Synchronicity is an undeniable theme throughout the life of Kapulani Patterson AKA Hawaiian Blaze. Each step of their journey in skating, life, and art all feel meant to be. Stumbling upon roller derby through a peer in trauma recovery after being medically retired from the Air Force reshaped their life in enumerable and amazing ways. In nearly ten years of playing, Kapulani met their spouse, found community, and leaned into their power as a skater and human being. In recent years K...
Arri Santiago is an artist on and off skates, when she’s not lighting up the floor she’s creating imaginative characters and worlds as an artist and animator. She had no idea what was ahead when she rediscovered roller skating in 2020. She was introduced to rinks as a young kid (her dad was a rink ref back in the day), but it wasn’t until the pandemic hit that she would rediscover skating. She laced up a pair of her grandfather’s skates, which were 5 sizes too big, and she hasn’t looked ...
After facing personal trauma and the pandemic disruption of queer nightlife, A fortuitous stumble upon the skate rink at Riverbank Park in Harlem took Kenny McQueen on a journey. Roller skating started out as a way to move his body and became something that completely transformed his lifestyle. Kenny’s deep love for community and dance skating is palpable, and when he felt called to address issues around nonconsensual touch and bullying that he and his peers were experiencin...
Sometimes unlikely friendships make for the best pairings, and that’s certainly the case with Elise (bigb00tysk8rgrl) and Kooky (hurt_cobainn)! With a bit of an age gap, and being at different stages of life, they might not have met if not for the pandemic roller skating surge (and Elise sliding into Kooky’s DMs), but since their worlds collided they’ve become inseparable. In this conversation, they open up about what it’s been like to navigate friendship whilst sharing the hobby of agg...
This week’s conversation is a journey, a little metaphysical, a little brass tacks life advice, no doubt this week’s guest will send you! A resident of Long Beach California since 1999, Tracy Emiko Ugai created a mosaic by picking up pieces that work and discarding what doesn’t to build the colorful life she has today. Best known for her roller skating and wellness brand Basics of Happy, her impact as a visible Long Beach skate community member, and storied career in action sports marketing a...
It can be easy as a New Yorker to lose sight of the endless possibilities the city holds, but this week’s guest never misses a chance to take it all in. Frank Figueroa has covered countless miles on these city streets, in his well-loved roller skates, that are often a scrape away from combusting. Anywhere there is a community event with good music and dancing, you better believe he’s there and finding release almost certainly with his skates in tow. When the iconic rinks, Skate Key and Empire...
Social Justice, catholic school uniforms, horror films, and a scrappy midwestern je ne sais quoi all inform the style and approach of Elijah Justice. He’s a rhythm skater and designer residing in Brooklyn, but his home state of Ohio has his heart. His foray into skating like many of us began in family-fun style rinks, but when he found himself at United Skates in Wyckliffe, Ohio he caught sight of the real deal and there was no turning back, he was hooked. In this conversation he opens up abo...
This week’s skater exemplifies the spirit of why we started this podcast. She reminds us that though skating elevates our lives, it does not define who we are. Krystal Roames is a New York native who has had quite the journey over the course of these pandemic years. Not only did she pick up rhythm skating, but she became a first time mother, started her own private therapy practice, and moved to a new city. Join us as we share in her experiences of striking a balance between raising a family,...
We're excited to be back for our third season with a guest who has carved out space for herself since she was a kid. From a young equestrian to the double threat derby and park skater she is today, Afton has always PUT IN WORK. Her perseverance doesn't rest within the confines of athleticism either as she is an outspoken advocate for Trans-rights and mental health awareness. She's also a proud mother of two amazing kids that feed her drive to push forward with equal measures of strength and v...
Hey friends! To round out this season we’ve got a hangout session from Jasmine’s apartment with three of our co-workers and skate friends. We touch on shop life at Five Stride Skate Shop, but mostly you’ll get to know our pals and our relationships with them. You’ll meet Mina, a skate tech pursuing a law degree and finding time to enjoy the simpler things! Join us to hear about Mina’s search for the perfect low-top skate boot ! Paco joins us to talk about their last stretch of desig...
Tracie Garacochea is a WCMX skater (Wheelchair Moto Cross, a sport created and by Aaron Fotheringham) it’s a young sport, and Tracie has been making her mark on it for 7 years! At the age of 62, she finds herself carving out new frontiers as she pushes her sport with personal style, commitment, and a tangible love for community and the next generation of skaters. Even more than her pro-tour & competition appearances at the Dew Tour, and wins at Exposure, her focus is volunteering, as it h...
Part two of our Shovel episode kicks off with a little spirituality. Rebel and Shove share the role that crystals, witchyness, and intention play in their lives. They also use their spirituality to manifest their goals and futures, and they open up about their experiences as fat and alternative models in major campaigns.We get into the important role they play as representation of a unique queer relationship, and they answer whether they will be sharing their upcoming wedding with ...
Rebel and Shove, AKA Shovel are a skating couple that would be hard to miss if you spend any time on skate IG or Youtube! You might know them better by their IG handles @queergirlstraightskates & @fat_girl_has_moxi. If you haven’t heard, they’re two recently engaged down to earth and yet over the top skating fat femmes in love! With different approaches to skating that compliment one another, and a life in which they’re each other’s biggest cheerleader. In this chat we get insi...
This week’s guest is a former D-1 collegiate alpine skier turned Gotham Roller Derby All Star, not to mention she’s a physics, space, and paleontology reporter at the Wall Street Journal. Meet Aylin Woodward, affectionately known as Yeti Or Not. Yeti cut her teeth on the ski slopes, but ultimately ended up a roller derby All-Star, she’ll tell you that switching from a team sport to a solo sport took some of the pressure off. But, don’t let Yeti fool you, she’s self-critical n...
Kiana Maxwell, better known as Kianayouwanna is an undeniable powerhouse of the park skating world. The timeless classic Whip It pulled them into the world of derby, but they found themselves lured to park skating after watching the OG Moxi skate crew at the skate park. They open up that after leaving Moxi, they’re looking to focus on building the local SD community that has made them the skater they are today. To this end, they’ve been keeping busy as the admin of CIB SD and organizing ...
Marawa the Amazing is more than an international high-heeled roller skating icon, and her achievements are enough to make your head spin! She’s a circus school graduate, a 12x The Guinness Book of World Records holder, a showgirl, a designer, a writer, a teacher, a wife, a mother and more! She took some time out of her busy schedule to chat, and imparted so much of her experience and inner world to us. Marawa’s world is dazzling, and she had us transfixed just the same whether she w...
Jasmine & Mack here! We can’t believe we just finished our first season of our first podcast! Neither of us had any experience in podcasting, and in this episode we talk about what we’ve learned along the way. We open up about the difficulties and the wins we experienced collaborating together, and the ups and downs of pursuing the podcast alongside our busy lives. We reflect on the varied points of views of our amazing guests, and achieving genuine connections that led to beautiful ...
Kid Ace, the creator of Yoga for Skaters, has got more than shredding in her back pocket, with over 12 years total experience in the fields of yoga, personal training, and health coaching she’s highly attuned to how all of these plug into a happy lifetime of roller skating! Throughout this intimate chat Ace opens up about how difficult life events including roller derby injury, mental health treatment, and academic pursuits falling through were part of her path to finding where she was meant ...
Roxy Dallas is a rare, dare we say, dying breed of New York weirdo. A captivating storyteller and wearer of many hats, she takes us on a journey in this episode starting with her roots in peewee hockey, then stumbling upon Roller Derby while sitting for a tattoo, to today where she’s got an over ten year Roller Derby career under her belt which includes winning the Hydra for Gotham! Roxy opens up about some hard hits in recent years including the long pandemic hiatus of Gotham Roller Derby an...
Olive best known for Queer Skate Alliance (QSA) and their company Radical Wheels has seen the skating world from more vantage points than most. They formed their derby roots on the bank track, fell in love with the expressive outlet of park skating, cut their teeth buying for a roller skating shop, and took on manufacturing their very own park wheels with co-creator Neon of BIPOC Who Skate! In this interview Olive sheds light on their experience with concussions, the stigma behind knowing you...