ROLL ‘EM : At Fountain Valley Rink, They Think In-Line Skates Are Just a Passing Fancy

Donna Woods didn’t put on her first pair of roller skates until she was 47 years old.

Now, at 57, she can’t take them off.

Skating has become her preoccupation.

“It’s a disease--you love it,” said Woods, a Fountain Valley resident.

Woods started skating to shed pounds. And she did. About 100.

She skates at Fountain Valley Skating Center, not only for exercise, but because it’s fun.

“It’s something my husband and I can do together,” said Woods, who skates competitively with husband, Ken.

While some folks may think that skating has become a dying recreation, it’s not. At least not at the Fountain Valley roller rink.

“Roller skating is a great, wholesome, family-type sport,” said Bob La Briola, owner and operator of the rink off Magnolia Street and Warner Avenue next to the Family Fun Center.

La Briola said skating will be around forever.

“It appeals to all ages--from 6 to 60,” he said. “Everybody can skate. It’s fun, it’s healthful, it’s relaxing and it’s challenging.”

La Briola, 61, said that in the past decade roller rinks in Orange County have faded away. One reason is because roller rinks have fallen prey to the county’s high land values. Rinks are torn down for a better use of the property, he said.

But in the ‘80s, La Briola said, “skating went through the roof.”

And, he said, it was all because of disco music.

“That was the best music for skating,” he said. “It had a rhythm. That was when roller rinks were at their peak of being popular. During that craze, a lot of people got into skating who otherwise wouldn’t have.”

More recently, La Briola said, the popularity of skating has picked up because of in-line skates, which have four wheels in a row compared to traditional “quad” skates that have two sets of wheels in the front and back.

But La Briola calls in-line skates a fad.

“That aspect of skating will pass,” he said.

Competitive skating on traditional skates is here to stay, and La Briola said he hopes that one day soon it will be recognized as an Olympic sport.

La Briola said that since roller skating was a demonstration sport in Barcelona, Spain, at this year’s Olympic Games, “we’re keeping our fingers crossed that it’ll be a medal sport in Atlanta” in 1996.

La Briola, who started skating competitively at age 12, said his business has remained successful because of the variety of skating opportunities--for both recreational skaters and those who like to compete.

“One of the major reasons our business has been good is because it’s diverse,” he said. “We do an awful lot of school parties with 75 different schools,” he said.

Recreational skating is still affordable at a cost of $4 for a 2 1/2-hour night session and $1.25 for skate rental. The rink also offers adult nights on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.

Those who skate for recreation said it’s a good way to have fun, meet people and exercise.

Maria Ayala, 13, of Huntington Beach, who skates regularly at the rink with her girlfriends, said skating “makes you feel like you don’t have to worry about anything because you’re having fun.”

Her friend, Tami Erhart, 14, said skating gives teens “something to do on the weekends to keep you out of trouble.”

“It’s a hangout with friends,” added Ayala.

The rink is available for private birthday parties. It also offers skating lessons and has a competitive skate club with about 100 members who specialize in dance skating.

Competition skating is an outlet for people who have the desire to compete but not necessarily the athletic ability, La Briola said.

“You don’t have to be an athlete to be successful,” he said.

Woods, who is also a manager at the rink, said skate dancing is like “ballroom dancing on skates.”

“We do waltzes and tangos,” she said.

Woods said she and her husband are involved in the competitive skating club because of the social benefits. “We come for the friendships,” she said.

La Briola is an elite skating teacher, which is the top honor in teaching. Only four other coaches in the country possess the credential, he said.

“I’ve been very successful teaching. I get great satisfaction in helping people--not only the person who becomes a national champion, but in teaching people like Donna” Woods, he said.

La Briola and his sister competed as a team while growing up in Brooklyn, N.Y. They won six national championships as a dance team.

When he graduated from college he quit skating and went into the Army. He married Irene, a national free-style champion skater, in 1955 when he got out of the service. But soon after, he had a second child on the way, and he needed to work. He resorted to what he knew best: teaching skating.

In 1956, he moved his family to California and landed a job teaching at the old Skate Ranch in Santa Ana, which has been torn down. He and his family stayed only a few months and moved back to New York.

“We got homesick,” he said.

When he returned home, La Briola started law school, but decided to come back to Orange County in July, 1957, because of a job offer to teach and manage a skating rink in Long Beach.

During the next 20 years, he managed rinks in the area until he opened the Fountain Valley rink in 1976.

During the years, La Briola has trained national winners. He also has had four students who later became world champions. His students have garnered a total of 64 first-place national titles and 120 second- and third-place titles.

Four of La Briola’s children have also won national championships.

Skating has been La Briola’s livelihood and life--and he has no plans soon to hang up his roller skates.

“Skating has been good to me,” he said. “I can’t complain.”