It was a bittersweet celebration recently for San Francisco’s ultra-dedicated community of skaters, whose figurehead has been attracting some unsavory attention.
A temporary rink inside a Crissy Field hangar opened up last week to celebrate local skaters, whose infectious smiles we often see through the stained-glass windows of the Church of 8 Wheels. The OG place of worship in Fillmore became an iconic roller disco in 2013, but the group actually began corralling skaters in 1979 under a different name and stewardship of David Miles Jr.
He beamed on Sunday when Mayor London Breed presented a special commendation for his near half-century of community effort. Fun celebrations ensued, but then Skate Week ended a little early under suspicious circumstances.
At a regular skate session in Golden Gate Park, Miles got angry at someone who turned down his stereo, triggering a flurry of he-said, she-said comments on Facebook about his behavior. A final showcase I planned to cover was canceled due to equipment concerns, and an apology that Miles put on Facebook disappeared.
He told me via email yesterday that the ensuing media coverage and social media posts are essentially a smear campaign by jealous haters.
“All I can tell you is that when anyone has done as much as I have done for roller skating, Golden Gate Park and the City of San Francisco for over 45 years is going to have jealous people, haters, and others that have merely shown up to take advantage that of the tremendous work and energy that my family and I has given to this City,” Miles said in an email to The Bold Italic.
As for his accusers, we spoke directly to several regulars who say the Godfather of Skate has ongoing temper issues; Inside the Holy Rollers, it feels like even its highest clergy is not immune from judgment.
“It’s time,” one skater told me about a possible changing of the guard. “David’s kids know how to run this community, and they’re amazing.”
Listen it’s no secret we love our puff pieces at The Bold Italic, from an I Love San Francisco series to ongoing adoration of our street festivals and one-of-a-kind events. In that way, these skaters felt like the ultimate gimme — one that we’ve celebrated, profiled its members, posted adoring photos and videos — and one that local news regularly pushes in front of us for a small serotonin boost in some otherwise dark times. So it’s disheartening to share this story, but it also felt wrong to omit it entirely.
This is a dedicated organization that saved skating from becoming illegal in San Francisco in the 1970s and created a model for cities around the world. Back in 1979, Golden Gate Park was a hot spot for skating, and not like the modest group of skaters you see in the rink on weekends — “I’m talking 20 to 25 thousand skaters,” Miles told me in a recent interview.
“There were injuries and accidents so the park didn’t know what to do, so they were going to ban skating in San Francisco,” he said.
The city began making it illegal to skate in certain areas until Miles and a few other evangelists got together and formed Skate Patrol. They focused on safety in the early days, preaching good etiquette and providing first aid when needed.
The skate community also worked for decades on the movement to make Golden Gate Park a pedestrian promenade. Their efforts gained steam during the pandemic, when JFK was shut down to vehicular traffic, and then permanently in November 2023.
The 6th Ave Skatin’ Place roller rink has been a staple of San Francisco skate culture since 1984; It’s now 17,000 square feet, and a bill was recently passed to allow a skate concession there so that people can rent. This opens up the community to people who aren’t established skaters, emphasizing the community’s key pillar of inclusivity.
The group has continued to grow and roll across the country, producing events for some of the largest festivals in the world including Coachella, the Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas, and Burning Man; and the Friday Night Skate meetup is all around the world now.
Skate Patrol and the Holy Rollers have influenced fashion, music, and lifestyle trends in the Bay Area, and they’ve become a symbol of freedom, fun, and the countercultural spirit of an era that has lasted nearly five decades.
We know this group will endure, recover, and continue to thrive from this recent bittersweet moment. If it’s one thing San Francisco skaters know well, it’s how to get back up when they fall. We have faith that the tight-knit group will continue to roll on.
Courtney Muro is a San Francisco-based content strategist, producer, designer, and creator.
The Bold Italic is a non-profit media organization, and we publish first-person perspectives about San Francisco and the Bay Area. Donate to us today.
The emailed statement from David Miles Jr. —
All I can tell you is that when anyone has done as much as I have done for roller skating, Golden Gate Park and the City of San Francisco for over 45 years is going to have jealous people, haters, and others that have merely shown up to take advantage that of the tremendous work and energy that my family and I has given to this City. If anyone ever took the time to research any of the negative responses from the people that are quoted in these articles, you would find that nothing happens for no reason. Every action causes a reaction.
There is a class of people in today skate scene that feel they can do whatever they want to do without an kind of consequences to their actions. I have dealing with the “privileged” attitudes of some of these people that think they can insult people, belittle people, basically treat others like they are above them. Not one of them get involved with the hard work that has made the skate scene in San Francisco the envy of the planet. They have a extreme sense of entitlement. which is destroying the paradise my family and I have built in Golden Gate Park over 45 years.
What is worse is some in the media is being used as a weapon to hurt me, my family and all the great work we have done over decades. 25 million people visit Golden Gate Park every year and I have spent a lifetime making sure all those people have a positive, safe and exciting “only in San Francisco” experience that has been literally recognized all over the world and that means absolutely nothing. People that have done absolutely nothing to be a part of making that happen are allowed to tear it down to get clicks and no one does the research to fact check anything. Well, that is not going to work for me or my family.
I am not going to just take this without shining a light to my side of the story. I am gathering all the instances where these same people that you have quoted and supported in this example of entitlement, hate and lies and exposing the incidences that will give you a better picture of what is the real problem here.
