Long Beach Roller Derby co-founder Lindsey Karnopp started figure skating at 5 years old. But four years ago, the pale blonde, green-eyed 25-year-old traded her ice skates for ones with four wheels. 

She even revived a former nickname, "Diesel," from high school track and field to complete the persona.

At first, Diesel had to drive from her home in Long Beach to play. She started in Orange County and then eventually transferred to the Los Angeles Derby Dolls. Although she loved the sport, the mileage added up.

"It's been our dream for years to bring roller derby to Long Beach," she said.

Diesel had met several skaters from the Long Beach area during her tenure as a SoCal derby player, including Michelle "Estro Jen" Steilin, the owner of local skate shop Moxi Skates.

Last summer Diesel and Estro Jen decided to act on their dream. Because they already had several contacts of local skaters from Moxi, it seemed relatively simple.

"We put out a press release and had 70 girls show up at the first meeting," Diesel said. "We found that girls don't want to go up to L.A. to play or play in OC. Long Beach has really strong community ties, and we've held on to all the skaters here."

Now the league consists of three teams: Diesel coaches the Terminal Island Tootsies, Estro leads the Fourth Street Retro Rollers (named after her shop on Fourth Street) and Alyssa "Biodiesel" Karnopp heads the Bixby Rollerettes. 

Even though many of these women have been practicing together since summer, the season officially started in March. Their inaugural bout dubbed "Total Dome-ination" occurred at the Spruce Goose Dome on April 9. The event, which featured the Tootsies battling the Retro Rollers, sold out.

"The bout was insane!" Ida Capitate said enthusiastically. "It's like you actually become this other person you've been toying around with in your head for the past however many months."

 Then she adds:

"It's a cluster of very powerful emotions when you're out there," she said. "You're not thinking about the crowds or the cameras flashing or the announcers screaming your name. You're just skating and coming together with your teammates as one unit trying to dominate the pack and the track."

Roller derby began in Chicago during the 1920s as a contact sport of traveling professional skaters competing in flat-track races. There was not as much aggression as with the contemporary bouts, but the spectacle usually lasted for days and was just as fast-paced and flashy.

Decades later - in the 2000s - several all-female leagues surfaced across the country in a grassroots, "do it yourself" manner inspired by a punk rock aesthetic. The 2009 film "Whip It" starring Ellen Page helped popularize the trend for Americans unfamiliar with the concept. Participants like Ida, Diesel and Estro Jen also got the word out in local papers by creating dangerous skating alter egos that easily attract attention. 

The Long Beach league relies on fundraising events and volunteers to operate. For months leading up to the April bout, the players worked diligently to self-promote and recruit.

"We've done beach and park clean ups. Anything involved with the community we've just been making sure we're a presence," Diesel said from a promotional booth at a local battle for the bands. "And it's definitely helping with ticket sales."

Ida Capitate found out about the league at one of these events.

"I was at a bar doing karaoke when they came in doing a fundraiser," she said. "I told them I didn't want to give them my money, but I would give them my body. I went to the very next practice using everything borrowed  - from the helmet all the way down to the skates."

She said she had no idea how to skate, let alone play the game.

The principle of roller derby is simple: two teams of five players compete in a 60-minute bout by skating on a circuit track. Positions include one jammer, three blockers and a pivot.

Pivots and blockers form a single, moving pack. They attempt to keep the jammer from breaking through and scoring. (The jammer gains points by passing the other team's pack as many times as possible without falling.) Players can block each other using any body parts above the mid-thigh; however, this does not include the arms or hands.

"All the rules are learned on the track. Everything happens so fast that you learn by doing it," Jamie "Nar Lee" Villa said. "But, we know all the rules, for the most part. You're not supposed to elbow anybody, or trip anybody or punch anybody, but it happens. You just can't get caught, you know?"

Even though derby requires a high level of agility and athleticism, there are always a number of "newbie" skaters at practices.

"Not many of these girls have had much experience before," Diesel said. "We have one transfer from Utah, but most of the girls have never played derby before and just started skating in July."

They practice four days a week working on drills, strength and endurance training, as well as scrimmages. Everyone in the league skates together twice a week, and they break off into teams for one-on-one coaching the other days.

"We do a lot of skills training, so you learn how to fall properly, how to hit properly and how to take hits," said "Evil Dawn Under," a member of the Terminal Island Tootsies.

She started roller skating one month ago.

"Your skating skills really get built up so you can control yourself properly in the game," the former figure skater said.

Because many of the girls are new, every Saturday Diesel leads a morning beach skate for beginners where they focus on staying up.

"I never skated in my life, and eight months ago I put skates on for the first time for the Saturday class," Nar Lee said.

Although practice is open to anyone, in order to participate in the scrimmages, players must pass a skills assessment test that entails jumps, backwards skating, fast stops and hits.

"The skills assessment test is like our tryouts; we have them once a month," Nar Lee said. "Diesel and Estro run the test and they're just like do backwards skating, now stop. They go through this whole list of skills you need and then decide if you made the team."

To onlookers, the derby is a brutal whirlwind of women circling at all speeds on four small wheels.

Their attire consists of skimpy shorts or skintight ballet skirts, colorful knee-highs and quirky jerseys showing off their derby names and team alliances. Many players sport intricate tattoos, piercings, spiky hair and loud makeup. It's punk rock chic right down to the grisly, "screw you" attitude.

The skates skid rhythmically on the track, sometimes interrupted by a loud crash or a screeching whistle. Players get knocked down on a regular basis, and injuries are a familiar sensation many shrug off with a smile.

"I hurt myself all the time - I fall down all the time," Kelly "Kiwi Herman" Dessecker said. "But I'm getting better, and I love it!"

Even before the first bout, Kiwi had her share of scrapes and bruises to match her cherry-red long hair.

"I hit my face on the chain link fence when someone hit me out of bounds," she said. "I had a big bruise on my chin, and then when the bruise went away I face-planted hardcore on the ground and broke the cartilage in my noise."

But her outlook remains cheery so long as nothing breaks: "Eh, it gets better."

Ida holds a similar mentality about the pain.

"I ruptured my flexor tendon on my ring finger, so now I wear my wedding band on my right hand," she said with a casual air. "But that's...you know, it's just a finger."

Some girls, however, are still anticipating their first hits and falls.

"I'm scared of getting hit," Evil Dawn Under said. "But then I kind of want to get hit at the same time because it's making me tougher. It's more fun because you get hit and then the next time you talk to that person, they're really nice, so it's not bad at all."

These Long Beach women, however, remain friendly despite the frequent hits and intense competition.

"There's a bunch of crazy girls here, and all of a sudden I have this huge group of friends and we have tons of stuff in common," Kiwi said. "To be able to come after work and crash into them and laugh, then go out and have a beer, it's just amazing."

Long Beach City College student Marin Wendoll ("Lily Sidewinder") agrees.

"It's really nice to hang out, play a game and beat each other up, and go get a drink afterwards," she said. "We're all friends. It's so cool."

Ida, too, describes her time with the derby as a great bonding experience.

"I have been in California for almost four years and hadn't been able to find quite where I belonged the way I had back in Pennsylvania," she said. "But I joined the derby and stuck with it. Six months later, we're skating inside the Dome in front of 1500 people. Roller Derby has absolutely been, and continues to be, one of the greatest things I've done. Ever."

Each player continues to practice regularly in preparation for upcoming bouts this summer and fall.

"We don't want to wear out our fan base, so games will be every month and a half to two months," Diesel said.

Long Beach Roller Derby will be back in traction on June 25 at the Dome. This bout will see Diesel's Tootsies face off her sister Biodiesel's Rollerettes.

View Neon Tommy Senior Editor Kevin Douglas Grant's photos from practice and hear from two league members: