A skateboard lesson at Whitegrounds skatepark in London Bridge
At the beginning of the month I ran a private lesson with London based professionals Justin and Lingling who are in their mid 20s. We met at Whitegrounds skatepark which is local to them. Whitegrounds is a street style concrete park with plenty of ledges, banks and irregular transitions with some challenging lines. It is situated under a railway arch close to London Bridge station so is convenient for wet weather.
Justin and Lingling were absolute beginners and we provided pro skateboards and pads & helmets for them to try skateboarding. We progressed very quickly, learning to stand on our boards, and push before moving on to slaloming round obstacles to fine tune pushing and turning in concert.
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- lesson London Bridge Whitegrounds
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- Lingling slalom on her skateboard
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- Jason slalom on his skateboard
We then worked our way up to going up the transitions and coming out fakie (backwards) and started to learn to kickturn on the flat which lead to some early attempts at kickturn on the transition.
Whitegrounds is a public skatepark run by the London borough of Southwark and is usually open during the day until 5pm. It can be a bit leaky however. It is also next door to Hop Kingdom which is an indoor wooden skatepark which is well worth a visit for a beverage and a roll around if you find yourself there.
