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Three years after an initial closure announcement was rescinded amid an outpouring of community support, The Golden Skate in San Ramon continues to draw from across the Bay Area for birthday parties, popular adult skate nights and lessons for all ages as the rink rolls toward its 50th anniversary.
However, it’s not clear how much longer that will be the case, with the property on Hooper Drive on the west side of San Ramon currently up for sale, and with plans for the townhome project set to replace it still underway following an application extension that was approved by the city’s Planning Commission late last year.
While still up in the air when exactly the roller rink might close – this time for good – and be demolished, manager Manuel Duarte said that he estimates that day will come within the next two years, marking the end of his three-decade-long tenure at Golden Skate, where he came aboard in 1997, which was an unexpected shift in his career trajectory as a restaurant manager.
Duarte was initially recruited by a friend who worked at the rink and sought his help as business boomed in the years after current property owner Hassan Sharifi purchased the facility in 1995, which was originally opened in 1976 by Lowell Hooper.
“They were so busy over here, so I just came to find out what’s going on, and they gave me the chance to try it and see if I like it,” Duarte said.
Duarte ultimately moved closer to the area with his wife and children, with the flexibility of the position – and the ability to bring his children to work – being just one of the major draws for him.
“They were really running like a family business,” Duarte said.
His children grew up playing roller hockey at the rink in a program that was run by the San Ramon city government at the time before Duarte and The Golden Skate staff took the reins of the rink’s hockey program years later.
Once they were old enough, Duarte’s children would also join him and the staff of approximately 60 working at the rink at its peak of popularity.
Duarte works with a staff of approximately 10 in the present day. The dwindling attendance and staffing wasn’t sudden, he said, but instead gradual over the years starting in 2001.
“We were getting slow,” Duarte said. “We didn’t have too many birthday parties. There wasn’t really anything different, but every year we had maybe 5%, 8% less gradually, and same with admissions.”
Hockey classes and practices with groups from local schools also faded away over the years.
Nonetheless, the rink would continue to attract new clientele as other Bay Area roller rinks were shuttered and often demolished in favor of other projects that could generate more revenue, such as the housing project that replaced the popular Cal Skate rink in Milpitas when it closed in 2011.
One of those clients was David Trumble, who began coming to Golden Skate in 2014 and ultimately convinced management to allow him to run a skating club and coach lessons based out of the rink, which continue to this day.
“We didn’t have a club out of there for the longest time, and I put a club together,” Trumble said. “The reason I did that was because we didn’t have any other clubs, because the rest of the rinks in the Bay Area had closed down, and I have a little bit of a different model in mind as far as how a skate club should work.”
Now a veteran coach with more than 20 years of experience, Trumble initially came to skating as an adult, alongside his youngest daughter.
“It truly gave me a new lease on life,” Trumble said. “If I had not learned what I learned and how to interact with people the way I did, I wouldn’t be here today.”
“I grew up as an idiot boy in the ’60s and ’70s thinking I’m completely invincible, and during that time I broke just about every bone in my body and wound up in the hospital a number of times, and was still stubborn and hard-headed and continued to not do anything right,” he continued. “That included through my first marriage and the first portion of my older kids’ lives. I was not setting very good examples, and I started to figure things out slowly but surely.”
Trumble sought to turn over a new leaf when his youngest daughter Amanda was born, taking a primary role in raising her, he said.
“We went into that rink and saw everyone practicing, and I just looked at her and she looked at me and she said we need to do this,” Trumble said.
Both father and daughter took to the sport immediately, which served as a platform for the two to deepen their relationship as well as their skills, encouraging one another by way of friendly competition.
“We built on each other, and we’d jump, we’d spin, we’d do all sorts of just goofy stuff, and go on and on,” Trumble said. “I learned figure skating, I learned dancing, I learned how to choreograph, just lots of stuff you’ve got to learn to do over the years.
Although his daughter went on to pursue other interests after her time growing up as a competitive skater, coaching continues to be an outlet for Trumble’s paternal instincts to this day.
“I don’t really believe in the elitism – I’m here to help all of them,” Trumble said. “I have people of all ages. I have people with varying health conditions and mental abilities, and they are all my kids, every single one of them. And if they want to push it to the limit and take it to the elite level, I’ll help them. If they just want to add a little bit more to balance out their life, I’m here for that too.”
Meanwhile, Amanda Trumble has recently returned to the rink after a 10-year hiatus to practice a father-daughter dance on skates for her upcoming wedding.
While there had been no single event that spurred the downturn in attendance and revenue at The Golden Skate that gradually emerged starting with the turn of the century, that changed with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Duarte noted that because Golden Skate was classified as a sports facility, the rink was one of the last businesses allowed to reopen in 2021 as lockdowns lifted and disease prevention protocols such as vaccine requirements, temperature checks, social distancing and masks became a part of daily life amid ongoing uncertainty about the risks of the virus and the safety of social and recreational gatherings.
Another challenge Golden Skate and other businesses faced upon reopening was recruiting and retaining employees, with the small staff forcing the rink to cut its hours, which had previously extended until 11 p.m.
With all of that in mind, the announcement just months after reopening that The Golden Skate would be closing by summer 2022 came as little surprise – although it was met with sadness, fond memories and a newfound appreciation of the facility in what had been set to be its final days.
According to Trumble, news that Sharifi had changed his mind about the closure was announced during what was set to be a farewell party for the rink in 2022.
“I absolutely appreciate him,” Trumble said. “I really do. I know how much it costs to run that place, I know that he was bringing in maybe 5% of what it cost to keep the lights on every month during COVID, and he’s just absorbing all that cost, but he was able to keep it going for us.”
“I don’t know what makes him tick, but I like it a lot,” Trumble continued. “I do know he was an educator for a very long time, and I think that’s one of the things that I really find endearing about him, and a lot of the coaches I work with.”
Even before the pandemic, it had been clear that The Golden Skate wouldn’t be around forever, with Sharifi approaching retirement, his children uninterested in taking over the rink, and the continuous downward trend in attendance and revenue. Following pressure from the city, Duarte said that Sharifi had reluctantly agreed to consider selling the property for use as housing as he grew older and approached retirement.
A 227-unit townhouse project was initially proposed for the site in 2017, with Sharifi filing development applications that failed to move forward when the city later decided to reduce housing density in that area. The current Windflower Fields Townhome project, consisting of 47 townhouses and 16 accessory-dwelling units, was approved by the city in 2022 – but not without long conversations, heavy scrutiny, and sometimes a butting of heads between the commission and developers.
“When we first saw the project , it was in the early days of understanding and applying the new state housing rules,” said Planning Commissioner Jean Kuznik, who was the body’s chair at the time. “The initial meetings were difficult.”
Kuznik pointed to one meeting in which the applicant’s attorney had been “annoyed” that the commission refused to accept a finding and adopt a provision that he had recommended just 90 minutes before the meeting started.
“One of the big issues was a consideration of waivers that could be used if the project was within the prescribed distance to a transit center,” Kuznik said. “We argued it was not, they said there was a bus stop close by and that would qualify.”
Nonetheless, Kuznik said the commission was obligated to ultimately approve the project, which was incorporated into the city’s current Housing Element.
Developers have faced a different obstacle since then, however, returning to the commission last December to request an extension for development applications amid delays that the applicant’s attorney said were due to environmental factors.
“Fast forward to our recent review— the issue is a legal issue concerning mitigating a landslide that is above the property,” Kuznik said. “We granted the extension without getting too many details of the legal wrangling between the parties.”
While the downward turn of the rink and the housing project weren’t unexpected, the outpouring of support for The Golden Skate – and the general rise in popularity of roller skating in recent years – were.
“I recall that the owner was surprised at the outpouring of affection for Golden Skate when its closing was announced,” Kuznik said. “At this point in time, I don’t know how the owner feels about the prospect of the property being converted to housing versus remaining in business.”
According to Duarte, Sharifi remains reluctant to sell the property, which is currently on the market but with no deal in sight in the immediate future.
One of the many new skaters who have emerged at Golden Skate amid a resurgence of interest in roller skating is Aditi Polamreddy, who was introduced to the sport during a friend’s birthday party at the rink and who has since been developing her skills under Trumble’s guidance, all during a nearly lifelong battle with brain cancer.
“She pretty much came fresh out of a wheelchair and decided that she was going to work and try, and she has given me basically the happiest heart that I’ve had since my daughter Amanda,” Trumble said.
Polamreddy said that she had never thought she’d be able to skate, or participate in any sports, until she started training with Trumble.
“I always wanted to be part of a team before, and I never thought I could because of my disability,” Polamreddy said. “And now just saying that I’m a competitive roller skater – it’s just the best feeling.”
Polamreddy said that the impending closure of the rink was going to leave a major void in her life beyond just the loss of a local opportunity to skate.
“It’s something I look forward to every week, and skating has just been such a big part of my life,” Polamreddy said. “I’ve met some of my best friends through skating.”
Despite the rink’s eventual closure looming, Duarte, Polamreddy and Trumble are all looking ahead to the immediate future.
Duarte is seeking to expand the rink’s hours back to 11 p.m., and to increase staff in the coming months as high school students hit the summer job market. Polamreddy, who had to take last year off from competitive skating due to surgery, is looking to make her return to the competitive circuit later this year. And Trumble is gearing up to host the rink’s first official USA Roller Sports contest in more than 25 years on April 13, with additional details set to be available soon.
Trumble is also looking toward opening another rink to stand in for The Golden Skate following its closure, but is already aware of the challenges associated with that endeavor.
“I need to make arrangements to find another building to put up a skating rink or convert to a skating rink and continue teaching,” Trumble said. “I don’t know how well that’s going to go here in the Bay Area, because the price is really prohibitive.”
He encouraged others who are seriously interested in keeping indoor roller skating available in the Bay Area to get in touch with suggestions.
“If they want to continue to support the rink and are interested in truly supporting our sport, I would absolutely love to hear from them,” Trumble said. “I’m very, very serious about what I do. I’m very, very passionate about what I do and how I do it, and if they want to support us somehow, offer any insight, business plan, I would be happy to entertain any of that.”
In the meantime, The Golden Skate at 2701 Hooper Drive is open to the public Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and Wednesdays, the latter of which sees the highest turnout of the week with adult recreational skate nights. Trumble offers classes from 9 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. on Saturdays.
