Hip-hop, gymnastics and break dancing — all on roller skates

Mo stands with folded arms in front of his gleaming red Honda SuperHawk 996. Woody strolls around, sucking on his third cigarette, while Genny adds to the friendly banter.

It could be a summer evening scene in front of a neighborhood bar — except that what this trio is waiting for isn't a cold drink, but rather some hot roller-skating. Once inside Bellevue's Skate King, Woody Wood, Genny Harmon and Mo Sanders ease on their quads — conventional roller skates, to the uninitiated — and begin to glide together effortlessly in the center of the rink, moving in synchronization. They dance side by side, grooving to the beat, until Harmon breaks out to do the moonwalk, Wood tries some k-kicks — standing on one hand while pushing his legs and his other arm skyward — and Sanders whips out a double kick, a move borrowed from break dancing.

In case you haven't noticed: Rollerblading is out. Jam skating — a mix of break dancing, hip-hop dancing and gymnastics — is in.

Silhouetted jam skaters are featured in the current round of iPod advertising. A recent Diet Coke ad has beachgoers swirling around on quads to the pumping beat of "Starry Eyed Surprise." In September, rappers Bow Wow and Nick Cannon will star in a jam-skating movie called "Roll Bounce." And look for a jam-skating team to appear in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

"It's about to go mainstream," said Chris Gehret, president of the Jam Skate Association, part of USA Rollersports, the governing body for speed and artistic roller skating.

Sales of quads are up 150 percent from last year, according SportScan-INFO, a West Palm Beach company that tracks sales of sporting goods. Meanwhile, the number of Americans who say they've inline-skated dropped more than 50 percent between 1998 and 2004, according to the Sporting Goods Manufacturer's Association.

"I see a lot of people come in with in-line skates and eventually they'll transition to quad skates," said Jeff Leonard, a manager at Bellevue's Skate King. "You have more freedom to move on the quad skates than on the in-lines — the balance is just a lot easier."

Now, as a promotion for its upcoming film, Fox Searchlight Pictures is presenting the national Roll Bounce Skate-off — which is what has Sanders, Wood and Harmon working on their routine. They can just see that championship in their future.

First, though, they'll have to take the local competition on Saturday, then the regional contest in L.A. The finals will be at Sweetwater Roller Rink in Chicago, where the movie was filmed. The top team wins a trip to the film's Hollywood premiere in September.

"Some people choose to skate, some of us get caught up in it — it's a way of life," said Sanders. "I'd rather have my arms cut off and still be able to skate than somebody cut my legs off and give me a million dollars."

Born and raised in Tacoma, Sanders, 34, now lives in Maple Valley. His father, a local firefighter and avid skater, brought him to the rink when he was 6, and he just kept coming back. The furniture designer currently spends up to three nights a week practicing with his pals, and when he travels, he looks for ways to work his skating in.

"Skating for me is like church," said Wood. "I'm not religious or anything, but skating put my life back on track."

He enjoyed it as a form of recreation, but didn't get really serious about skating until he saw Sanders' impressive moves one Wednesday night at TLC Family Skating Center in Kent. That was 10 years ago. Now Wood, 21, who lives in Bellevue, walks the two miles to work as a DJ at Skate King and to practice his kicks with his friends.

Harmon, 30, a resident of Capitol Hill and a loan officer by day, started skating about five years ago when, shortly after Harmon became single again, a girlfriend brought her to an adult session. "I thought she was crazy," she said, but she was mesmerized by the "cool dancers in the middle of the floor."

"I just started coming every single day that I could — practicing, learning and falling a lot. I knew I made it when I spent $600 on a pair of skates."

Chuck Best, founder and president of the World Skating Association, which sponsored the first national jam-skating championships two years ago, says inline skates took people outdoors, but jam skating is going to see their return to the roller rink.

"There's much more you can do on a pair of skates than skate around in circles," he said. "I think people are starting to see that and will start going back to their local rinks."

Material from Knight Ridder Newspapers is included

in this report.

Judy Chia Hui Hsu: 206-464-3315

or jhsu@seattletimes.com