Get started with skateboarding

The best way to get started with skateboarding is simply to watch.  For me that meant lounging on my sofa watching The Life of Ryan (Pro Skateboarder Ryan Sheckler’s reality TV show) when I was a teenager.

Watching live is infinitely better though!  You can check out your local skate park by googling ‘skate park near me’.

If you fancy something a bit more exciting, why not get tickets to a pro competition like the Tampa Pro or the SLS Pro Open?  Or, if you’re ever in Canggu, Bali, check out Pretty Poison – it’s a bar with a skate bowl in the middle.

A little more skateboarding

If you’re ready for a bit more skateboarding adventure, I think you’re ready to give it a go yourself.

It can be pretty daunting to head off to a skate park full of teenagers by yourself, so why not take a beginner lesson instead?  Great options are provided by Gutsy Girls in London, or Go Skate in New York City.  To find somewhere closer to home, just google ‘skateboard lessons near me‘.

Maximum skateboarding adventure

If you want maximum skateboarding adventure, you’re probably going to have to put the work in to getting pretty good.  Then go and check out some of the best skate parks in the world.  Try ‘Le Bowl’ Skate Park, Marseille, France, Kona Skate Park, Florida, USA, or The Black Pearl, Cayman Islands.

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The post Skateboarding Adventure appeared first on The Chickadee.

I went to Indonesia on a surfing trip last summer. I had been to Bali once before, so I wanted to explore some other Indonesian islands as well.

I chose Lombok and Nusa Lembongan for the laid-back vibes and the reef breaks, which didn’t disappoint. Whilst it was off-season and the waves were smaller than I would have liked, I did get to surf spots named ‘Razors’ and ‘Lacerations’ which, you can probably tell by the names, are a little intense if the waves are pumping

After a day in Bali I flew to Lombok, then took a nice calm ferry across to Nusa Lembongan, where I stayed for a further few days. Nusa Lembongan is lovely, so I was a little sad to board the 45 minute ferry back to Bali. I hadn’t slept well the night before though, so I was planning a relaxing snooze on the boat after popping my travel pill (I’m prone to all kinds of motion sickness – planes, boats, even parachutes… another story!)

The ferry was fairly small, perhaps 50 passengers sat in booths of six around plastic tables. The first ten minutes of the trip were calm as we moved out of the bay and I settled in for a sleep.

The boat began to bounce a little…

The boat began to bounce a little as I drifted off, skipping across the waves. Then it bounced a bit harder. Then it bounced a LOT harder. Soon we were jumping high into the air with every wave, landing awkwardly on one side of the boat and jerking back before the next leap. I gripped the table in front of me, knuckles white with tension. I had to hold on – my bum was leaving the seat by a good six inches with every jump of the boat, landing hard on the plastic seat a second later.

And then I knew. There was no way this boat was going to stay afloat.

But I wasn’t going to drown. Not me. I’d be ready.

I looked around in search of a life jacket and finally saw a sign pinned to the wall – “Life jackets in locker“. Life jackets in locker? What good are they in a bloody locker when you’re about to drown?! No. I wasn’t going to wait for a life jacket. I’ve seen Titanic.

The windows on either side of the boat were sealed shut – the rear door was my best hope. I imagined the scene, the water gushing in as the panic ensued. I had to be out first to survive. As soon as the boat began to go down, I would climb shamelessly over the couple to my left, pushing anyone else out of the way and forcing myself out of the door – every man (girl) for themselves!

It’s amazing the things you think about when convinced you are going to be involved in a disaster. I definitely had time to wonder whether I could rescue my phone and passport, but I didn’t think about how I would manage treading water for a long time without a life jacket.

I suppose I hadn’t thought my plan through that well, so it was a relief when the seas calmed and the boat made it, right way up, to the shore of Bali.

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