On a Roll, Off the Street
Filling up these last days of summer with stuff to do can be tough on vacation-weary parents and bored kids. But a lot of families are skating right through it.
Skateboarding and in-line roller-skating, that is.
These street sports are moving indoors. Already a humongous new skateboard park in Ventura has opened, and another one is expected to open in Simi Valley in the fall. And at Ventura County’s more traditional roller rinks, tradition is out. Roller hockey and in-line skating are in. Best of all, during the summer these spots offer extended hours for recreational skating.
At Ventura’s Skate Street, skateboarders and aggressive in-line skaters can scream over a maze of killer ramps and vertical drops laid out in the 29,000-square-foot former warehouse.
Open only since March, the indoor park with its artistic decor is pulling in crowds of kids relieved to find a place where skateboarding isn’t banned. Here it’s OK to fly off curbs, grind down handrails and disobey street lights that actually flash. But helmets, elbow pads and kneepads are a must to avoid injury from the almost constant spills.
“We’re getting a tremendous response,” said Roger Thompson, a 25-year-old skateboard enthusiast who created the theme park with his high school buddy Tim Garrety. “Attendance is better than we thought it would be.”
The park, one of just a few in the greater Los Angeles area, and possibly the largest indoor facility in the world, can accommodate some 80 to 100 skateboarders and in-line skaters at a time. Often it’s full.
Parents watch the action from observation decks on two levels. Eventually they’ll be able to take refuge in a nearly finished cafe on the upper level.
Some parents, mostly mothers, are already regulars. “We drive here from Agoura,” said Julie Taylor. Below, her two sons, 15 and 12, skateboarded while her 9-year-old daughter skimmed the ramps on her in-line skates.
“If they skate in the park, they get harassed, or the neighbors get after them,” she said. “I think this is great.”
As Taylor chatted with two women, Draza Nikolic, also from Agoura, spread his work papers on a table nearby and tried to concentrate while his 14-year-old son skateboarded to throbbing music.
“They designed it extremely well,” he said. Kids have the freedom to experiment, as well as try different levels of difficulty. In fact, the park has an area of scaled-down ramps for novices and younger children, offers lessons and has special sessions for the 13-and-under crowd on Thursday and Saturday mornings.
Most of the users are skateboarders who find the place awesome, especially its three half-pipes, those steep bowls that give the sensation of dropping through the air.
“If you’re off balance, you can get hurt a lot,” said Brian Carroll, 18, of Thousand Oaks. Some might say that’s part of the attraction. Another lure is escape from the anti-skateboard factions. “Usually they just kick us out of everywhere,” he said.
Skateboarders and in-line skaters may have another indoor park in the fall, this one in Simi Valley. Todd Huber is working with his partner, Dodgers pitcher Scott Radinsky, to open one in a 15,400-square-foot warehouse at 4226 Valley Fair St. But first, they must get a special-use permit from the city.
Called the California Skate Lab, the proposed park would have bowls, ramps and rails, and a special area for beginners, as well as a museum to show off Huber’s collection of skateboards, jerseys, posters and other paraphernalia.
“It will be like candy for the eyes,” said Huber, 32, a general manager for a surf accessory company who skateboards to work. Taking a line from an old surf movie, he said: “It will be a nonstop high-energy freedom trip.”
As skateboard parks pop up, the in-line roller-skating craze is still going strong. The sport has climbed the charts to No. 12 in the sports participation survey put out annually by the National Sporting Goods Assn. That’s right behind hiking, and ahead of aerobics and golf. Participation has doubled since 1993.
“It’s phenomenal what’s going on,” said Susan Davis, communications director for Illinois-based Rollerskating Assn. International. Roller hockey is thriving, new rinks are going up as part of full-service family entertainment centers, and all this has only helped the older rinks that suffered post-disco doldrums through the 1980s.
In Ventura County, roller hockey enthusiasts got their wish for a new rink two years ago when the Roller Dome opened in Thousand Oaks’ North Oaks Plaza. The emphasis here is on hockey --leagues, clinics and lessons--but the rink has carved out some time for recreational skating on the weekends. (Until school starts, kids also can hit the boards during expanded hours Monday, Wednesday and Friday, from noon to 3 p.m.)
During the summer, it’s pretty much the same story at other rinks in the county, too. At Ventura’s Skating Plus, possibly the largest and glitziest of the rinks, kids can beat the heat skating Tuesday through Friday, from noon to 4 p.m. On Aug. 29, the rink will host one of its all-nighters, opening its doors for 12 hours to a mainly teenage crowd.
For most of these rinks, Friday and Saturday nights see the biggest crowds. Up to 500 people--mostly teens--skate under glittery flashing lights at Skating Plus on a weekend night. And at Oxnard’s Skate Palace, they occasionally cruise the ice-blue floor to live music.
Built in the 1960s and still a training ground for young competitors on traditional skates, Skate Palace offers expanded hours during the summer, Monday through Wednesday, from 1 to 4 p.m.
“We gave out 25,000 passes to the schools this summer. We try to keep kids off the street,” said Leonard Steinberg, a Skate Palace rink manager.
Even the no-frills Roller Gardens in Oxnard has summer deals for kids. Open mainly on weekends, the venerable rink, which featured such live bands as the Beach Boys back in the 1960s, is open from 1 to 4 p.m. Tuesdays during the summer. Through August, the rink has another special cut-rate deal: Kids can pay their weight--2 cents a pound--for admission.
BE THERE
Skate Street is at 1990 B Knoll Drive, Ventura. (805) 650-1213.
Roller Gardens, 2731 Buckaroo Ave., Oxnard. (805) 642-5380.
Skate Palace, 451 W. Hueneme Road, Oxnard. (805) 488-6444.
Skating Plus, 1728 Mesa Verde Ave., Ventura. (805) 656-2120.
Roller Dome, 950 Avenida de los Arboles, Thousand Oaks. (805) 493-8800.