Bump and grinds
Time Out got more than a few bruises to show for our skateboarding lesson at Dubai’s brand new skatepark Rampworks.
Skateboarding dates back to the early 1900s, but to say that it has taken Dubai a little while to catch up is an understatement. And it’s not for want of trying. The city’s skateboarding community has been actively campaigning for better facilities since the sport took off at an exponential rate a few years back. In February their calls were answered when Rampworks, the Gulf’s first indoor (and more importantly air-conditioned) skatepark, opened its warehouse doors to the eagerly awaiting, helmet-clad public.
During its first seven weeks of opening Rampworks has become a second home to more than 300 skateboarding and inline skating members and over 1,800 skating hours have been purchased. ‘We’ve got members aged between five and 45 so it’s not just the kids getting involved, but more than half of them are aged between 11 and 14 so it can get busy after school and on weekends,’ Rampworks’ owner Chris says with a broad smile and an understandable pride in his new, blossoming, business venture.
‘There are members from 33 countries already signed up,’ Chris says of the cosmopolitan catalogue of wannabe Tony Hawks in the city. And how many of them are girls? ‘Five,’ he says bluntly before adding: ‘I’m not sure why girls in the city haven’t caught the skateboarding bug yet, but we hope to boys a run for their money soon.’
Located behind the Dubai Garden Centre on Sheikh Zayed Road, Rampworks is strategically placed a short distance away from the Mall of the Emirates and a host of new shops catering to the disposable incomes of the skating community (and their parents) in Dubai. The population of skateboarders and inline bladers has exploded, creating a niche in the market and a host of bored boarders with nowhere to skate once the weather gets hot. ‘My son came in dripping with sweat one summer’s day a few years ago having been outside on his inline skates and I just asked myself why there was nowhere for him to go,’ Chris says about his inspiration to open an airconditioned skating facility in a country which sees summer temperatures soaring to 50 degrees centigrade.
In the main skating area huge fans whirl cool air over a soundtrack ranging from The Black Eyed Peas to System Of A Down. A good range of verts, half pipes, quarter pipes, banks, and roll-ins as well as a fun-box and a spine (varying obstacles to skate up and over for the uninitiated) are crammed into the cavernous concrete space. While some of the shiny new surfaces are covered with bright sponsor banners (from forward-thinking AMD, Apple IMC Middle East, Braun Kruzer, Showtime, Samsung and Wildhorse) there are still some untouched spaces awaiting further sponsorship.
Entertainment facilities also include 32 PCs linked-up to the Internet for competitive network gaming of multiplayer favourites including Fear, and a lounge with a pool table, as well as TVs showing extreme sports and a fully-stocked fridge with cold drinks and snacks for refuelling after a gruelling hour’s skating. Parties are also catered for and lessons with experienced skaters have been introduced in recent weeks to rapturous applause from the city’s newbies. If you don’t know your ‘ollie’ from your ‘kick-flip’ this is the perfect skating introduction. You don’t have to be 14 and wear jeans baggy enough to fit six people in to enjoy the sport as Time Out found when 19-year-old resident instructor Alex Medbedev took us for a one-on-one lesson.
Balancing on a thin plank of griptaped wood with four tiny wheels isn’t as easy as it looks. It doesn’t even look that easy. After a brief introduction to board basics (‘this is the front and this is the back’) we donned our rather fetching helmet and hopped up onto the slippery vehicle with all the grace of Bambi on ice, with much handholding from the ever-tolerant Alex required. We were then pulled along in rather slovenly fashion to get used to standing up on the board before attempting an (almost solo) slide down the smallest fun-box ramp numerous times – picking up speed and confidence with each attempt.
Next up sponsored skater Alex put his years of experience into teaching us an essential trick. And what’s the point of learning how to skateboard without a trick or two to impress your non-skating and therefore more easily impressed friends? The ollie is the foundation move of the sport and involves stomping one leg hard on the end of the board and simultaneously sliding the other leg along to give the impression the skateboard is sticking to your feet – all while jumping into the air. It’s a mouthful to explain and a difficult manoeuvre requiring hours of practice to perfect. ‘It took me two months to get this right, so if you get it straight away I won’t be talking to you anymore,’ Alex told us with a laugh before adding: ‘but we never had anyone to teach us and you have me’.
He needn’t have worried – after several crash landings we gave up and moved on to a perilous-looking halfpipe for some ‘pumping’ which, it was explained, is much like pushing your legs to get higher on a swing, involving bending your knees to gain momentum, speed and height while going from sideto- side – again holding hands for much of the time. After 30 minutes Time Out realised just how much hard work goes into skateboarding and staggered, wiping the sweat from our brow, into the reception for a much needed bottle of water. ‘You’ll have to buy a deck and practice,’ Alex said. And maybe we will – we might have gained a few faint bruises on our backside from our foray into the skateboarding arena, but more importantly we left Rampworks with a newly-gleaned respect for the armies of kids we have seen effortlessly slaloming in and out on their boards. While some of us may have scoffed at calling skateboarding a sport before, we now appreciate the sheer dedication and determination it must take to become a pro skater. Thanks to Rampworks turning pro or simply having hours of fun in Dubai has become a whole lot easier. Michelle Byrne.
Rampworks (050 465 7004) is open daily from 10am-12 midnight. Membership costs Dhs75 including two hours’ skating, then an hour’s skating costs from Dhs10. For more information see www.rampworks.com.