I am Starting a Roller Skating Club

I believe I have spoken on the blog before about my love of Roller Skating. I have been roller skating since I was probably 5, but possibly even younger than that. I grew up having old skates that my cousins and I could hold skate parties with in my grandparents garage and driveway. I was also a frequent attendee of our local skating rink in Newark, Roll-a-Way spending hours there on my quad skates happy as a clam.

I bought a new pair of quad skates in 2004 or so when I learned about Ohio Roller Derby, then the Ohio Roller Girls, and I wanted to do derby so badly. I bought my skates and I began going out to try to get my skate skills back. I would train with them several times in anticipation of trying out, but it never worked out that I could play. And after a fall, not skating related just klutzy, I tore my ACL and because of the nature of derby I knew that continuing to train would eventually lead to surgery, so I stopped training and became an athletic supporter instead (See Eight Wheels of Badass Joy, Talk Derby to Me: First Bout of 2019, and Skatemare Before Christmas)

Then in 2020 the pandemic happened and I started to see people buying skates and skating on Instagram (Nicole Byer being a huge Inspiration as was Rolla Skate Club). I decide I would like to get back on skates, so I go to the internet. I already have skates, a couple of pairs in fact, but I needed new pads (knee, elbow and wrist), a new helmet, a skate strap and I decided I wanted a pair of toe covers since mine were pretty scuffed.

I found my pads as a set on Moxi. They were roughly $75 for the full set of Knee, Elbow and Wrist pads. And on the same site I found a turquoise and pink leopard print helmet and I just had to have it, so I put in an order. I got a skate strap from PeaceGrenade on Etsy in Magenta Glitter. I got an amazing sticker that says Skate Witch from Simply Savage Design which lives on my helmet and I just ordered another couple to add to new things. I bought my toe caps from Rollerstuff they are super shiny leather and I LOVE them. All together the whole set looks like this:

So…now I had skates, and gear, and no one to skate with. I had a thought and then I went to social media and I said:

So…I added this on Instagram and Facebook just to see if anyone would respond or be interested, and the answer was a resounding yes. I had many friends respond that they were in, that they were looking for a reason to buy skates, and so on. I created a Facebook Group called Skate Expectations and we have our first meet up this Friday after work. I am so excited that this is becoming a thing, and also I am somewhat surprised, but so excited. I am hoping that I can branch this out into more interesting things. I have ideas!!

More to come! Happy Skating Ya’ll!!