A skate shop in the Pacific Palisades was a safe haven for many teenagers, but like many victims of the fires, the present was destroyed within minutes— and the future remains uncertain.
The Paliskates skate shop didn’t survive the Jan. 7 fires even as it was near the Palisades Village, owned by developer Rick Caruso, was being protected by private firefighters.
Nevertheless, owner Erica Simpson said she’s determined to rebuild her business and her skating family.
Many kids considered Simpson a second mom and Paliskates a second home before it was burned to the ground.
As Simpson walked onto the dirt where her skate shop once stood for the first time since the lot was cleared, memories flooded in of 25 years of kids— some of them from broken homes— finding a space that was safe.
“If you can’t have your own children, be there for others. So that’s kind of i just got was given that gift. And on top of that, I got to be a cool mom,” Simpson said.
The cool mom has been trying to keep her business— and her family alive— with skating events in local parks— and an online store.
A month after the fire, she got a big assist: a commercial at the Grammys, featuring one of the most famous skateboarding singers in the world, Avril Lavigne. In the commercial, Lavigne urged people to support Simpson’s business.
“You guys can go to paliskates.net to support this amazing business,” said Lavigne.
“It really lifted the spirits of all the kids. I mean, honestly, when she first showed up, I cried,” recalled Simpson.
But Simpson doesn’t know if she’ll be able to come back to the Palisades location as she said that’s up to her landlord. But she said she hasn’t given up— on her shop— or her kids.
“It’s such a hard thing to go through when you’re 16 years old, 15 years old. I’ve watched them struggle,” she said. “Just because a physical location burns down, it doesn’t have to mean that you’re done.”