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In
the lead up to Cowley Road Carnival 2003, Mon B, a well known skater
in Oxford and some other friends, showed Oxford's young skaters
how to build their own skating obstacles at Meadow Lane.
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 Hear
Mon B tell his skating story
Find
out what Jack Richens has to say about building obstacles
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As
Mon said, he's been in the skating business for a fair while...
He
originally set up his shop,
SS20, 15 years ago. Before that, he and his partners in the shop
were champions in their sports - Mon B roller skated, his business
partner, Sean, skated and Dave snow-boarded.
And
before all of this, he used to build skating ramps when he was a
teenager on his parents farm.
Mon
B said: "For the past 15 years, I have been trying to get a
permanent skating facility in Oxford. I set up a charity to get
the site at Meadow Lane going and there is still a long while till
I get what I am after."
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| Mon
B shows how to plane a skater obstacle. |
Henrietta
Gill, Cowley Road Carnival Co-ordinator, approached Mon about helping
out with events and publicity for this year's carnival.
Mon
B continued: "Cowley Road Carnival is about locals getting
involved, making the community work and creating a good scene. So
we said, instead of paying for the ramps through someone else, why
not give us the money and we'll build a load of ramps so you can
use them every year for skate boarding at the Carnival."
"For
the carnival, we're producing a load of ramps that will have a long-term
benefit for the local kids around Oxford. It's good for the carnival
and it's good for the community to make it work.
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| Jack
Richens planes away at his skate board ramp. |
"The
ramps will be there for anyone who wants to use them for any event."
Jack
Richens, chairman of the Oxford Wheels Project, also turned up to
help build the skate board ramps and obstacles.
Jack
said: "We've got wood, tools and equipment to construct obstacles
to take down to the Cowley Road Carnival - so we've got a place
to skate and people can come down and enjoy themselves."
"The
reason skating is so popular is that you don't really need a team
to do it. You can do it on your own or go out with your friends.
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| Waiting
for a turn to skate. |
"You
only need a small site, a big flat piece of concrete and can then
spend the rest of the day playing around."
Both
Mon, Jack and the other skaters plan to make the Cowley Road Carnival
a special day with loads of skating tricks on display.
听
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