Ryan Miller. Cross-grab fishbrain. (Click photo to enlarge)

Words by Brian Krans
Photos by B.J. Bales (unless otherwise noted)

It was November and I was waiting to meet Seth Isaacson at Davenport’s outdoor park. The wind off the Mississippi River turned the 40-degree temperature down significantly.

Not long into skating, I had racked my shin on a handrail. The half-hour I had spent warming up — my body temperature, not my appendages — was immediately wasted. My shin ached and the cold only made it worse.

Seth pulled up in his trusty minivan from Andover, Ill., and I said I was done. He asked if I could open up SkateChurch. Tien Chang met us there. As we were skating inside the warmer lower level, Tien said, “I wish we could have a session to ourselves like this every week.”

One question to Pennie Kellenberger, the church’s youth pastor and the heart of SkateChurch, and it was done.

That was then. This is now.

Brian Krans. Vertical negative makio stall to fakie. (Click photo to enlarge)

Far away from the regular Friday night sessions where rollerbladers shared the three-floor indoor park with sometimes 300-plus skateboarders, we created our own session. No longer are we allowed to skate when it’s so packed with bodies it seemed the walls themselves were breathing too.

Three floors crammed full of pint-sized skateboarders snaking and wandering aimlessly, completely unaware of the rollerblader that needs speed for a trick.

Thursday sessions started Nov. 29 with 11 people. Now, it sees as many as 20 rollerbladers a week.

This is our time. One we share with any biker or skateboarder that has graduated high school. It’s something that had to be done to ensure enough money comes in to keep the lighting bill paid.

It’s known as the O.G. session.

It’s such a revered regular session that there’s even a Facebook group for it.

We’ve finally stopped competing for ramp space. No longer do we have to start braking immediately after a trick to avoid crashing into a group of teenage skateboarders crowding every rail or box.

B.J. Bales. Acid to royale 270 out. Photo: Andrew “Droid” Hall. (Click photo to enlarge)

This is winter skating at it’s finest. A time where thoughts of disappearing snowdrifts have us honing tricks on a grind box.

This is when the regulars can’t wait for the doors to open to get four hours of skating in at one time. Not in a basement, garage or shoveled patch of parking lot. No, in a full-fledged skate park we have to ourselves.

It’s where local Tien Chang perfected his textbook top souls and alleyoop unities. It’s where Seth crafts his fluid-like switch ups. It’s where Eric McDonough of Davenport and Jeff Wilson from Ames swap attempts at 360 top souls.

It’s where newcomers like Eric Cheung and Rollin Metzger of the Quad Cities and Ben Forsythe of Galena get the basics taken care of on the quarters, minis and rails.

The Galena Three, as they’ve come to be known — Ben, Brian Simonsmeier and Aaron Schultz — drive on a nearly regular basis through crap weather just to skate. Quad Cities skaters like Corey Ruby, Ryan Miller and Droid pop in whenever their work schedules allow. It’s a place where B.J. Bales and Les Mooney return on breaks from college.

It’s the chosen home where Deft Productions will be premiering its latest video, “Visions,” on Saturday, March 1, at 1 p.m.

Josh Goodell. Fishbrain. (Click photo to enlarge)

Every week, we shake the snow off our shoes and walk inside the doors. It’s a four-hour weekly home Quad Cities rollerblading hasn’t seen since Rampage closed years ago.

We don’t have to fight for ramps. We’re just there, cheering each other on as we work on tricks we can’t wait to use when the tundra releases its grip on the frozen concrete outside.

Droid. Alleyoop top tea kettle with a grab. (Click photo to enlarge)