Hey,
I'm from Romford, Essex and I just bought a skateborad for 10 quid. It has the Batman logo on the back, but I'm going to spray paint over that and replace it with the KISS ARMY logo or something.

I always wanted to ride a skateboard and I'm getting one at a late date, I'm 20 years old. I'm going back to university in Herfordshire, for my third and finale year, on Saturday and I wanted to take up a hobby while I was over there and I thought, man I've always wanted to skateboard and I had just seen 'Lords of Dogtown' so I decided, yes I would.

I just need some advice from you guys who have been skating for quite sometime, where are the closest skateparks to Romford, or in the Essex area. And what advice would you give to someone skateboarding for the first time?

Thanks,
Bart.

The Batman logo? Do you have a picture of your board?

When you are just starting out you really need to learn to push and steer and just get confident with that, the tricks come later. You can't really be taught the basics, its something you just pick up on your own. Step on the board, which ever way feels comfy to you and push about a bit. A supermarket carpark after closing time is always good. But any flat surface will do just fine.

http://www.sk8m8.net If you look on that site you can locate all the skate parks in your area.

Welcome to the boards!

batman logo haha must be a shitty board

lol!!!!!!!!!! i bet the trucks are plastic!!!!

that's a bad record, even for us!!!
3 replies.
1 helpful.
2 taking the piss.

C'mon Dom & Flip Sorry, every one has to start with something! if he takes to skating i'm sure it won't be long before he changes his setup.

this is my one real gripe with this forum. that noobs are treated (by some members) with a mixture of contempt and pity. when will people realise that at one time or another we were all noobs.
so, please stop taking the piss out of anyone coz they don't have the greatest setup in the world. they do have one thing a bit more important & thats enthusiasm.

peace

Thanks for your help Darris. It is a cheap skateboard, but I didn't want to pay out too much for my first skateboard just encase I don't ajust to it. I don't have a picture of it, but I must admit it's not that great, I've seen much better. I was a little ahead of myself, I was practising an ollie trick this morning, but I found it so hard to slide my foot up because the board is like sand paper on top. Are they all suppose to be like that or is it just the cheaper models?

all boards have GRIP tape on them. just depends on the model depends on the roughness of it! you can get different defines of tape dependin on what type of skatin you do!!!!

Yeah, the sandpaper effect is usually what you want in a grip.

I had a ten quid board when I started. It had a picture of an attacking cat on it. I've since spraypainted over, so sorry, no pics!

Romford has the mighty Rom Skatepark which is great (it's just by the cardrome if you know where that is). Moyno or Matt2k would be your guys for this. I think they've both been there.

If you can drive, then head on over to a carpark and roll around. If you've got the ollie movement down, then practice moving ollies.

If you fancy getting together with other skaters, most of us are pretty cool. Just arrange to meet up. Usually the shoutbox is the best place for this (found on the main page).

See, that's what I'd love, to be able to meet new people and just skateboard. It sounds like fun, it sucks that I'm moving back to Hertfordshire on Saturday. But I found that there is a skate park at Welwyn Garden City near by, so I might try and make it down there. But when I'm home for the holidays I'll post a message in the shoutbox to meet up in Romford, that would be cool.
- Bart -

Will St Albans be near you?

There's a groovey park there called Pioneer.

Can you drive?

Thats what skating is all about, and it's really enjoyable sessioning with your friends.

Skateboardings awesome! Enjoy it while it lasts, your enthusiasim now determins wether you want to stick it out the year before youor first respectable ollie or wether you bail. Stick with it and enjoy freedom.
And yeah Dom & Flip Sorry dont just come into the newbies forum to slate everyone, you dicks!

I can't drive, but there is a bus that takes me straight to St Alban's, so it shouldn't be a difficult journey.

Cool, Go, have a good skate =p

Pioneer is cool, indoors so skateable at all times. (they've got a mini ramp outside, which is really good)
hemel hempstead has a skatepark, outdoor but free. (brrr, bit chilly now it's autumn)

I once bought a cheapo deck that came with grip tape and I found it really rough compared to normally. You can get another peice of sandpaper and sand the grip down a bit or just keep skating and it will wear down eventually.