Welcome to my blog. Sliding is my major passion in my life. A form of skateboarding that fulfils all that I enjoy in sport. It has a long history and is practised in many countries around the world.
To be a Slider a solid foundation is needed. Slide School 1 is the best place to start. Mastering these techniques in order produces the best results.
I skate at least three times a week, with my good friends and Slide fanatics Will Edgecombe and Piet Wiekens. Having friends to skate and learn with is invaluable. Will and Piet will also be contributors to this blog, so feel free to ask for their advice too.
We intend to showcase downhill sliding in its many forms, concentrating on the technical elements through discussion and film.
Don’t worry if you are not interested in doing all these styles yourself, just watch a few movies and take what you want. Sliding is not just a means of stopping or slowing down but a daunting physical and mental challenge.
I have a long obsession with Japanese and military fighting methods, because of their innate physical and spiritual nature. In these systems there is a structure of forms by which a philosophical idea can be practiced. Bringing this approach to Sliding was a natural fit as they both share the same elements of form and mental discipline. Through this I get joy and inspiration in daily life, something deep enough to be a life long pursuit.
I live in Falmouth, Cornwall, a harbour town in the far southwest of England. Most of our skating is done here but we travel a lot too. In the search to improve our sliding we have travelled to many hot spots of skateboarding, where we have met many dedicated downhillers from around the world. When you skate with people like this they display such skill and professionalism, which is very inspiring.
For us the greatest of these is Sergio Yuppie. His home country of Brazil is the home and root of technical sliding with decades of skaters, competition and high skill. The story of sliding in Brazil is a fundamental one, how it started is still mysterious. Rumours of a Japanese skater founding the style will be something I will return to in the future, As well as the style and techniques of Brazilian skaters past and present.
Contemporary competition has brought sliders together from around the world to meet each other and evolve the sport, again I will return with an in depth analysis of these countries and riders. The UK has a sliding scene that is starting to rival the traditional top nations and the idea of this blog is to explain our approach and your feedback will help us to push the boundaries.
