San Diego Derby Dolls − 21 May, 2007
Steph was out of town this weekend at Heather's bachelorette party in Palm Springs. As is my habit when she's out of town, I sought out trouble.
Earlier in the week, Suzanna sent out an email asking if anyone wanted to go to see the Women's roller Derby here in San Diego. I found my trouble.
Saturday night I met Suzanna and Gary over at Gary's place. Picked up John at his place. Had a few beers and made it to the Derby in the middle of the first period.
For those of us who remember seeing Roller Derby on TV as kids, let me refresh you memory. Roller Derby is a sport played on Roller Skates. It spits two teams of five skaters against each other on a small oval track. The two teams skate with each other in packs. Then each team has a "jammer" which is a speedy skater whose job it is to skate through the pack and then to lap the pack. Each team scores points by how many members of the opposing team the Jammer can lap in 60 seconds. One point for each person lapped. Periods are 12 minutes each. There are 4 periods in a match. The winning team is the one with the most points.
The derby was fantastic. First of all - it's ALT family entertainment. Lots of tattoos. Lots of boots and skater 'do's. Kids, adults with great sense of humor. Apparently a lot of the kids there had skipped the high school prom to attend. Who knew the Roller Derby would be such a draw?
Well I fell in love with it immediately. There might have been 500 people at the Derby. It was held in an old roller rink. Upon entering, I signed a waiver indicating that I might be injured as a result of spectating (last month a skater ended up in the second row). Outstanding.
The halftime entertainment was a street dancing troupe that did some pretty good breakdancing and Janet Jackson style group dancing to hip-hop. Then the cheerleaders who were wearing short shorts and pumas - and basically looked like what the high school cheerleading team would like like if you went to a goth high school. Awesome.
The match ended with a nail-biter. The Hard Corps beat the Diego Rollers by 2 points. Steely Jan was the lead scorer.
My favorite player was Steely Jan who played the part of the bad ass pretty well. After that Bea Witched was pretty fun to watch as well.
Before the match Gary posed the question, "how fake do you think roller derby is?" My response was that could be no more fake than professional wrestling at this level. Which is - the lower the level, the less fake it's going to be. Honestly, Roller Derby didn't show any signs of fakery at all. The level of competition was genuine. If you're close enough to get a roller in the face, it's easy to see through the cracks in the facade. I was duly impressed. The girls were taking hard hits, harder falls, and left us cheering against newfound rivals.
San Diego Derby Dolls web site.
Earlier in the week, Suzanna sent out an email asking if anyone wanted to go to see the Women's roller Derby here in San Diego. I found my trouble.
Saturday night I met Suzanna and Gary over at Gary's place. Picked up John at his place. Had a few beers and made it to the Derby in the middle of the first period.
For those of us who remember seeing Roller Derby on TV as kids, let me refresh you memory. Roller Derby is a sport played on Roller Skates. It spits two teams of five skaters against each other on a small oval track. The two teams skate with each other in packs. Then each team has a "jammer" which is a speedy skater whose job it is to skate through the pack and then to lap the pack. Each team scores points by how many members of the opposing team the Jammer can lap in 60 seconds. One point for each person lapped. Periods are 12 minutes each. There are 4 periods in a match. The winning team is the one with the most points.
The derby was fantastic. First of all - it's ALT family entertainment. Lots of tattoos. Lots of boots and skater 'do's. Kids, adults with great sense of humor. Apparently a lot of the kids there had skipped the high school prom to attend. Who knew the Roller Derby would be such a draw?
Well I fell in love with it immediately. There might have been 500 people at the Derby. It was held in an old roller rink. Upon entering, I signed a waiver indicating that I might be injured as a result of spectating (last month a skater ended up in the second row). Outstanding.
The halftime entertainment was a street dancing troupe that did some pretty good breakdancing and Janet Jackson style group dancing to hip-hop. Then the cheerleaders who were wearing short shorts and pumas - and basically looked like what the high school cheerleading team would like like if you went to a goth high school. Awesome.
The match ended with a nail-biter. The Hard Corps beat the Diego Rollers by 2 points. Steely Jan was the lead scorer.
My favorite player was Steely Jan who played the part of the bad ass pretty well. After that Bea Witched was pretty fun to watch as well.
Before the match Gary posed the question, "how fake do you think roller derby is?" My response was that could be no more fake than professional wrestling at this level. Which is - the lower the level, the less fake it's going to be. Honestly, Roller Derby didn't show any signs of fakery at all. The level of competition was genuine. If you're close enough to get a roller in the face, it's easy to see through the cracks in the facade. I was duly impressed. The girls were taking hard hits, harder falls, and left us cheering against newfound rivals.
San Diego Derby Dolls web site.
SDDDBout-Web
hardcorps_team
diegoroller_team
Comments:
edunn (May 22, 2007. 02:03am)
It sounds so fun! Thank you for the info. :)
wade1j (June 13, 2007. 06:46pm)
Please invite us when you go again!
kga245 (June 13, 2007. 06:47pm)
totally