Meet the Kick-Ass Women of the Texas Banked Track Roller Derby

There’s a slogan you see a lot of these days in Austin: “Don’t Mess With Texas Women.” Though that phrase doesn’t refer to derby, exactly, it certainly applies

Our roller-derby deep dive start in a sweltering warehouse on Austin’s south side, where the “derby girls” slam each other against rails, throwing elbows, and hip-checking each other while skating around a banked wooden track. But first it starts with some much-needed stretching.

 All roller girls use a “derby name.”

Things can heat up in their training warehouse, the Thunderdome.

Roller girls play up their alter egos.

“[Playing on a banked track] looks cooler, and when you hit hard, people fly through the rail. I still want to see that, even after skating for seven years,” says Doublewide.

Since the banked track heightens gravity’s effect on the game’s play, it brings bigger hits, harder bumps and messier wrecks. 

“If you’re not ready for the sport physically, you’ll know, because you’ll get injured or worse, broken,” Doublewide explains.

Most derby careers don’t last very long, as concussions, hematomas, blown-out knees and busted lips take a toll.

The big Saturday night bout is in front of a raucous convention center crowd of nearly a thousand and features the Putas del Fuego (whores of fire) and the Holy Rollers, who fielded a lineup heavy on replacement players, since their roster was decimated by injuries. 

“We’re owned and operated and run by women,” Knockout says. “I’ve never really been in a space with that freedom. You just don’t feel like you’re being judged for anything. … You get to forget about everything for two hours and you hit your friends – and then you hug it out and then you go drink together.”