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 park’s 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 what’s 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.
Persons:
Kayla Dizon, Dizon
Locations:
Venice, Pacific