Heaven on Wheels

After months of frenzied construction and hundreds of test runs, Skate Street, a 29,000-square-foot indoor skateboard park, will open Saturday.

Housed in a former warehouse, the privately owned facility boasts what its backers say are the world’s largest vertical ramp, one of the world’s largest mini-ramps, a 14,000-foot mural and a host of skateboard elements the likes of which have never been seen.

“It’s almost indescribable,” said Jeff Pixley, sales manager for Santa Barbara-based Skate One, manufacturer of one of the nation’s top skateboards, the Powell brand. “It’s going to be the hub--the mecca. People are going to move to this area just to skate there. People are already looking for houses.”

Skate Street was the brainchild of two young local entrepreneurs--Roger Thompson and Tim Garrety. An anonymous local investor with “kids who skate and a real heart for skateboarding” came forward and offered to provide the capital needed for the park. He refuses to identify himself, but the investor has provided about $800,000, which Thompson said he would eventually repay.

Construction on the huge indoor park at 1990-B Knoll Drive near Ivy Lawn Cemetery began in October. Earlier this week, construction workers in baggy shorts and baseball caps--most of them skateboarders--scrambled to put in place the final touches.

The walls of the park have been painted--by Elain Thompson, Roger’s mother--to look like Ventura. The ersatz grassy green hills loom in the background, with the Two Trees landmark painted on one hill. A huge breaking wave blends into a huge ramp that actually curls forward; Anacapa and Santa Cruz islands float behind on the horizon. One ramp blends into an image of the Ventura Pier--painted at its original 1,958-foot length.

The park will run on a membership basis--like a health club. Memberships are priced according to frequency of use. They range from the $425, which entitles a member to a full year of unrestricted use, to a day pass, which will cost $7 Monday through Thursday and $9 Friday through Sunday.

On the second floor, there is room for a concessionaire--who will move in by summer--and a coffee shop, so parents can sip cappuccino as they watch their offspring leap and spin off the walls.

Safety will be guarded closely. All skaters are required to wear helmets, kneepads and elbow pads. Skate patrol--sort of the lifeguards of skateboarding--will carefully monitor flow and etiquette.

Skate Street answers a definite local need, officials said. In the past year, skateboarders have been chased off one piece of cement after another. They have been banned from downtown, local credit unions and department store parking lots.

Thompson says there is a regular stream of curious onlookers dropping by to peer into the warehouse.

“Kids are coming over all the time,” he said. “At least 50 a day. They come here, and their mouths just drop.”

Already, many of the skateboard legends have come to try it out, Thompson said. Today world greats such as Tony Hawk and Giorgio Zattoni will take to the ramps. But many were zooming through the Skate Street warehouse earlier in the week.

Danny Way, the 23-year-old owner of XYZ Clothing, a manufacturer of surf, skateboard and snowboard attire, has skated in Australia, Japan, Germany and England. But on Thursday he said he was dazzled.

“This is definitely in the top five--in the world,” he said. “The ramps are smooth, clean and fast, and it’s a really positive environment.”

But for Garrety and Thompson, both graduates of Buena High School, the most important thing is to give local kids a place of refuge--a site to skate, grind curbs and catch some air in peace.

“We want this to be a place where local kids can come and turn pro,” Garrety said.

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FYI: Skate Street, 1990-B Knoll Drive, Ventura, opens at 10 a.m. Saturday. A day pass costs $9 on weekends, $7 weekdays. Skateboarders who do not become members of the facility must also pay $4 a day to cover insurance costs. Information: 650-1213.