We are thrilled to announce that we made the Season Premiere episode of the Dragons’ Den, Season 18!

As we say in rollerskating, FALLING IS LEARNING!  We’ve learned so much from our experience pitching the Dragons.

Although they failed to recognise the incredible value of the community you’ve helped us build, WE know how meaningful that is. We hear from our community daily about how coming to Rolla Skate Club helps them with their mental health, helps them to feel connected to others, and helps them to move their bodies in joyful ways!

So, we’re not letting a setback on the Dragon’s Den stop us from achieving our mission together with you.

We’ve decided to move away from “the F-Word”… Franchising! Instead we are now ready to launch our Partner program with a much simpler, lower-barrier-to-entry licensing model. Learn more about becoming a Rolla Skate Club Partner and opening your own club right here!

We want to make it easy for up and coming entrepreneurs from underserved communities to get started on building their dream.

And we’re asking for your help!  We’ve launched an Indiegogo Campaign to help raise a seed fund to launch our Partner Program.

We want to raise $35,000, with our community’s help, to cover the legal costs and content creation. But most importantly, this money will help subsidize our first 10 partners to get off the ground for an even lower startup cost!

Be a part of our story, and collect some excellent perks while you’re at it! We’ve got some great give-back offers to say thank you for your support! Contribute to the Indiegogo here! 

WATCH THE EPISODE ON CBC GEM HERE!

If you missed it, check out the CTV News article with Carla and Lucy talking about their journey and experience facing the Dragons in the Den.

Thank you to everyone in this incredible community and to everyone that has supported us over the years, in even the smallest of ways (high fives count!).

We’re so proud to have been part of this community for over 15 years, we couldn’t have done this without you.

The post Rolla on Dragons’ Den! appeared first on Rolla Skate Club.

Rolla Skate Club co-founders Lucy and Carla flew to Toronto for filming on May 22nd where they pitched for investment in the next stage of Rolla Skate Club – taking this business model out into the world!!

Over the next 10 years our goal is to inspire 1 million people to reach their potential through joyful movement, athletic competition, entrepreneurship and education.

We’ve created a business model that can
keep our roller rinks open
create a welcoming community
support our courageous athletes
provide joy, strength and connection
uplift new entrepreneurs

Now it’s time to share it with the world!

Thank you to everyone in this incredible community To anyone that has supported us over the years, in even the smallest of ways (high fives count!) We’re so proud to have been part of this community for over 15 years and we can’t wait to take it to the next level.

This is just the beginning. Let’s Roll Strong Together

Check out this great CTV News article featuring our Founders, Carla & Lucy and their journey to the CBC Dragons Den. They head to Toronto this weekend to pitch the Dragons! The episode will air in the new season starting in September.

June 5 update from Lulu and Bizzy:

We did it! We flew all the way to Toronto and pitched Rolla Skate Club to the Dragons Den investors.

It was an incredible experience and we couldn’t have done it without the love and support of this amazing community.

We have both been huge fans of the show for many years before either of us started our own businesses. Dragons Den has inspired countless entrepreneurs over the last 20 years – ourselves included. So this was a full circle moment for us and an adventure we will always treasure.

We are so grateful to the guest skaters that joined us in the Den to help show the Dragons what Rolla is all about. Especially the ones that flew all the way from Vancouver – you are our heroes!

To everyone that sent or posted messages of support – know that they meant SO MUCH and it literally felt like you were there in the Den with us. We rode that wave of love right the way over the country and into that studio.

And as with all reality TV – we are now sworn to secrecy! Everyone in the Den signed an NDA which means we really can’t tell you what happened. No, not even a hint!

But as soon as we know the air date (fall 2023) you will be the first to know. And yes of course we’ll have a screening at Rolla 🙂

 

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Thank you again from the bottom of our hearts. We couldn’t have done this without you.

Later skaters,

Lulu & Bizzy

aka Lucy Croysdill & Carla Smith

Rolla Skate Club Co-Founders

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This was the tantalizing approach we got when one of our skaters in the film industry reached out back in early 2020.

“Ok, we’re listening! What’s up”

She went on to ask us to help produce a rollerskating segment for a “nationally broadcast reality TV show.” You better believe we said YES!

What was the show? The Amazing Race Canada!

You can catch our segment on CTV.ca Episode 11 Season 8! 

One pandemic shutdown and two years later, we finally pulled it off. Ten Rolla Skate Club skaters and staff members turned out at the Shipyard Commons in North Vancouver to put the Amazing Race final four teams through their paces as they raced against elimination!

After lacing up, the contestants each got assigned to a Rolla Coach for instruction – Sharon, Charlotte and Andi were there to help them get up and rolling into our challenge!  After a few quick pointers the eager participants lined up to complete an on-skate obstacle course.

Our crew of skilled skaters (Lynsey, Sjors, Magnus, Bruisey, Whips, Easy, Fox and Loca) cycled through the obstacle course, making it look super easy of course. Now it was the contestants’ turn.

Because we taped this way back in May, we had not yet met any of the teams on our television sets, so it was super cool to get a sneak peek (under lock and key with a non-disclosure agreement of course) at the finalists. We got to see Franca, Craig, Connor, and Marika all try to beat our obstacle course test!

Once they had successfully completed the course to our standards, Coach Bizzy handed over their next clue.

The hardest part for the contestants was definitely stepping through the hula hoops. Connor got the right idea and went slowly stepping, nailing it on his first try. All the rest tried to race through this section, inevitably messing up and kicking the hoops which was an immediate fail.

But overall, these were true competitors. After all, they had survived dozens of tests and challenges in the episodes leading up to this moment, so we knew they would be able to nail their rollerskating moment in the end!

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Friday June 3rd 

6pm-7pm: All Ages Skate

7pm-8.30pm: Roller Derby Bout

8.30pm-10pm: 19+ Skate 

Roller Derby is a full contact sport played on quad rollerskates. Created in the 1930s as a team endurance race that thrilled depression era crowds, the sport died out in the 1970s but was revived in the early 2000’s by a group of punk rock women in Austin, Texas. The birth of social media helped spread this underground sport that focused on women’s empowerment and athleticism, making it the fastest growing sport in 2010 and inspiring the hit Drew Barrymore movie Whip It.

It’s been 3+ years in the making for some of the athletes participating in their first-ever competition at this event. They started their roller derby journey in 2019 with Rolla Skate Club’s “Roller Derby Boot Camp” programme, and have stuck with it through all the pandemic closures, and restrictions on contact sports. They are raring to finally get that first contest under their belts!

Expect full-contact, totally unscripted athletics and excitement as the newest faces in Vancouver roller derby join up with some of the city’s founding mothers of roller derby.

The first ever roller derby bout in Vancouver took place May 7th, 2006 and several of the athletes from that historic event are still part of the Rolla family! They include Co-Founder Lucy “Luludemon” Crosydill, Coach “Cupid Stunt” Sage Martin, Coach and Club Manager Andrea “AndiStruction” Fraser-Winsby, skater Kerry “Ludacrushis” Nyhan, and even their resident skate shop owner Lisa “Rollergirl” Suggitt! So it’s full circle for this derby family as they prepare for the first ever derby bout at Rollerland, and the first Vancouver derby event since the pandemic.

Get tickets at www.rollaskateclub.com/roller-derby-and-skate-june-3

About Rolla Skate Club

Rolla Skate Club is a welcoming community of strong skaters that empowers their members through fun, fitness and the freedom of quad rollerskating. The club hosts in-person classes and events at their Vancouver location and offers online memberships and digital courses to train anyone anywhere to be a rebel on roller skates.

Media Contact

Daniela Roman –  media@rollaskateclub.com

The post Press Release: Rolla Skate Club hosts first post-pandemic Roller Derby Bout at the PNE appeared first on Rolla Skate Club.

But first, let’s start this story from the beginning…  Watch the video below or keep on reading! 

When Carla and I started Rolla Skate Club back in 2018 our goal was to make the challenge, joy and empowerment of rollerskating accessible to everyone. Whether you were just gettin rolling, had aspirations of the roller derby track or dreams of being a roller disco queen – we wanted to create a safe space where everyone was welcome.

After 12 months of skating in parking lots, yoga studios and art galleries the rollerskating gods shined down on us and we found Skate Church. Our 4,000 square foot gym space operated by the United Church in Kerrisdale. 

This has been our home for the last 2 years and has seen us through the rollercoaster ride of COVID. It’s been a place for the Rolla Community to grow and connect and we’ve taught THOUSANDS of amazing humans how to rollerskate. We are so grateful for everyone that’s been involved in this journey so far.

Fast forward to right now….

So here’s the crummy news – due to structural issues that have just been discovered, Skate Church is no longer operational and we have had to suddenly stop running classes in this space. Unfortunately because of the severity of the issues it is not safe for anyone to be in the building which is why we had to cancel classes with no notice. And due to the age of the building the United Church will not be repairing the issues. 

Which means as of today – September 21, 2021 – the only classes we are able to run right now are our outdoor classes at Concord Park and North Vancouver Shipyards. 

But … here’s the super amazing, incredible news. 

Drumroll……. 

After 3 years of searching, applications and negotiations…..

We found a permanent HOME!!

No more van life for us!

In December 2021 -exact date TBD – we will be opening Rolla Skate Club at the Rollerland building at the PNE!! 

With 20,000 square feet of space we’ll be able to run classes, events, short track derby games and even a mini indoor skate park. 

It truly is the rainbow sprinkled unicorn that we’ve been working for ever since myself and Carla started skating – over 15 years ago. 

Now we know that all of you will probably have a million questions about how things are going to run at Rollerland and – with December being just around corner – we are pretty busy with making the dream come true. So our asks for you are

1. Be patient! We will release more information about the venue, classes, events etc as they become available – we promise!
2. Get on our newsletter to get the most up to date information.
3. Watch your email for information about special pre-release memberships, celebratory merch etc. 
4. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook for more updates! 

We’re so excited for this next big step in the Rolla Skate Club Journey and we can’t wait to roll into the new year with all of you!

Later skaters

Lucy Croysdill and Carla Smith aka LuluDemon and Bizness Time

Rolla Skate Club Co-Founders 

BruiseberryPie, Sole, LuluDemon and Bizness Time outside the doors of Rollerland

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