Roller Rink Observations
Austin, TX | February 25, 2020
Birthday party hours:
For the number of children on the rink, there are not a lot of parents on wheels. There are, however, a whole lot of teens and tweens standing around and talking about each other. Kids who literally don’t know where they are going cut across the rink like pinballs, almost knocking over the millennial couple on a date. They take posed-but-actually-candid pictures of each other in their skates, but they don’t do any skating. The only one here for the love of the sport is a dad with his two little ones, who he has passed his love of roller skating onto, and his wife, comfortably watching from the side bench.
Late skate BYOB hours:
A birthday party is happening for a mid-twenties girl wearing nothing but a crop top, tiara and high waisted spandex undies. She is way better on skates than the friends she invited. She circles them as they fall and tries to show them “how to do it right!”
The rink is teeming with every skill level, from holding onto the wall, to fancy turns, to spinning and splits. A queer group of folx on custom skates are here with the DJ. They weave in and out of the crowd with light up wheels, dipping into the DJ booth for respite and refills on beer. Their bruises give away their loyalty to Derby and their smooth footwork shows their love of rink skating.
The girls with the cutest outfits, who spent half an hour Instagramming them, suck at skating. But hey, they are killing it in those matching leather body suits! Dressing up to go to the rink feels like a right of passage. They stand in the back corner of the rink, right in front of the air conditioner, necks craned down at their phones as they “socialize.”
One couple, by far the best on the rink, scope out the crowd before lacing up and putting in their Bluetooth headphones. They move together like a singular, symbiotic being; gliding over the worn cement like it is freshly cleaned ice. In the packed rink, they are alone together. I watch mesmerized as they skate eloquently, enveloped in a song only they can hear.