Check out the Blue Ridge Roller Girls

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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Skeeeetch, skeeetch, skeetch, skeeeetch.

The Blue Ridge Roller Girls will hold their first bout of the season tonight, Saturday, at the Asheville Civic Center. Check ’em out, and watch continuing coverage of their season here at Ashvegas.

If you don’t know roller derby, here’s a little primer by Bill Rhodes, a great Asheville photographer and fan of the Blue Ridge Roller Girls:

An endless soundtrack of small wheels moving fast on a smooth floor. The small bearings in the skates groan as the turns come up, four of them, making an oval. Feet sense fine changes and adjust instantly, ready to change direction. Ankles, supported by the high-top leather, shift the feelings up the legs from the feet, to the knees, protected with foam and hard plastic armor. On up the thigh, covered in spandex, fishnet, roadrash and bruises to the hips where sometimes you will find a tutu, a poodle skirt, shorts, novelty panties, cut-off military garb, or a combination style worn. Above the waist, the team colors. Team does not really describe what Derby is properly. More like a tribe. Or a gang. Family. Clan, even. More foam and plastic a around the elbows and brain, with a mouth guard, and you have the roller girl complete.

But what is Roller Derby? I asked 15 people on the street and got 22 answers. Almost all of them were somewhat wrong. It is not staged. There are rules. Fights and injuries are rare. Yes, it is “real.” And it is great family fun.

Roller Derby, as seen in Asheville, is part of a nation-wide resurgence of the sport which has been growing since around 2004. Leagues and teams have sprung up coast to coast since then. In the Carolinas there are at least 7 teams, with that many in TN and VA as well. Many of the skaters are friends off-track, and most of the

Roller Derby is a very-much hands-on, Do-it-yourself operation. Control of schedule, public relations, choices of venue, and overall direction, are mostly done by skaters. There are national organizations to standardize rules, and national organizations against rules. Most of the skaters, so far, have “funny” names, usually take offs on pop culture, such as Sugar Magmalya, Chick Norris, Pulp Friction, Rigor Mortitia, Forrest Ump, and, well, you get the idea. Influences from music, current feminism, classic jokes, goth. Punk, and sexual innuendos sit side-by-side on the track. Bouts (what they call matches or games) have equally amusing names such as the upcoming one here in Asheville “Lucky Harms” and recent ones near by, “Skate Your Heart Out”, “Maim-A-Dame”, and “Red White, and Bruised” based on holidays or events.