https://www.instagram.com/p/BgvFMuLnvmZ/?taken-by=thisgirlcanvic

I sent in an audition video in answer to a facebook casting call back in July last year.  I didn’t watch the video prior to sending, at my husband’s recommendation, as the perfectionist in me would not have pushed the send button.  You can hear Riley in the background and see my stylish Star Wars decor and I’m tired and my blue hair has regrowth but I’m passionate about the topic.  I had to sign away the footage before finding out who was running the campaign and nearly didn’t!  What if it was a cause/product I couldn’t support?!  Am so so so glad I did.  If you’ve missed it – This Girl Can VIC is about encouraging women to get active regardless of you ability, age or body shape.  Its about combating the fear of judgement that stops a lot of women from getting active – being judged for our appearance, being judged for our abilities or being judged for prioritising exercise.

The soft launch to kick off the search for more ambassadors comprised of a photo shoot and the decision to use our audition videos.  And although a little confronting, my Star Wars cushions and blue hair regrowth headed out into the ether… and that is really the whole point – this is real women with real stories.  There are no models, made ups scripts, no photo-shopped insta-perfect images.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BgvEe0iBGTk/?taken-by=mirandaskatemayle

I was lucky enough to move through to the next phase of the campaign and be part of the TV commercial.  It was a surreal experience that I’ll never forget.  Myself and 9 teammates got to chant in the change rooms and play derby for the cameras.  I was also photographed and interviewed for print and social media content and remember having to yell my answers over the rain pounding the tin roof of the venue.  There was no guarantee your sport or footage would make it into the commercial so the sneak peak we got in December was made more exciting by seeing skates on the screen!

This last week has been a whirlwind: we’ve had media training, the media launch, the stakeholder launch and seen the ad on the telly.  I was interviewed and appeared on both Channel 7 and Channel 9 news coverage (hint: wear skates and a baby to attract attention 😛 ).  We had the laptop at training last night so we could share the commercial with the league the second it came out and streamed the news off track to catch that as well.  I’ve been literally buzzing to share as its been hush hush until release.  Riley is zonked out as we speak from being so involved and I cannot thank VicHealth and the This Girl Can crew for being so inclusive and supportive of me having my sidekick at all the events.  She loved the commercial and the sound track so much she cried when it stopped the first time we saw it – the kid has good taste 😉

https://www.instagram.com/p/BgvEAO8BKyz/?taken-by=mirandaskatemayle

There has been overwhelming positive support for the campaign in general and from friends and family sharing the story and writing lovely things.  There has also been some negative comments on social media, that are not aimed at me personally and I’m not taking them as such, but it has brought home the reality and the scale of the exercise and that it reaching beyond the small bubble of like minded people in my world.  I can only hope the campaign message reaches and helps more women get active than it does give trolls cannon fodder.

A highlight has been meeting the amazing women ambassadors.  We have all genuinely bonded over shared stories about hesitations to start getting active or overcoming barriers to continue exercising.  The magic of this campaign is the amount of times you can relate to an anecdote and how everyone’s story resonates with your personal experiences.  I might’ve even gone a little fangirl over a couple of them, with the selfies to prove it!  I’ve come away inspired and made new friends.

I couldn’t be more proud, honoured, grateful, humbled and lucky to be a part of the movement which encourages more women to get active whenever, wherever and however they choose and hopes to spark social change empowering women to feel comfortable in their bodies, address gender inequality and have wider positive impacts on the whole community.  To be inspired by their stories: meet all the girls that can here.

[dropcap type=”square”] M [/dropcap]iranda

This links to my other This Girl Can Blogs

To connect with the This Girl Can Victoria community, use:

• This Girl Can website: www.thisgirlcan.com.au
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/ThisGirlCanVIC
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/ThisGirlCanVIC
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ThisGirlCanVIC
• YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/VicHealthMedia
• Hashtag #ThisGirlCanVIC

This Girl Can by VicHealth encourages women to get active: “This Girl Can celebrates women who are all kinds of active. Women who are giving their all, or giving it a go, but not giving a damn!” I am a This Girl Can Victoria Ambassador. However, the views expressed here are my views only and not those of VicHealth.

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The Rebellion Melbourne roller derby tournament brought together 6 division one and 10 division two teams, from across Australia, to battle it out for glory and some shiny trophies.  Our league submitted our A travel team, the Sirens into Div 1, and our B team, the Banshees, hooked up with Diamond Valley Roller Derby to form the Valley of the Banshees team to tackle Div 2.  This weekend also had the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA) championships running in Philly over in the US, to determine the number one team in the world (nope – my league did not attend.. well actually one member did: in the audience…)

I love watching derby at its highest level of play and purchased my WFTDA champs watch pass months in advance with so much anticipation.  Our wedding vows included:  “Will you promise to be available to watch the American derby playoffs whilst she yells at the TV, at obscene hours of the morning?” so you can see it pretty darn important to me.  You learn a heap just from watching, its obviously entertaining, plus Australia’s own Victorian Roller Derby League (VRDL) were hot contenders for the Hydra (the trophy) this year after coming 3rd the last two years.  VRDL are already huge winners in my eyes.   The league pioneered derby in Australia, making it much easier for other leagues to start up and be successful.  They are world leaders in skills, drills and strategy and with generous spirits share that knowledge.  It’s amazing to be involved in a sport that has top athletes and coaches on our doorstep, where we’re not a couple of years behind or have to bring out overseas talent.  And most importantly they are so inspirational.  You know they are extraordinary but not such that they magically made it – you’ve seen them work so hard over time.  It allows you to believe it could be you (if you choose to put in that level of dedication).  Plans to cheer on amazing derbies = winning!

So my weekend initially looked like – watch derby online streaming WFTDA champs from 1am til 11amish Sat, Sun and Monday.

Then I added: play 2 games of derby on Saturday 3:15pm and 7:40pm, 1 game on Sunday with the time dependent on the outcomes of games 1 and 2.  I was also honored to be one of the team’s captains this time around, so slightly more pressure and paperwork required.  Humbled and so proud to be a co-captain = winning!

Then the wonderfully talented husband signed on as head photographer for the tournament, meaning we had to be at the event from beginning (early) to end (late) each day.  Did I mention the venue is 1 hours travel away from us?  So purchased additional mobile data, so I could stream the WFTDA champs games to my phone whilst at the more local tournie =winning!

Then because I realised I’d already gone too far – I signed on as at tournie photographer too.  I wouldn’t be shooting the entire time as I was playing, but hoped to get some shots in around my games and give some lens loving to my beloved Banshees.  Have been perfecting the back carry with the baby so that the bigger lenses required for derby won’t boop her on the head whilst I’m shooting = winning!

Then, because I’m an over achiever obviously, I sprained a ligament the week prior.  Go to the physio and am able to train and play with an ankle covered in copious amounts of tape = winning!

Then the baby got a cold (the silver lining got a little dulled here…) The nights prior to champs she was up all night without me having any derby to watch – and then came good about 2am of the first night of champs aka the night before Rebellion… so 3.5 hours sleep for me the day before the tournament… nope.. how about the baby feeling a bit better = winning?

The Baby

I am so proud of the baby this weekend.  These were horribly long days, she wasn’t in perfect health, and the crowds, whistles etc had the potential for total over stimulation.  Not only did she take it all in her stride, but she became a crowd favorite with her duckface and derby hand signals.  Seriously there is nothing cuter than an infant who can ‘call it off’ or signal ‘no pack’.  Having a baby carrier, as usual, is a life saver.  Having crowds and a derby track means constant supervision when she’s out and about on the floor.  If I wanted to actually watch a game, she needed to be in the carrier – yeah I have to walk around, but I get to see the action. In hindsight I probably should’ve used the pram a bit more because her sleeping position in the back carry is horrifying but I’m still very pram adverse…  She really only cried once all weekend and it was totally my fault. I went to take her out of the back carry onto a cushion, and her head missed the cushion!  So much mummy guilt.  Lesson learnt: next time just ask for assistance. Idiot.

The Photography

I do enjoy roller derby photography.  My style is heavily influenced by my husband’s style of sportraiture (sports portraits) capturing emotions and personalities on track versus just the action.  For this, I like to get in close, inside the track, and was not able to this time around whilst wearing the baby (tournament decision for safety – which is fair enough) so it took me a little time to change up my mindset and get into the groove.  I went in with unrealistic expectations on what I could achieve with the baby in my care and the husband as tournie head photographer.  He needed to cover games on both tracks, off track action and ambiance and edit and upload the entire day.  He did an amazing job (and produced amazing images as usual) and understandably wasn’t able to take the baby much.  Whilst a 40 min family portrait shoot is totally doable with just Riley and myself, my expectations on what I can achieve on a full day whilst baby wrangling have been seriously adjusted.

The Derby

So we lost all of our games and came last…  I’m so proud of our first loss – the half time score was 93 to 39, we made some hard decisions and changed things up for a great comeback to bring it within 19 points.  Our second loss was so disappointing.  We played a team that we’d always beaten until recently, and to whom a few of our top skaters had transferred to.  To be honest, they had won the game before we even rolled onto the track, we were just not mentally prepared to win.  I’m not taking anything away from our opponents, they deserved to win, have been working hard and their skills have advanced greatly this year.  They just didn’t deserve to win by 300+ points.

We came into our final game for 5th/6th place missing 3 of our high rotation players – injury, family commitments and going to the hospital with their girlfriend who was injured in a proceeding game.  I am loathe to say a single person is responsible for a win or loss, but in this case, the absence of three skaters did have an impact.  I actually fouled out of this game (accruing 7 penalties – 3 I agreed with, 2 I believe were the incorrect type of penalty but still deserved and 2 I whole heartedly disagree with!) Fouling out is 🙁 but as there were only 20 seconds remaining in the game  🙂 = winning!

I’ve come away from these games with a much clearer sense on how we can structure a winning team and am glad we’ve got our game against our old teammates over and done with.  They went on to win the tournament with us cheering them on the loudest.  It’s also amazing fun playing against people you’ve never played before and so cannot predict what they’ll do next, and the trust and teamwork in your team grows so much at these events.  I feel I was an asset to my team and have some great personal successes and team successes to celebrate.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, VRDL smashed it and are bringing home the Hydra – all 53 pounds of it.  I don’t have the words to express the awe and admiration I feel.  I guess I mostly just want say thanks for showing us what determination and dedication can achieve.

I’m off to edit photos, sleep, take pain killers (stupid DOMS), hug the baby (not sure which order) and try to decide which category this blog goes in… 😉  I hope your weekend was also epic!

p.s. gender stereotypes didn’t end up being mentioned because the roller derby community smashes them xxx

[dropcap type=”square”] M [/dropcap]iranda

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The theme for International Babywearing Week’s  ninth annual celebration is Threaded Together. The inspiration for the theme comes from the many different threads that when combined through the weaving process form all of the carriers we use. All of these individual threads, once woven, create a material in the same way individuals and groups worldwide come together to create a global babywearing community.

I got to document a baby wearing event organised this week by a local parenting group (Southern Natural Parenting Network), kinda a buy, swap, sell event with heaps of knowledge sharing and just good community support and socialising.  For pics of cute kids and carriers, you can checkout the full album on my biz page, or some highlights in my recent work.

Onto my story: I always wanted to wear Riley because a) you can use two hands and do stuff and b) I’m one of those people that hates other people with prams.  I totally understand prams have a place, but being stuck behind one just makes me rage.  When you compare the size of the baby to the size taken up by a pram.. It just doesn’t make sense.  Plus the pack up and pack down.  I’ve never been a fan. (Disclaimer: we do own a pram.  I accept that some days you just don’t want to carry a 27th time, or the day is going to be super long, or you need somewhere to stash the shopping.  Ours gets used maybe once a month)

I originally started with a K’tan stretchy structured wrap (ie. not a long piece of material) and didn’t have much success feeling Riley was safe and secure.  I also tried a mama way ring sling and honestly never felt I could take both arms away (when she was small).  It did however distribute her weight so I could carry her for much longer, and she would sleep in it – a miracle piece of equipment for just that.  In hindsight, I should’ve sucked up my ignorance and excessive youtubing and headed to a local baby wearing meet to learn how to get the best out of these baby carriers.  When you get a bit more freedom and independence, you get to be more of the you you were prior to the baby, and that is worth getting as soon as possible.

My biggest carrier purchase, and an item I’ve used every day since Riley could hold up her own head is my Juno by Mountain Buggy.  It fits both my husband and myself comfortably, it comes with the infant insert, can front, back and side carry and although the manufacturer touts how wonderful the hug pockets are (pockets you can put your hands into and hug the baby), I think the magnetic clasp is its best feature.  It is super easy to do up behind you as the magnets snap it together.  The downside? It does have pockets to carry your phone and keys – but good luck getting to them with a kid in the carrier.  Accessories you might wish to consider are suck pads for the straps, which go in the wash when gross from baby spit, rather than loosing a day or two to washing the entire carrier, and baby wearing outer wear that has room for both your heads.  Mind you to save $$ I have a fleece jacket a few sizes too big that does a similar job, and the best hack I’ve seen is buying two hoodies – wearing one and zipping connecting the other across the front.

Aside from the boring essentials like walking the dog, shopping, hanging out wash etc, baby wearing allows us to roller skate and I can take photographs.  She gets bumped on the head by the camera a lot less these days 😛

[dropcap type=”square”]M [/dropcap]iranda

p.s. I’m not affiliated with any of these brands, just what’s worked for me…

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