IN his early 20s, Sydney’s Jai Al-Attas was producing a punk-rock documentary and reached out to a childhood hero to narrate it: American skateboarder Tony Hawk.
“Tony Hawk narrated the film for us, I’d never met him before but I just emailed him and said ‘Hey, I’m making this movie, would you like to be the narrator?’” Jai tells Golf Link.
“He just said ‘Yep’.
“I remember being over there in San Diego, directing one of my heroes, and afterwards he was like ‘If you want, we can go and get some lunch, and then after lunch I’ve got [professional skaters] Bucky Lasek and Andy Macdonald coming over to skate my ramp in my office, you’re more than welcome to hang out’.”
“I remember watching them on this half-pipe and texting my friends back home saying: ‘If my 15-year-old self could see me right now.”
Then a couple of years ago, when Jai was holidaying in Osaka, Japan, he had an idea.
“I remember saying ‘I know that every time we go out there’s cool stuff to do here, but I have no idea what it is’,” says Jai.
“I’ve always had a better time hanging out with someone who is actually from that place or connected to a scene.”
“That’s where the idea came from.”
That was the birth of Loqules, Al-Attas’ new website that gives people the opportunity to purchase unique experiences with those in the know, across a range of hobbies.
“We connect people with influences that create rad experiences, specifically in the lifestyle space - like surfing, skating, snowboarding, sports, fitness, arts, fashion and nightlife,” says Jai.
“If you think about Airbnb, how that’s a market place for solving problems for people about where they can stay, we want Loqules to be the market place that solves the problem of what to do when you’re in a place.”
So far, an impressive list of ‘Loqules’ has already been compiled, including pro surfer Taj Burrow, former Sydney Kings captain Ben Madgen, rugby league player James Segeyaro, boxer Lauryn Eagle, as well as pro skaters, DJs, songwriters, chefs and food bloggers.
“We just approached people that we knew that were doing cool things,” says Jai.
“One thing that’s important for us is, yeah, we’re selling experiences and we’re curating what we think are really cool experiences, but we need the people on the platform to have interesting stories.
“They don’t need to be famous, they don’t need to be a celebrity or have half a million Instagram followers. It’s just about being really rad at something and to have an interesting story to back it up.”
The site became open to the public in September this year to an impressive response, with people unexpectedly buying experiences as gifts.
“I thought we were going to sell to people who were like myself, but what we found were a lot of parents were also buying experiences for their kids,” says Jai.
“One of the memorable ones was when a woman bought her husband one for his 30th birthday. He was a mad Sydney Kings fan and he played 1 on 1 with Ben Madgen and they did some drills together before having lunch.
“It blew the guy’s mind!”
Based out of Sydney, the site is barely off the ground but, with experiences already in New Zealand, Melbourne and Byron Bay, the plan is to move to Los Angeles in the new year and set up camp in Southern California.
“By the end of the year we should have about 100 experiences on the platform,” says Jai.
“And by the end of next year we’ll have 1000.”
“We say our mission is to change the way people experience the world around them.”
Photos: Loqules.com