RagMag April 2016 Spring 2016 | Page 4

cHICKS IN BOWLS

24 year old Samara Pepperell from Auckland, New Zealand who skates under the name of Lady Trample is the founder of Chicks in Bowls. She was introduced to ramp skating in November 2012 by an awesome skater named Michelle ‘Cutthroat’ Hayes.

"We hit a local park and she showed me the ropes - I was instantly hooked. I started going all the time with her and a few other friends. During one of our sessions Cutty made the passing comment ‘it’s so cool to see all these “chicks in bowls”…’ and I (being the dork I am) raced home with an idea in my head for a crew logo"

said Samara. She then started the facebook page for the small crew to use to post up when they were hitting the local parks and to share funny pics and videos of their antics. Slowly but surely the page started gaining international attention. In September 2014 partner Nick said to Samra that they needed to do something with it because Samara had simply been pouring herself into it with no game plan. They sat down with Samara's mum (Sandy) and a friend (Sugar) and talked out what they wanted this to be. While they were working out the 5 year dream Samara was contacted by some skaters in Argentina who wanted to start their own Chicks in Bowls page. Sugar suggested

they look at the Long Board Girls Crew and so they used them as an example model to build their Chapter ethos. The first Chapter was started in September 2014 in Argentina and to this day they now have over 200 Chapters spread all across the globe!

"It’s so much bigger than I could have ever dreamed! Go and check out the list for yourself - my favourite thing about that page is the map which pops up with a little icon everywhere that we have a crew located. I still get a buzz every time we get a new Chapter inquiry" stated Samara.

She learned to roller-skate when she was 19. Her best friend Leah aka TutanKarnage had been talking to her about roller derby and so Leah took Samara to a game (around the same time Whip It came out too). She saw what was called a "waitress whip" and instantly knew she wanted to play this sport. They went on a double date to the skate rink to have a go on rollerskates. That was literally her first time other than a brief stint as a rollerblader at the prime age of 8. Samara and Leah used to go to carparks every night in the build up to joining Pirate City Rollers (NZ’s #1 Roller Derby League). Samara's partner Nick also used to go to carparks and chase her around to help her get faster. She instantly fell in love with Roller Skating and as you can see it has kind of taken over her life.

BAD ASS RAGs

By: Rag House