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Roller derby rolls on in

Black Diamond Betties founded in June
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The Black Diamond Betties. I saw them once, rolling 'round and 'round in the underground parking lot at Creekside on Tuesday night. They were padded up at the knees, elbows and wrists. Their helmets had hardly any scuffmarks. A few of them were charging around on their skates as if they'd been riding all their lives, but most seemed insecure and uncertain. But they were determined . They all looked so...darn.... cute.

"No I won't accept that," says Jessica Jones. We're sitting at Burnt Stew in Function and I've just relayed my first impression of the roller derby team and Jones is, well, less than impressed.

She says, "We're not cute. We're powerful women athletes."

That's the whole point of the sport, she explains over a cup of hot chocolate - to exert their empowered femininity in an athletic arena. The Black Diamond Betties, formerly known as the Whistler Wolfpack, and officially organized as the Whistler Roller Girls Society, have become a welcome alternative to outdoor sports for people who don't care for them or are looking for something else.

The birth of the Whistler team comes at a time when new leagues are sprouting up all over the world. Underground roller derby leagues started in Texas in the early 2000s and as of September, there were over 1000 amateur leagues across Canada, the U.S., Australia, U.K., New Zealand, Germany, Belgium, Finland, Sweden and Singapore.

A DIY spirit defines the sport; a punk aesthetic influences many of the team names. The whole enterprise seems to be a satirical take on sport, on gender roles and on women's own position within their societies.

The rules are simple: two teams, known as leagues, play each other in a bout. There are five people to a team. One, the jammer, gets points for the team by overtaking members of the other team by passing them. The other four, blockers, must stop the opposite jammer from passing, and to help their own jammer pass the other girls. Its high action, fast-paced and looks like a hell of a lot of fun.

But the Black Diamond Betties, well, they're not there yet. They're still learning how to skate. But Kathryn Elder, the league's founder (and a Pique employee) says they've come a long way since the summer.

"Our team is developing really quickly. Their skills are developing so quickly, it's amazing." She looks downs at her lap, then back up, her bright, blue eyes beaming: "I'm still horrible. I had two injuries since I started, so I haven't spent that much time on skates. I've probably been to eight practices in total."

Elder started the league in June, after watching a bout in Squamish between the hometown Sea to Sky Sirens and Nanaimo's Harbour City Rollers. Impressed with the pace of the sport and the women playing - not to mention the announcer, and the 500 or so spectators - she decided she wanted to play. That night, she lay awake, buzzing, throbbing with ideas. She was going to start a team in Whistler. The next day, she placed an ad on Craigslist.

"I figured there were enough girls here interested in playing a contact sport, I mean we have so many athletic girls," she says.

Jones, meanwhile, had been interested in roller derby for a while. She'd seen that Vancouver had a team and was planning moving down there anyway, when she saw the ad on Craigslist. She hadn't roller-skated in years upon years but, having seen videos on YouTube and noticed its rise throughout the American mainstream - epitomized in the 2009 film Whip It!, starring Ellen Page - she decided to try it.

"It looked empowering and I wanted to try something new," she says.

Clearly, others had the same idea. Around 50 women answered the ad and by the end of summer, 30 of them were on board, each having laid down $500-plus for gear.

All they needed was a home. They still haven't found one. Being a largely unknown contact sport with equipment that could potentially damage hard surfaces, local landlords have been hesitant to offer a venue. Even Whistler Blackcomb put the kibosh on using Creekside to practice.

Jones says, "One landlord in town, who will remain nameless, we approached him and asked him if we could rent space. He said, 'Yeah, but you can't afford me,' which isn't the community spirit of Whistler that I know. That's what I love about Whistler."

The absence of a local venue means the Betties spend their two practice days each week at the Pemberton Meadows Community Centre or a warehouse in Squamish.

"And it's dodgy," she says. "We were there (at a warehouse last) Monday and there was a sheet of glass leaning against the wall, power chords everywhere and these random pipes coming out of the concrete floor with a big sign saying not to go near them. It's dodgy. One girl almost skated into the glass against the wall."

But convenience is only one issue. Without a permanent home, Whistler can't host bouts, and it's through those that leagues earn most of their revenue. Their best option is to purchase a removable flat-track that they can lay down anywhere - Meadow Park, for example - which would alleviate the worries of landlords.

Of course, it's not much of an option: removable flat tracks cost over $20,000. (The league is hosting a fundraiser on Tuesday, Nov. 29 at Creekbread.  A portion of profits from each pizza will help pay for practice facilities, uniforms and other expenses).

The Sea to Sky Sirens had similar struggles when it was first founded in 2008. They couldn't find a permanent home, nor could they find enough committed members. Sirens founder Shannon Handley says it took several years for the league to find enough members. They played their first bout earlier this year, in Cloverdale.

"Just trying to get people committed, and I wonder if Whistler will find the same problem, because there are a lot of girls who got involved who are also involved in so many other sports or community activities or whatnot, so it's difficult to nail everybody down," she says.

But the lack of response at the time might have been a simple sign of the times. According to Lesley McDonald, vice president and co-founder of the Canadian Women's Roller Derby Association, roller derby has been doubling every year. In 2008, nation-wide interest was limited and mostly relegated to larger communities. Handley was likely ahead of the curve at the time, while Elder placed her ads just as derby in Canada has revved up on the road toward critical mass.

McDonald says she can't even put a figure on how many Canadian leagues have sprouted up in 2011. According to the CWRDA website, there are 25 teams. No one has yet updated the map to include the Whistler team, so it's not yet known how many others have yet to be included.

"This year almost became out of control. Even for insurance, because I help the teams get insurance, like I've had to get and hire girls to help me next year to handle right now for one person, and I have a full-time job," McDonald says.

Next year, the CWRDA will become the Roller Derby Association of Canada, which will copy the World Flat track Derby Association, the worldwide governing body based in the U.S., by splitting the country into four divisions. The new league will also include male and junior divisions, which have begun sprouting up in communities across Canada as well.

Until now, derby tournaments and championships have been loosely scheduled and loosely organized - only teams with enough funds can fly out to tournaments, and generally they're self-organized. The RDAC will work as a parent of sorts, letting each league know which other teams it can play but it's up to each individual league to organize their bouts. They can play bouts outside their division, and these may count toward their stats, but McDonald says the goal is to have each team play each other within their own division.

"There will be a lot more opportunity to play each other and have stats," McDonald says.

McDonald co-founded the CWRDA with Sherry Bontkes in 2006. In the beginning, the team was only six girls but within a few months there were 20 girls on board. Calgary caught wind and they built a team.

"People thought we were crazy and I said no, this was going to be something big one day."

Jessica Jones echoes that same sentiment about its popularity in Whistler. Her visa runs out next November and, while she can extend her stay, she says she'll stay only because "I love derby so very much."

"I want to be here. Because we've put so much effort into derby, I want to see where it goes. I think it's going to be big," she says.