Skating historian keeps rolling along

BY KATHY CHANG Staff Writer

At the age of 7, Chester Fried of South River put on his first pair of roller skates, and since then he has never stopped rolling.

Fifty-six years later, at the age of 63, Fried can be found at various roller rinks across the nation, enjoying some leisure skating, teaching and giving tips on roller-skating, competing, or fishing out stories and writing columns for several magazines and other periodicals and newsletters focusing on the sport.

The magazines include The Rinksider: The Independent Voice of the Industry, Roller Skater’s Gazette, Roller Skating Business Magazine, and USA Roller Sports (USARS).

“There is always a story, there are characters and I find them … I meet interesting people,” he said at his usual spot on a Wednesday night, the Memory Lane Skate weekly event at the United Skates of America Inc. in the Woodbridge Community Center. “I probably spend 30 hours a week at the roller rinks, including South Amboy Roller Magic Skating Center.”

On Saturday nights, Fried travels to Roller Jam USA in the Tottenville section of Staten Island, N.Y., to roller-skate.

“The lights and music in the rink are amazing,” he said. “Friday nights at the Roller Jam is teen session and brings out 600 to 800 skaters, because it’s the only show in town. … Musicians Teddy Thompson and Rufus Wainwright filmed their music video at Roller Jam.”

Fried, who has been dubbed “the unofficial historian of the roller skating industry” by one of his magazines, has visited every roller rink across the nation, which totals well over 300 rinks, including the 22 in New Jersey, and makes friends everywhere he visits. Fried holds the record in the Guinness Book of World Records for owning the most pairs of roller skates.

“I probably get over 200 Christmas cards because I have kept in touch with the people I have met over the years and have held a number of reunions,” he said. “I have a friend in every state.”

As roller rinks across the nation celebrate Roller Skating Month in October, Fried spoke about his love of the sport.

“My mother, Stella, loved to roller-skate, and because of her I fell in love with the sport … The only time I got hurt was when I was 12 years old, when I broke my wrist … injuries are with any sport,” he said. “My father, Philip, didn’t skate, he was a chemist. I worked for him as a research chemist.”

Fried, who started skating in the streets of New York and won his first skating competition when he was 9 years old at the Empire Roller Rink in Brooklyn, still skates competitively but has stopped competing in freestyle events.

“I won 51 state and regional championships in roller-skating amateur competitions,” he said. “It’s very similar to ice skating — we do the same jumps and figure eights. I have skated singles, freestyle and on precision teams, which involves four skaters.”

Fried said he never really thought of switching over to the sport of ice-skating.

“It’s expensive for ice time and lessons,” he said. “It’s cold and the sound system is horrible, it hurts more when you fall, everyone on the ice is all over the place … here at the roller rink, it’s nice and comfortable.”

Fried, who owns 300 pairs of roller skates that he stores up in his attic at his South River home, said his favorite pair is the gold-plated wood skates.

“They were made in 1947 and I got them from the oldest skate shop in the United States, called the Jesse Halpern Skate Shop in Great Neck, New York,” he said. “It is a fine work of art.”

Last year Fried gave a number of unclaimed skates away that were collected from various rinks across the nation.

“We sent 100 pairs of skates to a Sierra Leone orphanage,” he said.

Fried is an avid supporter of the Special Olympics, and in 1997 he was inducted into the USARS Hall of Fame for Distinguished Service to Competitive Roller Skating.

Fried said roller-skating is a great pastime. “I always stuck with roller-skating, I never stopped,” he said. “The music at roller rinks are great — it is happy music. Some skaters ballroomdance to the music … it is good exercise, I still fit into the skating outfits I wore 30 years ago.”

Fried is one of the founders and vice president of the National Museum of Roller Skating that was opened in 1982 in Lincoln, Neb.

The museum holds the largest, most varied and unique collection of antique roller skates in the world, including its collection of the James L. Plimpton family collection and memorabilia of roller skating rinks.

Plimpton is considered the father of modern roller-skating, according to the museum’s Web site.

Fried’s love of the sport has landed him some extra roles in movies, television and music videos with the likes of musicians Teddy Thompson and Rufus Wainwright, and he had a PBS special called “New York: The Way It Was.”

The champion skater said he had thoughts of owning his own roller-skating rink at one point.

“But it is very time-consuming, and I couldn’t leave my dad at his job. … The only time I took off from skating was when I looked after my parents for 10 years,” he said.

For more information about roller-skating, visit the Web site www.rollerskatingmuseum. com.