Skatey...The life of Les Skate

Skatey
The Life of Les Skate
Tim’s pretty well organised. They have a very good setup there. Lovely home, lovely big
garden. Everything you could want. But he is talking now about looking for something else.
Not in the area they’re in now, over in the built-up area. On the highest peak he can find. If
he has to buy the house, he’ll just knock it down and build the castle on the hill.
Rol bought his first house in Loughnan Rd, in Ringwood. I spent a fair bit of time on that.
He bought this little old place. It was a house that when you saw it, you knew you could do
something with it. It was on a very steep block up Loughnan Road, looking down over
Ringwood. We dug out and built underneath.
Then we built on top which gave them a new big
bedroom, an en suite, a dressing-room, a new big
living area, and a kitchen. Underneath they had their
double garage. It worked quite well; it was a good
start for him.
It was a house that when you
saw it, you knew you could do
something with it.
It worked quite well, it was a
good start for him.
From there Rol and Tim went into this joint venture of
a ski-water-jump park. Rol sold the house at Loughnan
Road and they both put money into the new venture.
They bought land out at Gruyere and that’s where Rol
still lives now. After the completion of the
construction of the water-jump, (that is a story in itself!) they had great success, it was
fantastic. Australia wouldn’t have had our world champion ski jumpers, including Kirstie
Marshall, if it hadn’t been there for them to train on.
Australia wouldn’t have had our world
champion ski jumpers, including Kirstie
Marshall, if it hadn’t been there for them to
train on.
The long-term idea was that the general public would also come and pay and have a bit of
fun. But it fizzled out after a while. There’s only a limited number of people who do that
sort of thing and in the end, they couldn’t keep it going. I was warned about it by Tony
Jordan. He was the man who controlled Domaine Chandon. He said to me one day, ‘I don’t
think this will work Les, it’s a limited market.’ He knew you had to have clients. And so, it
didn’t go on.
So Rol made his home up there. He was still working in the carpentry business up until he
had a fall and damaged his shoulder. He had always been a motorbike enthusiast, because
Karen’s, (his wife) father was called ‘Mr Honda,’ because he imported all the Honda stuff
from Japan. So, Karen was deeply into motorbikes too. The big building there that they had
for the ski people, became Rol’s motor bike repair shop and that has become his business.
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