Forget for a moment that the Windy City Riot took place back in July, and instead focus on the fact that it remains the longest running street competition in rollerblading. Every year the crew in Chicago comes together to raise funds, plan an event, and put on a contest that has the attitude and intensity of its host city. And every year it’s an event that pulls some of the hungriest bladers looking to make their mark on the scene. 2025 was no different, and in a time before the city was invaded by federal agitators, the city was overrun with bladers for the WCR. Words by Adam Bazydlo. Photos by Drew Humphrey.

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I arrived in Chicago at midnight early Friday morning the day before the contest. Doug Sharley asked me to come do some renovation work at his mom’s house, saying that she would buy my flight if I’d stay for a week after to do the remodel. Naturally I was in for the cause, as I’d just lost my job a couple months earlier for reckless driving in a company vehicle, but that’s another story. 

Hanging out in McHenry the day before the contest with Doug was an absolute treat, and experienced at a completely different pace from any time I’ve ever visited Chicago since living there. We shot pool at townie bars and kept it low key since the contest was the next day. It didn’t stop us from doing some light karaoke the night before the contest, where seeing Doug do Ricky Martin’s “Living La Vida Loca” at 1:30 am truly set the tone of the weekend. Doug is one of my best friends, I have his last name tattooed on my ass, and am more the willing to show it off to anyone who’d like to see it. 

We arrived at the contest after an hour drive through rainy conditions that could be described as less than ideal for a contest day. Thankfully it didn’t change the vibe or the mood of the contest in anyway. We arrived about 30 minutes late to the meet up spot to people skating a curb in the rain and absolutely destroying it. No surprise to see Michael Braud absolutely killing it on a spot that didn’t matter like he wasn’t about to be a top competitor. Shout out to Ben Forsythe and Gabe Talamantes for utterly murdering a curb in the rain. 

Spot one started in the rain and was kinda scary for a random flat rail in an office park. It’s the kinda spot you’d like to skate alone for an hour to get your trick but instead you get to skate it with 30 people and it’s wet. A solid choice overall for a first spot since it was pretty low and offered some creativity as far as flat bars go. A host of people were killing this spot, I remember Mike French doing a bunch of hard tricks and some surprise tricks from Matthias St John in the yellow rain jacket. Michael Braud also sadly broke his ribs on the spot, first trick first try… trying to fast slide the rail as he does. 

Security showed up relatively soon and tried to shut us down almost immediately. That didn’t stop the contest. Everyone kept skating regardless of the security guard parking in front of the rail, before getting out of her car and standing on top of the rail. People were just jumping on before and after her without skipping a beat. Eventually Chicago PD showed up 4-5 cars deep and thankfully we quickly exited the scene with no issues. 

The second spot was right around the corner but thankfully just over the line of another county, so we weren’t too worried about police following us. It was a fun little 12-stair down rail with a dick on it, and we got there right as the rain stopped. Everyone switched gears and turned it on. Luke Naylor utilized said dick and hit it and gapped to the street. Chase Linzmeyer did some incredible tricks, including backslide to wrap AO porn. Mike French lacing AO topsoyale and AO top acid with utter finesse. PJ lacing trick after trick, and Dalnas did every hard trick in the playbook down the damn thing. It was beautiful chaos. And a spot we all needed with vibes to kick off the “try hard” portion of the contest. Tricks were landed and the stage was set for the rest of the day as the weather only continued to improve. 

Spot 3 was a gem in my opinion. Located at a small college not far away, the ledge had been rub bricked and waxed just for the contest. We love when a spot is created and then destroyed for a contest as every hard trick proceeds to be done. The spot required carving 45 degrees to the ledge after choosing to jump on 5 feet before or dropping a stair and doing the last 12 feet of a perfect left side ledge… with a 4 ft gap at the end. Everyone got their licks in here, and people that skated the previous spot showed up again to kill. Gabe was obviously in the line up murdering, in addition to Mick Casals and Cedric Tippit. Cedrick somehow pulled off a triple switch up on the ledge which essentially ended the spot with poise, grace, and lots of applause.

The last spot was a fucked up double kink in a park with a 6 foot flat at the end instead of just a dick. So it was essentially a triple kink without a third set of stairs. The run up was chunky and less than ideal, with the right side definitely worse than the left, so a piece of sheet metal was thrown down to help out. Everyone was pretty hesitant to start the spot but that didn’t stop Mike French from lacing an X-grind and a top torque soul back to back before anyone else got to the bottom. A rare appearance from Jeff Stanger lacing the kink rail with a topsoul was probably the highlight and most applauded trick. Dalnas being the only person who did an allyoop trick down the rail was notable and laced. David Walsh equally utilized the long flat at the end doing some killer switch ups. Luke Naylor with the 720 off the end for best trick as I walked up the hill right next to him was a personal highlight for me. 

The contest wrapped up as we somehow got kicked out of the final spot in the park, maybe because the cops noticed over 100 people hanging out in the park on rollerblades. Vibes were high, and it was another incredible year in the Windy City attacking the streets with a mob of rollerbladers. Water was chugged, beers consumed, big smiles and high fives scattered throughout the crowd. So much effort put in by Chris McCormick, Jeff Metz, Pato Thornycroft, Joe Esquivel, and many other dedicated individuals to make this happen. 

Come to the Riot, support your local skate contests, travel to contests out of town, spay and neuter your pets, and most importantly live your life—you only get one. — Adam Bazydlo

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Photos by Drew Humphrey