Bay 66 Skate Park

 

Welcome to the world of skate boarding.  Hidden under the Westway flyover in Ladbroke Grove is the Bay 66 Skatepark, home to London’s skater boys.

 

A lot of people come from all over the country to Bay 66 so it is very popular.  I think Bay 66, I used to live near Birmingham Epic Skatepark I used to love that skate park but after skating here I don’t think I’ll be skating there very often. 

 

The skate scene in London at the moment is pretty big and it’s getting bigger, a lot of younger kids are getting into it, they think it’s really cool and that, so, they all want to be skaters.  We’ve got beginners sessions, on weekends, like, Saturday and Sunday mornings, if you come during the week it would help if you have a little bit of knowledge about skating cos you could get hurt easily, there’s a lot of advanced skaters flying around, you know? 

 

My top tips for like, learning how to skateboard, for beginners and that would be learn how to stand on the board, get a stable foot positioning, because balance is one of the most important things when you’re skateboarding. 

 

So you’ve got your balance, now, it’s time for the tricks.

 

A drop in is basically when you’ve got your tail on the edge of the ramp, and you exchange weight from the tail to the front.  An ollie is basically another word for a jump, it’s a necessity in skateboarding because all tricks stem from the ollie.  Shove-it’s a trick where you jump on your skateboard and then you push with your back foot the board does a 180 but you land on top of it.  A kick flip is where you jump and with your front foot you kick out and the board flips out beneath you and you catch it again and land it.  And don’t try rush into things too quickly, they’ll come you know.