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When you go swimming, you get wet. When you go skating, you fall down.
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Throughout California people are roller skating. From the beaches in San Diego and Venice Beach to the Church of 8 Wheels Roller and Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, roller skating is part of the culture of California!!! The Church of 8 Wheels rink is seeing visitors from around the world for that “Only in San Francisco” experience. Panther Plaza and Liberation Park in Oakland are thriving. Those great neighborhood pop up skate events are bringing the joy of roller skating to communities throughout California. Right when everything is looking so bright for the wonderful world of roller skating, roller rinks and events are about face extinction if nothing is done to prevent it. 2024 is seeing roller skating insurance policies skyrocket through the stratosphere. My insurance went from $1,800.00 a year to $38,000.00 a year. Roller skating has been dropped by all the major insurance carriers. People are finding this out when they go for renewal. It’s not just here. It’s a nationwide problem. I read the following article on what the state of Florida did to protect roller rink operators. The Roller Skating Rink Safety Act shields roller rinks from injury claims. The Florida Judiciary Committee approved the “Roller Skating Rink Safety Act.” HB 1129, sponsored by Orlando Rep. Susan Plasencia, would shift liability burdens in many cases to skaters and patrons rather than management and ownership, with the goal of lowering insurance premiums for owners and operators of the roughly 41 rinks left in the Florida. Owners would bear the responsibility of prominently posting at least three signs informing skaters and patrons of their risks, as well as having at least one manager on hand for every 200 customers. They are also charged with keeping the skating surface in a “reasonably safe” condition. Florida has joined Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina and Texas with legislation governing rink liability. Upon reading this, the very first thing that came to my mind was if they can do this in Florida, they can do this in San Francisco and throughout California. Please take a look at the article and the Florida House Bill HB 1129 https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2023/1129/BillText/c1/PDF If roller skating is to survive, San Francisco and all of California needs to adopt this. The effort begins NOW!!! Keep Rollin’ David Miles Jr. The GodFather of Skate The Church of 8 Wheels |