Seriously, get your tickets early because you don’t want to be searching on craigslist the day of. LBRD wants to make it easy for you so here is the link for you buy your tickets now.

Or just got to www.brownpapertickets.com/event/113272

For more info go to the Ink-N-Iron website!!!

If you’re new to LBRD, welcome welcome welcome! We are so happy to have you. Please print out this welcome packet and bring it with you, along with a COPY of your medical insurance and a COPY of your ID.

2010/2011 Bout Season

April 9th – Season Opener – Terminal Island Tootsies vs 4th Street Retro Rollers
June 25th– Terminal Island Tootsies vs Bixby Rollerettes
Aug 6th – Bixby Rollerettes vs 4th Street Retro Rollers
Oct – Semi Final – TBD
Dec- Championship – TBD

As always, this event is cash only so make sure you’re ready for a derby bout to remember!!!

Long Beach Roller Derby’s Inaugural Bout “Total Dome-ination”

Long Beach Roller Derby announces its first public bout on Friday April 9th at the Spruce Goose Dome called “Total Dome-ination!”

LONG BEACH, CA, April 9th- Long Beach Roller Derby’s inaugural bout will take place in the Spruce Goose Dome at the Queen Mary on Friday night April 9th, doors opening at 7 pm and the game to start at 8:30 pm. The bout will pit two of the league’s three teams against each other; The 4th Street Retro Rollers, coached by Estro Jen, against the Terminal Island Tootsies, coached by Diesel. It is an all ages event with food and alcohol sold on the premises. Ticket prices are $15. for General Admission and $25. for VIP seats. After the game, a one-hour after party will be hosted by the players at the Dome. More information and presale tickets are available for purchase at LongBeachRollerDerby.com, brownpapertickets.com/event/102329 and locally at Moxi Roller Skate Shop at 2132 E. 4^th street, beginning March 5^th.

This will be an entertaining game for spectators with real, local roller derby action. Different from traditional roller derby from decades back, the new game is is 100 percent REAL roller derby with no fake fighting, hair pulling, elbows or chair throwing. For those not familiar with the sport, it is played on an oval track with two teams on quad (traditional four wheel) skates. Each team has five players on the track at a time, four blockers and one jammer. The object is to move your jammer past the other team’s blockers while the other team tries to do the same all while

skating quickly around the track. One point is scored for each opposing blocker passed. It is a fast paced exciting game with scoring periods called “jams” last last about 2 minutes for the entirety of the one hour game. The game is enhanced with the players adopting campy alter ego names like “Ida Capitate” and “Blanche Deatharow.”

Long Beach Roller Derby (LBRD) is Long Beach’s premier, all-female competitive roller derby league. Their game is real and their girls are local. They are currently raising funds for their very owned “banked-track.”

The league is also seeking local business’s who would like to sponsor or sell goods as a vendor at the event. Anyone interested should contact Diesel at LBRollerDerby@gmail.com.

On Friday March 26th, Long Beach Roller Derby will convene for a ‘meet and greet’ at Moxi Roller Skate Shop on 4th Street for interviews and ticket sales at 7 pm. The address is 2132 E. 4th Street in Long Beach.

Who: Long Beach Roller Derby

What: First Bout

Where: Long Beach at the Queen Mary Dome

When: April 9th doors open at 7pm bout starts at 8:30pm

Take a peek through the chain-link fence at the hockey rink in El Dorado Park on Tuesday and you’ll see a whirlwind of wheels, elbow pads and helmets. The women are there four nights a week, some braving bruises, broken fingers and twisted ankles.

It’s Long Beach’s very own roller derby league.

“The girls are really coming along,” said coach and co-founder Michelle Steilin, aka Estro Jen. “And they’re tough.”

The Long Beach league, now more than 100 women strong, is part of a nationwide revival of the venerable sport – there are records of it dating back to first half of the last century – that started in Austin, Texas, around 2001. From the Boston Derby Dames to the Kansas City Roller Warriors, there are now hundreds of amateur leagues across the country.

The new generation is an all-female grassroots effort with punk rock and feminist influences. Many leagues play up the entertainment by wearing sexy uniforms, like mini skirts and fishnet stockings. They adopt fierce-sounding

aliases, like “Militia Etheridge” or “Sandra Day O’Clobber.”

But there’s also a strong emphasis on roller derby as a sport. The women are athletes and they practice hard, Steilin said.

“Our main focus is training the girls to be excellent skaters,” said Steilin, 27, who formerly skated with the Los Angeles Derby Dolls.

While teams have sprouted in Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego over the years, Long Beach never had its own league, until last August.

What

Long Beach roller derby hopefuls and teammates practice at El Dorado Park’s roller hockey facility. (Stephen Carr / Press-Telegram)

stared as a handful of skaters has now morphed into a league of about 120 with three teams – the Terminal Island Tootsies, Fourth Street Retro Rollers and Bixby Rollerettes. The news spread mostly by word-of-mouth.

After practicing since last summer, they officially began their season this month and the teams expect to have their first bout, or match, by the end of March. They’re still looking for a venue, but they hope to have the bout on a flat, outdoor track built near Berth 55 by the port.

The three teams will play each other this year, but they hope to start playing teams from other cities by next season.

“We’d eventually like to have a kick-ass travel team,” Steilin said.

Roller derby was defined in 1935 when Chicago promoter Leo Seltzer came up with the idea of a skating spectacle to compete with the nation’s dance marathon craze. The sport began as an endurance test, but promoters soon took note of the crowd reaction whenever the skaters crashed. It evolved into a full-contact sport that grew in popularity over the decades.

But by the 1970s, the sport had turned into a campy spectacle on wheels and popularity dwindled. The wheels are now rolling again, fueled by fierce female competitors.

How does the sport work?

Two teams of five players each begin skating on a circuit track. The teams are divided into a jammer, three blockers and a pivot. Offense and defense are played simultaneously.

Pivots and blockers from both teams form a single pack. It’s the jammer’s job to score points by attempting to break through the pack and lap around as many times as possible. Pivot/blockers attempt to assist their team’s jammer through the pack while simultaneously blocking the opposing jammer. Players may block using body parts above the mid-thigh, excluding the elbows, forearms and hands.

The game is high-speed and high-contact, with usually a few crashes and an occasion fight. It’s not for the timid, as many roller derby girls will tell you.

“You can’t play without getting bruised,” said Long Beach resident Julie Frazier, aka Rocket Juel.

But the derby girls say the pain is worth the thrill of the sport and the feeling of camaraderie. Frazier, a 33-year-old teacher in the Inglewood Unified School District, said she joined roller derby last year as a way to take her mind of a difficult separation. She said she immediately had more than a dozen new friends.

The women come from different walks of life, from mothers and nurses to waitresses and students, but they bond over their love of skating.

“It’s like a cult,” said Sophia Gomez, aka Scarlet Shredder. “It’s a place where you can work out your aggression.”

On a recent Tuesday night, Gomez was sitting on the sidelines watching longingly as more than 40 women scooted across the track, practicing backwards skating. Tuesday is weekly league practice night, which invites all skill levels.

The 35-year-old tour guide for Catalina Express said she broke her ankle the first day back after a Christmas vacation.

Gomez is far from discouraged.

“I’ll be out there as soon as I heal,” she said.

kelly.puente@presstelegram.com, (562) 499-1305