Pushing a baby stroller, carrying a boombox blasting music and surrounded by a pack of middle-aged men: This was how Mike Lufholm — or “Money Mike,” as his friends called him — founded Friday Night Skate (FNS). Born out of the boredom and freedom from the Covid-19 pandemic and a lifelong love for in-line skating, while the world was enduring change and unrest, he sought to bring a silver lining.
Minneapolis Friday Night Skate is a roller-skating and blading group that meets Friday nights at 6:30 in Northeast’s B.F. Nelson Park. The group focuses on urban skating, a style which blends trick skating with longer-distance fitness skating. As many of these members and lifelong aggressive “aggro” trick skaters age, urban skating is a way for skaters to continue their hobby while being gentler on their joints and avoiding broken bones and torn ligaments.
FNS founder Michael “Money Mike” Lufholm pushes a baby stroller carrying a boombox through Minneapolis. (John Haynes)
John Haynes, who currently runs FNS, recalled growing up watching Lufholm skate.
“We just would make fun of it, we would say all the same mean stuff that kids say about stuff. Then, when I saw Mike doing it, I was like, man, he makes it look so good. He’s jumping off curves and doing all kinds of stuff and grabbing onto cars,” Haynes said.
Lufholm created the 10-mile route that FNS more or less sticks to each week. The route goes between “skate spots,” including the Pioneer Statue in B.F. Nelson Park, which is a favorite of Lufholm’s from a childhood spent skating in Minneapolis.
Starting at B.F. Nelson Park, they go across the Hennepin Ave. Bridge, through Nicollet Greenway, Loring Park, Uptown, across the Sabo Bridge and finally follow the light rail up the city over the Hennepin Bridge back to B.F. Nelson. Sometimes, if they want to go a bit longer, they go down a hill by the river and traverse through the University of Minnesota’s campus.
Neely Theisen, an FNS regular and administrator of Minneapolis Bladies (a women’s Tuesday night skating group) credits B.F. Nelson’s parking as a perk of it being the FNS kickoff spot. “If there’s not good parking, people aren’t showing up,” Theisen said.
Due to the pandemic, the city opened up to skaters even more. “Some of the first Friday Night Skates, we would go to parking ramps, ride the elevator up and then skate down, like it was a ski hill or something. [Then,] during Covid, it was like all the stuff we would get kicked out of normally, but then we were just in this ghost town,” he said.
Lufholm died unexpectedly in September 2024. “He was really, really treasured by all of us a lot,” Haynes said. “It was a really, really devastating loss for all of us, but we felt like we had to keep Friday Night Skate going.”
Two years after Lufholm died and Haynes took over, FNS has only grown. The group started with a couple of buddies, with the peak number of skaters being around 20 on particularly beautiful summer evenings.
The hobby-craze of the pandemic eased, but for the lifelong skaters, the passion continues.
A skater leans against the Pioneers Monument in B.F. Nelson Park. The statue is used for skate tricks and the meeting place for FNS. (John Haynes)
Karen Freda, who commutes from Golden Valley twice a week for Bladies and FNS, grew up playing roller derby and in-line skating to her friends’ houses.
“I just had a baby, and I needed friends,” Freda said. “Especially as a young mom, it’s so hard to keep connections … so having something I can rely on every week that’s going to be there makes it a lot easier for me to plan and prepare, and if I don’t go a week it’s not the end of the world but it’s there the next week for me.”
Theisen agrees that the social aspect of skating is what keeps these groups going. “I definitely think that in a group you don’t feel as weird being on a sidewalk or on a bike lane… It definitely feels safer when you’re with a group than going out by yourself,” Thesien said.
If people are looking into starting skating, Haynes advises that FNS is not the place to start, as everyone is intermediate to expert level. However, the Minnesota Inline Skate Club Group Facebook page has many resources for getting started.
The Northeast Skatepark Trust plans to build a skate park in Northeast following the 2014 Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board approval of the Northeast Park Master Plan, which included space for a 30,000 square-foot skate park.
Until then, Thesein recommends the fresh new pavement of Graco Park.