Aggressive Skating, Like Other 1990s Trends, Is Re-emerging

On a May afternoon at a Venice Beach skate park, the drooping sun cast an amber glow on Kayla Dizon as she shot her way across the pavement on a pair of in-line skates.

Ms. Dizon, 25, had not come to cruise leisurely along the Pacific Coast like many spandex- and swimsuit-clad skaters do. Wearing a T-shirt and cutoff shorts that revealed a massive purple-yellow bruise on her leg, Ms. Dizon instead was scraping her skates wheels on the edges of the parks sinuous curves and sharp dips as her dyed-red hair thrashed in the air.

Like many people, Ms. Dizon took up in-line skating often called Rollerblading, thanks to a popular brand of skates during the pandemic, after a friend gave her a pair of skates. It was that same friend, she said, who coaxed her into trying whats known as aggressive or in-line street skating, a style heavy on tricks and stunts like grinding curbs, skidding on railings and spinning along half-pipes.

I fell in love right away, Ms. Dizon said, even though, as she put it, I wasnt good right away.