Unless you’re lucky enough to live in a large city with a well-maintained public skate park, the quest for the perfect skating landscape you need may well take you all over town. You may find yourself skating away from security guards at universities and malls alike. As fun as zipping away from the man might be, at some point you’ll be wanting your own backyard set-up, so that you can take your slams in private and forget about your pride.
The primary elements to building your home skate park are launch ramps, wedge ramps, quarter pipes and grind rails. You can also add more architecture with decks and flyboxes. There’s really no limit to the mixing and matching you can do to create a skate heaven at home. With these components, you are on your way to designing your personal skateboarding kingdom.
As always with the equipment you plan on entrusting your safety to, never settle for cheap plastic goods. Modern skateboard ramps are generally made of steel and coated with synthetic anti-skid materials. Avoid cheap plastic toys from department stores.
A launch ramp is shaped like an arc, to give maximum lift. This kind of ramp is optimal for achieving atmospheric heights, whereas a wedge-style skate ramp has a flat, angled surface and will jet you forward at a high rate of speed.
A ramp deck is a box that can be added to a skateboard ramp on any or all of its four sides. This versatile component can be used to enhance your ramp system. Combining a deck with a single ramp will add distance to your launch pad. Put a ramp on both sides, and you have a three-piece flybox.
Unlike launch and wedge ramps, quarter-pipe and half-pipe ramps usually include a ledge or grind rail and are meant for flips, turnarounds, grinds and pivots. As you may have learned while sleeping in math class, two quarters equal one half. Well you’ll be happy to find that this applies to skateboarding ramps as well. Just slide two quarter pipe ramps together at the base to simulate the rolling loop that you’d find at the bottom of a drained pool.
You can further customize your set-up by adding a grinding rail or a flat skate bench, for advanced flip tricks, ollies, slides and grinds. Beginners will probably want to stick to the square grinding rails (as opposed to the rounded variety), which are easier to grab your wheels on, while the advanced skater will likely prefer to whip through on a round bar.
Of course, many skaters will opt against the custom architecture, preferring to stake out an obstacle course among the iron works of city parks, stairs and garages. But for those who like to take their dives in the comfort of home, piecing together the perfect practice place can be a fun project. It might also make you the envy of the poor newbies stuck nursing their wounds in front of the jungle gym and swing set.
These are some very basic tips. These pointers are intended for the beginning skater just starting to learn, so some of this might seem obvious to many of you. There is simply no way around this. If you are an expert, by definition, you already know how to skate. In your case, show this article to any starting skaters, young or old, that you may have bugging you for lessons.
First, you’ll need a board. If you don’t know how to skateboard, it will be a good idea to learn the parts of the board as well. As you develop a relationship with your board, mounting and balancing on your deck will be second-nature, but many beginning skaters need help orienting their bodies with the board. Keeping track of your foot placement in relationship to the bolts is a useful trick.
The deck of your board is attached to the wheel-bearing truck with four bolts. The top of these bolts can be seen on either side on the deck, two by the nose, and two by the tail. Many skaters use these bolts as reference points to orient their feet on the board.
To mount your skateboard, place it on the ground in front of you and put your back foot on the rear bolts by the rear kick. Then place your front foot in the middle of the board for balance.
If you want to use the momentum of your mount to propel you forward, take a few quick steps towards the board, in the direction that the board is facing. As you approach, place your back foot in the middle of the board (facing forward) and kick off with your opposite foot, planting it near the front bolts. Keep your back leg loose and your knee slightly bent. Locking the knees is a common error among beginners.
The first thing you need to figure out when learning how to skateboard is whether you’re “regular” or “goofy”. This refers to the way you prefer to position your feet on the board. Regular stance is defined by using your right foot as the rear foot and using your left foot to pump the ground as you build speed. Some skaters prefer to stand the opposite way, with the right foot forward. These skaters are called goofy-footers.
No matter which stance you prefer, many jumps have you landing in a different position from the one you took off in, so the important thing is to maintain your balance, whether you’re standing goofy or regular.
When learning how to skateboard, each skater needs to find their own center of balance with the board. You will see that everyone develops their own relationship with their moving platform. Just find the stance that feels most comfortable to you, and keeps you vertical.
To dismount, simply put your back foot on the tail, and transfer your weight back, the nose of your board will rise so you can step off and grab your board in one smooth motion. You’re done! That wasn’t so hard now, was it?
The explosion of popularity that skateboarding has experienced in recent years has led to an influx of companies who specialize or sideline in the manufacture of skateboards and related accessories. This development has made its stamp on every aspect of the world of skateboarding. Manufacturers sponsor teams, design gear and innovate engineering that will eventually touch every skater’s life.
Choosing from among the myriad of skateboard brands can be a mind-boggling decision. Which mark you choose will say a lot about who you are as a skater and even as an individual. Your selection will make you friends in some circles, and earn you mockery in others. It's equally important to consider the quality of the brand you choose to represent yourelf.
Some brands like ZERO started out simply as clothing manufacturers, who grew to include skateboard supplies as a result of the designs’ popularity within the skater culture. Most of the more popular skateboard brands, however, were actually founded by skaters, and were originally focused on manufacturing skateboard-specific items such as decks, wheels and shoes. Only subsequently have such brands expanded to include more general products such as T-shirts, hoodies, patches and stickers.
Skateboard manufacturers tends to target certain niches, appealing to different crowds according to attitude, age and taste. Most successful companies communicate primarily with their logo and the associated art, publicizing the brand with accessories. The majority of equipment brands have a clothing, shoe, and poster line as well as decks, trucks, and wheels.
Another popular means for making a brand synonymous with skating is the sponsoring of both professional and amateur teams. Skateboarding is not a profitable sport for the majority of practitioners, as there are very few cash-prize competitions. Skateboard companies make it possible for the top talents to devote their lives to their sport, and in exchange, the brand receives exposure and endorsements that the skating public trusts.
Some purists blame skateboard brands for corrupting the independent nature of the activity, claiming that these companies have cynically commercialized what began as the counter-cultural platform for society's true risk-takers. People of this mindset believe that skateboard brands have founded an army of soulless posers who only care about image and style.
Advocates contend that these same companies have also made safe and high-quality skateboarding equipment available to the average person. Supporters also point to the charitable and community activities of these companies, who tend to be more generous than their counterparts in other industries.
Recently a movement has taken hold among skateboard companies to offer products which promote ecology and sustainable development, including offering clothing lines using organic materials such as hemp. Participating brands are enhancing the image of responsibility by donating a portion of the proceeds from these premium accessory lines to environmental causes, linking the skateboarding public with social conscience and concern for the world we all share.
Skateboarders are known for many qualities. Among these are bravery, independence, and a lack of concern for the laws of society and physics. Literacy, however, is not typically a word associated with skaters. While there might be some pioneers willing to make a trick of speed-reading Moby Dick while grinding the library stair rails, the printed page is not always up to the nuts-and-bolts task of teaching the next newcomer how to perform the “ollie impossible.”
The thing is that no mere description of suicidal insanity can make the jaw and stomach drop with amazement at how little some experts value intact bones. For the true visceral experience, skateboard video clips bring every sight and sound of a mind-blowing afternoon in the rugged life of the celebrity skater.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, each second of video is practically a book in itself. Any expert, no matter how inarticulate in speech, can use a camera and a simple editor to convey at variable speeds exactly how they make the magic happen.
Skateboard video clips are able to show what words all too often fail to describe: the delicate nuances of timing and execution that make the difference between being slick and being slammed.
The first video recordings of skateboard teams appeared with the advent of the VCR in the 1980’s. The new medium revolutionized the sport, and also standardized it to a certain extent. Skate teams began to emerge to take advantage of the growing potential for exposure in what had previously been an underground, solo sport. The most prevalent of these teams was the Bones Brigade, featuring such icons as Stacey Peralta and Mike McGill.
Skateboarding came into the sporting mainstream during the nineties, when cable TV companies began scrambling for content to fill the sudden programming gaps between standbys like auto racing and tennis. ESPN led the way, sponsoring the historic X-games in 1995, followed trendy stations like MTV.
A new phenomenon emerged: spectator-driven skateboarding, exposing the sport to armchair enthusiasts who didn’t know an ollie from a kickflip. Lack of understanding wouldn't stop anyone from sitting on the edge of their seats waiting for a fancy trick to go wrong though.
The newfound celebrity skaters had a rougher road than many conventional athletes, battling the volatile ride to stardom while executing never-before imagined flying feats and making tremendous personal sacrifices for the sport. A generation of kids took to the streets, empowered with a repertoire of concrete-thumping moves hammered out by these old-schoolers.
The vert skater has been a perpetually endangered species, in a skateboard world increasingly dominated by the urban landscape crowd. Legends like Tony Hawk, who could sail the half-pipe with ease, have struggled personally as well as professionally with the shifting fortunes of a sport which had not yet found its destiny.
Today, video skating is finding a cozy home among some of the most popular titles on sharing sites like YouTube and DailyMotion. Predictably, the amateur wipeout variety consistently outperforms the instructional skateboard video clips. The future of skateboarding as a spectator sport may owe more to the hapless slam victim than the pro making it look all too easy.
Since the first video tape recorder was sold in 1951, reality has appeared directly on screens. Today, with digital cameras as common as wristwatches, and websites like youtube and myspace constantly growing in popularity, just about anyone with a laptop or cell-phone can upload clips from their lives to share with the entire world within minutes.
The art and science of
skateboarding was forever revolutionized with the introduction of the home VCR.
Released in 1965, "Skater
Dater" is thought to be the first movie ever released which focused
solely on skaters doing tricks. This revolutionary look at a relatively unknown
sport was nominated for an Oscar in 1966 and also won the Golden Palm Award for
the Best Short Film category in the same year.
These days it is a standard part of the promotion departments for many skate companies and shops to sponsor skateboarding teams and release skateboard videos of competitions and practice sessions. The availability of these videos represents a quantum leap in the art of skating instruction, making it possible for today’s skater to study directly under the tutelage of the finest athletes in the field. By watching these videos repeatedly, at different speeds and with the ability to pause those split-second movements, the 21st century skateboarding student can learn in a single afternoon skills which once took months to master.
Notable movie director Spike Jonze,
cofounder of Girl Skateboards, has raised the stakes of professional skateboard videos. Most well known for
his role as co-creator of MTV’s Jackass,
his Academy Award nominated film Adaptation,
as well as the cult classic Being John
Malkovich, Jonze directed Girl’s groundbreaking video Yeah Right! featuring trick skaters doing never-before documented
moves captured on film by other skaters.
Famous original Zephyr team member Stacey Peralta has also tried his hand as a director of skateboard videos. Focusing on the history of the movement and the evolution of styles more than specific technique tips, his documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys, is one of the more significant entries in the field, covering the inside scoop on skateboarding’s key players and pioneering moments.
Vert skating legend Tony Hawk has risen to the edge of superstardom, flying under the sails of his popular Trick Tips videos and Secret Skate Park Tour series. Though he is the subject of controversy and strong opinions, the world champ is undeniably one of the greatest names in the sport, and his DVDs continue to be highly coveted as well as fiercely defended from critics. A truly compelling video will usually combine step-by-step instruction with gravity-defying courage and a little humor.
Skateboard videos are consistently among the most viewed entries on sharing sites such as Blip.tv and Vimeo. And no wonder; for action, drama and pure belly laughs, few sights captured by camera can offer so much as footage of the skater in his natural habitat.
Once upon a time, skateboarding was a strictly local phenomenon. All the boards at the skate park bore a suspicious resemblance, and aspiring Tony Hawks were at the mercy of the ordering habits of the master reseller in town. Custom parts were hard to find amidst the mountain of different catalogs..
Whether you stick to street skating just to get around, or prefer kick-flipping, ollying and grinding over all kinds of obstacles at your favorite skate venue, you have probably had a frustrating time or two at a local skate shop that just didn’t have what you needed. This is especially true for skaters living in small towns where, if you’re lucky and have a sporting goods store, they might have a small rack of boards next to their hoodies and shoes.
Now that internet access has spread to the far reaches of the globe, anyone can browse skateboard websites. Imagine an unlimited inventory of the most exotic specialty parts available. Customizing your board is now as simple as surfing your way to the supplier, ordering all your specs, and kicking back until they arrive at your door.
While you’re waiting for your special order to be speed-delivered, you can check out the many skateboard websites which feature videos full of clips from your favorite celebrity skater. On the other hand, perhaps you prefer watching amateurs taking a dive instead. Whatever your pleasure, the hard part will be signing off.
There are a number of skateboard websites and plenty of general video-sharing sites like YouTube, where you can find how-to videos teaching you how to perform all skill levels of moves and tricks. You can now get tips as simple as getting onto your board and basic riding to learning how to execute that 360 backside pop-shuvit that’s been landing you on your backside more than your board.
Thanks to digital video cameras and skate related websites, you can now get personal tips and tutorials from the original pros on their signature tricks. If you think you’ve got something important to teach the newbies, just get a friend to record your best moves so you can upload and share your clips.
There are also plenty of skateboard-related forums, where you can get together with others to trade trick tips, debate the merits of various brands and equipment, ask any questions you can think of, and discuss the skills and styles of publicly known names in the skating world.
Thanks to the miracle of the internet, your community of skaters now spans the globe. Knowledge and opinions fly freely online at the lightning fast rate of a satellite connection, bringing the growth of skating to heights that were simply unimaginable during the humble days when a select elite surfed the sidewalk. Today, the skater on a quest for the perfect board or trick to perform on it surfs the World Wide Web as well.
The official manufacturer for ps2-3 games is Sony. The name says it all! This sector has got enough importance in software and electronic parts manufacturing. Ps2-3 games are the new version of video games. Though it has got a huge challenge from Microsoft’s Xbox then also the public demand is still growing high for ps2-3 games. Targeting teens from all over the world such ps2-3 games are been manufactured under special attention. These are enough capable of bringing joy and adventure to a teen’s life that lack confidence for its survival. It has been watched that many teens life have changed after playing such ps2-3 games.
But one question really stands high among teens that whether such video games are really available free in the market or not? Sometimes they keeps assuming about those unnecessary stuffs while going for purchasing or hiring ps2-3 games or some other video games. This assumption might be due to many reasons. But the basic reason lies here. Online computer game providers often promise free computer games. But not many game providers offer free computer games. Game manufacturers often use the term free computer games to attract the attention of the buyers.
Here we will discuss some techniques to download free computer games. The best way to get free computer games is to download the free game demos. Almost all computer game sites offer demos of their computer games. The demos are quite similar to the original computer games. The computer games now cost you more than $40 per title. So, from the buyer’s viewpoint, it’s always useful to download the demos first to get a feel for the games. Keeping the buyers viewpoint in mind, the computer game manufacturers offer free game downloads. Thanks to free computer games, buyers can check out the games.
The demands for free computer games are always on the rise. That’s why leading web portals such as MSN and Yahoo have started offering an extensive range of free computer games. Free computer games offer the opportunity to try the games before you ultimately decide to buy. The free computer games are mostly time-bound. The games expire on a certain date. During the trial period, the buyers can get a fair idea of the full game version. That’s why people prefer to check out the free computer games before they buy.
With such motivation from leading service providers it seems that the demand for ps2-3 games will raise high as the day progress. Teens are searching with a great enthusiasm for ps2-3 games online. Hope this sort of information may help them in their hunt. On the other hand such information is also helpful from a service provider’s perspective. This will offer them ample opportunity to exhibit their unique products the ps2-3 games in the market with a great exposure. Now manufacturer of several video games are trying their best to implement new technology to make the gaming experience more thrilling for teens. This is reason why now adults don’t even hesitate to join the gaming stream to get some amount of relaxation in their daily busy life.
Xbox Games – Can Change the Taste of Your Life!
Video games are the new trend these days among teenagers from all over the world. There is several form of video games are striking to market in a regular basis and with a sheer pace. Teens are always looking for new versions of xbox games from the market. Sometimes even the stocks are not lasting for longer days because of the growing demand for such xbox games. Such demand for xbox games seems to be growing as the new versions are coming into the market in a daily basis. The manufacturer or the service providers are always looking forward to keep themselves on the cutting edge so that they can prepare more thriller pack games for teens. It’s the growing demand for xbox games that has certainly leads the way for game manufacturers to implement new thoughts to their design and quality.
As we all know that xbox games are the new version of video games that has certainly dragged more teen’s attention these days. Such games are enough capable of dragging someone’s attention even though he/she doesn’t have any attraction towards video games. There are many xbox game providers that are offering services for distribution of such games. You can get them online and certainly can get latest versions within an affordable price. Previously the people misunderstand video games. Many used to say it as a career-spoiling element for their children. But these days’ parents are going stores in order to buy few versions of xbox games so that their children can feel ease from the daily school activity. On the other hand many xbox games are coming in such form that can develop your child metal ability as well as can make him/her feeling good and confident about the life.
Xbox is owned by the software giant Microsoft. The name itself stands so high that people even don’t think about the game while making their way to buy xbox games for their children. Many different people have worked with these gaming systems inside and out, attempting to determine which system provides the best performance for your hard-earned gaming dollar. Below given information can offer you a better idea about the performance of the game software as compared to your PC.
CPU - Pentium III 733-MHz
Memory - 64MB of RAM
CPU 3D GT --
Poly Draw Rate - 150 Million Polygons per second
Screen Resolution - Up to 1920x1080
Audio, Sound - AC3 Encoded Game Audio
Disc Speed - 2X to 5X DVD
Game Disk - 8GB
Online Gaming - Xbox Live!
Hope this will give you a brief idea about the configuration you need
for your PC in order to run xbox games smoothly for your use. This is exactly
cost effective game as compared to old traditional method for playing games and
going outdoors with so much expenditure. In your home comfort you can enjoy
your life as well as can wipe out your daily life stress. Sometimes it is
advisable for the adults also to play xbox games if they really want to fell
the pleasure of life.
