As you may have heard, the Roarockit Skateboard Company has expanded into the European market with a brand new home base in France. In charge of the new operation is Sarah Jackson and Nicolas Alix, two incredible young entrepreneurs who had a vision and brought it to life.
Click on photo to see the pyrography process on this custom board by Champstiles Woodburning
Earlier this year, both Sarah and Nico visited the Roarockit HQ in Toronto for an extended training period. Being the person who primarily trained them, I can tell you first hand that we made them work super hard in preparation of opening their own branch of Roarockit. Not only did they learn all the basics of manufacturing, shipping/receiving and customer service in the skateboard industry, but they also helped teach us a few new tricks as well!
Presenting Sarah & Nico with the custom burned deck chronicling their trip to Roarockit Toronto
Background:
Nicolas (Nico) has a baccalaureate in management and accounting and is qualified as a stone mason, specializing in restoring historical monuments. Following school, he became fully involved in the motocross world and worked alongside his best friend for many years teaching motocross to young children. After several years of this, he left it all to go travelling around the world. During his journeys Nico improved his English, on top of his French, and has now returned home to launch Roarockit Skateboard Europe.
Marcel and Nico making shirts for the 6th Annual Swap Meet
After completing her European baccalaureate (specializing in German) Sarah graduated with a degree in Linguistics from UCL (London, UK) all before she was 21. Following this she worked at various part time jobs, in order to put money aside for travelling expenses. She also spent time volunteering at music festivals as part of the admin team and a translator (French/English/German) between the artists and the organizers. Before training at the Roarockit HQ in early 2013, Sarah had spent time helping out with Roarockit in the early days of the business on a family trip to Toronto. Now that things have come full circle, she is excited to get started running the new European division of the company.
Sarah & Nico making their first custom drop deck
The finished product - A handmade, bottle shaped 1" drop deck!
On the next Rockit Talk, we interview Sarah and Nico to hear a bit more about their new business (ad)venture, skateboarding in France and the future for Roarockit Skateboard Europe!