Coffee Table Book of: Roller Derby (Paperback)

Description

Coffee Table Book of: Roller Derby is a large format book of roller derby, printed edge to edge in colour, one picture to a page and the widest carried across two: quad skates, wheels and pads laid out plain, the helmet with its star, the flat track laid in tape and the old banked track, the halls where the sport is played standing empty, and a few skaters seen far off in plain dark clothing.

The kit is laid out plain: quad skates with low boots and toe stops, a white boot on mint green wheels, clear purple wheels in a row, steel bearings, truck cushions in three colours, a toe stop on its threaded stem, a skate tool, knee pads, elbow pads and wrist guards, a mouthguard softening in hot water, a whistle, a striped shirt, and the helmet covers that mark the jammer with a star and the pivot with a stripe.

The making and care follow a boot shaped over a wooden last, wheels poured into moulds, a banked track framed in curved ribs, a fresh track line laid in tape over a thin rope, a floor swept with a dust mop, wheels swapped round and skates hung up to dry. The past runs from an old skate on wooden wheels and a steel clamp skate with its key to leather boot skates, worn wooden wheels, an old banked track with its rail, track sections in a storeroom, a seaside pier, a skating pavilion and a floor worn pale along the curve.

Then the places, empty at every hour and in every season: halls at first light, at noon and at sunset, in rain, snow, frost and a thunderstorm, a warehouse at dusk, halls by a canal, a seafront, a wheat field and a quiet road, smooth paths by lakes and rivers, a sea wall, frosty asphalt and concrete under the stars, and a few small skaters far off: skating by a river at dawn, rounding a curve in the star helmet, following one another in a pace line, crouching low, leaping a curve and walking across the snow.

Short notes run through the book, on the rules and how the game is played, the skates and gear and how they are made, and the history of the sport: the jammer, who scores for the team, wears a star on each side of the helmet, thick knee pads with hard caps let a skater drop to the knees and slide, toe stops screw into the front of the skate and are set higher or lower to suit the skater, and the pivot, marked by the stripe, may take the star in a star pass and become the jammer.

Printed in full colour on heavy 150gsm coated paper at 216 x 279 mm (8.5 x 11 inches), as a paperback.