You won’t find many quad or in-line skating competitions in the Las Vegas Valley. In fact, Amanda Quintanilla, owner of the new Fresa’s Skate Shop in the Arts District, says hers was the “first competition for roller skating” anywhere in town.

On February 3, 27 quad (four-wheel) and in-line skaters took laps across and performed tricks above the shop’s 16-by-42-foot indoor ramp, newly renovated with a spine and a hump.

“It’s the only skate shop in the state with an indoor ramp,” Quintanilla says.

It feels natural for Quintanilla (known to the community as Fresa) to be the one to bring it to town. For her, roller skating is a way of life. “Roller skating is the new shoes! We should be allowed to go anywhere with roller skates,” she laughs.

During the pandemic, the 40-year-old El Salvador native and LA transplant fully embraced her love of skating and opened her store. “I started skating in my teenage years, [then] I stopped for a while. And in 2020, I decided to pick it up again,” she says. “I used it as an escape. I was going through depression and lost my job, and I didn’t know what to do.”

The shop opened in August 2022. Based on the attendance at the competition—about 80 people came through during the night to watch and cheer—it appears to have helped fill a void in the local community.

Hannah Blank, 20, says it was the first skate competition in which she has competed. Since moving back to town from the Pacific Northwest, she has been skating for about a year, and has found the Vegas community “welcoming.”

“The Northwest could be kind of cutthroat,” she laughs. “Fresa’s does a good job of getting locals together, and is supportive.”

Older competitors agree, and emphasize that wasn’t always the case.

Melvin Sentman, 29, runs the Instagram account @vegasbladingcommunity, which shares information and resources for the roller-skating community. He’s been skating for 17 years.

Like Blank, Sentman noticed that skating spaces had a certain edge that kept him from fully participating or enjoying the sport, at times. “It took me a while to get out of that competitive mindset,” he says. “Rollerblading will not pay the bills. But if you love it, you need to find a way to do it.”

Eddie Lopez, 36, says a childhood experience at a skate park kept him from in-line skating for a long time. “I remember the day I stopped skating is when I was called a f*g,” he said, calling out homophobia and other forms of ostracism in some skateboarding spaces. “You didn’t want to show up to the park in blades. You’d get beat up.”

At 14 years old, that incident was enough to make him walk away from an activity he loved. “I lost years, [but] today, I’m raising my kids to skate,” he said.

Skating over to Quintanilla before heading back to the ramp to warm up, he said, “Amanda, thanks for everything you do here.”

She smiled, sitting on a sofa with a flower, a disco ball and Frida Kahlo throw pillows; behind her, a bright-yellow “tattoo collage” mural with views of skaters dipping above store displays. Her red-jumpsuited employees were gliding around, attending to customers and getting Fresa’s ready for the competition.

“This shop is owned by a woman and run by women,” Quintanilla says. “All the employees are women of color, which is very important to us. It’s a safe zone for everyone.”

Holding space and lifting up the roller skating community also means investing in them, she says. Fresa’s is launching sponsorships to send local skaters to other competitions.

“We’re sponsoring a couple of local skaters. … There’s a competition called Blading Cup in California, and I want to take Las Vegas to represent,” she says. “There’s a lot of great talent here that’s not getting recognized.”

FRESA'S SKATE SHOP 1300 S. Main St. #140, 702-201-1140, fresasskateshop.com. Tuesday-Sunday, noon-7 p.m. Next event: February 18, 6 p.m., free.

Click HERE to subscribe for free to the Weekly Fix, the digital edition of Las Vegas Weekly! Stay up to date with the latest on Las Vegas concerts, shows, restaurants, bars and more, sent directly to your inbox!