Stunning! Just stunning.
Empire's Tuesday Night Skate rolled and it looks like they had ~ 20 skaters despite the heatwave and the 90+°F temperatures.
Meanwhile, some of the Aussie skaters we follow on Strava are complaining it's so very cold when it's in the 40s or 50s °F? That's perfect skating weather if you dress for it.
Hey out-of-town skater folk:
If you're planning to visit #NYC for the 2025 Big Apple Roll #GroupSkate weekend — first weekend of August — the deadline for booking a room at the event hotel and qualifying for the event rate is this Friday, June 6!
Just been watching a couple video clips on Strava of a roller dance and #GroupSkate that were part of a wedding in Warsaw. Polish skaters are nuts, in the best possible way.
Skate Boston is now in the house with announcement of the 2025 Lobster Roll #GroupSkate weekend dates. It will be late August, three weeks after our own Big Apple Roll and a week before Labor Day weekend.
Just spotted on IG that the NJ Monday Night Skate, who meet up in WNY and roll along the riverfront, will try to do their inaugural 2025 #GroupSkate tonight, 4/7.
Good luck, skate peeps. Weather has not been cooperative for group events of late.
Belatedly, a couple activity posts on Strava by people saying something about rain, which we never noticed in our sad little corner of Manhattan in the W110s.
But apparently some of the hardcore (U)WNS did show up. Keep on rolling, dudes! 👍
Absolutely nothing in our Strava feed. Did #NYC Wednesday Night Skate delay their official season start a week?
Edit: And… we belatedly find something elsewhere on social media that they canceled. The attached graphic suggests rain, which we saw none of tonight.
For skaters who love to travel to #GroupSkate weekends, we've added three more events to the Empire club calendar: Atlanta at the end of May, Portland (OR) at the end of June, and DC at the start of September. Still waiting to hear what the plans are in Boston, LA and Toronto.
We're looking at our Strava feed and seeing that several NYC skaters are attending Skate Houston weekend. We know from life experience that they will have precious few hills to challenge their knees the next few days. (We hope Valhalla still admits skaters.)
In other skate weekend news, Skate Chicago has just announced their dates. That will be Mid-August, two weeks after our own Big Apple Roll.
It's officially scheduled now. Organizers have started updating the Big Apple Roll website with info about the BAR 2025 weekend. As anticipated, dates are Thu 7/31 thru Sun 8/3.
Of course, there will be special editions of the Tuesday and Wednesday night skates beforehand for the hardcore who want even more skating.
Uh-oh. Skate of the Union has announced their dates in June, and it's the same weekend as the Philly Free Skate.
Miami Skater Migration started today, and info about other #GroupSkate weekends in 2025 has begun to roll in, including Houston in March, Philadelphia in June and Seattle in July. Check the Empire website calendar for links to those events and for info about local #NYC #InlineSkating activity.
We've been seeing activities appear in our Strava feed showing that some NYC skaters have been rolling in Miami, which is very confusing. Miami Skater Migration weekend doesn't start until this coming Thursday!
Not seeing anything on Strava to suggest that #NYC Wednesday Night Skate rolled this week. Alas! Looks like the city's hardcore skaters rolled Tuesday then took Wednesday off from the frigid temperatures.
(We were not hardcore, but we may skate Thursday when it warms up to 25°F!)
The hardcore did indeed show up for the #NYC Tuesday Night Skate on a sub 20°F night. And apparently all that all 8 or 9 of them wanted to do was doodle.
The forecast for rolling a #GroupSkate in #NYC looks better this week than last. Still could be a bit windy for the Tuesday and Wednesday skates, but still… better weather.
Cold and very (lean on the very) windy, and yet we hear that 15 skaters showed up for Empire's Tuesday Night Skate on 1/7. The mind boggles.
Supposed to be even windier Wednesday evening, so how many of the ultra hardcore will roll the UWNS?
That was a cold and windy weekend in #NYC, but we know people were out #InlineSkating in it. The new Saturday night #GroupSkate did their thing, albeit a pretty small group, and we saw activities popping up on Strava. We got a decent one in Sunday afternoon.
Good luck to the Tuesday and Wednesday night skaters this week. Wind forecast looks… unpleasant.
(Note to self: Wear sunglasses when skating down the WSBP on a sunny day approaching sunset. The gleam off 1WTC, oy.)
Note to #NYC #GroupSkate fans, even before the weather started looking iffy, the Tuesday Night Skate leaders had already decided to move this coming week's roll to Monday. Apparently they want to celebrate NYE off-skate.
B'okay, looks like Empire's Tuesday Nght Skate can roll tonight in temperate conditions. But latest weather forecast suggests the Unofficial Wednesday Night Skate will have to do their Dyker Heights skate on the raindate on Thursday.
Don't get us started about what the weather looks like come Sunday and Monday. Brrrr. Break out the cocoa and make sure it's hot.
