scoopsandiego.com - San Diego Wildfires drop one to the LA Ri-ettes

LA's Defense takes its toll on San Diego

The Wildfires of the San Diego Derby Dolls lost a tough one to The LA Riots Saturday night at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. The Wildfires had high hopes early on of finally besting their rivals from up north, but strong defense by the Ri-ettes kept that from happening. This battle of the natural and unnatural disasters was hard hitting and energy sapping for both sides, but in the end, the LA Ri-ettes looted the spirit from the San Diego Wildfires and snuffed them out.

Mission Valley News spoke with General Manager Isabelle Ringer before the bout and she promised a great fight for bragging rights. “These two teams are made up of all-stars, so the action will be knocked up a few notches,” said Ringer with her infectious grin. “You’re bound to see some slamming tonight!

Ringer and most others at the bout were expecting a close battle that might come down to the final jam due to previous encounters with The Ri-ettes. Mission Valley News spoke with The Wildfire’s #88 Kiki Diazz about dealing with LA’s troublemaker Bombshell Betty, but Kiki dismissed Bombshell saying that she was only one girl, and she was focused on the entire team. This would come back to haunt her as she would be beat around the ring like a bowling pin that night. San Diego’s # 703 O.B. Noxious said that this bout would be all about defense, and that the team was working on secret plans to deal with LA’s notorious jammer squad. When asked how her scoring would pan out, San Diego’s # 43 Bam Bam McGee made sure to find a piece of wood to knock on for good luck. LA’s # 33 Lace N’ Arsenic said she was confident of a victory due to her jammer stars such as #3:16 Cris Affliction and the notorious #36 Chargin’ Tina. But she also noted that defense would be key in securing a win.

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Gurl.com - How Roller Derby Changed My Life

Me, with my friend Gori Spelling--love her 90210 Helmet! | Source: Marc CamposThere’s a video tape of me somewhere at a friend’s fourth-grade birthday party. It was at a roller rink, and not only did I not know how to skate, but I was terrified—clinging to the wall and moving inch-by-inch around the rink. If you told that timid little eight-year-old me that one day not only would I be comfortable on skates, but that roller derby would be a huge part of my life, I would have called you a liar . . .but it’s true.

Today, when I enter the Doll Factory and hear the sound of roller skates on Masonite, I feel like I’m home. This is where the LA Derby Dolls–a roller derby league I volunteer with–play. When I started, we didn’t have a place to put our track, and were skating in a park; now we’ve got an enormous building to host our bouts, a giant fan base(and regular celebrity sightings), and admiration from derby leagues around the world.

What won me over about roller derby was that this sport is do-it-yourself: rules had to be written from scratch, women who hadn’t skated since they were in grade school were becoming serious athletes, friends were being recruited to help with whatever needed helping – and it wasn’t always clear what that was – and all the hard workwas being done in the name of fun. It was a real community of people doing something they loved, and to me? That’s pretty exciting.

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pinoywatchdog.com | LA Derby Dolls: Super heroines of Historic Filipinotown

Some said she was going 25-plus mph easy. I thought it could have been faster, the image a blur as the demon jammer whizzed by. Didn’t get her name but who does. Everyone of them are aliases, names like Smarty Pants, Haught Wheels, Windy City Rollers and so on and so forth.

Basically it’s badass girls in hot pants and colored shirts uniform plowing through other badass girls of a different uniform. A fastpaced action initiated by jammers jamming to score points while the blockers block. How simple can that be? Contact sports? Go see football and the likes. What we have here is collision sports. One can just imagine the sores and aches and occasional bruises. Most amazing, they’re all chicks!

Actually the players appeared to be enjoying in what they were doing — falls and all. And the tightly packed crowd roared their loudest at every hit and spill, many obviously helped along by the abundance of beer in the vicinity. An abundance of security personnel was also around just in case. The venue: The Doll Factory located just a stone throw from the FACLA building in Historic Filipinotown.

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ladowntownnews.com - Riding Hard With the Derby Dolls

It’s All Fun and Games Until You Try to Skate With the Derby Dolls’ Junior Team

 

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - For five days, I needed help putting on my socks. I had to sleep with a heating pad. My 5-year-old daughter noticed that her dad is “slow like an old man.”

Even if the back pain made me walk like Yoda with a cane, at least I could say I got hurt skating with the insane members of the Los Angeles Derby Dolls.

Except it isn’t true.

For my latest Downtown Challenge, where I take on different jobs and activities that are part of the local community, I hoped to skate with Downtown’s first ladies of roller derby at the Doll Factory, their Temple Street home.

Like a lot of things in life, it was a good idea at the time. However, if there’s one thing I learned, it’s that gravity sucks. Well, that and that 9-year-olds are much better skaters than I am in.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

For the uninitiated, the Derby Dolls are an all-women league who compete on a banked track. They were founded in 2003 by Rebecca Ninburg and Wendy Templeton, who like all Dolls have cool nicknames. Ninburg goes by Demolicious and Templeton is Thora Zeen.

Other skaters include Killo Kitty, Iron Maiven and Broadzilla. They are divided into five teams with monikers such as Fight Crew, Tough Cookies and the L.A. Ri-Ettes, the league’s All-Star squad.

While a match can look like a chaotic blur, the rules of roller derby are actually quite simple. Each squad has five players: four blockers and one jammer. With the help of the blockers, who function like NFL offensive tackles on wheels, the jammer has 60 seconds to break through the pack and pass opposing skaters. Each opponent she passes is worth one point.

It’s a full-contact sport where the women can hit the barriers at speeds of up to 25 mph. Every Doll has war stories.

“I broke my arm during a game last year, so you can certainly get hurt,” said Trixie Biscuit, a member of the Fight Crew.

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El Derby Dolls, un deporte de mujeres muy salvaje

Here is a great feature from Argentina featuring our very own Chargin Tina!

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