Skate Estate

I have to give a 5 star review bc let's be honest here.....ya maybe everything isn't brand new or totally up to date if you will BUT this place has stood through the toughest of times and kept GENERATION'S of us, our kids, our kid's kid's kids... LoL happy and safe. Most of all it's a great place to meet your friends as a teen and not have to leave parents worrying so terribly much.... So TY Skate Estate, You rock and we will keep on skating!! .....Oh and let's not even mention how fair and incredibly affordable it is in THIS day and age!! Still have $1 days? YEP!! Like whaaat??!! Thank you beyond measure!! And Enjoy Every 1!!

Many years ago I had discovered a small skating rink in my old town as a kid. I spent hours there skating, eating, playing games, and just enjoying life as a care free kid until one day I woke up with my sense of balance completely shattered. It was a new condition that physicians from around the globe were puzzled by. Doctors said I’d never be able to skate again. My mom made me hang up the skates and hit the books. Life at that moment was over, my sense of happiness and joy were now shattered just as my balance was. But boy were they wrong. Days turned to weeks and weeks eventually turned to years as my balance slowly returned but I was still told never to step foot on a skating rink again or risk life and death but I couldn’t look myself in the mirror without being reminded of what was once such a beautiful passion of mine. I decided enough was enough. I was going to grab life by the horns and lace up once again. I meandered into Skate Estate on a chilly rainy evening with an international skating super star in hand. I was going to conquer my disability and prove that my life belonged out there on that polished wooden floor, but I knew I’d need their guidance to achieve the unachievable. Walking in seeing the bright lights of the arcade games flickering against the black-lit painted walls and ceiling was like something out of a dream. The sounds of laughter reverberated across the room and smells of pizza and popcorn permeated the air. Rental skates in hand (quite affordable mind you) I laced up and immediately was brought back to a simpler time. A comforting moment we all have somewhere deep in our subconscious. The weight had finally been lifted and I was ready to take on the world. With Kanye West’s 2005 Grammy Award winning song “Gold Digger” playing on a vintage tinny speaker set, the stage was set and my performance was about to begin. At first, knees were a bit frail. Like a newborn horse trying to gauge their situation in the world. After a few laps I decided to really stretch my legs out. Speeds ever increasing, the line between safe and dangerous were becoming blurry. With one final lap before a pizza break, it happened. The stumble heard around the globe. It was like a car accident, everything became slower and yet faster at the same time, I knew I was in trouble. The flashbacks of doctors and nurses telling me this would happen came crashing over me like a wave of truths. Panic had set in and it was too late to avoid the inevitable. I hit the floor like I had been pushed out of a moving car. My spinal column and skull thankfully took the brunt of the collision and typically those are the ideal spots to hit versus say, a hand. I laid there for a few minutes trying to understand what went wrong. How could this happen in such a glorious nostalgic space? Were my parents right? Was roller skating truly a depraved sport where death or dismemberment are lurking around every corner? Is my back okay? Will I even be able to walk again let alone skate? Is the pizza here actually good? (It’s straight fire btw so get some) I needed to be rushed to the hospital to answer a few of those questions but before doing that we had to grab some snacks at the counter. Pizza in hand and even some leftover cupcakes we decided to check out. Trading in our skates for shoes I attempted to procure a famed Skate Estate t-shirt but to no avail. Would genuinely rock one day in and day out if possible so management hit me up. Doctors now say that I will never walk again. I had flown too close to the sun and now have to pay the price. However, it was all worth it for a moment in the spotlight. Skate Estate, you may have taken my legs but you gave me my spirit back. Much love.