Marc here again with the third weekly article of this summer series working in a skimpark all summer long in La Coruña. It’s time to share how we teach young skimmers their first steps in the sport, the workshop we did on Saturday and our recent experiences! After this article, the weekly episodes will feature weeks from Monday to Sunday so it’s easier for all of you to follow the development of events, let’s do this!
Day 12 to Day 14 – 20/07/2016 to 22/07/2016
Another week had started, and another week plenty of hard work was coming. Nothing really special happened from Tuesday to Thursday, so I’m going to explain how we introduce newcomers to the skimboarding world:
– First of all, we put helmets on every kid or adult. It’s important to take care of every person, safety is always a priority!
– After that, we put a skim on the grass and teach people how to jump on it. They must do 3 things: run straight behind the skimboard, jump and put the 2 foots separately at the same time on the skimboard in the middle of it, and finally, flex their knees when they do the first contact with the skimboard.
– When they finally learn how to properly run, jump and position on the skimboard, they are good and ready to go the skimpool.
– Most of the people don’t know how to throw the skimboard, so we throw it for them. When they are used to jump on it, we teach people of 8 years (average) and above how to throw and drop the skimboard. The problem with young kids is that they don’t have enough strength to carry the skimboard, so we continue throwing it for them.
– When the new riders learn how to properly slide, we teach them the first “tricks”. The first one consists on flexing their knees more than usual and touch the water with one hand. The next one is moving the skimboard with their foots (not shuv-it) flexing their knees again.
– If the skimmer dominates the skimboard and goes fast enough, we let him or her try the little kicker (30 cm height). Not many people reach this level, so it’s reserved to truly skilled new skimmers.
Day 15 – 23/07/2016
Saturday again! This week was time to let true professionals of taekwondo teach new people to this martial art and do some demonstrations. It’s really amazing the flexibility you can reach while practicing this sport and the huge jumps you can learn to do. Here I let you some photo bombs of the workshop, I was really amazed by their performances!
Day 16 – 24/07/2016
Usually Sunday is lay day, but this time Monday was a special celebration in La Coruña so we wouldn’t be working on Monday. What’s more, we had to work Sunday morning and afternoon, and yes, it meant we had to work all week for 7 straight days. Obviously, Sunday was absolutely exhausting, Rodrigo and I were so tired that we were missing some energy, and to get things worse we didn’t stop all day long teaching kids and more kids. We almost had no time to do a little break or something, but hey, we love this and we didn’t lose the smile on our faces and continued working as professionals. I share some images of the week to end the shortest weekly article, there’s a lot more to come!
Wish you enjoyed the article, keep skimming!
Skim & Fun
Marc Costa Lucero
Learn more about the VooDoo SkimPark here: www.voodooskimmagazine.comm