Roller derby is a roller skating contact sport played on an oval track by two teams of five skaters. It is played by approximately 1,250 amateur leagues worldwide, mostly in the United States BUT also in New Zealand and Australia! and started in the 1930s becoming popular in the 1940s as a women’s sport.
A 60-minute roller derby game, or bout, is a series of two-minute timed jams. Each team, typically with a roster of 15, fields five skaters during each jam: one jammer, designated with a star on their helmet, and four blockers (Me! I’m a dedicated blocker!). The jammer scores a point for each opposing blocker they lap (they are effectively the “Ball” in pretty much any other sport). The blockers simultaneously defend by hindering the opposing jammer (getting in the way of), while also playing offense by maneuvering to aid their own jammer. Which ever team has the most points at the end of the game wins.
Slam Rock is Roller Derby 1980’s style, where theatrical elements play alongside athleticism hosted by Rotorua every year (next year being 10 years of Slam Rock) as thier main fundraiser for the year.
This year Remutaka Rebels (My team) were invited to glam up and battle it out! It was extreme & mean! We got hit, knocked down (as the song does go) we got back up again, and we rolled around some more. 327 (them) to 109 (us) (sadness!) we were done!
Amongst all the chaos & fury our team captains voted me MVP for our team topping off an amazing weekend and pretty much the pinnacle of my derby career so far.
Most games around NZ are streamed so if you want to relive this game or watch any future games check out the action check it out on twitch
