As roller skating has made a comeback in recent years, roller rinks throughout Southern California have been closing.
In Orange County, Fountain Valley is home to the last indoor roller rink with wooden floors where skate teams can practice choreography, people can learn to skate and where people can enjoy roller discos – a long held tradition at roller rinks.
It comes after a historic roller rink closed in Orange earlier this month.
[Read: Historical Roller Rink in Orange Slated to Shut Down]
For 75 year-old skater Larry Morgan, closures of skating rinks are nothing new.
Morgan met his wife at the iconic World of Wheels in Los Angeles that went through a series of shutdowns with its final closure during the pandemic.
“It’s not just happening in California. It’s happening all over the place, you know,” Morgan said. “I know money has a lot to do with it.”
Deborah Monterrosa and her family are the owners of the Fountain Valley Skate Center – the last in Orange County.
Through her job as an instructor at the rink and her growing social media presence, Monterrosa is watching the skating community grow.
“The skating community right now is robust. It is growing. It is not dying out. That’s why you can go to Holiday (Skate Center) on any given day or evening and find plenty of skaters skating at that facility,” she said. “It’s not that anyone is wondering ‘Where are all the skaters?’”
On August 3, Holiday Skate Center located in Orange shut down due to the landowners wanting to develop the property into townhomes. The property owners see it as a way to help meet the city’s state-mandated quota of zoning for 3,963 new homes before the 2029 deadline.
A Community Lost
For some people, indoor roller rinks are a safer place to skate than outdoors because the wood floors offer an even surface to roller skate on – it’s also less painful to fall on compared to concrete.
Others enjoy the music played at roller rinks as they have an indoor place to skate with their families.
Monterrosa said losing the rinks means a loss of community for many people.
“If we don’t have these things, then we’re all just sitting in our houses. Roller rinks provide so many different positive things for the community. It’s a meeting place. It’s a place for your kids to develop. It’s a place for people to develop mentally, emotionally, physically,” she said.
Morgan said Monterrosa’s Fountain Valley Skating Center is focused on more than profit.
“This roller skating rink, it makes enough money to be sufficient. It’s not trying to really, really make money. It just wants to be here for the community,” he said.
The Holiday Skate Center – built by the same company as Fountain Valley Skating Center six months prior – was home to many skating competitors, including the Holiday Skating Artistic Team, who don’t know if they’ll be able to find another place close enough for all of the team to practice together.
Pam Kiwerski is one of the members on Holiday’s skating team and has been skating on and off at the center since the late 1970s. Having practice five days a week, she explains how Holiday closing is detrimental to the fate of the artistic team.
“We have to find somewhere else to go. If they close the rink, we’re out of a club. We have to either join an existing club in another rink or find a new venue to start up,” Kiwerski said.
“There’s been speed teams, derby teams, hockey, our artistic club, just the classes, just the general sessions, adult night. I mean there’s something for everybody at this rink.”
With the rink gone, many skaters – professionals and beginners alike – might be out of a place they call home.
Monterrosa described how community centers help to build strong communities within a city, stating that roller rinks could very well be a person’s “third place.”
“We talk about third places and being your home, your work and then what is your third place? This (Fountain Valley Skate Center) has been many, many people’s third place for many, many years,” she said.
That third place is also popular among many senior citizens who appreciate a controlled space to continue skating and stay active.
“I am retired, this is my third year here,” Morgan said. “If this place closes, then I am in real trouble because then I will have to skate outside and I don’t really like skating outside. It’s a little dangerous for me at my age to be falling.”
There is also a strong appreciation for music at the rolling rinks.
“You get to listen to old music, even some new music. You know, it just keeps your blood flowing, keeps you active,” Morgan added.
And Morgan is not the only one.
“These are the classics that children don’t get exposed to on the radio and TV shows,” said Monique Salmond, 42, from Huntington Beach who started skating through roller derby.
Salmond, who visits the rink with her children, couldn’t keep away from skating even when she sustained injuries from skating out in public.
Despite having a hip replacement, one roller skater said they couldn’t stay away from the roller rink.
“I came back. It was fun,” said 71-year-old Johnnie Johnson, adding he enjoys skating with his wife.
Another Place For Rollerskaters?
As roller rinks disappear, many cities in Orange County are building skate parks in their place.
While some might see this as cities giving up on roller skating and giving more to skaters that shred on a board, Monterrosa doesn’t see it as that at all.
She sees it as another place for roller skaters to build their community.
“A lot of the skaters who skate outdoors, who skate in the rain, who skate roller derby, who are figure skaters, et cetera, also roller skate at skate parks. So there is a huge community of what we just term ‘park skaters.’ Huge community, massive, all over the world,” she said.
“Whenever we hear that a new skate park is opening up we’re like ‘Oh good! Oh my god, exciting! I can’t wait to go. I can’t wait to see what they’re doing with it.’”
The world of roller skating is also finding its spot on social media, becoming popular during covid, where skating influencers like Nicole Fiore – who skated at Holiday – and Monterrosa found the opportunity to share their sport with others who were curious to try out something new.
Monterrosa said she’s seen people from all over the world come into Fountain Valley Skating Center in recent years.
“We get people from the greater Southern California area, and then popping in, we get people from Atlanta, Georgia, from Germany, from Asia. All over the world, people come here,” she said.
She explained how roller rinks are a way to meet new people organically and how there are very few places now that help the community to bond with one another.
“I always say that roller skating is the expression of self through movement of the body. You learn to connect with yourself,” Moterrossa said.
Salmond said roller rinks help many people cut free from the daily stress.
“My heart needs it. My soul needs it. And it’s not like just the music. It’s the letting go, the freedom.. When do you get to be out in the world where you have your arms out and your chest up? Nowhere, nowhere, absolutely nowhere. It’s freeing.”
Sara Leon is a Voice of OC intern from Cal State Fullerton. You can reach her at sleon7903@gmail.com.
Julie Leopo is Voice of OC’s director of photography. You can reach her at Jleopo@voiceofoc.org.
