Skateboarding

I'd start out just trying to make it as fun as poss. Find a safe hill and have fun riding down sitting on the board.

Watch sky brown / kids skating videos. If they can see it they can be it.
Old school videos from the 80s might be good as the tricks may be simpler.

There may be lessons available locally.

Go and hang out at your local skatepark people are often very friendly helpful. Other kids may be keen to teach.

Get a board yourself and learn together or find a school friend who can buddy up.

Get yourself one too, even try a longboard, they're great fun - I wish I'd never stopped 20-odd years ago.

My daughter is a similar age & always wants a shot of the cruiser that lives in the boot of my car - like @sacredhart says, start them off sitting / kneeling to get the hang of how it moves, then stand them up on flat ground & encourage them to shimmy it from side to side to practice balancing - don't be tempted to hold on to them to help them, instead of correcting their balance they lean on you & the board shoots out from under them & everyone end up on their arse.

My wee one will be "encouraged" to get into it next year once the weather dries up a bit - good luck!

Good advice above - having a board yourself is handy (and fun!).
My daughter started rolling about when she was the same age. At first, I just spent a while with her just standing on the board, stepping on and off it and generally getting comfortable with how it felt before even trying to skate around. Then we started rolling along and she got the hang of pushing really quickly from there.

A lot of people focus on tricks and transitions and stuff, but first of all they need to just get comfortable rolling around and pushing etc - the simple stuff. Lessons won’t really be worth it until they’re comfortable at that stage I reckon.

Hi there, where can one try on and purchase adult skateboarding helmets in London? Preferably central or SE. Thanks.

Two skate shops have recently opened on Neal Street in Covent Garden; Route One & another I can't remember the name of. Might be worth ringing Route One & seeing if they've got any helmets in that store (they do sell them online).
The Covent Garden Slam City had disappeared last time I went past so that one is out I'm afraid.

Thanks very much

I’ve finally got with the times and gone from 8” to 8.25”. Just need it to stop raining every day now, so I can see how much of an earth-shattering paradigm-shift of a difference it makes.

This dude makes huge stuff look so straightforward

https://youtu.be/Q5rjJV6Nqig

I muddled around a few years back with the middle age shred blokes. It’s a forum a bit like lfgss but for old skaters…anyway here’s a video I still push about from time to time.
Most of these guys are still going…

https://youtu.be/Jcts1kRnitA

Doc about my old local

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XhT8avFXVZY&t=1827

33.49 - who is it absolutely ripping it to shreds there?

Rad! Wish I had some footage of me skating back in the day. Mark Nicholson shot some once when we were out (he always had a camcorder about) but I never saw it. Not that I was any good but nice to remember how things used to be.

Not sure. That's after my time, big vert wall wasn't there last time I skated. I used to live round the corner and spent every spare minute I had there.

Bit of a look through the comments reveals it’s someone called Jordan Thackeray:

https://youtu.be/quqxUtBpPus

Jordan has to be one of the best or sickest skaters in the UK now

Absolutely. I’d never heard of him until yesterday. Even watching just carve about the place is a joy. So much energy and style, properly eye catching.

I dun a board. Looking forward to boardsliding it all off in less time than it took to paint it :-)

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Very nice! Do you sell your art anywhere?

I occasionally do some prints to sell - Most of my time is taken up doing illustration and animation for clients, so it’s rare that I have time for personal work. That’s changing slowly though.

I usually broadcast stuff for sale on my Instagram

That's superb. Would skate 10/10.

I bought a fingerboard over last winter as it was miserable weather and minimal people to skate with, and I ended up doing a little illustration on it myself. Quite fun.

Cheers!

Ha, that’s great!

Yeah I’ve been struggling with the weather. Feels like it’s been a while since parks have been dry long enough between showers to actually dry. The latest few skates I’ve had have been really unsatisfying/terrifying and all I’ve really achieved is making my board have a little less pop.

Yeah dude. I don't think I've skated in over two months. Sad times indeed; sometimes you gotta say 'fuck you' to the weather and enjoy it whatever it brings, and sometimes it's just not worth the shitty session.

It’s a fucker for maintaining any sort of consistency - I’ve got barely any free time for skating as it is.

Very much looking forward to the spring and having lunch break skates. Am I right in thinking you’re an ex-Bristolian? I’m fairly near Emerson Green park and St Georges park - both pretty fun unless filled up with kids (obvs my own kids are super cool, but everyone else’s can get stuffed).

Yeah, I am! Good knowledge.

Definitely craving some drier days, not even necessarily warm. But yeah, need to get some consistency back as I'm not very good anyhow.

St George's park is good. I live right next to the Grove DIY but I'm way too inexperienced to make any use of it, I usually end up skating all the way to Brixton or Stockwell. Good workout though.

Grove DIY

Nice, this place looks ace.

I'm in Brockley, is Peckham Rye skate park any good?