It has sat empty for years, but the abandoned ski slope at Abu Dhabi’s Marina Mall — as well as its skating rink — will soon be home to a giant trampoline playground.
Bounce — which last year opened its first location in Dubai — is aiming to house the largest trampoline facility in the Middle East, opening in October.
Shoppers will be able to look on from the comfort of nearby cafes as thrill-seekers bounce gleefully on super-sized trampolines, run up five-metre-high, see-through walls, and perform bouncing tricks on tightropes.
The National got an exclusive sneak peek of the facility this week, guided by the company’s Middle East managing director Ross Milton, 41, and chief operating officer Doran Davies, 39.
It was a year ago this month that the Australian entrepreneurs set up Bounce in Dubai’s Al Quoz, the first location outside of Australia, where the company’s ‘free-jumping revolution’ began 11 years ago. With 85,000 Facebook fans in the UAE, Bounce is capitalising on the latest fitness craze by opening new facilities in South Africa, Portugal, Hong Kong and Sweden, as well as Abu Dhabi.
“For us it comes back to those emotions you feel when you’re a little kid,” says Milton. “You’re jumping out of a tree, or on your parents bed, and you feel that euphoric rush of flight — that feeling of weightlessness when you’re airborne.”
Once an activity geared to youngsters, bouncing has become a big, fun fitness draw for adults.
“We have more adults in our fan base than kids,” says Davies. “The first day you come, you’re trying to find your feet and within a week you’re running up walls and doing things you thought you’d never do.”
All windows near the slope have now been blacked out to keep the work inside “top secret”.
“We’re hoping to open in October,” says Milton, optimistically.
He points at where a group of children are skating around the mall’s rink.
“That’s where we’re going to put two Hollywood stunt-grade airbags — you could jump off a 20 story building and land on them softly. We’ll have Olympic-style trampolines that you can jump into the airbags from.”
Normally, businesses tend to turn the tempo down a notch to enter Dubai’s more conservative sister city. But Davies and Milton launched into the market headfirst.
“Everything we’re doing in Dubai, we’re ramming up on steroids for Abu Dhabi,” promises Davies.
The Marina Mall Bounce will be 30 per cent bigger, with 15,000 springs to Dubai’s 10,000.
There will also be two giant airbags, two dodgeball courts (Dubai has only one of each), five party rooms (to Dubai’s three), and a double-the-size performance area, where people run up walls.
The Abu Dhabi Bounce will also boast features never seen before in the Middle East, including the Supertramp, which will be almost double the size of standard trampolines and double the size of any other in the region.
Another novel feature are the walls. Davies explains: “In Dubai, our walls are made of wood covered in vinyl. Here they will be made from perspex and see-through, so shoppers can look through and see the soles of our customers’ shoes as they run up the same walls that they’re looking through.”
Also new to the UAE will be the two 15 metre-long ‘slacklines’, which are tightropes to bounce and do tricks on.
• Prices at the Abu Dhabi Bounce will be the same as in Dubai — Dh80 for the first session and Dh70 for subsequent sessions, Dh70 and Dh50 for children.
artslife@thenational.ae
