‘Getting Aggressive’ by Instructor Louise (with pics)
From the streets to the skate park – the first instalment of Louise’s skate park diary
Back when I was at uni, I took my inline skates and headed to a small skate park in Hyde Park, Leeds. Two of the local youths taught me a couple of basic manoeuvres and I loved it. But then, after a nasty fall that destroyed my trousers and my pride but not much else, I never got around to going back. In July 2005, with the arrival of Debs from a skate school in Australia, I finally had an excuse to get back in there and give it another go.
As a skatefresh instructor I am obviously a fairly advanced skater so it was a bit strange to be a beginner again. However, with Debs’ watchful eye it didn’t take me long to get my courage. Pretty soon I found myself standing over the edge of the 4ft mini ramp on the coping (the metal rail) trying to get the courage to ‘drop in’. This involves rolling over the edge, into the half pipe, then going up the other side. I couldn’t believe it but I made it, and without falling too.
After a bit of practice I got the hand of rolling out the other side, like all the cool kids do, instead of scrambling out in a very uncool fashion. Unfortunately, now I’m hooked. The adrenaline you feel from riding in the skate park is just brilliant. You push yourself just out of your comfort zone every time but you get amazing rewards for it. I’ve been watching Debs in the park and she drops into the 12ft vert ramp with ease. That’s what I’ve decided to aim for. One day that will be m
Graduating from the mini to midi
I’ve been going to the skate park (Bay 66) for a couple of months now and I’ve even started dropping into the midi ramp (6ft). The principle is the same as the mini ramp but it starts to get scarier as you get higher.
Recently, I’ve been skating in the street course area of the park a little more. I’ve even managed to get enough speed to clear the funbox in one jump. This is a ramp up, a flat bit across and then a ramp down and I can jump on the way up and clear the middle flat bit. It looks pretty cool if I can manage a grab in the middle too.
The great thing is that we’ve started a trend. There were always a few inline skaters there but it is mainly skate boarders. However, the other night we had loads of us down there, about 15 of the regulars from Hyde Park. I even helped the beginners with a few tips on how to pump in the ramps (building up speed going backwards and forwards in the half pipe).
My latest trick is learning to stall. This is going up to the coping and then instead of coming out of the ramp you stall on the coping and drop back in again. It’s the first stage before you can learn to grind something.
I sat on the edge of the big vert today and looked down over the edge. It is SO scary. I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to drop into it. It just goes straight down. Maybe one day…
Be brave and just go for it
Wooooohooooo! I did it! Today I stood up on the edge of the vert (12ft) and I dropped into it. It was an amazing feeling. I soared up the other side, turned round and came back down and had a massive grin on my face. Of course, I climbed straight back up and did it again.
I’ve come to the conclusion that when you ride the park there are two voices in your head. One says “don’t do it, don’t be stupid, you know it will hurt”. The other says “go on, just go for it”. If you stand on the edge looking at the drop the first voice starts to get louder and louder and eventually, it wins. If you want to skate that ramp and become an aggressive inline skater you need to listen to the second voice and just go for it.
Before I stood up and dropped into the vert, I had to do it from a sitting position. This took me ages. Weeks in fact. I just couldn’t get up the courage. But then, one week, with everyone willing me on, I just thought “it’s now or never” and went for it. OK, so I crashed and burned in the bottom but I knew I’d had my knees too straight and it hadn’t hurt so I got back up and tried again and this time it worked. I was so happy and it took me much less time to get the courage to stand up and drop in.
So now I have a new goal. I want to get good enough to teach people how to skate people in the skate park. I need to learn some new tricks but one day I’ll be good enough to help Debs with the lessons.
One more thing I should say, a lot of people think aggressive skating is really dangerous. There are risks involved but if you wear a helmet and aggressive padding (great big pads including elbow pads) you can really cut down the risk of serious injury. I’ve had my share of bumps and bruises and so have my friends but aggressive skating doesn’t seem to be much more risky than the average street skate.
Hope you can join me and Debs in the skate park soon.
