Beginner Skateboarding Classes
Skateboarding Camps
Skateboarding camps are great places learn about skateboarding and interact with other kids who are learning. This list, recommended by Steve Cave from About.com, should help you find the place for you!
Overnight skateboard and inline skate camps for beginners and intermediate athletes in Vermont. Zero Gravity Rollersport Camps daily training starts each morning with a full stretching and flexibility session. There is a warm up period or "open skate" followed by an instruction time where everyone learns new skills and techniques and campers are encouraged to try new tricks.
Camp Woodward has locations in California, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Camp Woodward is all about action sports, with camps focused in skateboarding, BMX, inline, snowboarding and skiing. Woodward is a huge camp, with lessons June through August, vert lessons, and the ability to stay for long periods if you want to.
Continue reading Skateboarding Camps on the East Coast
Beginner Skateboarding Classes
How can I get a skatepark in my town?
NOTE: What follows is the foreword and introduction to the printed edition of the Public Skatepark Development Guide. The entire online publication is available on skatepark.org. For a free copy of the printed edition, (you only pay shipping and handling), please visit www.publicskateparkguide.org
Why Skateparks? By Tony Hawk
Why are skateparks important? The answer is obvious to those fortunate enough to have one in their community, while the unenlightened think that they are breeding grounds for trouble: a place where rebellious, outcast kids gather and conspire to commit crimes against traditional activities. This stereotype is not true, of course. And when a skatepark finally gets built in areas where the idea was first met with disapproval, the naysayers quickly realize what a positive impact it has on their communities.
I was lucky enough to live near one of the last remaining skateparks in the 1980s, and I understand the sense of identity these places can provide to kids who don’t feel like they “fit in” elsewhere. Del Mar Skate Ranch was my sanctuary in my formative years. You could find me there after school on any given day, and it’s where I met many of my lifelong friends. We were considered outcasts, but we shared a common passion. The Skate Ranch made us forget about not “fitting in” because we were right at home in the empty swimming pools that filled the skatepark.The privilege of having a place to skate was never lost on me, and I always wanted to help provide these facilities to those less fortunate.
I’ve ridden a lot of skateparks in my day, and seeing the explosive growth of public skateparks in recent years has been very exciting–but alarming at the same time. I’ve watched some cities pour hundreds of thousands of dollars into skatepark projects, only to be misled by inexperienced “low-bid” contractors. In short: a city designs a park to fulfill the demand of local skaters, then hires a company to build it; that company has no experience with skateparks, employs no skaters who understand the nuances of skatepark features, and yet completes the project on-time, under budget, and with self-congratulatory press. The poorly constructed skatepark opens to disappointed skaters—who are then labeled as ungrateful and spoiled.
Continue reading Free Guide to Skateparks
