Cory Joseph still remembers the last day he rolled across the rink at Word on Wheels.
The beloved skating rink shuttered in 2021 as part of a downward trend in places where you can groove on four wheels under luminescent disco balls and hot tunes.
“I also was at Skate Land in Northridge on its last day, and I went to Skate Depot in Cerritos on its last day,” Joseph told The LA Local.
The closing of these skate hubs struck a nerve for Joseph, who grew up in San Diego and is the son of two professional skaters — of Maureen Joseph and Timothy Carter — from the disco skating heyday in the 1970s and 1980s.
It’s no wonder he felt a desire to open the Sunshine Skate Center in Inglewood to fill this void. His journey to open Sunshine, named after his parents’ old skating team, took three long years of hurdles and obstacles until finally opened on Sept. 4, 2025.
A year of serving Inglewood
The rink celebrated its one year anniversary this month.
“Skating for a lot of people is their therapy. It’s their way that they cope with things. It’s the way that they navigate through things,” Joseph said, adding that he understood how these places once served as third spaces for Black LA.
“I think it’s more than just skating,” he said. “I really understand skating as a place for community.”
On a Friday night this past summer, Joseph’s ethos was seen in action.
Looking around the rink, the range of skaters varied widely in ability — from folks dance skating to rolling backward, all with beginners using tools to help them on their first journey on wheels. Some were there with their families. Others were there with their friends. Spectators were delighted as they watched from outside the rink and the surrounding seating.
The unapologetic free flow of joy was palpable. Joseph said that when he sees the impact on Inglewood’s youngest residents, the three years it took him to open the rink feels worth it.
“You have a lot of kids that are not physically active,” he explained. “We’re able to engage kids [to] have them off their phones for certain periods of time when they’re skating.”
