Rollergroove

Tampa Invitational Soul Roll - January 2008

“I have a dream that skaters will not be judged by the wheels on their feet but by the way that they skate” – or something like that. So Martin Luther King said in 1963. Over the course of Martin Luther King weekend Tampa, Florida was host to the Getyoursk8on Invitational Soul Roll and Rollergroove was there to represent the UK.
The skate session was not part of the Soul Roll weekend and that was obvious as Florida rinks play Miami Bass for pretty much the whole session – great for jamskating but not so much for getting your groove on. The first thing you notice about the rink is how shiny it is! This is due to American rinks being coated in urethane as they all skate on hard wheels. To say the floor was grippy on our outdoor wheels would be something of an understatement! Although a little tired from the trip we were doing our thing UK style for the locals. A short while later we were greeted by Letta from www.getyoursk8on.com who had organised the Soul Roll. We didn’t expend too much energy as the main events didn’t start for another 48 hours, so we used this session as a little warm-up and then went to get some food….

Did I say food..? I’ve got one word for you – IHOP. Ok, that’s not really a word, but an acronym. It stands for International House Of Pancakes. One of America’s longest running restaurant chains (est. 1958) and this particular franchise is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. With the current Sterling / US Dollar rate you can eat great quality food, cheaply, IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT!!

I love it!! Anyway, back to the event…

On Friday Letta had arranged a meet-and-greet for the skaters and sponsors to mingle. This was a fantastic idea and we met all kinds of characters. Amongst the sponsors there were: Kappa Chris Robinson (videographer), Jayson V (videographer), Richard Humphrey (skate dance choreographer), Dustin Glebe (Riedell rep), Scott Riegelman (Riedell Vice President), Gregg Smith (Bones rep) and others. There were quite a few skaters at the meet-and-greet although the vast majority were not arriving until Saturday. After the meet-and-greet it was dinner time. IHOP, here we come….

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On Saturday afternoon Letta had organised a bus trip to the historic Harbor Club. The Martin Luther King weekend is tied-in with the Tampa Black Heritage weekend and this bus trip was used as a way to promote African-American owned business. The Harbor Club is comprised of a barbershop, a salon, clothing shop, teashop and more along with a little restaurant specializing in soul food. I’m talking ‘bout a good old fashioned fish fry. Yup, they even serve grits.
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We headed back to the hotel for a rest before the first major skate of the weekend.

We made our way to the rink – United Skates of America for the midnight start. We didn’t need to queue as we had press passes for the event (thanks Letta!). It didn’t take long until 600+ adult skaters were in the building and doing their thing. What an atmosphere! Everybody was polite and welcoming and there were some AMAZING skaters there.

There were skaters from all over the U.S. and us four from the UK (Sal, Vin, Lisa and Rosa). This wasn’t even the main event. We skated until 4am and then were feeling hungy. IHOP, here we come again…!
Letta had arranged for the local IHOP to provide the skaters with their own room in the restaurant. We filled that room and spilled over into the rest of the restaurant. At 5am there were skaters and food everywhere. What more could you want?

Although not part of the main event, Letta had arranged something a little different for those who could drag themselves out of bed – a Sunday afternoon Gospel skate!
This was being held at a different rink than the main event (Town & Country Skateworld). Tampa has at least 3 purpose built rinks (there may be others I don’t know of) in a town with a population approx 1/25th of London and London has not a single purpose-built rink. Please explain... The rink was every bit as good as the other one we visited and personally I preferred the floor here. The sound system was better too. With music provided by DJ Joe Bowen and FREE FOOD provided and cooked on site by IHOP (yes, them again!) this event was used to raise money for multiple sclerosis. Good music, skating, free food and a good cause – can you think of a better way to spend your Sunday afternoon? Me neither. The afternoon session was capped by a spontaneous exhibition by ICE from Philly and a guy whose name escapes me and wears skates with only a single wheel on each boot. I’m not kidding. We headed back to the hotel to crash out in preparation for the main event at 9pm.

After a couple of hours rest we made our way to the rink for the main event of the weekend. This night is up there with the best that Rollergroove has ever experienced. With skaters representing pretty much every state in the U.S. it was an incredible experience. There were group skaters, solo skaters, couple skaters and jam skaters. There were many show-stopping performances in the middle of the rink from Showtime, Chris (NY), ICE, The Fabulous 8 and many more.

An interesting difference that U.S. national events do is a roll-call of each state/town where skaters from each region perform on the rink, by themselves, while the rest of the crowd watches and applauds. Most of the crews practise a routine or a set of moves just for roll-call. Except us! It’s just not what we do in the UK. We went out during roll-call with Texas as they only had three skaters to represent. We did ourselves proud with an improvised display of sideways-on back-skating (something they don’t do) in both directions of the rink (in the U.S. 99% of rink-time is anti-clockwise), a little solo boogie by each of us, followed by a little sync-skate routine and a Dutch-style chariot which we had never done before! Considering we never planned any of it we looked pretty cool! After our roll-call performance we were interviewed by a film crew covering the Black Heritage Festival. They wanted to know why we travelled over 4,500 miles just to skate. Or, as Letta put it, “Spend $2000 to go to a $15 party!” The answer is simple. The people, the music and the experience. Skaters are skaters. Wherever you go in the world, if you meet other skaters you are automatically part of the family. We were just visiting our American cousins. Towards the end of the night we treated them to a UK-style chariot, Sal and Lisa in the chariot with me pushing. They were amazed! What they would make of the MK and Derby chariot specialists we can only guess. The end of the night came around in what seemed a few, fleeting minutes and our skating adventure was coming to an end. We must make a special mention of the skate shop inside the rink.

Owned and run by Linda Dorso Pena, she comes from a skating pedigree. Her grandparents owned their first rink in the 1930’s. We will have an interview with Linda and her skating life later in the year.

With a relaxing trip to Clearwater Beach on Monday, our visit to Tampa had come to an end and we left with new friends and many good memories.

If you get the opportunity to visit the Soul Roll in the future, you should jump at the chance. For now, though, we need to start planning a bank robbery to fund a trip to Joi’s Skate-A-Thon – 6000+ skaters at 4 rinks in Georgia over Labor Day weekend…

Letta @ www.getyoursk8on.com
Desi @ www.skategroove.com
Gregg Smith (Bones)
Dustin Glebe (Riedell)
Scott Riegelman (Riedell)
DJs Joe Bowen, Spin, Wiz and rAmbo

All those behind the scenes organising the event and all the skaters who went out of their way to welcome us. Netta, ICE, Slick Rick, Lou Boy, Phantom, Chris, Ernie and others we failed to mention.