Pancho Sullivan of Hawaii's North Shore is possibly the best-known pro surfer that doesn't have any big-time trophies. He hasn't even come close to winning one. Pancho Sullivan is a pro surfer who doesn't like competition.

In baseball, Pancho Sullivan would be a home-run hitter who also strikes out a lot. In football, he would catch the long passes but not be good on the short routes.

Still, fans are crazy about him, and so are his fellow pro surfers. He's known as one of the friendliest and most pleasant guys in the sport, especially among his teammates on the Rip Curl International Surf Team. Pancho Sullivan simply whistles to his own tune.

Pancho Sullivan grew up with some of the world's biggest waves on the North Shore, and he's a big guy at more than 200 pounds. Therefore, he doesn't want to deal with some of the smaller tides that spill forth at various competitive venues.

"I'm turned off by the type of surfing they're promoting, the contradiction of it," Pancho Sullivan explained a year ago. "I don't want to devote three or four years of my life to surf two-foot waves."

This was after he finally broke down in 2006, trying a one-year gig on the Foster's ASP Men's World Tour. He never finished higher than ninth, nor worse than 17th.

Pancho Sullivan is not a competitive animal when it comes to his fellow pro surfers. Instead, he prefers to stay with his family on the North Shore and compete against the biggest waves. When his pro surfing buddies come to visit each winter, his light shines the brightest. His fame has come, not from winning trophies, but from appearing in some of the most fantastic big wave photographs ever to appear in surfing magazines.

A writer for Surf Magazine provides an apt summary: "Always a big guy, Pancho struggles in small gutless waves. But in waves that required guts, he excels."

Sources:
www.ripcurl.com/index.php?panchosullivan
www.lat34.com/surf/pancho_sullivan
www.surfline.com/surfaz/surfaz.cfm?id=912
www.worldprosurfers.com/panch-sullivan/index.htm
www.zappos.com

By legend, seeds were planted more than a century ago for snowboarders and skiers to head for the Banff/Lake Louise destination.

Construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1883 had reached the western edge of the Alberta province. Railroad President William Cornelius Van Horne had seen plenty of natural beauty along the route, but he still was flabbergasted to discover the stunning Lake Louise and the now-famous Cave and Basin Hot Springs nestled among mountains with 10,000-foot peaks. He declared, "Since I can't export the scenery, I'll import the tourists." Thus he built the landmark Banff Springs Hotel.

Snowboarders should take special delight. Banff/Lake Louise draws only about 30 feet of annual snow, compared to 100 or more at other locales. Still, 30 feet is plenty because the white stuff barely melts in the high and dry Rocky Mountain air. For snowboard and ski enthusiasts around the world, this is known as "Champagne Powder."

The best-known destination at Banff/Lake Louise is the Sunshine Village Ski & Snowboard Resort, and here the legend continues with roots in the year 1929. A pair of extreme sports enthusiasts, Cliff White and Cyril Paris, had trouble finding a Canadian Pacific Railway cabin. This caused them to ski all over the territory before they discovered the shelter. By then, they were so impressed that they shared information to all of their ski buddies. Sunshine Village was born, with a peak elevation of 9,000 feet and an impressive vertical drop of 3,500 feet. The longest run is 8 kilometers, which translate into 5 miles. More than 100 trails are available.

Lake Louise Mountain Resort lacks the history and tradition of Sunshine Village, but it's a tad bit bigger in scale. The third cog in the Banff/Lake Louise trio is the more modest Mount Norquay Ski Resort, with a vertical of only about 600 feet, but still challenging

All of this splendor is available within less than a two-hour drive from Calgary, Alberta, but Banff/Lake Louise is so close to the border that some trails cross into British Columbia. Talk about a snowboarder's dream: A trail so long that it spans two provinces!

The resorts' web sites, by and large, do not match the quality of the winter sport environment. However, readers may find better info by reviewing Wikipedia summaries.

Sources:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunshine_Village
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Louise_Mountain _Resort
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Norquay_ski_resort

Shanghai, China is one of the best vacation spots for skaters. This city is amazingly rich in culture and is also the home to the largest skate park in the world. If you are looking for an exotic vacation destination, consider exploring the skating culture found in Shanghai.

The SMP International Skate Park
In the United States it is easy to find skate parks that are between 7,500 square feet and 15,000 square feet. However, these parks pale in comparison to the SMP International Skate Park with its 13,700 plus square meter park layout. For those of you unfamiliar with the metric system that is about 147,000 square feet of skate park terrain. Like I said, this is a big park.

The SMP International Skate Park can be found at 2100 Songhu Road, Shanghai, 200438, China. You can get to this park by taking the line three bus to Jiangwan Tsum Station and then taking a taxi to the park. Once inside the park, you will find a bowl area, a park zone, a plaza-recreation area and a competition area. The bowl area utilizes granite pool coping, something you most likely won't find in many U.S. skate parks, and it is over 4,500 square meters. The park zone offers an additional 1,750 square meters of skating space, the plaza/recreation/viewing area offers over 4,100 square meters of entertainment and the competition area takes up about 2,000 square meters of space.

One of the best things about this skate park, besides its huge size, is that it is the home to several competitions and to the SMP skate team from Shanghai. If you are lucky enough to be in Shanghai during a competition then you will want to take advantage of the opportunity to watch the team practice and compete against local and international skating professionals. What a way to cap off a vacation to Shanghai!

Other Attractions in Shanghai
While the skateboarding is great in Shanghai, you won't want to miss the other great attractions that this city offers. If you enjoy shopping, then you will find an amazing collection of authentic China clothing, as well as a great selection of skater wear while in Shanghai. If you prefer to enhance your vacation with cultural attractions, you will want to make plans to visit the Yuyuan Gardens, the Shanghai Museum, the Jade Buddha Temple, the Longhu Pagoda and Longhu Temple and the Shanghai Animal Zoo. Finally, don't forget to sample some of the local cuisine.

The Louisville Extreme Park is located just east of the downtown area of Louisville, Kentucky near the intersection of Franklin Street and Clay Street. It offers about 40,000 square feet of skating terrain including a bowl park, a street park and a few vert features. If you live in, or will be visiting the Louisville area, make plans to bring your skateboarding shoes, gear and boards to the LEP.

Louisville Extreme Park - The Basics
The Louisville Extreme Park opened back in April of 2002. It is a free public park that is open to skaters, BMXers and in-line skaters 24 hours a day. This park is owned by the City of Louisville, and it is maintained by the Metro Parks Department.

When exploring what this park has to offer keep your eyes open for the skill level postings. These signs will help you select features that you will be able to safely negotiate. Each section of the park is rated as a beginners' area, an intermediate area or an advanced area.

As mentioned earlier, the Louisville Extreme Park is broken up into three different skating areas. The bowl park is excellent. It has two 11-foot bowls, two eight-foot bowls, two four-foot bowls and a six-foot bowl. Near the bowl park is a stellar 24-foot full pipe. The street course is fully stocked with great skating features such as ledges, rails, lines and fun boxes. Finally, there is a 12-foot wooden vert ramp with an excellent 13-foot-long extension.

Louisville Extreme Park - Rules
This is a very open park as far as rules go. You can use the park any time you want. The only time the park is closed is during extreme or hazardous weather conditions. There are no age restrictions and generally no supervision. The only rules that you will need to follow include: no smoking, drinking or eating inside the fenced area; no tagging; and you need to wear helmets and padding. If you have an accident inside the park and need help, there is an emergency call box on-site that you can use.

Some of us may go through a day facing no tougher question than "Paper or plastic?" at the supermarket. But try asking one of the most famous X-athletes, Shaun White: Skateboarding or snowboarding?

Skateboarding, says Shaun, is more difficult, "I think it's so much harder to go big and do the tricks. They're so much faster and so much less under control. I'm used to doing airs and stuff in snowboarding, but I almost think you go bigger on a vert ramp."

Shaun White says this, even though he learned skateboarding years before snowboarding.

It seems difficult to believe, with all that he has accomplished, but Shaun White of Carlsbad, Calif., just turned 22 in September. He's been a pro in both sports since he was in his early teenage years. He learned skating first, of course, at just 7 years old, but he has had more competitive success on the snow.

Shaun White's entry into the X-sports came quite simply. He grew up near the Encinitas YMCA, one of the few "Y" facilities you will find with a vertical ramp. With his older brother, Jessie, he started skating. Then he discovered snowboarding when he was 13, and with his skating experience, he was such a quick study that he turned pro in the snow at 14.

The powder took priority for a while for Shaun White, but by the time he was 16, he went back to skating long enough to join Tony Hawk on tour. He was a veteran two-sport athlete at 16! Since then he's pretty much been a snowboarder who also excels on skateboards. In this sense, he is similar to Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders from the 1990s, who were football players who also excelled at baseball.

Shaun White is all the more amazing because he had two open-heart surgeries before he reached age 5 to cure a congenital defect. He also surfs. Pro surfers beware! His hobbies include playing the guitar.

Shaun White recently won the 2008 Laureus World Sports Award for the best Action Sportsperson of the Year. Get this, he has not one, but two, Wikipedia sites on the web. The one with just his name focuses mainly on his skateboarding, and the one that includes snowboarding, well, you can figure that out!

Despite good reason to have a big head, Shaun White remains modest and always expresses thanks for his family's support. If you happen to run into him and his veritable "shock of red hair," just think twice before saying, "Yo, Flying Tomato." He used to like the nickname, but now he's sick of it.

Sources:

shaunwhite.com

skateboard.about.com/od/proskaterbios/p/ProShaunWhite.htm

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaun_White

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaun_White_snowboarding

For this rendition of "Best Snowboarding on the Planet," just for a change of pace, we take you to an unreal place.

Jeffrey C. Brunskill and Christopher A. Badurek were teaching a course several years ago in GIS, Geographic Information Systems, at the University of Buffalo in New York. They could have chosen any topic for the case study that they assigned to students. They chose snowboarding. In effect, they challenged their pupils to create an imaginary model snowboarding resort.

"We chose snowboarding because it was a pretty hot topic," explains Brunskill, who invites readers of this blog to try their own hand at the fantasy.

Brunskill and Badurek created the character of Stone Barrington, a potential entrepreneur who figures there is big money in creating such a resort. However, Barrington must sell the idea to Wilfred Drake III, leader of an investment group.

Drake greets Barrington: "Stone, great to have you back in our boardroom this morning." (It did not occur to Brunskill or Badurek to make a play on words with "board" room, as in "snowboard.")

Barrington tells Drake that he had attended the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. He liked the opening ceremonies and the speed skating and so forth. Still, he wasn't inspired until he watched Team USA 's Kelly Clark win the Women's Halfpipe Snowboarding Competition on her final run with a 720 air, backed by the wild cheers of the crowd.

Drake tells Barrington, "Stone, this is all very interesting, but is this really going to work? We're here to make money, not to hear the latest fads for these crazy kids."

Stone Barrington answers, "Western ski resorts have obvious advantages over those in the east, regarding the average length of ski runs, but the shorter runs in the east typically have fostered more refined technical abilities. The skiing/boarding mentality produced by the East Coast environment also lends itself to the technical aspects of snowboarding, particularly the half pipe competition. Although many of the nearly 50 ski resorts in the state of New York offer facilities for boarders, only a few cater directly to snowboarding as a sport."

Is Barrington on the right track? Do you want to try the assignment? What would you include in a snowboarding resort to make it qualify for "Best on the Planet?" This could lead to some fun chit-chat with your buddies. P.S. Wilfred Drake III says you still gotta make money.

Source:

Sciencecases.org/snowboard/snowboard.asp

California is one of the best states in the United States to visit if you are a skateboarder. Nearly every town has at least one skate park for you to try out. If you are planning a trip through Mammoth Lakes, California before the snow falls, or during the next dry season, you'll have a couple of little skate parks to try out. However, helmets and full pads are required for both of the skate parks, and fines are assessed if you are caught without them. Because of this you will want to make sure you pack your skateboarding gear and clothing.

Mammoth Lakes Skate Park - Mammoth Lakes, California
Mammoth Lakes Skate Park can be found about a half mile off of Highway 203 on the Sawmill Cutoff. It is a very small park, only about 7,800 square feet. It is an outdoor skate park made primarily from concrete and asphalt. It doesn't have a vert course, but it does offer a small trannie course and a small street course. Some of the features that you will find at this park include a pyramid, grinding curbs, rails, Jersey barriers and a quarter pipe. This is not the best skate park in the world, but if you are camping out at the Shady Rest Campground and need a place just to stretch your wheels, then you can try this park out.

Mammoth Lakes Wave Rave - Mammoth Lakes, California
According to the locals, the best park to ride in Mammoth Lakes, California is the Mammoth Lakes Wave Rave. This is a small skate park that is made from wood and concrete. This is an outdoor skate park that is partially shaded, so you need to watch out for ice accumulations in the shady areas when the temperatures start to dip. This skate park can be found at 3203 Main Street in Mammoth Lakes, California. It offers a vert course, a trannie course and a street course. Some of the features that can be found at this park include a mini ramp, a big roll in, pool coping and a spine. Again this is not the best park in the world, but it is a great diversion if you are out in the woods camping and need to feel a little asphalt beneath your wheels.

Santa Barbara, California has long been known for having the best surfing in the world. This fact remains so today. Surfing is as much a part of the Santa Barbara culture today as it has been for years with the only differences in today's surfers being an edgier generation.

Rincon Point is known as one of the best surfing spots in the area. Located just 15 minutes from Santa Barbara, Rincon Point is not only one of the top places to surf in the world, but also one of the most famous. During the fall, the surfers excited about the first swells head towards Santa Barbara ready to take on the waves. For those surfers new to Rincon Point that are headed that way for fall surfing, Rincon Point is located right off Highway 101 at Bates Road. Parking is decent and locals are friendly.

California water is not typically warm, yet at Rincon Point surfers can expect water temperatures of approximately 65 degrees. The waves are great for riding and offer a pretty decent ride as the weather moves from summer to autumn in the Santa Barbara region with the changing temperatures of the north Pacific Ocean. Though winter is the best time to surf in Santa Barbara, fall is the next best option. Surfers can expect an average water swell height of anywhere from 6 to 7 feet with a good wave, depending on the surf location. The average air temperature in the Santa Barbara coastal area is generally around 67 degrees.

There is a wide array of surf shops should surfers forget some of their gear including; basic surf apparel, boards, wet suits, wet dry bags, shoes and even rental equipment. Santa Barbara surf shops are also cordial and freely give advice as to alternate spots to surf.

Santa Barbara is also a great place for surf school with one of the top schools being Santa Barbara Seals Surfing School. Accredited by Surfing USA, the Santa Barbara Seals Surfing School offers surf camp and after school programs, in addition to offering structured surf lessons.

Sources:

www.santabarbara.com

www.santabarbaraseals.com

www.santabarbarasurfing.com

If you want to get away from the super crowded skate parks of Phoenix, Arizona, or if you find yourself in or near Gilbert, Arizona, then make plans to check out Freestone Skate Park. This is a free skate park that is open to everyone, including inline skaters, skateboarders and bikers. This diversity can be both an asset and a liability. Overall, this is a great park with something for every type of skater. Locals love this park and say it is one of the best skate areas in this part of Arizona.

Freestone Skate Park - The Basics
Freestone Skate Park can be found at the intersection of Juniper and Lindsay in Gilbert, Arizona, 85234. It is an outdoor concrete skate park that was designed by SITE Design Group and opened on March 17, 2001. This skate park offers over 22,000 square feet of skating terrain including a vert part, a trannie park and street course. One of the best design features of this skate park is that it is lighted so you can skate there safely until the park closes at 9 p.m. in the winter and 10 p.m. in the summer.

Freestone Skate Park - Skate Park Features
The Freestone Skate Park has a little bit of something for everyone. There are a couple of awesome bowls to trick out on, a trannie course and a street course. The street course is modest, but it offers rails, a pyramid, ledges, metal coping and a few other obstacles. It is recommended that you wear full padding and a helmet, but since this is an unsupervised park this recommendation is not enforced.

Enjoying the Freestone Skate Park
In order to fully enjoy the Freestone Skate Park, you need to go there with the intent of having a good time. This is a popular park with skaters and bikers of all ages, so be prepared to dodge traffic on the courses. You will find young skaters and older skaters here, as well as advanced skaters and beginners. Have patience and keep your board and your body under control for your safety and the safety of others at the park. Finally, don't forget to wear the right clothing for the weather and for your sport.

Pro skateboarder Adam Taylor, 19, says it's cool that fans have started to recognize him as among the world's top 10.

One day he may have company. His brother Dylan, 14, and his sister Leah, 12, are up-and-coming amateur skateboarders.

"My brother is pretty good," Adam told an interviewer. "My sister skates good too. She's only 12, but she can skate vert pretty well for a girl."

Adam likes vert, too, which no doubt has influenced Dylan and Leah.

"It's unusual for most people" to prefer vert skateboarding, Adam notes, "but I like riding the transition more than the street with the rails, the ledges and stairs."

The Taylor Trio got started in Cocoa Beach, Fla., when a 9-year-old Adam received a skateboard for Easter. (Shouldn't we all get skateboards on Easter, much less Christmas?) Adam fell in love with the board, and his younger siblings soon followed suit. They enjoy supportive parents, Toby and Lisa Taylor, who were into surfing as kids and understand how it feels to have a board under one's feet.

Recently, the family moved to San Diego just to be closer to the sport's major scene. This shows how important skateboarding has become for them.

Toby Taylor remembers one of the first times that Adam appeared on national television, as part of a CBS telecast.

"Just to see your kid being interviewed on TV and be able to look into a camera and say that he's living his dream ... it's pretty emotional for me," Toby Taylor says. "Adam's knows what he wants to do and what he has to do to get there, and it's the same with Dylan and Leah. It's been a lot of work for my wife and I too, but we wouldn't trade it for the world."

Dylan says, "I always try to beat my brother, and that helps me push harder and harder. Right now I'm after doing a 540, which for me is really the next step towards being able to go pro and really chase after my brother and the rest of the guys."

Although she is youngest, Leah may best sum up the Taylor family's feelings: "It's fun to skate with my brothers because they help me a lot, and it helps us all be together as a family. I love that we get to do things like this together, travel together, and just be with each other doing this. It's really cool. I feel so lucky."

The family has started a small business, Timeline Skateboards. Adam keeps a blog at go211.com/u/adamtaylor/blogs.

Sources:
lgactionsports.com/athlete.html?athlete_id=707&sport=skateboarding
kidzworld.com/article/14708-adam-taylor-interview
go211.com/u/adamtaylor/blogs
timelineskateboards.com

Snowboarding in Ohio? Aw, c'mon. And Best on the Planet? Puh-leeze.

Give us a chance here. On one hand, you may perceive Best on the Planet as somewhere in Canada or Switzerland or France. But if you are not there at the particular moment, Best on the Planet doesn't do much good. Really, ultimately, and yes, selfishly, Best on the Planet should be wherever YOU happen to be on any given day. It's a state of mind.

Besides, the State of Ohio seems to decide most of our U.S. presidential elections, and therefore proper respect is due ...

Ohio's Alpine Valley, near Akron, tries so hard, advertising itself like this: "The 9 slopes at this ski hill are brilliant. The ski resort gets blanketed by so much beautiful snow, 10 feet per year, and that is an incredibly splendid coverage."

Then comes an admission: "A 230-foot vertical drop is, of course, not that much, but Alpine Valley makes up for it with other things ... Good exercise and just hanging out with our skiing palls surpasses anything."

They have a point. To go a step farther, let's say you are a really fly snowboarder and you come upon a place like Ohio's Alpine Valley. There are hundreds of Alpine Valleys across the country, of course. So are you too good for Alpine Valley? Baseball and football and basketball players, even golfers and tennis stars, play at clinics in disadvantages places. Why not you?

Alpine Valley does indeed have Xtreme areas and a permanent half-pipe with rails. Stop by, show off some of your best tricks, and then greet the locals as they come a-runnin'. Offer a few pointers. You'll feel good about yourself.

Ohio offers more than just Alpine Valley.

There's the Big Creek Ski Area (they have snowboarding too), a half hour from Cleveland, in which the members actually own their own mountain, buy their own snowmaking equipment and so forth. This may sound more like Russia than Ohio, but it's true, fellow traveler.

At Boston Mills Brandywine they're getting ready for the snowboard and ski season already, prepping for the 2nd Annual OktoberSTEEZ Rail Jam, followed by a Level One Productions video premier on the Big Screen Outside.

Then there's Mad River Mountain. Can you imagine a greater name for a snowboarding place? Alas, Wikipedia reports that "because the natural snowfall averages only 36 inches, snow is not always naturally available."

Scoff all of you Best on the Planet snowboarders, but ask yourself this: If Mad River Mountain were the only place remaining on earth to ride your board, wouldn't you go there?

Sources:

skicentral.com/ohio.html
alpinevalleyohio.com
bigcreeksi.org/trails.htm
bmbw.com
gottagoitsnows.com/skiareas/1253.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_River_Mountain

While you may not naturally think of Nashville, Tennessee as a skateboarding vacation destination, it actually is a great city to visit. Not only does it offer you a lot of great musical attractions, friendly people and great Southern food, this city is also dotted with skate parks and great skateboarding opportunities.

Places to Skateboard in Nashville, Tennessee
Like most cities in the world, it is a good idea to limit your skateboarding to skate parks. However, you can find a lot of low-traffic areas to skate and explore in Nashville. Just stay off of private property, don't skate downtown and don't skate where there are a lot of people. Like I said, your best bet is going to be the city's skate parks.

The first option that you have is the Sixth Avenue Skate Park. This is an 11,000 square foot skate park that offers a great selection of features. It is a concrete park, which makes falling rough on the body. To minimize injuries wear a helmet, the proper skater attire and padding. Some of the features that you will find at 401 Sixth Avenue South include a 16-foot vert wall, sub walls, a ten-foot bank leading into a vert wall, ledges, hips, rails, a spine ramp and a couple of modest ovals.

The second skate park in Nashville is the Nashville Skate Park, which is located inside Wave Country. This park, found at 2320 Two Rivers Parkway, offers about 20,000 square feet of skateboarding terrain. It has bowls, vert walls, rails and obstacles for you to play on and in. Have fun at this park and then cool off in the wave pool.

Shopping for Skateboarding Equipment in Nashville, Tennessee
The best skateboard gear and paraphernalia is going to be found slightly outside of Nashville. In Mount Juliet, a few miles away, you will find Resist Skateboards. This shop is located at 11888 Labanon Road. Your second option is Imperial Skateboarding Company, found at 114 East Prince Street in Gallatin, Tennessee. If you visit this shop, bring your board as Gallatin has a brand new skate park that you won't want to miss.

Offering powerful waves from October to March and located in one of the most romantic countries in the world, Lanzarote, Spain offers the best surfing in the world and has earned its moniker of "the Hawaii of Europe." Located north of Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands, Lanzarote is an ideal environment to learn to surf and enjoy challenging surfing.

Lanzarote, Spain is one of the most versatile surfing spots in the world with the island picking up swells on the west, east and north coasts, which are enhanced by perfect weather. Known for the best surfing in the world, Lanzarote boasts a variety of surf spots and is an ideal spot for surfers of all levels. For beginning surfers, there are a couple of great surf schools as well as excellent beach breaks. The more experienced surfers tend to head toward the Slab and El Quemao. Punta de Las Mujeres is another great place to surf and offers reef breaks and excellent waves.

Lanzarote gets crowded, and locals are rather protective of the turf. Sea urchins are also a concern in Lanzarote, so proceed with care. Also waves get pretty big, so surfers will want to gauge whether or not their skills are sufficient for certain surf spots.

For surfers seeking surfing lessons, Surf School Lanzarote is popular in the Canary Islands. The school has instructors from levels 1 to 4, all of which are extremely qualified, professional beach lifeguards. Surf School Lanzarote is one of the few surfing schools in Europe registered with the British Surfing Association. The primary focus, in addition to students learning to surf well and having fun, is safety and coaching. Classes are on beautiful Famara Beach in the warm waters of the Canary Islands. Light weight wetsuits are used in addition to basic surf gear. Beginners start with soft boards and generally progress to fiberglass surfboards. The first days of classes include learning to catch the white wave and progressing to the first, almost unbroken waves. Visit the Web site for Surf School Lanzarote for more information.

Sources:

www.surfing-waves.com
www.surfschoollanzarote.com

Phoenix is a great city to live in or visit if you are a skateboarder. The city is dotted with great skate parks. One of the best is the Paradise Valley Skate Park, located at 17402 N. 40th Street, Phoenix, Arizona. To use this park, you will first need to visit the Paradise Valley Community Center and pickup a recreation card. It will feature your photograph, and you will need it to use the Paradise Valley Skate Park. It takes about a half hour to get your card.

Paradise Valley Skate Park - Features

The Paradise Valley Skate Park has a lot of features that you can explore on your board. It has one of the best collections of bowls in the state. For example, it has snake bowls, spine bowls and kidney bowls. Other features offered by this skate park include banked alleys, flat bars, grinding rails, sloped ramps, radial banks, street plaza, a fun box and pump pumps. As you can see, this is a great park for developing a variety of skateboarding skills.

Paradise Valley Skate Park - Hours of Operation

The hours of operation for this park are going to vary depending on the time of year. Between September and April, the park will be open Monday through Friday from 2:30 p.m. until 7 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. From May through August, the park is open Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. until 11 a.m. and from 5 p.m. until 8 p.m. This park is closed on Sundays and all holidays that the City of Phoenix observes.

Using the Park

To use this park, you will need a recreation card issued by the Paradise Valley Community Center. If you are under 18, you will also need your parents to sign a liability waiver for you. This is a free park, however, bikes aren't allowed. It is primarily a skate park for skaters that have beginner to intermediate skills.

Dressing for the Park

To keep your body safe during your skate time, you need to dress for your activity. Start with clothing that will wick away sweat from your skin and allow your skin to breathe. Select skateboarding shoes that provide your feet with support and will not slide off your board. Finally, remember to wear a helmet and the proper padding to prevent injuries.

Asheville, North Carolina is a great place to go on vacation if you are a skateboarder. This city has great architecture and urban features that make it the perfect destination to bring your skateboard. This city has great skate spots, a couple of cool skateboard shops and a huge 17,000 square foot skatepark waiting for you.

Asheville, North Carolina - Street Skateboarding
If you enjoy street skateboarding then you will love Asheville, North Carolina. While it is technically against the law to skateboard outside the skatepark, the local authorities tend to just give you a warning and discourage you from boarding in the city. However, do not skateboard in downtown Asheville or on private property without permission or you will get a $150 fine. According to the locals a few of the best street skating spots are the AC Reynolds High School, where you can find ledges and handrails, the Beaver Dam, where you will find a great selection of challenging ledges, the HESS Rail, which has a very challenging flat bar rail over a large gap, and the Health Depot, which has three up and three down, flat bar rails, benches and a bump up.

Asheville, North Carolina - Food Lion Skatepark
The main skatepark for Asheville, North Carolina is Food Lion Skatepark, and it is found at the intersection of Cherry Street and Flint Street. This park offers about 17,000 square feet of skating terrain, and has three courses, a beginner's course, a street course and a bowl course. The fee to get in is between $2 and $5 depending on when you use the park and if you are a resident or not. The park is always open from 1 p.m. until dark. The opening times are going to vary depending on the time of year and the day of the week that you use the park.

Asheville, North Carolina - Skateboard Shops
There are at least two great skateboard shops in Asherville. The first is the Park Skateshop, which can be found at 25 Patton Avenue. The second is the Flipside Boardshop, which can be found at 88 N. Lexington Avenue. At these shops you will find everything you need to board in North Carolina including skateboards and boarding clothing.

Surfing the beautiful Indian Ocean may seem like a dream to some, however some of the best surfing in the world is located between India and Sri Lanka, just south of the Lakshadweep Islands of India and southwest of Sri Lanka. Here you'll find an island nation called Maldives that is comprised of a large group of atolls, which are basically coral formations that form a circular shape with an enclosed lagoon. These unique formations add to the undisturbed beauty of the region in addition to crystal clear waters, and incredible weather, which is ideal for an avid lover of surfing.

Nailing down one's favorite spot can be difficult. Maldives, Asia is definitely one of the many spots that equates to surfing paradise with an average water temperature of around 82 degrees. Should one choose to venture out to an exotic location such as Maldives for a surfing trip, keep in mind that getting to surfing spots will require a boat.

Popular surf spots in Maldives range the gamut between the South Male Atoll and the North Male Atoll. Some of the most popular spots include Cokes, Honkeys, Five Islands, Jails, Sultans, Tombstone, Gurus, Kates, Foxys, Riptides, and Natives to name a few.

In terms of level of difficulty, Chickens, Cokes, Gurus and Jails are recommended for experienced surfers only. For those pros and kamikaze-style surfers, the best surf spot is Meeru Reef, though other great challenging locations include Pasta Point, Sultans, and Last Stop.

There are a few surf packages available, but surfers might want to bring basic gear including shoes, board shorts, wet dry bags and boards. Surfers interested in resort packages should consider resources such as The Perfect Wave, Awesome Holidays Maldives, Surf Travel or World Surfaris.

As with all international travel, it is highly recommended that surfers planning to travel to Maldives to experience some of the best surfing in the world check with the American Consulate prior to planning a trip abroad.

Vancouver, British Columbia is home to numerous skate parks. In fact, there are skate parks located in nearly every borough in the district. If you are in this city and have a need to grind rails or catch some air, try out the China Creek Skate Park. This skate park can be found inside the China Creek South Park in East Vancouver. This is an outdoor park that has a lot to offer beginner, intermediate and advanced skaters.

China Creek Skate Park - The Basics

China Creek Skate Park is a very basic, outdoor skate park. It is primarily made up of asphalt and concrete, with concrete lining the bowls and asphalt covering the street course segments of the park.

While not the premiere skate park in Vancouver, China Creek Skate Park has a reasonably good variety of skateboarding features to play around with. On the street course segment of the park, you will find benches, flat-bar rails, round-bar rails and various obstacles. In the interior of the skate park, you will find a variety of bowls, ramps and launches. Many of the ramps and launches are homemade, so be careful. Check the ramps and launches, especially those that have been brought in by skaters, to make sure that they are sturdy enough to handle you, your board and the momentum needed to trick off the ramp or launch.

China Creek Skate Park - Competitions

China Creek Skate Park is the location of numerous skateboarding competitions throughout the year. Two of the most popular skateboarding competitions held at this park are the Jaks Team China Creek Competition and the Memorial Skate Competition.

If you want to practice for these competitions, bring your board, your skateboarding shoes and your tricks to the China Creek Skate Park. To do well at these competitions, you will want to practice your tricks and skills both inside the bowls and on the street course. If you live in Vancouver, you can practice year round. However, if you are traveling to the city for the competition, arrive a week early so you can become familiar with the shape, depth and temperament of the skate park before the day of the competition. This will improve your performance and your chances of walking away a winner.

Surfers are known for getting along with one another a whole lot better than the athletes in those "major" sports. For the women surfers it's like a sorority, and for the fellows it's like a fraternity. So, it's only fitting that professional surfers gather once to a year to commune and honor the best among themselves.

This year's 16th annual Surfing Life Peer Polls Awards were celebrated in Australia, near the renowned Bells Beach, and the surfers may have been showing some sentiment in picking a pair of Aussies. Still, Stephanie Gilmore and Mick Fanning are both world champions who are as deserving as anyone, although Gilmore's world crown came during 2007, while Fanning's was this year.

Gilmore, in fact, made her Surfing Life Peer Polls Award a back-to-back shindig. Fanning, meanwhile, is the first Aussie to claim the Surfing Life top award since Luke Egan in 2000.

"I am so stoked," proclaimed Mick Fanning in classic Down Under jargon.

Stephanie Gilmore, 20, started surfing a decade ago. She wasn't even old enough to legally sip a brew of Foster's -- a top surfing sponsor Down Under -- when she captured the Roxy Pro Gold Coast title as a 17-year-old. Seems inevitable, but yes, her nickname is "Happy." She indeed flashes a megawatt smile, and her exciting lifestyle includes skydiving, along with playing guitar. (Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton are among her faves.)

Mick Fanning, 27, was only 5 years old when he tried his first wave, but he did not get really serious until he was 12. His family moved to Tweed Heads, site of some of Australia's most dynamite surfing, and he became buddies with Joel Parkinson, another future surfing pro. He was a mere 16 when he finished among the top three at the Australian National Titles, and his big breakthrough came at age 19 when he won the Rip Curl Pro at Bells Beach.

With the nickname of "White Lightning," Fanning overcame a complete hamstring tear in 2004 to recover his crowd-pleasing style. He is married to Karissa Dalton, a model.

Sources:

www.surfinglife.com.au

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephanie_Gilmore

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mick_Fanning

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bells_Beach

If you aren't among those who remain angry with the French for failing to support U.S. foreign policy, they you can easily discover some of the planet's best snowboarding.

Consider Chamonix, which features Mont Blanc, which is Europe's highest mountain. More than 90 percent of the slopes are higher than 2,000 meters, and if you wish to convert from meters to feet, you will have to remember some of your school math. (Okay, we came up with 6,561 feet and a few inches. How? See below.)

Chamonix also advertises "superb culture and nightlife," but of course we're in France, so everyone is going to say that. But it's true! Chamonix also has a reputation of being more "snowboarder-oriented." Publicists for the resort emphasize that beginners and intermediates need fear not, because Chamonix is not just for experts.

Among the offerings at Meribel, meanwhile, are "645 kms of pisted trails." Seems like they could have worded that a little differently. But indeed the trails are well-packed. And a cool thing about Meribel, like Chamonix and some other French resorts, is that they offer special vacations just for snowboarders. Many snowboarding super-enthusiasts feel they get more respect in Europe than in North America.

If you really want to make a snowboarding vacation out of it, Meribel is a neighbor of Courchevel and Val Thorens, located in the Trois Vallees. That's three valleys, of course, and the Meribel folks proclaim that theirs is the prettiest.

These three valleys, which in the United States would be called "tri-valleys" or "tri-cities," reach a peak of 3,200 meters. That's 10,495 feet and a few inches, by the way.

Other spots in France to consider: Alpe D'Huez Resort, Les Arcs 2000, Let Gets, Morzine, Sainte Foy, Tignes and Val D'Isere.

And now (drum roll), time for the math explanation: A meter is 39.37 inches or 1.0936 yards, give or take. Go from there. And if you don't remember that from high school or junior high, well, we won't speculate . . .

Sources:

http://www.alpineelements.co.uk/snowboarding-holidays/resort/chamonix.html

http://www.alpineelements.co.uk/snowboarding-holidays/resort/meribel.html

http://www.worldreviewer.com/experiences/snowboard/