history

How it started rolling

It was early spring 1997. The first nice day and Yuri, Chris en Alice were skating in the Vondelpark. They had no clue that they’d be the ‘godfathers’ of the Friday night skate. They had heard of California where it started in 1989. An earthquake had damaged the Embarcadero Freeway and was closed. This made an excellent skate way. Hundreds of skaters came there everyday. When the highway-reconstruction started they decided to meet every Friday at the bay.

In the same way Yuri, Chris and Alice went skating through Amsterdam on Friday night with some friends. At a fixed meeting point and an unknown route. This way the Friday Night Skate was born.

Paris ... Vondelpark!

Mid nineties Paris had started their Night Skate. August 1997 some hardcore Vondelpark slalom-skaters experienced the Paris Night Skate and decided to promote the idea of the Night Skate together with Yuri, Chris and Alice, who already started this in spring. The Friday Night Skate as we now know it was born.

In the summer of 1998 the Friday Night Skate found a lot of Media attention so the number of skaters increased up to 500 in September.

October 1998 Stichting Skate! Was founded to ensure the quality, and the professional character of the Friday Night Skate.

On the third of September 1999 over 3000 Skaters joined. A record! In the year 1999 the foundation Stichting Skate! And its volunteers received the award "Amsterdam citizens of the year" for their initiative.

The foundation Stichting Skate!

Stichting Skate! not only represents the interest of the skaters joining in the Friday Night Skate, it also tries to represent the interest of all skaters in Amsterdam. And it organized several inline-skate events in the nation’s capital such as the Fright Night Halloween parties, the skate-events at Schiphol in 2001 and 2002, the Theme-nights and the Amsterdam Skate Festivals in 2003 and 2004 with over 3000 visitors/participants each.