation.

In 2013 she tried out for GGRD again, and this time made the league! As well as making the B Team – the Wall Street Traitors. Maven worked her way from being a blocker on the Traitors to 1st in the Jammer rotation near the end of the season.

For 2014 Maven tried out for the Undefeated Gotham Girl All-Star Team and was cut from the 1st tryouts from the season. For 3 months, she worked hard, weight trained, and gained over 20 pounds to attempt to make the team in time for the 2014 season’s last round of tryouts and made it! Her first ever game was against Denver as an alternate, and she never looked back.

Today, Maven has won 8 WFTDA tournament medals (Playoffs and Champs) as well as getting “Tournament MVP at Sibling Rivalry in 2017” Maven spends most of her time working as a Director of Audience Development for M2M.TV a fashion & style media company. She is still training hard every day to become a better skater and teammate.

Maven greatly enjoys coaching skaters whenever she can, and loves to focus on technique, footwork, and breaking down drills and skills to the most basic level. “Building the foundation of great skating makes for the best roller derby skaters. The Stronger and more solid your skating foundation, the higher levels of skills you can build on top of it.” Maven is a fun, silly and energetic coach and is happy to help anyone at any level!”

“I’ve never been to Australia before – and I’m SO excited to be with skaters on another side of the world!”

Anna Pave-U’Ova (Pavey) has been an athlete since childhood climbing the jammer ranks of VRDL since moving from her home league Richter City Roller Derby in 2016. Pavey skated in VRDLs charter from 2016, Captaining the Queen Bees in 2017 and jamming for the All Stars in 2017 playoffs and champs.

Pavey represented Team Aotearoa (New Zealand) in both the 2014 Dallas and 2018 Manchester Roller Derby World Cup. Pavey loves to juke, duck and jump around blockers for success and has so many dad jokes to tell!

With a long dance career under her belt Pavey has a Diploma is modern Jazz and over a decade of ballet experience. After discovering the unpredictability of career choices in later stages in life for dance Pavey changed to roller derby as a sport outlet in life and loved every moment of it. “I love the constant strategy adjustments, fast paced gameplay and camaraderie that roller derby brings. There is so much aroha (love) in our roller derby whanau (family) which has kept me hooked on this sport.”

Pavey is known in tournaments for her impromptu warm up dances with the VRDL teams and fusing roller derby coaching with dance and body awareness. She excels in strength and conditioning workouts, sharing more understanding of your own body awareness and out of the ordinary ways of teaching jammer skills. Pavey has targeted skill sets in jammer and offense on track relationship building and strategic methods to set your team up for successful offensive plays.

“I can’t wait to come to Derby Fest to bring you all a fun and exciting way to fall in love with roller derby all over again!”