There's nothing like a dry spell and some unseasonal sunshine to make us all feel a little more motivated to get out there and play some sport, take a bike ride and generally get some exercise, writes Mark Waugh.

One group that is more active than most at the moment is skateboarders. Stories of campaigns for facilities have featured heavily in the Gazette recently and they seem to be equally motivated and resourceful when it comes to the Internet. Take a look and you'll find a surprising variety of people risk life and limb on wooden boards in the name of fun.

http://www.tailblock.com Follow the many ages of skateboarding with this site. Tailblock is an online magazine featuring articles on skateboarding in the seventies, eighties and early nineties. The site owners have also posted a gallery of photos of their road trip to legendary US skate parks. Read it and weep!

If you're old enough to remember skateboarding before handrails and fliptricks took over there's a special site just for you: http://www.middle-age-shred.com. Basically, this site is like Friends Reunited' for skaters with wives, kids and mortgages. The injuries section proves how committed some of them are.

http://www.thecreators.co.uk - Like Tailblock and Middle Age Shred, The Transfire Skateboarding site is an example of the effort skaters are willing to put into providing information on their hobby. Set up by a group of skaters from Leeds, the site is, by their own admission, basic on the design front but is proof that content wins over looks any day of the week. Well worth a look.

http://www.geocities.com/girlsskateout/ - A site set up to publicise the national Girls Skate Out events for female skaters. Set up by Vanessa Gorman, Laura Powell and Jenna Selby, who were inspired by the American All Girl Skate Jam. Visit their site and you may feel similarly inspired.

http://www.sk8uk.co.uk For a site with an overview of the national scene try this one. It's an impressive project with plenty of news, articles and features to keep you online. There's also a beginners' section with advice on buying boards and doing basic tricks.

http://www.skateboardmusic.com Music and skateboarding go hand-in-hand, particularly when it comes to skate videos. If, however, you've bought the latest release on VHS or DVD and you want to know who a particular track is by, it's difficult to find out. Which is where this website comes in handy. If you're into music you'll find this one addictive.

Thisissite of the week: Two improbable sites for the price of one this week: At http://www.exploratorium.edu/skateboarding/ the idea is to make physics fun by teaching its theory through the science of skateboarding'. Amazingly, it succeeds. Keeping it dumb, meanwhile, is http://www.wheelbarrowfreestyle.com, a surprisingly good website which shows just how much time these guys have put into their alternative' hobby. Watch the skate-style videos bizarre.

April 24, 2003 11:00