Skateboarding

Not only is skateboarding enjoying a newfound popularity nowadays, but it is now also considered an extreme sport and, as such, is gaining the interest of hordes of younger people. Skateboarders are hopping on their skateboards and taking to the streets and to the skate parks in search of the perfect skateboarding experience.

Obviously, skateboarding consists of riding a skateboard; anybody who engages in the act of skate boarding is called a skater or a skateboarder. A skate board is essentially a narrow platform on wheels that skate boarders use to move around and do tricks with. Skate boards are made of four basic parts: the deck, the wheels, the trucks and the bearings. The deck is the platform on which a skateboarder stands, the wheels are obviously used for moving, the trucks connect the wheels to the deck and the ball bearings allow for more fluid movement.

There are a variety of different types of skateboards that skaters can use, including old school skateboards and newer boards, like Habitat skateboards. Boards come in different sizes as well; there are “standard” skateboards and longboards. Longboards have longer wheelbases and larger, softer wheels. Longboards often allow for easier turning; these boards are often called “sidewalk surfers”.

For those people who just can’t get away from skateboarding, even when they’re indoors, there are skateboard games as well, both for the computer and for some of the more common game consoles. Some popular video games include EA Skate and Tony Hawk’s Project 8, for Xbox and Playstation 3, Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam for Nintendo DS, a variety of Tony Hawk games for the PC, the Simpson’s’ Skateboarding game for Playstation 2 and a number of other free online games. If you’re a true skateboarding fanatic, download some cool skateboard wallpaper on your computer as well.

If you’re just getting into skateboarding, there are a variety of places where you can get skateboarding tips on starting out, steadying yourself on the board, doing tricks and, most importantly, safety considerations. For example, some skateboarding falls can be very dangerous and learning the right way to fall might decrease your chances of sustaining a serious injury.

You can buy skateboarding books, talk to someone at your local skate shop or do some research online. Look through these pages for an introduction to the world of skateboarding; you’ll be able to read about the history of the sport and check out what some of the top skateboard brands have to offer.