Skating Around Campus Rant

I have no idea why skate boarding is considered such a horrible ordeal.  I had a bad day at school today and decided ot blow off some steam skate boarding, but what do you know I get a ticket.  I was not grinding, jumping, or anything litterally just coasting around the campus.  Then what do you know, one of normals great officers of the law rights me a ticket and lectures me about how skate boarding is dangerous.  I tried to argue with him and explain that I was just riding around, slowly I might add, when he came and approached me.  For some reason at my school bikes are free to wiz through the quad, topple people over, ride on the road, and have their own parking.  My big question is what is the big difference between a skate board and a bicicle.  Both of these items are for recreation and can be used as a form of transportation.  In the town of Normal however, riding a skate board is practically like walking into a movie theater wearing a vest of TNT.  This town really needs to get its priorities straight when each week I have to read abotu people getting mugged and girls getting harassed on their way home at night.  I would not put it past the town of Normal to try and blame skate boarding for these crimes.  Instead of Normals officers stopping me midday when I am not doing anything wrong, they should be out at night protecting the people of Normal from real crimes.

Staying Hydrated While Skating

It is extremely important to stay hydrated when skate boarding.  I know from experience that allot of these parks have horrible water fountains and that is why I must urge you to bring your own bottle.  Staying hydrated will allow you to perform better as well as remain healthy.  Although this is not stressed very often it is super important that you remain hydrated or you could get heat stroke.  A kid at the skate park that I go to actually had a heat stroke at the park.  The kid was skating in eighty five degree weather while wearing a hooded sweatshirt and a beanie.  I know that this is typically the look of skaters, but seriously why put yourself through that torture.  Typically I skate in shorts and a short sleeve shirt in order to cool off my body as much as possible.  According to extreme nutrition”
Lack of water is the number 1 trigger of daytime fatigue. Preliminary research indicates that 8-10 glasses of water a day is capable of significantly easing back and joint pain for up to 80% of sufferers.
A mere 2% drop in body water is capable triggering fuzzy short-term memory trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on the computer screen or on a printed page."  Unfortunately, it seems that every skate park I have been to always has skaters that are extremely dehydrated.  In order to prevent these malfunctions due to being dehydrated I would recommend bringing an entire gallon of water to the skate park with you.  Also, eating bananas will revitalize your body with potassium stopping such dehydration pains such as "Charlie Horses."

Protective Gear

Protective gear is essential when skate boarding.  The essential gear to have is a helmet, knee pads, elbow pads, wrist guards, and a ankle braces.  Personally I typically just wear the helmet, but that is only because I am strapped for cash and currently cannot afford all of these items.  So if you are like me a poor college student at least get the helmet.  A helmet can save you from some extremely nasty falls and potentially save your life.  On the internet you can see thousands of videos of skate boarding injuries, and by far the worst kind to witness are head injuries.  In a majority of these videos the skaters are going extremely fast and their board flies out from underneath them creating a whipping motion and smacking the back of their head against the ground.  The worst video I witnessed was in regards to a guy bleeding from his ears after hitting his head so hard.  This is why I must urge all of you to at the very least buy a helmet.  The other injuries which are most common to skate boarders involve the wrists and the ankles.  When falling, you typically catch yourself before you hit the ground with your hands which puts and extreme amount of pressure onto your wrists.  The wrist guards are able to take a majority of the shock enabling you to not break your wrists.  The last piece of equipment I would like to touch on are the ankle braces.  The most common injury of skaters involves breaking the ankle or a horrible sprain, do yourself a favor and invest in ankle braces.

Skating In the Winter?

Skateboarding in the winter definitely can be done if you know what you are doing.  Skating in the winter is very different than skating with the warmer weather and comes at a price.  During the winter you are much more likely to break decks, ruin trucks, and destroy bearings.  The snow is a huge factor in the determination of your equipment.  First lets talk about how a deck gets destroyed from the winter.  The deck which is made of wood contracts and expands depending on the temperature.  Dramatic temperature changes can cause your deck to literally come apart since the plies of the deck begin to break away from each other.  Another harmful aspect that winter brings and negatively affects the quality of your deck is the moisture.  The moisture due to the winter months causes the skate board to become water logged which makes it much more difficult to do flip tricks and ollies.  The last factor which really destroys decks in the winter is the salt.  Salt from the deicing of sidewalks and streets gets kicked up onto your board while you ride causing it to be eaten by the salt.  The salt causes the board to deter ate and essentially breaking your deck.  Another aspect of the board which is negatively affected by these weather conditions are the bearings.  Bearings are extremely sensative to the moisture and the salt.  The salt and the moisture from the road will cause your bearings to rust over in very little time ruining your skating experience.

WoodWard

Camp WoodWard is without a doubt skate boarding Mecca.  WoodWard is a camp dedicated to nothing but skating.  This camp is huge with numerous outdoor parks as well as indoor.  In order to go to this magical place you will need about one thousand dollars.  This camp is located in Pennsylvania and involves you staying for about six days.  Although this is super expensive this facility is extremely nice and definitely worth the money if you have the discretionary income available to you.  This park is extremely cool since there are actual lessons involved at this facility.  According to campwoodward.com "Daily Instruction is not only educational but also fun when done the "Woodward Way."  Upon arrival to camp our skateboard staff will oversee a testing period where you will be placed into instruction groups based on your age and ability level.  Two and a half hours a day will be spent with some of the best Skateboarding Staff from around the country, navigating the vast complex and working on improving your skating."  Having the insight of professional skateboarders will greatly give you an edge over other skaters.  These pros have valuable insight which easily could be applied to your skating improving it drastically.  This camp also offers foam pits, and ramps which are virtually impossible to get hurt on.  The camp also pairs you with skaters around your own age and skill level.  By grouping skaters in this fassion it will allow you to make new friends and skate with people who are progressing at the same rate as yourself.  Again, if you have the spare time and money I would highly recommend going to camp Woodward.

Mostly Skateboarding Blog

While creating my own blog I thought that it would be a good idea to check out what other skate board blogs are talking about.  One blog that seems to be the leader of the pack is http://www.mostlyskateboarding.net/ as well as http://127skate.webs.com/.  This link which I provided will lead you to the other skate blog that this post will be analyzing.  This blog mostly deals with video submissions, which technically is a video log but yet this is still under the umbrella of a blog.  This blog was extremely interesting since all the videos were super cool and very entertaining.  I also liked how extremely simple the blog was.  There are virtually no updates in regards to typed letters but every month there are new videos that fellow skaters submitted.  Personally this a genius plans since this blog is generating traffic and revenue by using other skater’s ideas and videos.  This site was also interesting since there was a section for updates regarding new parks.  This section had photo updates of the construction of new parks.  What I also liked about this blog is that it included a twitter section.  Personally I find twitter to be the largest waste of time and really the most pathetic way of communicating ever, but the owner of this blog is making a small fortune from it.  Overall this a very creative blog in the sense that the owner just chooses videos he likes from the submissions and puts them into his blog.  This in an ingenious idea which allows him to be extremely versatile and offer a plethora of different skate videos each month.

Skating Creatively

A huge aspect in the skating world is in regards to style.  Many skaters would describe style as how you act and how you incorporate this into your skating.  Personally I have an extremely goofy style which involves allot of old school tricks such as boneless's and no complies.  In order to have a fun style you must be able to think outside of the box.  When approaching a skate park you should think of new and inventive ways to skate the terrain rather than just using the park how it was intended.  This exactly type of thinking is what gave birth to street skating.  Street skating involves skaters to find everyday items and turn them into their own personal skate oasis.  At the skate park you should pretend that it is an actual street course and try to use it in a unique way.  This can be done in a number of different ways including doing tricks that are normally not done on a certain obstacle.  An example of this would be to do a 360 boneless up a step up, rather than just kick flipping up it etc.  Another way to use a park differently is to use obstacles in the opposite fashion than what they were intended.  An example of this would be to skate up the stair set (if its small enough), rather than just throwing tricks down the set.  By using the park in a unique fashion it is more likely to get your skating noticed.  No one wants to see the same tricks over and over again, so by utilizing the park in a different way you have the possibility of being recognized for your abilities.  In essence try and look at the park in a way which will allow you to skate it the way you envision in.