Moving away from conventional sports, Delhi youth find ice skating and skateboarding as thrilling activities, writes Iknoor Kaur
To most of us, a staircase is designed to bridge large vertical distances, but for Abhey Raj, it is an adventure of hours which offers him pleasure and fun. You may spot this boy pushing ahead with one foot on a narrow wheeled wooden board inside a mall or nearest flight of steps. A resident of Hauz Khas, he is in his early 20s and is a habitual skateboarder at the Steve Weightman’s Freemotion Sk8 Park. “It all started when I was 11 or 12. I used to play a lot of videogames that had skate boarding. That created the interest in me, but there was no skateboarding scene here. About a year ago I finally got my hands on a skate board and would go to the nearest skating ring and try doing stuff on my own. Then I found the park and I haven’t looked back since. I have hurt my ankle several times, but who cares, it’s a sport — no pain, no gain,” he said.
Traditionally, roller or rollerblade skating has been a common hobby amongst kids. But of late, the fun activity has fast become a serious business. There are new venues coming up which present this activity on wheels in a new adventurous ways. Ice skating rings and skateboarding parks only validate the trend. The two are the latest trends in the city’s X-game zone and have picked up because of their incorporation in videogames, films and You Tube.
Steve, a 45-year-old Californian who has been in India for over 10 years and now owns Freemotion Sk8 Park says that India always had the enthusiasts, but lacked provisions. “I think it’s a part of the new urban culture in the country. Kids are tired of the conventional sports that they grow up doing. They watch stuff like skateboarding online and on television and realise that it is fun. I think this is the beginning of a generation of skateboarders. Roller skating has been there for long, but it is considered as a normal thing that everyone learns. Skateboarding on the other hand is more serious,” he added.
While Freemotion is the first skateboarding park in the city, iSkate was one of the first natural ice skating rings in the NCR covering an area of 15,000 square feet. Karan Rai, head of operations feels that people initially took to other forms of skating for recreational purposes but have now got addicted to the adventure-pact environment. He said, “They like the discipline forms like figure skating have and it works like a stress buster for them. For kids the whole experience is fun whereas for teenagers it is for the thrill.”
The 25-year-old Raj Menon has been in Delhi all his life and tried ice skating for the first time. For him, it was connecting to his “sport” after a long time. “It had been long since I even roller skated. One of my friends suggested ice skating. It was such a refreshing experience and the environment was fun.”
Raj is also excited about the affordability. While iSkate charges Rs 500 for an hour, Freemotion Sk8 Park charges Rs 100 for an hour, Rs 200 for the day and Rs 1000 for the month.
Steve confirmed the footfall of around 10 people on a dull day and over 30 usually. “People are still getting used to the idea,” he shared, “We get new people almost everyday. Since skateboarding is very new in the city but slowly people are gathering.”
But there is huge craze for ice skating. Karan gets almost over 1600 enthusiasts in a day.