On the way to taking the kids to an indoor playground today, I popped by the sports store to buy a mouthguard for, what my daughter refers to as my 'Derby lessons'.
The brand recommended to me was Shock Doctor, who do up a number of rather intense mouthguards, with strange 'boil bite' logos and instructions full of bold, all capitals writing saying things like PROTECTION and DURABILITY and GREATLY DIMINISHED.
When I opened it up, I discovered my mouthguard came with cooking directions. The low down is that their mouthguards are made with a heavy duty rubber and some strange gel stuff where you put your teeth in. The idea is that the fit is so tight that you will not lose any teeth, unless the impact is strong enough to actually knock all your teeth out at once. I'm fairly divided on whether this is a good thing or not.
After looking through the directions of boiling water and taking the water off for x number of seconds, then putting in the guard for EXACTLY so many seconds, then running under tap water for 1 whole second (I remembered that one) and then popping your toasty hot rubber guard in your mouth and chomping down. There is a reason why they say they provide protection for the fearless.
It actually went well, and though The Man says I've got a bit of a gorilla thing going on, I'll take it along to practice and see if it does what it's supposed to do. The brilliant thing about the whole gel/rubber concoction is that I can re-boil it if the fit isn't quite right. Super fun.
I did go to Shock Doctor's website, though, because I wanted to learn about the gel bit of the mouthguard. I was not enlightened on that point, but I did get an eye load of sweaty guys bouncing around, looking all serious. Shock Doctor sponsors various sporting events and players and lists it's 'sports' as motosports,soccer, baseball and softball, autosports, lacross, martial arts and boxing, football and hockey. It looks like they have some really nice knee and elbow pads, and I did spend an entertaining moment in the cups and supporters (jsyk, it's got both nothing and everything to do with trophies). I did not run across any pictures of women nor any mention of roller derby.
So, I sent off an email to Shock Doctor to ask about why they do not list roller derby players as potential clientele. I'm fairly certain, as they were the only decent looking brand in the chain sporting store, that they are often purchased by derby ladies. Then again, what do I know. I'm new. If you are a derby lady, what's your favorite mouthguard brand?
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