Once past the stage of being knock-kneed and struggling for balance, bobbing like a tall tree in the wind, the feeling of being on roller skates is delightful.
The seamless glide is not at all jarring on the joints, which is why any time a pop-up skate happens in Vancouver there’s always a crew of agile old-timers with careworn skates they’ve owned since the 1970s.
“Once you get into the groove, it’s like flying,” said Andrea Fraser-Winsby who worked the Robson Square skate shop during the first-ever F.U.B.A.R. public rollerskate Saturday afternoon. “Vancouver has a very strong community of rollerbladers and they love it for their own reasons. Roller skating is more about style, music, dancing and bounce. It’s pretty wonderful.”
Fraser-Winsby grew up on rollerskates, spending most of her youth at Lloyd’s Roller Rink in Calgary on weekends. When she moved to Vancouver, she played rollerderby for the Terminal City Rollergirls for eight years wearing Number 10 under alias Andi Struction.
Then, came a baby but Fraser-Winsby was still keen on being a part of rollerskate culture. Being involved in the flat track was a time commitment she could no longer afford but she still wanted to connect with other eight-wheelers so she started Rollerskate Vancouver.
“Vancouver didn’t have a rollerskating community outside of rollerderby because we don’t have a place to skate,” said Fraser-Winsby. “I saw this need to build something, to get together to skate, to talk about skating because there are lots of people who love to rollerskate. We want to get venues to skate, build a community to support each other and try to keep this skate dream alive.”
Vancouver’s community centres and school gyms want nothing to do with rollerskating because there’s an assumption floors will be damaged, said Fraser-Winsby.
“I think they’re misinformed about rollerskating. It’s not any more damaging than other high-impact sports — basketball, soccer, floor hockey…. Rollerskate wheels are rubber — silicone — like the bottom of a shoe. And we’re just skating around in circles,” she said. “It’s super-healthy, anybody can do it, it’s family friendly. It’s exactly what you want in a community centre.”
There was a time there were places to skate in this city. The Imperial Roller Skating Rink opened in 1907 on the northwest corner of Denman Street and Beach Avenue and the Vancouver Province newspaper called it the “largest skating floor on the continent.” The wooden building burned down in 1914. The art deco Building F on the PNE grounds is also known as Rollerland, a popular roller skating hangout on weekends during the 1950s and 60s. Surrey’s Stardust Roller Rink, the last of three in the franchise (the other two rinks were in North Vancouver and Richmond), threw its final party Saturday as the property is slated for re-development.
The F.U.B.A.R. skate came about because Fraser-Winsby pulled a community together. Al Lamons runs F.U.B.A.R. which, spelled out, stands for Friends United Beyond All Race, and wanted to host a fundraiser skate for the Make-A-Wish B.C. & Yukon. So he tracked down Fraser-Winsby to get things started. Rollergirl.ca and Shop Task Skates supplied rental skates and gear while Lamons, who is also DJ Alibaba, brought the tables and the beats.
It’s no surprise to learn Lamons was host for several Vancouver radio stations after moving here from Winnipeg in the early 1990s. Case in point: Where’s home: “Rootin’, tootin’ Newton! Up the street from all the shootin’! I’m a proud Surrey boy!” On his positive attitude: “I believe in turning a negative into a positive. You give me lemons, I will make lemonade. If you give me flour, I’m gonna make gravy. And that’s how it is.”
Needless to say, he made for a gregarious host of the Robson Square rollerskate party with skills both off and on the rink.
It was in California in the early 1970s when Lamons saw a guy roller skating. Lamons, then eight years old, was obsessed and practised the heck out of a pair of metal clip skates he received for Christmas.
“Then I went to a roller rink. I saw people roller boogieing. I stood off to the side and just watched and watched,” he remembered. “I was so in awe. It was funky, urban hip hop dance. Freestyle. So I learned how to roller skate, picked up this, picked up that. Learned how to do the splits, spin…”
As for the name F.U.B.A.R.:
“I’m all about love and unity. Being an African American, I grew up being very discriminated against. Some of my best friends were white and my black friends would get on me because I had white friends,” Lamons said. “Why do I have to explain why I’m friends with somebody from another culture? That’s just dumb. It bothers me to this day!”
But skating, like music, brings people together, Lamons added. “Everything in skating is rhythm. Eerything in life is rhythm.”
Check out www.rollerskatevancouver.com for upcoming skate jams.
@rebeccablissett
