Skateboarding

..nice! 👍

Last weekend of the skateboard exhibition at the design museum (I’m quoted in part of it - fame!)

Dammit well upset. Thought it was open until June. Was hoping to see it next weekend. Lame.

There's going to be a weekend of events celebrating 80s to mid-90s UK skaters in July. They did one for the 70s last year.

Stuck some bones reds and those enuff super softies 58mm on my setup yesterday. Quick ride to the corner shop this eve and the difference is night and day. Couple of pushes and I was flying, proper joy. I guess if you buy a £9 complete you’re not getting amazing anything, let alone wheels/bearings.

Bones reds makes a big difference, and softer wheels for sure.

I’ll try remember to have some stickers on me tomorrow and Tuesday when I’m in town. Not sure whether anyone will manage to catch me but yea. Stickers.

Jnr’s board is squeaking and not rolling for very long. With the recent wet weather they’ve been doing some rolling through puddles.
I’m thinking it may need new bearings or maybe a service of the current ones.
Gonna pop into local skate shop this afternoon for their opinion but thought I’d ask here first. Thoughts?

I was hoping to just throw some oil at rusty bits to take the squeak away, but think that’s not going to do much

The squeaking on my board comes from the cheap truck bushings. If it’s not rolling well new bearings will make a big difference. I bought these and they’re great. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/355568287170?

Cheapo lazy dad bodge-hack... blast some GT85 in the bearings. Won't be good long term but if it gets them rolling for a bit longer and you have to replace the bearings anyway, then worth a squirt.
Bushings though, probably worth replacing, when they're fucked, they're fucked.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4pFBqbAzWw&t=351

Great part, that. Some proper street skating.

https://youtu.be/BofbSZKB0OU

Stumbled upon skater of the year. Not up on this stuff but sheeeeesh! What a part!

BiL took jnr to clapham common skate park on sunday. Jnr was a bit intimidated by the older skaters. They've always had a bit of an issue with engaging with other kids in and around equipment they want to use. Usually takes them a while to warm to, get comfortable with those types of situations, as well as to overcome their inhibitions about not "being good enough".

I'm planning on taking them back there during the summer holidays, probably during the day midweek so there aren't so many older kids/skaters there, and they can pootle, make mistakes, figure out where they like to be, need to get better etc. But as I'll be probably figuring out how to navigate the park myself any tips on anything else I can do to get a 6yr old more comfortable at the skate park?

What a part!

fucking hell 😦

amazing

I think for skateparks and more nervous kids, it’s better to go v early in the morning when it’s virtually empty, or later in the summer evenings especially if there are some old farts about. To police the etiquette.

The middle of the day in the holidays is just 7000 little darlings on scooters doing that football rattle manoeuvre and failing

I took my lad (11) to the skatepark the other night. It’s been about 10 (11!) years since I was there with a board. Things have changed. The billowing wafts of smoke were from camping stoves cooking dinner ffs

Yeah I popped over to it this afternoon about 2ish, and there were about 6-9 people there, couple of women, some older guys, but as I was leaving after having a look around about 5-6 young guys came hooning over on hire bikes, so could imagine at certain points during the day it could get a bit close proximity wise.

Missus wants to practice her roller skating so may do a morning thing, in the holidays as a family, get out the door for 9.30ish, stay there to about 11. Then head off for lunch and gelato, do that a couple of mornings a week, hopefully he’s comfortable in his surroundings to not get freaked out when it gets busier

My SK8 park visit last week was confusing. 10 teenagers, a couple of whom were ripping. They were all wearing matching Hawaiian shirts with matching shorts. Each with a different tropical.pattern. looked like they were on a stag do. The others were making music on a laptop playing very loud. Really shit gabba techno with sort of d+b mcing over the top. Sounded shit, I felt old.

Go to Stockwell instead, much better park for learning, much friendlier. Earlier mornings (e.g. Before 11) better initially and there'll be other similar aged kids there also learning.

Can you explain how Stockwell is better for learning? Looks steeper with more banks and bowls, whereas Clapham is flatter couple of ups and downs, and some rails.
Jnr is confident standing on a moving board, getting better at pushing on it, can tack randomly, and stops by jumping off. Not sure I’d be comfortable with them swooping through some of those bowl sections at Stockwell..

When my kids were small and really shit BMX riders, the older kids at the pump tracks were always great with them especially when they fell off.

They can look intimidating but are usually just great kids hanging out and doing something they love (and probably have younger siblings)

Yeah this…
Skateparks are great for intergenerational communication.
It’s a place where old gits are reminded that little bastards are pretty decent on the whole. (And vice versa)

It’s one of the few situations where a 10 year old kid can give expert advice to a guy in his 40s

It’s one of the few situations where a 10 year old kid can give expert advice to a guy in his 40s

This literally happened to me on Sunday

Sorry, was replying on phone earlier and meant to add more detail. The section of the Stockwell nearer the back wall (near where the massive block of flats is now) is full of nice gentle banks/bowls and is perfect for learning how to flow with the terrain, rather than something like Clapham which is much more oriented towards going back and forwards doing tricks.
Plus it's got a much better community feel - wider range of ages, more relaxed (again because less focused on going back and forwards doing tricks). Much higher chance of multi-generational interaction. The last few times I've taken my daughter (7), she's ended up skating with other kids her age/getting advice (which she totally ignored) from older people, etc. Obviously you need to keep an eye on them, make sure they're not cutting across in front of people too much, etc. But people are pretty forgiving even if they do.

Honestly it's great. Unless you take your daughter and then decide to have a quick roll around yourself and break your wrist and remember why you mostly retired from skating...

Also still need to convince my daughter that Crocs are a terrible choice for skating.

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The sugar bowl in this photo is pretty much the perfect place for them to learn how to roll up and down a slope, get a feel for what it's like to roll into a ramp, etc.

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