The asphalt waves can be seen glittering in the sun from far away. Every so often, a skateboard rider leaps up from the bowl, pausing in the air for a moment, before dropping back down on the other side. The rider’s upper body rises rhythmically from the waves, emerging and disappearing. Children tear around the tarred track on go-karts, while young people practise jumps on kickboards and BMX bikes over the hollows which resemble ski jumps. The Urban Surfwave at the rocksresort at the Laax base station is the latest attraction for freestylers of all types of sports. Read about what makes the facility so fascinating in this interview with Reto Poltera.
There is a new trend in the skateboard scene known as surf skateboarding. Here, a skateboard is used for surfing, and you basically take the act of surfing from the water to the street. We’ve built a special asphalt facility for this – called the Urban Surfwave. The course consists of waves and hollows and a rounded basin, so the skateboarder constantly needs to shift their centre of gravity. The completely innovative facility is also suitable for bikes, scooters and go-karts – for anything with wheels, in fact. We have also asphalted our go-kart track.
What’s unique here is the special design that closely replicates the act of surfing. There are no corners or edges on the Urban Surfwave. In contrast to the track in a conventional skate park, the whole experience is much more harmonious, thus also making it easier to skate.
Everything is rounded, everything flows. The flowing design enables the skateboarder to speed up or slow down and skate as though they are on a body of flowing water. All at a moderate speed. So it’s also fun to take on the Urban Surfwave by bike.
Practically anybody can enjoy the Urban Surfwave. However, some training is first required in order to learn how the process works. We therefore offer courses that can be booked in the outdoor box. The special skateboards required for the facility can also be rented there. These are extremely easy to master. Our outdoor box is not just a shop, by the way, but a real centre of fun. It has everything you need to take part in sporting activities in and around rocksresort.
The secret of all waves throughout the world is what is known as transition. This refers to the transition from the high part of the wave to the flat part, which creates a build-up of speed. This transition has a way of making people happy, and studies have shown that people are happier when they take on transitions. This is also what makes the Surfwave exciting. It’s not about demonstrating the most difficult jumps and tricks, but about the feeling of surfing, the gentle ups and downs, speeding up and slowing down, which is so much fun.
