Rooler Gab | Skateboarding Historical past

Positioned within the south of France, stands the remanence of some of the distinctive and weird skate spots. Rooler Gab, the one skatepark to have put in a ski raise to move skaters from high to backside. The downhill run was 1.2km in size with ten banked turns. Main right down to a 3,000 sq. meter flat area that was as soon as outfitted with mini-spines and small tables.

Constructed by Gabriel Leuret a 60 12 months wine maker, Leuret’s first concept was born throughout 1988 after he retiring from wine making, and located himself hungry for a brand new and fascinating mission. Leuret finally got here up with the concept, after occurring a ski journey along with his spouse, he would construct a big downhill skate run, that could possibly be accessed by a ski raise. He was positive the youngsters would find it irresistible.

Leuret took 4 years to construct the park from begin to end, throughout the first 12 months he discovered the correct hillside after which purchased a brand-new ski raise, it was finally opened in September of 1992. From the appears of a few of the previous promotional materials shot of the skatepark it was not simply skate boarders that had been seen at Rooler Gab, something on wheels would trip this factor, curler skates, billy carts, it’s fairly a comical website.

Beneath is the promotional video and interview of Gabriel. Skip to 1:20 for the video of the skatepark.

Rooler Gab did have some temporary success within the months after it opened. French skateboarding journal Anyway described it because the “final journey”, and B-Facet put it on its 1993 spots checklist. Some French professionals skated there for the opening, and US skate boarders Kareem Campbell and Chris Pastras additionally headed there for a photograph shoot.

However the dream was short-lived: by the tip of summer season 1993, Rooler Gab closed after it didn’t generate a revenue.

Hats of to Gabriel for enterprise a mission of this measurement, with little to no information about skateboarding. We see him as a kind of visionary in a method, with the rise in reputation of downhill skateboarding and in addition surfskating, opening this up in more moderen occasions may have proved to achieve success. Timing was not on his facet, because the 90′ road skating turn into extra common, it left little to no real interest in downhill skateboarding or a setup like this.

Rooler Gab nonetheless exists to this present day, the terrain is extremely tough and the deserted ski raise remains to be current heading up the mountain high. There are some movies taken from a number of years in the past that present the run being nonetheless ridable.