Seaside Skates. Photo / Rosalie Willis
Roller skating has seen major growth since the Covid-19 pandemic hit. Rosalie Willis talks to Kāpiti's Seaside Skates about how people young and old are taking up the retro pastime.
Wheeling around with confidence and class, the staff at Seaside Skates make you want to own a pair of roller skates as soon as you walk through the door.
Their ability to confidently operate a store with wheels attached to their feet, paired with the candy store vibe of the shop makes it impossible to walk out of the business without being instantly inspired to try the resurgent small-wheel sport.
With the global pandemic causing chaos and people forced to stay close to home, new trends started popping up around the world, with old trends such as roller skating regaining popularity.
United by their love of roller skating, roller derby and their desire to find an indoor roller venue in Kāpiti, a small group of people came together to start Seaside Skates, a skate shop selling everything you need to roller skate off the back of the sport's revival.
First conceived in 1743 by Belgian-born inventor John Joseph Merlin for actors to mimic ice skating on stage, the invention of the roller skate caused quite a stir. His first specifically designed skates were produced in 1760, however the combination of his skates lacking brakes, his lack of balance and his eccentric personality did not bode well as he attempted to show them off while playing the violin at a masquerade party - promptly ploughing into a mirror, breaking the violin and injuring himself.
The idea was recognised by inventors of the time but it was James Plimpton who "revolutionised" the roller skate in 1863 by designing quad skates. Not only did Plimpton create the quad skate but he manufactured demand by establishing the New York Roller Skating Association, opening the first skating rink at a Rhode Island resort in 1866 and giving skating lessons in the 1870s.
He didn't stop there either, marketing the roller skate as an appropriate activity for men and women to do together, allowing young Victorian couples to meet without the rigid chaperoning they were normally bound to.
With children and adults alike looking for activities to provide mental relief from pandemic-fatigue and an activity that can be done both solo and in an acceptably socially distanced way, the whimsical nature of roller skating is having a resurgence.
Seeing the revival online during the pandemic, Kirsten Slade, Nate McCall, Merryn McAulay and Georgina Bollinger started Seaside Skates, a skater-owned business in Paraparaumu selling everything related to skating.
"We were originally thinking of running an online store to help fund the roller sports venue but we found our current spot in Ihakara St when looking for warehouse space," Kirsten said.
With street appeal, "the space presented itself" and provided them with the opportunity to create a designated space where customers could come in and try on skates.
Starting with one brand of roller skates in the shop when it opened last year, Seaside Skates is now New Zealand's distributor for Chuffed Skates, Riedell, SureGrip, Randal, Destructo, Moxi, IQWT and SISU. It stocks quad skates, longboards, surfskate boards and dance boards along with a number of select skateboard brands and all the bells and whistles needed by beginners and experienced professionals.
Spearheaded by Nate, Seaside Skates has chased down direct relationships with manufacturers in the United States and Europe, also managing to reduce the carbon footprint of products that were previously only accessible to New Zealanders through a distributor in Australia.
"We found a lot of the stuff in New Zealand was flying over our head twice," Nate said. "So we've been able to one-by-one set up accounts with manufacturers who will come directly to us which means that we can have great prices as we're cutting out the middle man in Australia."
Now bursting at the seams with products, Kirsten said: "We have everything from kids adjustable skates to the ability to build custom skates for people who have been riding for years and want everything from the bearings to the wheels and axles.
"So much of the enjoyment and your performance depend on the surface you're skating on, the wheels on your skates, how tight your trucks are and whether you like a low or a high boot. We have a lot of people calling us knowing exactly what part they want and we are able to import it for them."
Originally thinking they would be supporting the roller derby market, the family business has also taken off. Selling children's adjustable skates has proven popular, especially with the free skating lesson given with each pair.
"It's important to show people how to use them because if you got them for Christmas and went out and fell over straight away, you probably wouldn't be very into it for very long. We're the only place in New Zealand where you can try on all these kinds of skates and we figured between us we have 70 years of skating experience to share."
Selling skates is just one part of what Seaside Skates do. "We also teach skating, and help run roller events such as a roller prom in Wellington."
While campaigning for a roller venue in Kāpiti is an ongoing long-term project, educating their customers and the wider community is an important part of what they do. They are also a voice asking for accessible trails and paths for small wheels around the region.
Seaside Skates work with New Zealand roller skating royalty Ivy Bates who runs Let's Roll Coaching to provide lessons and mutually support each other's endeavours.
"Let's Roll Coaching is another skater-owned company that we have connected with, also sponsoring their girls' skating team. It catches girls at a time when they might be dropping out of sport and is all about providing life skills focusing on the experience each girl on the team has.
"It needs to be centred on sport, it needs to be centred on giving them some skills they can take away if they don't want to skate anymore or get injured and can't skate anymore – concrete skills not just memories."
The team learn practical skills like how to put on and run events, test equipment for Seaside Skates and help Ivy coach the younger kids.
With its roots in leisure popularised in the late 1800s by Plimpton, roller discos re-popularised roller skates at the height of the disco craze of the 1970s. Roller skating has also been associated with the American civil rights movement and has constantly been a safe haven for marginalised groups including women and the LGBTQ+ community. This spilled over to New Zealand and there was a big manufacturing presence in the 1960s-1980s when roller skating had its heyday.
"Manufacturing was really popular here for a number of years but with everything else from that time it just died out in the 1980s," Nate said.
"It's been about 40 years since anything has been made here, so we are hoping to set up a GoFundMe to start producing New Zealand-poured roller skate wheels."
With a plastic manufacturer already lined up, the team at Seaside Skates are wasting no time getting involved in not just the Kāpiti community, but the wider skating community.
After almost a year the team is as committed as ever to finding an appropriate roller sports venue in Kāpiti. "It's been a great way to engage with the wider community that also wants a new venue," Kirsten said. "We're going to make it happen - we're working towards it."
As for why people should get into skating, Kirsten said with creative freestyle, street and skate park skating, it's important there's an opportunity for creative flow.
"It's really important that our brains have time to do and experience that. Kids don't really get enough of that freedom and the statistics are showing there's a drop-off in enrolment in organised sports. Kids don't want to be regimented, so there's been a huge uptake of kids skating because it's highly individualised and creative."
"It's also social - you can stand there and just hang out while taking turns doing runs," Nate said.
"Adults too, when they come in and want lessons, there's often something that's going on... people have come in and said roller skating is the best therapy – and it is," Kirsten said.
"It is because you're doing something that you typically enjoyed as a child, giving yourself an opportunity to play, giving yourself an opportunity to fail."
That, or an opportunity to fight it out in a feisty roller derby scrimmage.
This story was first published in the Celebrating Kāpiti 2022 spring/summer magazine.
Emergency services were called to the scene about 8.30pm.