Mum's no angel when skates come on

FIONA GOODALL

NEW PASSION: Tanya Park is ‘‘fresh meat’’ in the roller derby world. She is playing her first official game as Witchslap tomorrow.

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By day, Tanya Park is a loving mother of two and a reiki and massage therapist – but by night, her alter-ego Witchslap comes out to play.

Witchslap is one of the newest members of the Pirate City Rollers, Auckland's all-girl roller derby organisation.

She's "very bold and sassy and doesn't take any nonsense", says Mrs Park, who will play her first official game tomorrow at Skateland in Panmure.

Roller derby girls are encouraged to take on a different persona – Pieces of Hate, Wolverina and Bad Jelly the Bitch are some of the names of the players in Auckland's Dead Wreckoning and Mascara Massacre teams.

"You're pushed totally out of your comfort zone," Mrs Park says. "I think that appeals to a lot of people – to act differently to what you normally would.

"You can be the total opposite to what you are in real life.

"That's the great thing about it – you can go out there and be a totally different person."

The contact sport, which really has to be seen to be believed, has been revived in the last decade. There are now several teams around the country and two in Auckland.

It is mostly played by women, who bump, smash and crash into each other to prevent the opposing team from getting ahead.

Mrs Park, who lives in Mt Wellington with her husband and two daughters, aged one and three, says the sport gives her the "best of both worlds". She first went along to practice as "fresh meat" after seeing a clip about it on a television programme last year. "I hadn't realised they had a league in Auckland and then I saw something about it and thought: `I really want to do that'," she says.

"You either think this isn't for me or you get sucked in. I definitely got sucked in. It's addictive."

It's also hard work.

She practises two or three times a week for a couple of hours each time and has returned home with more than a couple of bruises. The game is aggressive – but there are rules in place and St John's Ambulance are on site.

The one-hour games consist of two-minute segments in which one team player, the jammer, will try to pass as many people from the opposing team as possible.

The other team members – the blockers – try to prevent the other team's jammer getting through, but also help their jammer get past the opposing team. Points are scored each time the jammer passes a player from the opposing team.

Mrs Park says the interest in the sport has increased in the last year, especially since Drew Barrymore's movie Whip It was released.

She expects Saturday's match to be sold out.

Tickets can be bought on the night or from www.undertheradar.co.nz.

- © Fairfax NZ News