Shire Dad Starts Petition After Discovering Skate Plus Caringbah Closed Years Ago: ‘Where Are We Meant to Dump the Kids?’

Liam Montgomery | Sports Reporter | Sutherland Shire Gazette

2 August 2025

After 48 hours of relentless rain, gale-force winds and emotional erosion, a local father has reached breaking point - launching a Change.org petition upon discovering that Skate Plus Caringbah, the roller rink of his youth and his last hope for freedom, no longer exists.

Blake T., 44, from Gymea Bay, who described himself as “46 hours deep into school holiday cabin fever” and “one TikTok away from a breakdown,” said he simply assumed Skate Plus still existed. 

The father had planned to drop the kids off and enjoy four hours of silence, just like his parents did every second Saturday in the late '90s. Instead, he arrived to an empty building and a spiritual crisis.

Sources close to the situation confirm Blake hadn’t been to Skate Plus since 1996, but says it “should’ve been heritage-listed, like Old Caltex or the Miranda Fair Big W escalator.”

“How do you just get rid of a place like that? It raised a generation on UV lighting, slushies, and repetitive Aqua tracks. It was a public service.

Now two days deep into cabin-fever parenting, and forced to "play" games that involved hiding under towels or pretending to be a talking horse named Tony, Blake reached breaking point. His petition - titled Bring Back Skate Plus or At Least Somewhere to Dump Our Tweens - gained 200 signatures in three hours, mostly from other local parents trapped indoors and Googling“cheap indoor activities that aren’t illegal.”

Council declined to comment, but did point out there’s still laser tag in Menai. Blake responded, “If I wanted to drive to Menai, I’d just keep going and start a new life.”

The petition continues to grow, mostly fuelled by caffeine, desperation, and 90s nostalgia.