Sheltered from street view, a skate shop on the side of an otherwise quiet hill in Jamestown, New York, holds a hidden world of exuberantly rowdy skaters, there to compete in Rust Cup 2025. Among the contestants and skaters taking advantage of the workshops and open skate times are a group of seven roller skaters and skateboarders representing Ithaca’s vibrant skating scene.

The Rust Cup, which began in 2022, is a trans, non-binary and women’s quad and board competition hosted at Jamestown Skate Products. It has created a safe space for queer skaters from all over to come together and share in their love for the sport. This tradition has carried over into its third year and continues to grow after each event. 

Ithaca has been a hotspot for the skating community for countless years, with Ithaca’s League of Women Rollers opening in 2008. Over the years, this organization has expanded into two groups of women — the SufferJets and the BlueStockings — where they not only skate but create a haven for queer and female skaters in Ithaca.

​​The Rust Cup started as a collaboration between skaters from the Philadelphia area and Jamestown Skate Products. Clara Matton, a Cornell graduate and judge at this year’s Rust Cup, started her journey as a roller skater in Ithaca five years ago. Matton discovered the Rust Cup its first year, where she attended as a roller-skating participant. Three years later she now sits on the judges’ panel. 

Jamestown Skate Products has held skateboarding competitions before on this site, but Matton said that there had not been as much inclusion of queer people at these competitions in the past.

“Mostly cis straight white dudes are the stars of those shows,” Matton said. “It’s so fun to watch, and women and queer people were showing up to those events but not really feeling like, ‘I could be a part of this.’” 

This all changed in 2022 when Mary Smith, also known as “Kid Ace,” collaborated with Jamestown Skate Products owner Pete Scheira to create a welcoming competition for women, trans and non-binary individuals. 

Abeygail Mills, an 18-year-old Ithaca resident, has been immersed in the skating community throughout their entire life. Mills did not attend the competition but was a part of the Ithaca League of Junior Rollers from the ages of 10 to 17 and quickly found a home within the rink. 

“I always felt that with roller derby, it was more than just my team members,” Mills said. “It was always like, these are my family.”

Ithaca’s robust and welcoming skating community has found a space within the Rust Cup 2025, where local skaters as well as skaters in and outside of the Finger Lakes area can show everyone what they can bring to the table. 

Amanda Gates, a roller skater at Rust Cup 2025 who has been skating at Jamestown Skate Products for many years, said that this is the first Rust Cup where there have been competitors from all over, including Canada and California. 

Through the front doors of the skate shop is an entrance to an indoor ground-skate area, and just down the street is a large black door that leads to the famed indoor skate bowl. Passerbys might be confused by the host of people on roller skates trickling between the doors by walking on their toe stoppers through the ice and snow, but to anyone in the know, the tricky path is a bonding moment. The night before the competition, strangers on wheels share company and talk about where they’re all from and if they’re competing the next morning.

Mills emphasized the bravery of not being afraid to fail when skating and the importance of community support.

“It doesn’t matter your level, you go out there and try your best,” Mills said. “If you succeed you succeed, and if you fall on your face that’s ok because somebody will pick you up.” 

Ithaca College junior Elle Schumacher said that they began to really improve their roller skating because Matton encouraged them to join a new skater assembly for roller derby with the Ithaca League of Women Rollers. They were not able to attend Rust Cup 2025, however they said it was something they wish they had the time to go to.

“I was having a really rough time in the fall of 2023, and I just needed a way to get off of campus,” Schumacher said. “That really improved my skating so much. It was twice a week, so I got really dedicated to it. … it was basically all women or queer people.”

First-year student Sam Robert has been roller skating since she was 10 years old and said derby specifically is a safe haven for many trans kids. Robert did not attend Rust Cup 2025, however she spoke about the value of having access to queer-based skating environments.

“They get to use their roller derby names, whereas they don’t have to use their given names or deadnames,” Robert said. “Nobody will call you anything but that, and it’s just so accepting and I love it for that.”’

Self expression is an extremely potent part of roller skating, and subsequently is a significant value within the LGBTQ+ community.

“Roller skating has always kind of been this place [where you can] be whoever you want to be, and just [express] yourself, and that goes hand and hand so well with queerness,” Matton said. “I want to see people having fun and throwing tricks that they are not sure if they are going to make it or not. I want people to take risks and do some showstoppers.” 

At the competition there were beginner, intermediate and advanced sections, each with their own finale. It was an impressive feat for any skater — board or quad alike — to carve the tallest wall of the bowl and go over its ground-level entrance. Often, when a competitor did not land a challenging trick like this, the sport’s commentator would encourage them to try again, giving them a second chance to drop in the bowl.

In addition to providing a safe space for queer and trans skaters, the Rust Cup raises donations for Palestinian children affected by the war in Gaza. 

“Inherently skating is very punk and I feel we bring this punk, productive energy when a group of female skaters get together,” Mills said. “One thing I have noticed is we are productive as all hell.” 

Over the past few months, skaters in Ithaca have had to deal with the loss of the lease for the indoor practice space for roller derby. The Ithaca Roller Derby league itself relies on financial support of the participants’ families, causing local individuals to pay more to participate and keep the community alive. This lack of funding and available practice space affects all individuals in the queer skating community. 

“There are queer children who are losing their safe space,” Mills said. “These are kids in school that are getting bullied for how they look and how they dress and how they feel, and their safe space is being taken away from them.” 

The night before the competition, Matton and the other Ithaca skaters in attendance for the event went to check out the skate bowl and they each fell in love with the indoor skate park. On the drive back, the car was full of chatter: What if that was in Ithaca?

“If we get the word out that this is something people want, then maybe we can find the money,” Matton said.

The love that skaters have for what they do is apparent in every face in the crowd of Rust Cup 2025, even in the judging. From skaters picking the highest ledge to drop in, doing a flip in the air and landing on wheels, carving the wall backwards or landing that one impossible trick, the judges took the ease and grace that each skater applied into consideration. Silvia Kambouridis was named the first place winner of the advanced section of Rust Cup 2025. The way in which Kambouridis was able to link each trick to the next was mesmerizing and appeared effortless.

“She wasn’t being flashy, she was just being herself,” Matton said.