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| Family Activities
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Jump, Skate & Swave
Outdoor fun for you & your teens
By Huang Rui Lin
East Coast Park is a lively place, brimming with outdoor-loving teenagers and fun fads. We check out the latest happenings at the park, and spot some cool leisure sport trends in the making.
The park’s constant state of high energy makes it an excellent place for spotting emerging sports trends. When I checked out the park on a recent weekend, I found the place brimming with energy, and overflowing with new ideas and fresh inspiration.
The first to catch my eye was a new lifestyle sport called Jumping Jacks, where one bounces on a spring-loaded device much like a pogo stick, except that it is attached to one’s leg like flexible, bouncy stilts.
Qi Yuan, who was trying out the jumping jacks for the very first time, gave it the thumbs-up. “It’s very fun! It’s not that difficult to balance, and really quite different from anything else I have tried before,” he enthused.
Simon Lim, the instructor accompanying Qi Yuan and his friend, explained that the sports device invented in Germany combines the hopping action of a kangaroo with the height of stilts. Also known as ‘jumping stilts’, the jumping jacks enable a user to cover a height of up to two metres in one single leap. This activity is fast gaining popularity in the US, Europe, Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Going by the numbers, Jumping Jacks seem to be gaining ground here as well. Since December 2000, nearly a thousand people have gone through the hour-long basic introduction course. When asked to explain the draw of the sport, Simon said, “It is a new lifestyle sport, something unique, and yet not difficult to learn. It enhances people’s confidence.”
Another trend that is making waves is the swaveboard. It is similar to the skateboard, except that it has only two wheels, each capable of moving in a different direction. This makes controlling the swaveboard a little more challenging, and requires the user to sway a little to stay in line, hence the name – a combination of ‘sway’ and ‘wave’.
Polytechnic student Nicole Ang, who was perfecting her ‘swave’ at East Coast Park, said it took her just over an hour to learn. “It’s quite easy. I am currently practicing some stunts, like learning to squat while on the swaveboard.”
If you would rather not jump or swave, there are plenty of other options, like cycling and inline-skating. Just take your pick, and get in on the action!
This article first appeared in My Green Space, a newsletter bu NParks. For more stories, click here.
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Photos courtesy of NParks
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