Rob Thomson is a 27-year-old New Zealander who’s going for the Guinness Book of World Records for longest skateboard journey.
He’s been more than four weeks on his board now and he managed to develop an easy rhythm.
“The main reason is adventure,” he says “To experience a life less ordinary for a while.”
During his journey he’s meeting nice people offering him a safe place to rest, tasty meals, a shower.
Middlesbrough could be the place of 2012 Skateboarding Olympics. It will be the debut of this fast growing and extremely popular sport.
Why Middlesbrough? Its Prissick Skate Plaza has been described as one of the “biggest and most impressive” of Britain’s skate parks. What’s more, skateboarding has about 600,000 regular participants in Britain.
“There is a real opportunity for the region - and Middlesbrough in particular - for this Plaza to be used in the 2012 Games, for both training purposes and, if possible, for the actual competition.” - said MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, Ashok Kumar.
Last week in Lausanne, Switzeland, members of the Internatonal Olympic Committee and the International Cycling Union discused adding skateboarding at the 2012 Games in London.
The aim was to make a 111-year-old Games more attractive, especially to a younger audience.
A final decision will be made in 2009 but in two weeks skateboarding is expected to be adopted, starting a two-year process that would take part in the Olimpic program.
In less than six weeks time Sam Benson begins his ten weeks-long journey across Europe. He’s going to pass 4000 km through five different countries to raise money for three children’s charities.
The Boardfest Triple Threat competition has been confirmed for September 1st-September 3rd and will be held at Huntingdon Beach Pier, California, America.
The competition is exclusively for women and consists of surfing, skateboarding and snowboarding competitions. The skateboarding competition will be a modified half-pipe, snowboarding competition is next to the pier and is a custom built platform with freshly blown snow. The competition starts with surfing, then skateboarding and finally snowboarding and the winner of all three events will win the Boardfest Triple Threat trophy. Scores will be based on difficultly level, wow factor and originality of maneuvers.
An extreme sports event is being held in Reading on Easter Sunday. It is being held to raise money for a local charity, The Reading Wheels Association, who campaign to provide safer skating and skateboarding in the area and who are trying to build an indoor extreme sports facility in the area.
The event will be taking place at Hills Meadow Skate Park in Caversham, Reading and will consist of BMX, skateboarding and mountain biking competitions. There will also be live entertainment and demonstrations by the professionals.
Charm City in Baltimore will be hosting the first round of the ASPT Dew Tour this year. The ASPT Dew Tour consists of skateboarding events, motocross competitions, BMX biking and freestyle motocross. There will also be live music performances at the events and the competition normally brings in crowds of 50,000 people.
There are five locations where the ASPT Dew Tour visits for the 2007 competition:
- Charm City on the 21st-24th June
- Cleveland on the 19th-22nd July
- Portland on the 16th-19th August
- Salt Lake City on the 20th-23rd September
- Orlando on the 18th-21st October
It’s pretty nice to see the occassional smaller competition pop up in the news, giving skaters of all ability a chance to feel part of the sport. The bigger competitions have no opening for the learner, and for someone just starting out with tricks there can be noting more motivating then having the chance to show off what you know and compare yourself to others at the same level. It’s also a great chance to take part in the community and show your support for the sport - get seen and get out there to see other compete too.