Archive for November 30th, 2010
Extreme Sports are the latest craze in our culture and children as young as four and five years old are fascinated with it. As a parent of a 16 year old who has been skateboarding and surfing since he was seven, I can tell you that it does make you nervous when they do the crazy tricks. Some people hate extreme sports and some people think they are a blessing, let’s take a closer look.
The positive side of children being involved in extreme sports in that they are out getting exercise and the TV in your living room is starting to collect dust, plus your electric bill is lower. You have probably been hoping for this to happen for a while but you aren’t sure about the choice of sports. Even though skateboarding is probably the first of the extreme sports, it is only the beginning. Some of the others that children are really getting into these days include BMX biking and trickblading.
BMX bikes are like a regular cycle on steroids, they are built heavy and tough to be healthy to take the punishment of all the jumps and tricks, plus they have special pegs for the feet and padding to protect the biker where they are most likely to come in contact with the bike. These bikes are designed mainly for tricks and racing and are mostly used on dirt tracks and courses.
Trickbladers use the same parks as skateboarders and wear specially designed roller blades with smaller thicker wheels and have an added feature called a grind plate to help them do tricks like sliding down rails. I know, it makes my skin crawl just thinking about it! The intent is to be healthy to do a lot of the same tricks performed by skateboarders.
Skateboarding is thought of as the original extreme sport beginning in the 1960s when surfers place wheels on short boards to give them a way to cross train when the surf wasn’t up. These primeval skateboarders are probably astonished at the way the sport has developed with the large half pipes and long rails that you see skateboarders riding today. It just makes me cringe to watch as they slide down a handrail while standing on a skateboard but incredibly my son has done it for over nine years and never broken a bone.
If you are like me, the first time that you watch your child go afloat through the air on a jump or paddling out in eight foot surf you will feel like your heart is going to pound out of your chest and you will be cringing each time they start but as long as they have the right country gear and are always with a buddy they will be fine, injuries are far more common in traditional sports. Encourage your kids, these days it’s hard to get them to like anything.