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On any given Tuesday evening, it’s a safe bet you’ll find Dale Edwards skating under the glimmer of the Happy Wheels disco ball.

Amid the sounds of Donna Summer, the third-generation skater glides across the polished blue floor as people hold their phones up to film.

After a decade away from the sport, Edwards, 34, laced up his skates at Happy Wheels, the rink that reopened in Westbrook in 2022, three years after it closed in Portland. Edwards is among a growing community of young skaters and social media content creators who are helping breathe new life into the Maine roller skate scene.

A year ago, Edwards launched Roller Skate New England, a content brand and Instagram account with the handle @sk8.ne. The page has grown to over 4,000 followers, showcasing skaters from across the region and highlighting often-overlooked skate communities.

“The reason I’m doing this is because I want people to know that there is skating north of New Jersey, which a lot of people don’t,” Edwards said. “They don’t know that there is skating in Maine.”

The roots of Edwards’ skating passion run deep. He began skating as a high school freshman at an old Happy Wheels location in Newington, New Hampshire, following the lead of his mother, grandmother and grandfather — all skaters before him.

But it wasn’t until he began traveling to rinks around the country that he realized just how distinct each region’s skate culture could be. That inspired him to spotlight New England’s unique scene and rekindle its visibility through social media.

A UNIQUE SCENE

Styles of roller skating vary regionally, and in Maine, a unique type of shuffle skating is the predominant form. It’s easily replicable and recognizable, and it makes for eye-catching videos on social media. It’s characterized by stepping into the beat and double kicking the right leg on the third and fourth beat, Edwards said. People also wear skates made of suede, which in other skate communities — like those in California — would only be worn outside. The addition of backstops is also unique to Maine, according to the owner of Happy Wheels.

Soon after Edwards started Roller Skate New England, he became overwhelmed with the amount of content he was creating. So, he decided to make the page collaborative. Edwards still shoots video of skaters, but he sends the unedited video to those he films, who edit and add music themselves.

Seeing the videos from the reopened Happy Wheels rink has brought a wave of nostalgia for longtime skaters with deep roots in Maine skating history.

“For us to start having people film in here — and then people see the blue floor and the colors on the wall — they say, ‘Wait a minute, I remember that place,’” Edwards said. “Everybody remembers this place. What we didn’t have before was the upfront, in-your-face relevance of a rink that exists on social media. That all happened in the past year.”

Others have joined in, including Robert Maxwell, a 37-year-old mechanic, who runs a TikTok account called Pine Tree Skates with more than 6,800 followers. His videos, which showcase the energy and talent on the rink floor, regularly rack up hundreds of thousands of views.

@pinetreeskates No greater joy than skating with your children! ❤️? @Happy Wheels Skate Center #rollerskating #rollerskatinglife #rollerskatingfamily #daddaughter ♬ Good Vibrations – DJ 90’s Party Mix

Maxwell and his family spend every weekend skating at Happy Wheels. He often comes with his 9-year-old daughter, who he says is a “natural.” His wife is part of the Skate Lab, a women’s skate collective based at Happy Wheels.

“It’s a blessing to share a part of my childhood with my family,” Maxwell said. “Happy Wheels is my home. It’s in our blood.”

He launched his TikTok channel on his birthday last year, inspired by fellow Mainer and skating content creator Fernando Moreno, whose Facebook following exceeds 140,000 accounts, far above most other Maine skaters.

“Social media in general has definitely played its hand in helping keep it alive and giving it the sort of rebirth thing in this moment,” he said.

THE NEW RINK RATS

In addition to longtime skaters, newcomers to the activity are also lacing up, many drawn in by online content from influencers around the country.

Jordan Carson, 31, of Buxton, picked up a pair of skates just weeks ago after stumbling across videos from Push, a popular roller skate influencer based in Atlanta.

“I bought a pair of skates a few days after seeing those videos,” Carson said. He has been going to Tuesday night adult skate at Happy Wheels ever since.

Tuesday night skate is an institution at Happy Wheels. But part of bringing in a younger crowd is organizing events for them on other nights.

Edwards was integral in Happy Wheels hosting the Boston Swerve Takeover, a Thursday night event that brought in skaters from across New England and the country. Boston Swerve is a community of roller skaters who host events throughout New England.

The May 3 takeover introduced a new scene to Happy Wheels, bringing in other skating styles, such as rhythm skating. Boston skate DJ Manny Reese came to spin genres like house, R&B and hip-hop.

Happy Wheels wants to keep the momentum rolling, starting with Thursday Night Live on July 17, for which they’ll bring back DJ Manny Reese.

“Tuesday is sacred, but we hope to add a Thursday as well that will be louder, more clubby, more fun, rhythmic and fast,” Edwards said.

The rink is also trying to bring in younger skaters by participating in Kids Skate Free, a national program that gives kids two free passes a week for a $5 annual membership. They also have a Read and Roll program, where students receive a bookmark that they can write down the books they read on it. For every five books, they get a free pass to skate.

Happy Wheels owner Derek Fitzgerald distributed almost 20,000 of the bookmarks to schools himself.

“I built this place for the next generation of people to come in and have memories like I had memories when I was a kid,” Fitzgerald said.

ON A ROLL

At least one new, young skater at Happy Wheels is already shaping up to be a social media star.

Justin Frye, a 16-year-old Bonny Eagle student, woke up one January morning to a flood of TikTok notifications.

He posted a video, filmed by Fernando Moreno, of him shuffle skating in a group at Happy Wheels. The clip, set to the tune of “Rapper’s Delight,” became his first to reach a million views.

“Hope this trend catches on again! Old school fun,” wrote one commenter. “I would give anything to be this cool again,” wrote another.

@_jfryesk8s shuffling @Fernando Moreno ? #fyp #rollerskate #viralvideo #rollerskating #shuffle #foryoupage #disco #fypシ #maine #rollerrink #trending #goviral ♬ Rappers Delight – The Sugarhill Gang

With more than 3 million views, his most popular video shows him and another skater grooving to “Here Comes the Hotstepper” by Ini Kamoze. Frye’s TikTok account, @_jfryesk8s, has over 42,000 followers.

Skating is part of Frye’s DNA. His parents met at Happy Wheels in Scarborough in 1995. He now works at the Westbrook rink, where his father is the general manager.

Frye learned to skate by watching older skaters like his parents and Fitzgerald. He picked up the rubber leg move — also unique to Maine and Happy Wheels — from Fitzgerald when he was just a kid, which he showcases in many of his most popular videos.

Frye spends five to six days a week at the rink. For him, skating is more than sport — it’s a state of mind, and a type of therapy.

“When you’re out there, nothing else matters,” he said. “It clears your head in a way nothing else can.”