Skates, Blades and Hot Tracks: Roller Culture in the Bay Area

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KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 3 November 2023

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Roller culture in the bay area has lived many lives – from the roller discos of the 1970s, to the inline skate competitions of the 2000s and a quad-skating revival fueled by TikTok and the Covid-19 pandemic. It’s tangled up with other cultural movements, including the Bay Area’s underground music scene. And improvised roller parties – from Golden Gate Park to Panther Skate Plaza – are building on a legacy of Black and Latino communities originally excluded from formal skate spaces. We’ll talk with San Francisco’s “godfather of skate,” a roller dance teacher with five decades of skating experience and a former professional rollerblader. Guests: Azikiwee Anderson, former professional inline skater; co-founder, I Match Your Trick Association; owner, Rize Up bakery David Miles Jr., owner, Church of 8 Wheels Richard Humphrey, teaches roller dance classes; former Golden Roller Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:50.4	Roller skating culture in the Bay Area has lived many lives.
0:53.6	There were the roller disces of the 1970s.
0:56.0	Still kind of jealous, I never got to see that.
0:58.0	Then there were the inline skate competitions, the 2000s, very X-Gamesy,
1:02.0	and more recently a quad skating revival fueled by TikTok
1:06.0	and the need for fun outdoor stuff during the pandemic.
1:08.0	Of course, this culture is tangled up with other cultural movements,
1:11.6	including the Bay Area's underground music and party scenes. We're going to have some fun today,
1:15.9	talking with San Francisco's godfather of skate, a former professional rollerblader, and maybe
1:20.9	they'll tell me how to learn to skate in your 40s. That's all coming up next after this news.
	...

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