March 31, 2021

Okay so. There have been some goings on. Drama at the skate rink! It's all happening over Instagram. There's a group of skaters who primarily skate at Mar Vista and Venice who make their money (possibly?) by skating. They've got thousands to a couple-hundred-thousand instagram followers, and occasionally they throw up a sponsored post or get recruited for an ad campaign. They are predominantly white women but not exclusively. 

As far as I can tell, these are the primary complaints: 

1) Lessons -- these skaters charge $$$ for lessons, which they then half-ass or -- allegedly -- they take the payment but don't show up at all. The sense is that they're basically just charging money for people to hang out with them. What rankles further is the impression that they came up receiving lessons and mentoring from black OG skaters for free. 

2) Cliquishness -- a superficial friendliness with a run of exclusivity underneath. They've invited people to skate with them and then told them the wrong location. They've been cagey about skating locations in general, even if they're not currently skating there. There's a sense that you have to be This Skilled, This Stylish, with This Many Instagram followers in order to talk to them. 

3) Doing it for the Gram -- the complaint that this group of skaters are benefitting from the local skate community but not giving anything back. This might be the underlying thing. They're working on creating a fictional world via Instagram. This is a candy-colored California with bright retro clothes -- a sun-drenched carefree groove -- full of free-wheeling skinny blondes. It's a scene where beginning skaters don't exist, where women of color don't exist. (They see these skaters as "ruining" their videos.) It's a spectacle that's working for them online, which seems more important to them than whatever is happening IRL. 

I don't have an especially hot take on any of it. People have been cordial to me, even the group in question, and other skaters -- mostly skaters of color -- have been friendly and nice enough to give me tips. (I have the feeling that everyone looks at me with a certain amount of pity. I am not very good.) 

I'm attracted to the rink because it makes me feel good to skate, it's good exercise, it's nice to see people as I'm still working from home, the music is good, and there is a kind of community or subculture going on. It's cool. It makes me feel like a baby Tom Wolfe with a view into an authentic and creative SoCal experience. But on the other hand, Mar Vista is just a public outdoor hockey rink. There's no physical or financial barrier to entry, and as a public park, no requirement for being friendly or making friends. 

My last thought is that it's too bad someone's not making a Zine (as far as I know). If not a Zine, just some kind of creative expression/media that's for the people who are actually skating, rather than thousands of anonymous people from all over the world, scrolling by passively. Do it for the rollers not the scrollers everybody.

For more info, check out @seirasage and @kaysk8s_ on Instagram.