Overview:
Locals discuss how Denver's skate scene has personally influenced them over the years and argue that it deserves more recognition.
As the disco lights bounce off the walls and onto the floor of a Skate City rink, a swift breeze hits as people prepare to move alongside the other skaters, which is one of the reasons why many people visit the rink. It doesn’t matter what kind of music you listen to or how you move on this floor; your body tells the story as everyone else just listens.
Across the country, skating has emerged as a safety net for many people where they go to connect. Many in Denver call it the place where they found their people and family. Because, while it’s not all about who can skate the fastest or where you’re from, groups like the Colorado Skate Connection at Aurora’s Sunday Adult Skate City Night show the culture and the vibrancy.
“Shoutout to my Denver skate peeps; it’s community,” said local skater Kendra “KayBee” Soderberg. “It’s mutual aid, it’s supportive friends, but really, they’re my family. I call them my skate family.”
Skate nights vary from Littleton, Arvada, Colorado Springs and Pueblo—there is a different vibe in each rink. It’s not only the music that makes it; it’s the people.
“There’s nothing like skating around jamming with your wife and daughter,” said long-time skater and father in the group, Luke Siminoch. “It’s such a cool feeling as a dad.”
His daughter recently turned 18 and was able to join the Aurora Skate City Adult nights on Sundays. “Here in Denver is so unique because we have so many different, diverse roller skating opportunities,” Siminoch said.
KayBee began her skating career at eight, but following a divorce in 2012, a “skate friend“ invited her back to the rink.
“I did really know anybody at that point coming into it, and it was like open arms,” KayBee said. “It was like one of those places where it didn’t matter if you’re 18 or 75; everybody is vibing. Everybody is happy. You get it out and you’re ready for the week.”
“Skating is very much an athletic sport. You most importantly need balance and coordination,” said Sam Davis, also known as “Honey Bunny Baby,” who has been skating with Colorado Skate Connection since 2009. “At the skating rink, we consider each other family. We commune with each other and we support each other. When you see someone at the rink, it’s like having a second home.”
With the emergence of disco in the 70s, a new generation of skaters came to the scene, especially those in the Black community. They became places where people could express themselves more freely in a world that often denied them space.
By the 80s and 90s, regional skating styles began to be shared nationally. But since then, it’s felt as though skating has been dying or has even been lost altogether. Yet for DJs like Doughboy, many are actively trying to ensure skating is well-represented in Colorado.
“When I first got into the skate community, I realized that going to national scenes and being all over the place, I’ve seen people go to California, people go to Texas, people go to Kansas City, people go to Utah, but they would always fly over Colorado,” Doughboy said. “And I’m like, ‘Yo, this shit got to stop.’ We got some dope skaters in Colorado.”
Doughboy, originally from Chicago, had skated since the age of 8, beginning at Aurora’s Skate City location. “That was kinda my babysitter,” he said.
In his teens, Doughboy would eventually gain a job working nights at Skate City and longer shifts in the daytime at King Soopers, yet being paid fairly became a hassle. “It was kinda like a bad taste in my mouth,” he said. “It took me away from skating, too. [But] I would always come back to skate here and there. I always kept in contact.”
By 2018, DJ Doughboy had joined one of the largest DJ coalitions in the nation, Core DJ Worldwide, and saw a difference in DJing a club versus the rink.
“The thing that I really pushed is that there needs to be a lane for skate DJs and the core DJs,” he said. This would lead to him starting his own coalition, Skate DJs Worldwide, built of 65 DJs nationwide.
“We’re trying to build bridges,” Davis said. “We are trying to make ourselves part of the rest of the whole skating community altogether, because we are kind of a little landlocked and isolated out.”
For those who want to get their skate on, Roll Denver hosts monthly themed roller skate parties in ReelWorks and Tracks. Denver Roller Derby holds regular events, including a double-header match this weekend, June 14, between Juniors: Chewblockas vs. Mandarollians and Denver Standbys vs. Divergence Roller Derby.
Crested Butte will host its second annual Friends and Family Skate Party on August 2 at Big Mine Ice Arena, featuring DJ Trip, a local skate DJ. Not only is the skate rink covered, but the all-day event, which runs from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and features a spectacular Mountain View, exemplifies what it means to share with the skate community.
Events like these not only keep the sport’s energy alive, but they also broaden the skate community that these skaters hope to establish. While it focuses on generational community efforts, it also recognizes contributions by Black skaters whose light has been dimmed and is long overdue.
“Skating in the Black community didn’t really get noticed until after COVID, because a lot of rinks were still closed or not open, so a lot of people took it outside,” said Jahlil ‘DJ Intern’ Martin.
Originally from the Bronx, he moved to Colorado after the pandemic. Intern began working at a skating rink as an intern, hence the name, and eventually worked as a skate DJ throughout Colorado’s Skate Cities, where he discovered an even greater passion for it.
“I just started going to the rink, you know, because I love to roller skate,” DJ Intern said. “That’s just, you know, something I might like to do that’s like my number one hobby. Within that number one hobby, I ended up picking up DJing.”
To these small communities, however, skating felt glamorized. They stress that it’s so much more than what you do for TikTok, but the athleticism and how you feel.
“Whatever our frustration is, we just leave it on the floor,” DJ Intern said. “I think one thing we all learned is that skating is cheaper than therapy. Skating is gonna be forever. For us, it’s a part of our lives.”
