Cruiser Award | Beginners | Skateboard GB | Run by skateboarders. For skateboarders.

Skateboard GB are happy to announce the launch of our ‘Cruiser Award’ programme; which teaches first-time skateboarders how to master the skills needed to get the skateboarding buzz. Participants will gain confidence and gain essential knowledge, allowing them to then start skating independently and progress.

WHAT WILL YOU LEARN?

Participants will learn the basic ‘Nuts & Bolts’ of skateboarding, focusing on:

Stance
Balance
Pushing
Turning
Stopping
Safety

Who is this Award for?

This is aimed at beginner skateboarders who want to learn to skateboard, providing young people and adults the essential foundations to enjoy skating safely, starting from the very first time they step on a skateboard.

The Core Functions (‘Nuts & Bolts’) that underpin the Cruiser Award are designed to:

Be realistically mastered by all learners during taught sessions, with no independent practice required outside sessions.
To be delivered in any appropriate indoor or outdoor space, including spaces without skatepark facilities or movable skate obstacles (for example, Multi Use Games Areas, school or leisure centre sports halls, etc).

This is the first stage of our wider Progression Awards programme which will be developed over the next 12 months. Subsequent stages will enable learners to choose different progression routes based on their favourite types of skateboarding and the facilities available to them, including flat ground and street, skatepark obstacles, mini-ramp and bowls.

What will learners get?

Everyone who undertakes the Cruiser Award will be taught the 6 fundamentals of skating and each stage will receive a progress card (which provides info on how to practice that particular skill) and a sticker – which they can put on their board or helmet.

Once the skater has completed the 6 stages, they will presented with a certificate to show they have completed the Cruiser Award.

Who provides the course?

The course will be delivered by Skateboard GB qualified coaches across the country, who have been DBS checked and have a safeguarding training.

How long does the programme take?

The Cruiser Award can be taught over 2 – 4 shorter sessions or could be delivered in a single full day lesson.

How have we developed the Cruiser Award?

To develop this award, we have drawn from good practice within and outside skateboarding, with inspiration including Bikeability and the Learn to Swim programme alongside different skateboarding progression award systems already trialled by skateparks such as Projekts MCR, Graystone and Mount Hawke.

Eleven organisations and individuals kindly provided feedback on early versions of our Cruiser Award and shared their views and expertise with us. These were: Dave Chesson from Learn to Skateboard (London and Sussex); Jason Emery from Let’s Go Skate (Cambridgeshire); Flo Indoor Skatepark (Nottingham); Projekts Skatepark (Manchester); LS-Ten Skatepark (Leeds); Mount Hawke Skatepark (Truro); Graystone Skatepark (Manchester); Barry Dring from Four Wheel Plank Club (Essex); John Cattle’s Skate Club (Isle of Wight); Ricardo Magee Atxukarro from Brighton and Hove City Council and the Brighton and Hove Skateparks Association; and Ricardo Whyte from Rico Skate School (London).

We’re hugely grateful to all of these brilliant coaches, skateparks and skate schools for their input and ideas.
Award Design and Photography by Amber Rees Design.