On Wednesday nights, the Main Quad is mostly quiet. Silence, an occasional passerby and the periodic chirp of an unidentifiable animal replace the usual bustle of students rushing to class during the day.
For most of the night, the silence is met with a thick layer of darkness, with only the stars and dimly lit lamps providing any lighting. But about 10 minutes before 10 p.m., chatter begins to echo throughout the quad, and bright LED lights start to roll toward Foellinger Auditorium.
These lights — luminous pink, blues and oranges — are attached to skates, and these skates belong to members of the Inline Insomniacs.
Inline Insomniacs isn’t your typical RSO. Instead of meetings confined to a classroom, its takes to the streets of Champaign-Urbana, skating through town under the cover of the night sky.
According to the Inline Insomniacs website, the club originally started in 2001 as a way “to get free Coca-Cola products from the University, and to see if there were any other interested late night skaters on campus.”
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However, the club now serves as a recreational outlet for students and community members alike.
Every Wednesday night, one board member leads the group through the vacant streets of C-U. Whoever is leading the group that night, usually the club’s president and senior in ACES, Audrey Larson, determines the route.
Larson grew up skating, but stopped skating in high school; she rediscovered her love for skating when she joined Inline Insomniacs in her freshman year. According to Larson, Inline Insomniacs provides her with an outlet for street skating with an amazing community of skaters.
“I went once, and I was hooked,” Larson said. “It’s a time to disconnect, a time to get some activity in, chat with people, try some new skills, explore town. You get to see Champaign in a way that you never would otherwise.”
Inline Insomniacs isn’t limited to expert skaters on inline skates. The club welcomes members of all skill levels and modes of transportation, from bikes to skateboards to rollerblades.
This diversity of members and skill levels is one of the things sophomore in LAS Aiden Cheng appreciates most about the club.
“The community is great,” Cheng said. “It’s also really cool seeing other people who are better than you, learning from them and having that sense of companionship.”
As members wait for their pre-skate safety talk, they converse in groups while gliding down the sidewalks lining the quad. Skateboarders perform tricks, leaping up as their boards flip in the air, while inline skaters flit by in a bright flutter of LED-decorated wheels.
“It’s nice to see the different personalities, because there’s a lot of people who do skating, and a lot of people who are really good at very specific things,” said Nathan Nguyen, sophomore in Education. “Seeing them just show off is really cool.”
The skating community at the University is larger than one might think, with the Inline Insomniacs’ first skate of the school year including around 80 skaters. While this was a night with higher attendance, Larson estimated that about 30-40 people attend regularly.
This has allowed many friendships to form between members and led to the creation of a tight-knit community of University skaters. This sense of community is part of the reason the club still exists more than 20 years after its founding.
Larson said she loves watching the club grow and witnessing friendships form as members return every week. According to her, the number of skaters who show up has been more consistent this year than in previous years.
Part of the reason membership fluctuates is that there’s no application process or initiation to join — interested students simply have to show up. Cheng appreciates this inclusivity and the fact that anyone can tag along.
“I feel like the main thing is just that everyone’s welcome, even if they’re a new skater, as long as they, you know, try and learn and don’t die,” Cheng said. “It’s all good. We love to see new people.”
While nobody has died on the group’s late-night skates, injuries aren’t uncommon. The group often clocks in speeds of 12-16 miles per hour, even through harsh weather like rain and snow.
“I got a concussion, like three stitches right here,” said Nat Stowe, freshman in Engineering. “I came back the next week.”
A concussion wasn’t her only injury; Stowe also broke her arm on a different skating excursion. But these accidents didn’t stop her love for the club or for skating. For Stowe, moments surrounded by friends under the stars are what make the late nights — and occasional concussions — worth it.
For some members, Inline Insomniacs is less about the actual skating and more of a way to form connections with other students. While skating can often be a solitary activity, this organization allows members to interact with each other instead of solely focusing on the skate.
“Group skating itself is a very unique thing,” Nguyen said. “There’s a lot of people who skate to classes, there’s a lot of people who like skate tricks … but skating in a group makes it a completely different environment.”
According to Nguyen, group skating is “the catalyst to create more social interactions.” He goes into each skate looking forward to interacting with people in a fun and chill environment.
The skates cover all different areas of C-U, from playgrounds to park trails, with one of Larson’s favorite routes being the Meadowbrook Park Trail. While the skate falls on the shorter side, with a total distance of about eight miles, this skating experience is one of the best, according to Larson.
“I love Meadowbrook,” Larson said. “It’s really good roads, really cruise-y, and some good hills as well, and we get to do the Meadowbrook Loop, which is always fun.”
For Gabriel Jaime, junior in LAS, one of the best parts of the nighttime skates is the atmosphere. According to Jaime, the sky is best off campus when they’re all skating around and able to look up at the stars.
For many at the University, skating simply serves as a convenient way to travel around campus, but for members of the Inline Insomniacs, it’s a way to meet friends and escape from the stresses of college, all while participating in something they have a shared love for.
“It’s just you, your friends and wherever the road takes you,” Jaime said. “It’s a nice feeling you don’t get anywhere else.”
