Quick Take
Little has changed about the Santa Cruz Roller Palladium since it opened in 1950, and for Diane Ethrington, who bought it with her husband from the original owners in 1986, its perennial appeal lies in its simplicity.
Stepping into the Santa Cruz Roller Palladium is like stepping back to a simpler time before the internet and social media, when a fun Saturday night meant meeting your best friends to skate around to the latest tunes.
That simple formula has kept the Roller Palladium on Seabright Avenue in Santa Cruz going for 75 years without video games, an arcade or fancy digital signage. It’s just a place to come for a couple hours of skating and socializing. In fact, little has changed since 1950, except pricing and both the style of music and how it’s played. Gone are the days of vinyl records — now skaters move to digital playlists.
Diane Ethrington and her husband, Rick, have been at the helm of Roller Palladium for the past 40 years, having purchased the business in 1986 from its original owners, who were Rick’s longtime family friends. Rick Ethrington’s father worked at the rink, and both he and his brother took roller skating lessons there growing up. He jokes that he was practically born at the rink, so taking over the business from Denny and Heddy Sargeant seemed like a natural progression.
The Sargeants opened the Palladium on Nov. 30, 1950. They previously managed a skating rink on Washington Street, adjacent to what’s now Depot Park, that burned down in 1945. The Sargeants initially sought to open a new rink downtown, but were turned down by the city council, which felt the rink would attract “rowdy” crowds and riffraff, according to Ethrington. The 8,500-square-foot Midtown facility, which still has the original maple rink floor, can support up to 175 skaters at a time.
In the four decades since the Ethringtons took over, they’ve seen interest in skating ebb and flow. Roller disco faded, in-line skates had a phase, then quad skates made a comeback in the early 2000s driven in part by the rise of women’s roller derby.
Birthday parties remain their bread and butter. (In fact, Lookout readers voted the Palladium the top spot for children’s birthday parties in the inaugural Lookout List.) But they also hold regular open skating hours, including a special weekly session reserved for children age 8 and under.
The pandemic sparked new interest from adults, who began skating outside during the COVID-19 shutdowns. More and more adults are also hosting their own birthday parties at the Palladium, in addition to company gatherings, bachelorette parties and other events.
Diane Ethrington believes the Palladium’s perennial appeal lies in its simplicity – a place where people can take a break from their phones and devices to “meet, sit and chat, and just have a good time,” she said. It’s also alcohol-free and family-friendly, and very often free of the digital devices that occupy so much of our daily lives. While she does sometimes see parents on their phones or computers while their kids skate, more often than not, they’re chatting with friends and just enjoying watching their children circle the rink. Even the kids typically eschew their devices while at the rink.
Nostalgia is also key; many of their patrons grew up coming to Palladium as children and now return with their own children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews.
“I hear all the time, ‘Oh, I haven’t skated in 20 years or 50 years,’” Diane Ethrington said of those patrons. “Many want to revisit it because they [skated] when they were younger and they want to bring it back.”
Seeing people return time after time has been one of Diane Ethrington’s favorite parts of running the business — they even have one patron who is still skating at the age of 90. She also enjoys watching people on skates for the first time. “They’re clinging to the wall, and then all of a sudden, they can skate, they’re showing their friends and they enjoy it,” she said.
It’s also become a family affair. The Ethringtons’ daughter skated there and helped out at the rink as a teenager. Their grandchildren skate and have worked at the rink, and now their four great-grandchildren skate. Some were on wheels as soon as they could even walk, Diane Ethrington said. On a recent weekday, Ethrington’s 4-year-old great-granddaughter and 2-year-old great-grandson were eager to show off their skills on four wheels.
The Roller Palladium’s longevity is something of an anomaly in the world of roller rinks. At one point, there were over 2,000 rinks in the country, but that number has dwindled significantly. The Roller Skating Association, an industry organization for roller rink owners founded in 1937, currently has about 600 rink-owner members and estimates there are around 900 rinks active today. (Not all rinks are members of the association.) Many closed after the pandemic began, but interest in rollerskating has started to pick up again since then.
“There’s a saying that ‘roller skating was the original social network’ and it still holds true today,” said Billy Thompson, president of the Roller Skating Association. “We offer fun at an affordable price, and I think that will help us survive over the next few years.”
Places like San Francisco’s Church of 8 Wheels, a church-turned-rink founded in the 1970s, are still drawing crowds, along with other rinks in the greater Bay Area like Paradise Skate Roller Rink in Antioch and Skate Escape in San Rafael. Others haven’t been so lucky, like San Ramon’s Golden Skate, which has long faced closure due to a proposed development. A message posted on social media on Nov. 8 stated the business was closed indefinitely due to illness. San Jose’s Aloha Fun Center, which housed a roller rink, miniature golf course and laser tag facilities, closed its location at the Eastridge Mall in March citing high rate rents, though its owners have said on social media that they’re seeking to reopen in a smaller venue.
Reflecting on the past 40 years, Ethrington said she doesn’t regret her decision to keep it simple. “It’s a nice floor for people to skate. We have a few lights but we don’t have fog machines or other gimmicks,” she said. “When we first took over, people thought we should have video games, but we don’t have the space and I felt like, no, it’s just for skating.”
Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here.