This article by Margarita Wilson appeared in our Info Edmonton Magazine – March/April 2022
Roller skating returns to YEG…
On the streets and on your feed, it’s clear to see that roller skating has officially made a comeback. But there was no place in Edmonton to really enjoy the sport—not until now.
After the closure of Sportsworld Roller Disco in 2014, Edmonton was left without a permanent roller rink for nearly 10 years.
“We’ve been without for a long time,” says Claudia Garcia, owner and manager of Rollers Roller Rink. But the timing was right for a comeback: “There’s such an upsurge in rollerskating recently that it was just a natural progression of things.”
This resurgence can be partially attributed to popular social media platform TikTok, which has introduced roller skating to a whole new generation. But Garcia thinks that our current pandemic reality was also responsible. “When the pandemic started, people were trapped at home, nothing to do—why not take up a new hobby?” She also notes that for some it wasn’t so much about picking up a new hobby as it was revisiting an old one: “I think lots of people, especially if you’re thirty plus or forty plus, you have memories of going to a roller rink, and usually then the nostalgic memories are good ones, you know— having fun with friends, before everything crazy in adult life and the pandemic happened. Going back to good memories, the golden years.”
Unfortunately, outdoor conditions in Edmonton aren’t always ideal for the sport. “Even though we do get summer, we have lots of rain, so to be roller skating outside [can be] very difficult,” says Garcia. “We were doing lessons outside this last summer, and we lucked out that we only had one day that we had to switch out.” And while it is possible to roller skate on select paths in the city, including bicycle lanes, that’s not necessarily the safest option for someone just picking up roller skating. “[It’s about] having a space with a level floor, where we don’t have to worry about rocks, about cars, about all kinds of weather, so that people can get the most out of it, and somewhere that they can go and have fun.”
Finding such a space would prove to be Garcia’s biggest challenge on the road to making Rollers a reality. As the owner of Toe Stop Derby Shop, Edmonton’s only roller derby equipment store, for the past five years, Claudia knows the ins and outs of roller skating perhaps better than anyone else in Edmonton, including what would make for a viable rink. Her search for the perfect location took three years. “We were going to see a few a week over the course of two years—sometimes a few a day.” The space had to be the right size, with the right floor— and Garcia also made it a priority for the rink to be easily accessible: “It was about finding something that people could actually take the bus to.”
At long last, Garcia settled on a spot on St. Albert Trail, and Rollers Roller Rink held its grand opening December 17, 2021. Formerly a gym, the 20,000-square-foot space offers plenty of room for roller skating, with three skating surfaces (including a separate space for classes), as well as concessions, seating areas, and a roller skate shop. Rollers also offers rentals for first-time skaters or those not yet ready to get a pair of their own.
Since its opening, Rollers Roller Rink has been embraced by the community: lessons have been consistently selling out, almost as quickly as they’ve been offered. Garcia notes that nostalgia has indeed been a powerful force in drawing people in. “We offer birthday parties; we’ve only had a couple kids’ parties—the majority have been adults.” One of the biggest draws has been the Friday and Saturday night skates, which feature live DJs. “Kids love it because younger people, they’re like, ‘What? You get to pick what songs are gonna play?’ They’ve never had that experience.”
Rollers has now expanded to offering lessons just for kids on top of their wildly popular adult basics and roller dance classes. This summer, Claudia hopes to make further renovations to the space, including expanding the main floor. There’s also talk of Oil City Roller Derby making Rollers their home base for practice in the future. But no matter how big it grows, for Garcia it’s all about the good times and the memories made: “People have fond memories of, ‘Oh, I had so much fun when I was in junior high, going roller skating with my class… I want to share that again for myself or for my family.’”
