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Skate Oregon School founder-headmaster Jennifer Ottenberg (better known by her nom de skate, Chickpea) hadn’t strapped on skates in decades—not until a desperate attempt at distracting her daughter amid pandemic doldrums led to a sudden revelation.
“I had no idea that would transform the trajectory of my life,” she says. “Roller skating gave us a little slice of happiness in a world of shit. There were wildfires, George Floyd, disease, turmoil, but you can’t focus on any of that while trying to keep your face off the asphalt. Learning how to skate, we can access this happiness and playfulness and unbelievable joy.”
An immediate devotee of the weekly Secret Roller Disco events that brought hundreds of skaters to various school playgrounds that summer of COVID, Ottenberg would travel the country, heightening her dance-battle skills and learning all she could about the craft before returning home with her newly earned coaching certification and a vision of practice-intensive drop-in formatted courses welcoming inline and traditional quad skaters for tutorials targeting every experience level.
Located inside the former Finish Line sneaker store at Lloyd Center, just above the iconic ice rink, Skate Oregon School (1228 Lloyd Center, h 214, 503-893-0878, skateoregonschool.com) seems to be the perfect emblem of the mall’s pivot toward retro-steeped, adorably clunky, hyperniche pop-ups born of DIY whimsy.
“I saw the space vacant and knew it was meant for me,” Ottenberg says. “As soon as I pulled up these vinyl strips glued to the floor, everything was polished concrete, nice and smooth. I’m staying here till they tell me I have to go.”
See the rest of Willamette Week’s Best of Portland 2025 here!
