The recent release of Drew Barrymore’s hit movie “Whip It” has catapulted roller derby to the forefront of trendiness, as the Santa Cruz Derby Girls’ latest open tryout at the Scotts Valley Sports Center can attest.
The 60-woman league saw 46 new wannabes go out for a spot in the league Tuesday, almost double the number at their previous tryout.
“The derby girls were extremely impressed with the level of skating at the tryout,” said club recruiting manager Shayna Meikle, known as “Pigeon” when she’s on the rink.
“We actually had to cut some really good skaters because of the number of girls that showed up.”
The 23-year-old took her derby name from her favorite bird after she joined the team two years ago.
Roller derby is an extreme sport for women born out of the 1920s that’s been called “camp on wheels.” The players all have aliases — “Lulu Lockjaw,” “Blonde Claude Van Dam,” “Mildred Fierce” — and they don outfits that often include booty shorts and fishnets.
At the tryout, derby hopefuls were expected to run laps, do squats, skate backward, glide on one foot and stop correctly, among other physical tasks.
The 46 women who showed up were then narrowed down to 24, based not just on skill level, but also on amount of heart.
“It was hard, but we paid attention to the girls that were really trying,” Meikle said. “That was very important to us.”
In simple terms, the point of the game is to get a team’s jammer past the blockers, who are led by the pivot as they round the track. Each time the jammer gets past a blocker, her team scores a point. But stopping the jammer often results in chaos — bumps, falls and crashes.
In this full-contact sport, injury is a serious reality — players can, and do, get hurt. Santa Cruz Derby Girls requires skaters to have health insurance. Paramedics even hover in the wings during bouts. Players also have to wear pads, mouth guards and braces.
Besides the sport’s new popularity, it’s not hard to see why so many women want in on the action. Players compare the league to a sorority-like sisterhood.
Not to mention that the Derby Girls usually compete before sold-out crowds and have achieved minor local celebrity.
If they make the team, newbies have to scruff it out at the bottom of the ranks as Fresh Meat for at least three months before they can earn their derby names or play in the league for the Boardwalk Bombshells or Harbor Hellcats, Meikle said.
“After we choose the girls, we start training three times a week until the season starts in March,” Meikle said. “We’re excited — the girls that came out really blew us away.”
