It’s a quiet Sunday morning in Pullman, Washington. The sun is shining, birds are chirping from a nearby patch of pine trees and crisp, cold air lingers in the shaded parking lot of the Gladish Community Center. Approaching the propped open door to the community center’s gymnasium, the faint echo of heavy metal music and wheels scuffing hardwood floors can be heard, along with indistinguishable hollers and cheers. Once inside, the calm morning takes on an entirely new mood as skaters weave past one another to the sound of blaring electric guitars, heavy stomps of wheels and shouts of encouragement from their fellow teammates and coaches.
This is the sound of roller derby – a high-contact sport in which two teams race around a circular track on roller skates.
During the pandemic, interest in roller skating saw an unprecedented spike, with searches for skates hitting the top 100 on the Google Trends interest-over-time chart in May of 2020, and some retailers claiming to be in “a skate shortage worldwide,” according to Vogue. But Palouse River Rollers, a non-profit flat track roller derby league based out of Pullman, was into skating before it went viral, founding the league in 2014. Through the league’s performance in bouts, or roller derby competitions, and the community they’ve fostered within the environment, PRR shows that skating is more than a trend – it’s a way of life.
Sarah Boyer and Mimi Dismore, new skater coaches more affectionately known as ‘Whisky Smash’ and ‘Shark Bait’ within the derby community, found their way to PRR not long after it was founded.
“This will be my eighth season, so I’ve been skating seven years, and Whisky’s been skating six,” Dismore said.
In their time at PRR, they’ve been a part of countless bouts that have taken place in the Pacific Northwest region, helping their team rank in the top 150 teams in the world.
“We travelled up to eight hours, but we also played tournaments against international teams, we played against a European team, which was a really cool experience,” Dismore said.
Before the pandemic, boutres for PRR, which are skaters safe enough on roller skates to participate in bouts, would practice four to six hours per week to prepare for competitions and new skaters would practice twice a week to learn new skills. The teams would travel two to three times a month to compete in different bouts. However, despite increased interest in the sport over the last year, the pandemic delivered a near-fatal blow to roller derby.
“2020 happened and we weren’t on skates, (due to) a lot of the closures our governing body put a kibosh on skating practice,” Manda Argona, president of Palouse River Rollers, said. “I got to participate in two bouts before everything got shut down.”
According to Argona, skating practice picked back up again in July of 2020, but it’s looked much different than it did before COVID-19.
Prior to the pandemic, there were two teams – All Stars, the more competitive option, and Rampage, for people interested in a more relaxed vibe, according to Dismore and Boyer. Now PRR only consists of one team but is divided into boutres and new skaters. Because of no-contact regulations put into place since practices resumed, there hasn’t been a bout since the start of the pandemic.
“I had higher hopes before the pandemic,” Argona said. “But I would love for us to get back to the point where we’re hosting bouts and playing against other folks. I know it’s going to take probably six more months, maybe up to another year. But I definitely think we’re seeing folks that are interested and have the time now to dedicate to the sport.”
While the dynamic of bouts and practices were challenged over the last year, interest in PRR only strengthened. According to Argona, PRR is gaining so many members at once that it’s been difficult to keep up with.
“This is the (newest) skaters our league has had at one time,” Argona said. “We’re almost at capacity.”
Among those new skaters is Megan Russo, who moved to the area in November of 2020 and was looking for opportunities to meet new people after being isolated during the pandemic. One of their friends recommended they consider roller derby.
“I Googled it and I was like, ‘alright, let’s do this,’” Russo said.
While Russo was excited to participate in the sport, they were also worried about whether they would be accepted into it.
“I’m nonbinary, so I didn’t know if I was allowed – but you are,” Russo said. “They welcome anyone who’s female-presenting nonbinary, just not males.”
While roller derby has a history of being women-dominated, modern roller derby leagues such as PRR provide a welcome space for all female-presenting individuals looking to join. This is part of what has shaped PRR’s sense of community within the league.
“There’s a lot of talk today about creating safe spaces for queer people and for women, and this is one of those spaces,” Boyer said. “It hasn’t always been that way because we’re a league run by humans, and humans make errors. We’ve been really fortunate to have people willing to invest their time and energy in themselves and gather resources to help make this the best and safest place it can be.”
According to Argona, a lot of what the first practices consist of is going over every member’s preferred name and pronouns, and gently reminding each other if they slip up on either.
While the sport itself is what initially hooks people, it’s the caring, inclusive and fun environment PRR radiates that keeps its members passionate about roller derby.
“Roller derby has a really intense sense of community,” Boyer said. “The way we interact with our teammates, and the way our teammates care about each other is a really strong force that pulls you back to practice.”
This is Boyer’s first year as a new skater coach, and during her time she’s found joy in watching new members discover their own love for the sport. This is what motivates her to get out of bed in the morning, even when she’d rather stay home, she said.
“You can never totally leave everything at the door, because that’s not the reality of human nature,” Boyer said. “But when you get here, you’re here to participate and be the best person you can be for that day, for yourself and your teammates, and that’s pretty special.”
The sport hasn’t only connected members to each other, it’s also connected them to themselves. For Dismore, it helped connect her to her body.
“I learned a lot about myself, and how I can persevere through things and grow,” Dismore said. “It was a really empowering experience. I contribute a lot of who I am now, seven years later, to learning how to skate. I’m a new skater coach because I want to share that with other folks.”
Russo, who experiences social anxiety, is looking forward to continuing skating to foster deeper connections with other people and with themself.
“I was working one-on-one with Shark Bait, but yes there are other people here – which is what I’m scared of,” Russo said. “But it wasn’t that scary doing one-on-one and focusing on your body makes you forget what’s around you.”
While PRR is eager to get back to practicing roller derby without restrictions, having such a tight community has allowed them to be okay with sitting back and waiting things out.
“Competing and winning is fun, but also just being here, being on roller skates and being around people who want to do the same thing is fun,” Boyer said. “If it’s not fun, why are we doing it?”