YourMomLikesRollerDerby

Yes is exists! In fact, I am a referee who skates on inlines. You don’t need to read over that sentence again, it’s true. To the best of my knowledge, I’m the only WFTDA certified referee on inlines.

Why? That’s an easy answer. I’ve been skating on inlines for 15+ years. I’m incredibly comfortable on inlines. While I could do decently on quads after a couple of weeks of practice, the desire isn’t really there.

When I got into derby in the first place, there was another referee in our league that was skating on inlines and another who had recently switched to quads. It wasn’t a big deal at the time. However, I did catch a lot of crap from the skaters for it.

Then we had our annual Spanquet, to which I wore a beautiful green spandexy dress with a red cape. I had some boots with heels that I can run in just fine should the need arise. I made a belt buckle with some hard drive platters special for the occasion. After that night, I rarely ever hear anything about the fact that I wear inlines anymore. Something about derby girls and guys in drag…

Since then, I’ve learned an awful lot about quads. Enough to where I understand exactly how they work, mechanically. I am able to answer most of the gear related questions my league has better than a large portion of the skaters. I’ve been researching it enough to where one of our skaters has jokingly stated that I should open a skate shop. I love the tech of quads, but not the quads themselves.

Does this make me a bad referee? Certainly not. I’m the same referee regardless of what I’m skating on. I’m far more agile on inlines than on quads, because of experience.

Has this inhibited my progress in any way? Not at all. I know there are certain leagues where I would be prohibited from reffing unless I were on quads, but they are geographically quite far from me. I’ve not had any problems getting guest reffing gigs. I had no problem progressing through the ranks in my home league. I also had no problem attaining certification.

Why then the problems with allowing blades in derby? I understand the reasoning for all the skaters being required to have similar equipment, but referees? I don’t see any issue with it whatsoever. Some feel that it is inconsistent. Many of those same people also feel that referees shouldn’t have introductions, because the skaters are the show, not the referees. If fans aren’t watching the referees, what does it matter if they are wearing inlines?

Maybe someday I’ll get some quads to skate on sometimes. I don’t foresee myself switching to quads as my primary skates until the rules require it. Even then, I don’t see myself abandoning inlines by any means.