Have you got balance (Street)

Member Name: January

Product:	Street
Date:	13/10/02 (152 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great fun, All the family can go to the comps

Disadvantages: You can get hurt

I thought that I'd write on this outdoor sport, as it has made a huge comeback.

I can imagine some of you are going, yeah right,we know, there's these kids boarding up and down outside our house all the beedin time.

I can only say that if the council pulled their fingers out and provided more skateparks for these(our) kids, then believe me, the kids would prefer to be on the parks practising their tricks.
After all, we all provide enough money to the council, via council tax and they do get lottery funds as well.

I won't get on my soap-box and go on about the councils, as I'm here to tell you about Skateboarding.

My son,is 22 and has been into skateboarding since he was little and I have numerous photo's of him in mid air doing tricks on his skateboard.
There are lots of tricks to be learned and this takes a lot of practise.
There are kick-flips, nose-grinds, 180's, 360's, side grinds, front grinds, hollies, japan's and numerous other tricks.

These tricks can be done over objects like railings and edges of street-curbs, hence the kids on the street being a nuisance to people.
At the skateparks, there are special ramps and rails built so that the kids can practise.
These parks are also used for competitions, where the boarders can enter at different age groups and win certificates or cups.
The parks also accomodate for BMX riders and in-line skaters.

We, as a family, have been to watch some of the competitions which my son has taken part in and judged at.
I have really enjoyed them, as it's great to see kids of all ages getting together, as this is not a fierce competetive sport.
I have watched as the boarders cheered and banged their boards on the floor as a sign of encouragement when someone has just landed a complicated trick.
Or heard the shouts of encouragement for the once's
who have just bailed, to have another go.
There see
ms to be a general comradeship amongst the boarders.

This year we went to Nass 2002
This is an adventure sports show held at the Royal Bath & West showground at Shepton Mallet, Somerset.
There is of course Skateboarding arena's for the competitions and a public skatepark, built by skaters for skaters.
We had an excellent weekend, the tickets were available at the tourist information centre at Shepton mallet 23.50 for adults and 15.00 for kids under 14, this was for the weekend camping.
There was also BMX, in-line skating, Mountain Bike Trials, Snowboarding, Moto Cross, Wakeboarding,Mountain Boarding, A fun fair, Market and Stalls, Bungee Jumping, Skratch convention, Dance tent, live bands on stage and lots more.
It was a great weekend for us all.
You can go to www.national-adventuresports.com for information on Nass 2003 if this is of interest to you. I already have my ticket :)

Skateboarding can be done on the cheap.
Pick up one from a bootsale, or you can really get into having a great board and wheels.
A board will cost anything from 15 to 80 pounds depending on style and make.
The wheels come in different sizes and colours, these too can set you back anything fron 5 to 45 pounds.
Then there are different trucks (these attach to the board and you fit the wheels to them) these again can vary from 7 to 30 pounds depending on taste.
A good site for these is www.routeone.co.uk

Then there are the clothes,
well, here again you can wear anything or really get into the street fashion it depends on you.
Nothing looks out of place when skateboarding so you don,t have to break the bank, but if your off to a special event then there's lots of clothing companies to choose from.
WWW.TSACLOTHING.COM is one of my favorites, as they do some really natty womans clothes.
Then there are of course the foot wear, here I could go on for a while, but name's like Duffs, Vans, Circa and DC s
hoes are probably well enough known to most of us anyway.

I suppose that is all, just have fun and don,t be to hard on those kids on the street, maybe take time to have a watch and see what tricks they can do.

After all they may be famous like Tony Hawk one day.

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