Two Londoners tell us how skating has created an escape from everyday stress and helped them find a community.
Emma and her uncle Michael are two south Londoners that have been skating together weekly in south-east London for the last year. Emma asked her uncle to teach her to skate after her move down to London from Liverpool, where she found she had lost her passion for running (who can blame her 5am in what feels like the greyest city ever for a run, no way.)
Emma is a 24-year-old architect that is currently doing her masters, she’s worked and studied in Sheffield and Liverpool, but home is where she grew up, the Lewisham area. Lewisham is an integral part of her French and Caribbean identity and has influenced the direction she wants her career in architecture to go with a focus on social housing that encourages community and socialising with those around you and most importantly connects people to the natural space around them and allows them to appreciate the green haven that is London.
Michael, Emma’s uncle, is in his late 50s and is a mechanic in his spare time loves all kinds of wheels from cars to bikes and of course his trusty skates. He was happy to join Emma in her skating journey. It’s something he has always enjoyed since he was in his teens, and he still has a community he’s built with fellow skaters.
What drew you to skating?
Emma: Well, I wanted a way to be active and express creativity, I find in my day to day at work a lot of the creativity is sucked out the room with a focus on numbers, deadlines and clean and minimalistic office buildings or skyscraper flats no average Londoner can afford. Skating offered me that fun movement with artistic flair.
Michael: My older sister was into skating. She had started in the 70’s and so when I was in my early teens in the 80’s she bought me a pair of skates, she lost interest after an injury but for me it stuck, kept me busy after school out of trouble (I grew up in Brixton before it became what it is today) and I made friends.
Do you feel safe skating?
Emma: Actually, it’s the first time doing a sport apart from rock climbing that I don’t feel in danger of well anything. When I ran, I had to change my route every so often, wear something bright, carry a whistle, stay on main roads and even then, I was scared. When I skate, I head to a park, there’s a group around me doing the same thing and I just know they have my back.
Michael: I feel safe now and when I was a younger man there was some stress that I would get in to trouble for no good reason but luckily, it’s never happened and with age it feels less and less likely that there will be a problem.
What does skating mean for you?
Emma: Skating is freedom, nothing compares to the feelings of each stage of learning to skate. I learnt at 23 and I was so nervous but I’m so glad I took this leap of faith it’s the coolest hobby.
Michael: I told you Emma! (Michael grins proudly) skating is fun man it keeps me young! God forbid I ever mess up my knees!
What community have you found?
Emma: Michael’s introduced me to so many people young and old, he helped an 8-year-old learn now he’s 12 and honestly, he puts us all to shame. I’ve met so many people and when I moved from Sydenham to Putney, I was nervous it’s a very affluent area and not so diverse, but I found not too far away a skating group. And I come down to southeast to skate with Michal of course!
Michael: I’ve met people throughout my time skating, older and younger. It’s an open environment where people can connect about the same thing, it is such a mixed group anyone is welcome and there’s always someone willing to help you out you know? It’s all about connection.
Are you excited for the event?
Emma: Yes, it’s so cool that there will be a designated spot for skating in Crystal Palace. It was always my favorite place as a kid, and it will be so much more inviting to people new to the skating world. I’m excited to skate the night away to some good music, maybe buy some merch from Rio roller since they’ll have a stall there and make some new friends. It’s nice someone will be there to give support to people new to skating.
Michael: It will be great to meet some new faces in Tottenham build new connections and hopefully bring new people in from all over London. I’m five minutes away from Crystal Palace so I will make good use of that ring.
What do you think skating brings to young people across London? What can it offer them?
Emma: It’s a chance to get involved in sport, its one big-ish payment at the start, I’m using the pair or Rio rollers I started out with still, they hold up for a while. It’s something they can do with friends or alone, it’s a mode of transport once you’re confident enough. It’s fun, you can incorporate dance or cool tricks.
Michael: Shes right, it’s also community though it rare to find nowadays, people are glued to their phones, busy with work and family and you miss the world going by.
What’s next for you in your skating journey?
Emma: Once I’m more confident and the weather improves, I will master skating backwards and then to foll on just one foot, from there I will see what I can do next.
Michael: You know I’m an old man I just want to skate and have a good time.
Finally, Emma as a young black gen Zer where do you hope skating goes in the next decade?
Emma: I hope skating can bring together a community of likeminded people, not everything needs to be political, but skating can be a safe place somewhere that lets young POC have fun and know they have a community, that’s the roots of skating and that makes me so proud to be involved in this community.
Tickets will be available until the 24th of March and the event takes place on the 25th grab tickets to be in with a chance to win your own Rio roller and to meet some like-minded people.