November 11th, 2003 -- On November 30th, Sunrise Rollerland
will celebrate 30 years in business. As with all opening businesses there was a
lot of speculation what the opening date would be, but the doors
opened November 17,1973 to a huge crowd in anticipation of a new
kind of skating facility. The facility was brought to
reality by the hard work of Lloyd and Marian Neutz and is still
run by Ken and Kathy Neutz. The opening ceremonies included
Supervisor Eugene Gualco who read a proclamation by Governor
Ronald Regan. Captain Mitch who hosted a cartoon show on channel
40 was there signing photos and skating teams from many of the
local skating centers preformed their moves.
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Opening day November 17,
1973 |
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Lloyd and Marian Neutz with Captain Mitch Center
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The new facility near Sunrise Mall was a "breath of fresh
air" compared to Pioneer Roller corral which was in a large
Quonset hut styled building that had seen better days.
Pioneer which was located in Carmichael off Manzanita
Avenue is now the location of a Bel-Air Store. Others like
Senator skating rink were old and lacked many modern
conveniences and closed down when the newer skating centers were
built.
The real skating boom happed right after opening. Disco had
arrived. With the introduction of disco music flocks of
teenagers rushed to the rinks to listen to the music of Donna
Summer, the Bee Gees and more. Friday night there were hundreds
of people and the floor was always packed. Cruising became
popular after the release of "American Graffiti" and a constant
line of cars encircled Sunrise Mall and the adjoining streets.
Today, reminders of those "cruising" days still are posted on
the streetlight around the Sunrise Mall Area.
Sunrise Rollerland has been an icon for teenagers of the
North Sacramento landscape for the last 30 years. I run into
people all the time who say, "I used to skate there when I was a
teenager" or "I skated there and now I bring my kids". It seems
that many of us have fond memories of skating at Sunrise
Rollerland. There was races, couples, trios, limbo and a whole
bunch of fun games. It's a fun place, but it's not too crazy.
The rink hasn't changed much over the years, the castle scene
mural on the back wall is still there. It was painted by an
artist named Ferriter who painted Evel Kneivel's skycycle
which he tried to jump over the Snake river canyon. If you
don't remember Eval he was a crazy motor cycle daredevil.
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Sept. 8,
1974 - After two unsuccessful unmanned
test flights Evel decided to keep his
word to his fans and risked his life in
a specially constructed rocket powered "Skycycle"
in an attempt to clear the Snake River
Canyon in Idaho. Even though he made it
across the quarter mile wide chasm,
strong winds blew the malfunctioning
parachute back into the canyon, landing
just a few feet from the swirling river
in which he would have surely drowned.
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The carpet at Sunrise is still red and the floor is now
coated with a polyurethane layer to provide traction. In the
70's they used a sticky powder called rosin and the dust from it
was everywhere. Back in the 70's the wheel were made of clay and
some were even made of wood. But in the late 70's they started
making wheels out of plastic.
The All Night skates and the 24 hour MDA skate-a-thons were
fun and entertaining. Although, skating for 24 hours straight
with only a short hourly break was really tough on the feet. All
night skates were great because you would spend the whole night
with friends, playing all kinds of new and fun games.
Unfortunately, staying up all night usually meant you stayed up
for a few days straight.
One of the latest fads was the inline craze spurred by the
Rollerblade company in the 90's. Before, inline skates everyone
skated on roller skates, now referred to as" quads". The first
inline skates were very basic, but progressed radically during
the 90's as ski companies introduced ski boot technology into
the inline skate. Buckles and liners became standard. The speed
team quickly picked up on inline skates and their lap times
started to get shorter. They soon had 5 wheels on each foot and
the the wheels keep getting bigger. In the 90's a 76mm size was
standard, but soon, 80mm came along and some newer skate boast a
100mm wheel, that's the size the put on a scooter!
Competitive skating has always been big at Sunrise
Rollerland. The Artistic skating club was huge in the 70's and
since then Sunrise Rollerland has had many region and National
Champions. Some of the teachers were skaters then and they now
teach their own children and others. Joyce Allen has been with
Sunrise for years and now is top professional artistic teacher
at Sunrise Rollerland.
Sunrise Rollerland has a speed skating club which has many
regional and National Champions. This year we have 2 members,
Josh Wood and Kimi Butler on the United States Inline World Team
which recently competed in Venezuela. The team is "family run"
with an emphasis on family which may be it's appeal as it draws
skaters from the Bay Area and other outlying areas. The team
practices indoor and outdoor to be well rounded in the sport.
What skating comes down to is people. It's always been a
people sport, and a family sport. Sunrise Rollerland has always
had a family night, a Christian skate night, and skating clubs.
We have school and church private parties and still run "All
Night skates". We offer lesson 4 times a week and always have
lessons on Saturday morning.
On November 30th, 2003 Sunrise Rollerland will open the doors
with free admission, an anniversary cake , and some great
prizes. We will also have demonstrations by our Artistic and
speed skating clubs.
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