A Random Night at Astro Rollerskate Rink

by Rob Meronek

Astro Skate Center is this rollerskate rink that's in Tarpon Springs, Florida near Westside Skate Shop. Every Saturday night, they have a three hour skateboarding session where they bring out ramps so horrible they end up being fun. It's also nice to skate in air conditioning for a change instead of this brutal Florida heat season we're in now. They're charging six bucks to get in and when we went, we didn't have to sign a waiver. I'm not sure how long Astro has been doing this, but I used to go way back in the early 90's when I first moved here. Up until this random night we decided to go, I hadn't been there in over 10 years. If you can stand skating with a bunch of little kids, it's worth a trip out there every now and then. A few photos from our day and night are below.

Nick Matlin kickflip wallrides on the sketchy, shaky, no deck bank to wall thing

Nick Matlin - 360 nosegrab off one of the many launchers they have there. The place hasn't changed in nearly 15 years

Bighouse Bob's got some launch ramp skills. I'd like to ollie off that thing and into the funhouse thing in the back

Right before I made this, I took one of those loop out and land right on your chest and stomach slams at the bottom of the bank ramp. Fallling on the rollerskate floor doesn't hurt even half as bad as breaking yourself on concrete. Nick Matlin, thanks for taking the photo of this front rock

This is at around 3am. Dodge broke his ankle a few minutes into our session at Astro. My chief partner in nightlife and skateboard crime is out for at least six weeks

Dodge and I had a long wait in the Emergency Room. While we were there, we met this crew of skaters that got into a car accident while on their way to the Skatepark