Fans skate around again to roller rinks

Within the swinging doors, there's a slight breeze from fast-moving bodies and a grating rumble of wheels on wood.

A mass of skating teenagers circles around and around an oval rink, some in tight, fast loops; the more pensive ones in big, slow orbits.

The song "Candy Shop" by rapper 50 Cent booms from above, bass so loud it quakes the ribs. The only light comes from dancing pink and yellow disco balls and black-light-illuminated stars on cinderblock walls.

In rink-side shadows, a few skaters refuel with greasy pizza and fries. Victoria Gonzalez, 11, loiters among them, bobbing one skate-covered foot.

"I love skating, but it's hard to explain why," said the Haverhill tween, who spends every Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday on wheels at Skateland, her hometown rink. "It doesn't at all get boring going around and around."

You might've thought roller skating was as passe as "Xanadu" or the jumpsuits and polyester shirts that highlighted its disco-era heyday.

But there's a new generation of rink rats spending endless hours rolling on quads, the four-wheeled predecessors to in-line skates. Interest in the nostalgic pastime has been so notable that officials are declaring a "boom" in business.

Local rink operators aren't surprised by the surge -- skating's popularity goes in cycles, they say, and like most other sports, it has timeless appeal. "It's fun. That doesn't go away," said Marc Pyche, owner and operator of Skateland, which opened in Haverhill in 1951. "It's always gonna be fun."

Besides the obvious enjoyment factor, today's eight-wheeled enthusiasts say skating is also good aerobic exercise, burning roughly 500 calories an hour, a way to make friends -- often after collisions -- and an opportunity to express oneself artistically to music.

"It's all about the beat," said Danny Barrett-Wood of Randolph, who skates every weekend at Roller World in Saugus. "It runs through my head."

The 15-year-old spent the better part of a recent Saturday getting lost in the music. Dressed in a white T-shirt and baggy jeans, black sunglasses shielding his eyes and a Bluetooth cellphone device on his right ear, he cruised in circles, shaking his arms as if he were swishing a martini shaker, subtly swiveling his hips and rotating his shoulders.

"I'm just dancing in skates," he said, shrugging.

Dozens of others circled the dusky rink around him -- packs of giddy teens, young couples holding hands, and dads accompanying smaller ones barely old enough to loop their own laces.

At a clear spot near the wall, 33-year-old Adrian Fox performed moves that involved rising up on his toes and hopping as he crisscrossed his feet.

"Sometimes I'll be on the floor for hours," the Everett resident noted a few minutes later as he coasted out of the rink, the yellow wheels on his black, size 9 skates grinding slightly on the carpet.

What makes it so engrossing? Learning new moves, he said. His favorite is an "eagle spread," in which he coasts with his feet at 45-degree angles.

Going around and around to the music is also therapeutic. "When I'm on the floor, it's like everything's invisible," said the goateed Fox. "I lose track of time, of everything."

You certainly can't say the same of the skating industry -- it, conversely, seems to be righting itself. Rinks nationwide are experiencing increases in gross sales of at least 20 percent, according to Joe Champa, president of the Indianapolis-based Roller Skating Association International.

But why now? The immense popularity of roller derby, the crash-and-bash women's sport, and jam skating, a form of freestyle that incorporates breakdancing, hip hop, and gymnastics, have reinvigorated interest in old-fashioned quad skating. Youth birthday parties are also a big hit, in some cases comprising 50 percent of a rink's business.

Undoubtedly, though, rink operators say the current boom will never rival the period from 1975 to 1981. During what's known as the "golden era" of skating, the number of rinks nearly doubled, jumping from 1,200 to 2,200 nationwide, Champa said.

Disco fever subsided in the early '80s, however, with numbers dropping again to 1,200. Today, there are roughly 900 rinks around the country; 12 of them are in Massachusetts, compared with the 150 operating in 1981.

Still, local rink operators say less competition allows them to thrive.

"It's been busy for us, definitely busier than in past years," Roller World owner Jerry Breen said amid the smell of french fries and a booming song by Cyndi Lauper from the early '80s.

He's improvised a bit over the years to keep things going. He offers ballroom dancing classes on Saturday nights and rents out the rink to soccer teams.

Skateland has seen an uptick, too, although not as seismic as other rinks. Several bridge construction projects in Haverhill have made the skating center hard to find, hampering business by roughly 40 percent, owner Pyche said.

But otherwise, he's confident in skating's durability. "It's not going away anytime soon."

Nearby, skaters within the oval moved forward, backward, and sideways to Pink's "You and Your Hand." At rink's center, a tall, blond 13-year-old, sporting mini cutoffs and a sunflower-colored tube top, showed off with a headstand.

Later, the nimble teen, Hunter Tuck of Haverhill, noted that she likes skating because of the athleticism involved. Also, "all my friends are here," she said as she snacked on Sour Patch Kids, overhead black lights illuminating the glow-in-the-dark laces on her quads. "We hang out."

Teens, though, aren't the only ones discovering life on wheels -- adults are reacquainting themselves with skating.

"It reminds me of when I was younger and better at it," chuckled Peabody resident Jeff Lane, who spent a recent afternoon at Roller World with his 10-year-old son, Jordan, and daughter Madison, 7.

Lane, 38, said he started skating at age 7, and now he's happy as long as he doesn't fall down. "I'm never in perfect shape for this," he noted, "but I never stop."

As if to emphasize, he glanced down at his watch and motioned to his kids.

"We've got time for two more laps. Let's go."

They kicked off, getting lost in the cyclone of people, circling and circling.