Skateboarding Tips
Karen's Diary

After my first outing on the board I have a few skateboarding tips for you. The first one is wear long sleeves and long trousers.

It's surprising, even with pads on, how easy it is to end up with bumps and grazes. Luckily it's autumn here and and I'm a real reptile so I feel the cold.

When I went out for my first skate I was well wrapped up in my thermal underwear as well as the long pants and the thick fleece. Yes, I know, total wimp!

Anyway, back to the skateboarding tips. I very quickly figured out that you have a lot more control if you have your toes in line with the edge of the board.

Every time I ended up with my toes hanging over the edge of the board I got pitched off. The skateboard just seemed to shoot out in front of me. Not fun!

The second thing I discovered is that grip tape really does - grip, that is. I found it quite hard to get my feet back on the board in the right position after pushing. Then when I tried to move them I fell off because they seemed to be glued to the grip tape.

It was almost as if I was pushing the board out from under me rather than moving my feet. I suspect it might be a combination of the grip tape being too grippy and of me shifting my weight off centre while I was trying to position my feet.

I found pushing quite frustrating. I would push off quite strongly two or three times and then get my back foot on the board as quickly as I could, but no matter how fast I seemed to be going when I got on the board, I would slow down really fast and have to push again.

I know I'm learning to skate on a bit of a rough surface and that won't help. But I think it might also be that my 97a wheels are a bit too soft, especially as I weigh considerably more than I would like to. 

 Let's hope skateboarding proves to be good exercise.

Maybe it's just inexperience so I'll see how my next session goes.

Another thing which I'm going to have to get to grips with is learning not to care what people think. Whenever anyone came anywhere near where I was skating I was tempted to leap into the hedge bottom and hide.

I worry that people will wonder why that silly old moo is trying to ride a skateboard. Oh well, they might have a point. But it's far more likely that they won't think anything at all, even if they do notice me.

On the whole the experience was a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to getting out and skating again soon. There will be some more skateboarding tips in my next diary entry.

Until then, have fun and skate safely.

Karen


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