San Diego Derby Dolls

I had never quite understood what exactly defined the sport of roller derby – or that it was actually a sport at all – until a week ago when I went to my first match.  It was a friend of a friend’s first match as well, only she would be on the rink, elbow to elbow with the rest of the women of the San Diego Derby Dolls league.  But some of the top players appeared to be well into their thirties, quite unexpected for what I thought would amount to a staged show reminiscent of professional wrestling entertainment.

What I found was two teams who took their sport seriously even while competing with names such as Isabelle Ringer, Anita Battle, Taryn Hearts, Micki Dagger, Slamurai and (my favorite) CN Enemy.  My sentiments were echoed by a reasonable proportion of the crowd in attendance who seemed to have never been to a match before, but were nonetheless engrossed in the action once it got underway.  The organizers are keen to get the word out about their young league; if you want to play roller derby, even if you’ve never laced up a pair of roller skates, they’ll train you.

More photos here.