Once you get past the age of 30 and your knees start to creak, crack and splinter at every bend to pick up your kids toys you may start to realise that Skateboarding is no longer an option.  You will have to resign yourself to playing Skate 2 or teaching your kids how to ollie – unless you get yourself a Sector nine longboard!

Sector Nine, now owned by Billabong, have been making skateboards and longboards for over 15 years and are the foremost manufacturer of longboards and long board technology.

Designed for speed, cruising, commuting or just good old plain downhill action, Sector longboards have a model for you.  They also make standard skate decks too.  A longboard is a more stable design of skateboard which adds to the stability of the ride and allows the owner to travel faster and safer – without the risk of too much Speed Wobble (which is how I broke my hand!)

Made from maple veneers, quality trucks and wheels, the Sector 9 long board is an excellent choice for those skaters who are not too interested in pulling a 360 laser flip – or are too old and too fat to care.  If you are taller, get a board that is wider which will give you a better, more stable ride.  Some of the longboard decks also come with more layers of veneer which will give you more strength in the deck itself – which overall adds to the stability.  If you really wanted to splash out you could get a sector 9 longboard skateboard that uses carbon fiber to make the whole deck lighter and stronger.

SECTOR 9 Longboard Skateboard BAMBOO GHOST TREE Complet $169.99	46 dregs longboard skateboard L1 SURF made by sector 9 $85.00	Sector 9 bamboo longboard skateboard Bamboo, NR, mint $92.00
Sector 9 Longboard Pipeline Oahu North Shore Series $78.88	Golden Sector Swarovski Crystal Gemstone Ring Sz 9# $9.99	Longboard *Sector 9* $71.00

Show all sector 9 items on eBay

Skate 2 has been here for a few days now and I think that the general consensus is that it is brilliant – but has a few issues too.

I am 100% sure that Tony Hawk will be playing Skate 2 and learning from it’s plus points and trying to think of how, now that he and Neversoft have parted company, he will reclaim the title of Best Skateboarding Console Game.

Here is my thoughts on how he can get back his street cred and bring the skaters back on board (no pun intended!)

1.  Keep It Real!
We all admit it.  The Hawk series was getting a bit too stupid for my liking.  It was more like a cross between an episode of Jackass and Gleaming The Cube than a proper skating game.  Sure, it was fun to set yourself on fire when jumping into a flaming barrel and run away from a bull – but enough is enough.  The popularity of EA Skate has shown that skaters want skating.  REAL skating.  Throw in the odd 540 Christ Air backflip if you want – but keep the core game realistic.

2.  Crime Does Not Pay
Whilst I can see that young people, skateboarding and crime kind of go hand in hand (from a press/media perspective) – keep it out of the game!  We don’t need a fight mini-game!  If I wanted to fight someone, I would go and play Tekken!  We want to skate, not spray graffitti and punch passers by.

3.  Real World Locations
Even Skate and Skate 2 suffer from this problem a bit.  Keep the locations realistic.  No griding down the cables of an overhead powerstation.  Street, park, pool and ramp skating please – not train tracks, boats, guns and rooftops.

4.  Kill The Killer Combos
If you check out YouTube, there are plenty of kids posting videos of their 50 quad-billion combo trick they pulled off in Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2.  Again – keep it real.

5.  Moon Physics Are For The Moon Not My Game!
Backflipping over the top of a huge building (to revert) is excellent fun for the button mashers out there – but make it more realistic!  Imagine how hard, challenging and rewarding a game would be where you had to actually time your tricks properly to achieve them.  Don’t make it too hard though.

To sum up my thoughts, Tony needs to keep the new Hawk Series more realistic.  With the advent of consoles like the Xbox 360 and the PS3, graphics and gameplay could be really realistic and challenging.  Add to that a kick ass video editor and online presence and Tony Hawk could come back stronger than ever.

What else would you add to this list?

Although my 360 currently has the Red Ring of Death, my brain is still in skate mode and therefore I present 2 EA Skate Tips.

1. Get more speed

If you were wondering how to jump that gap that you can’t quite make it over, or get top speed for doing a coffin down the hills, follow this tip.

As you are pressing the button to push your skate along, press UP at the same time on the left analog stick. This will lean your body forward slightly – as you do when pumping transition – and will make you go faster. You can also hold the left analog stick forward as you push, but I find that this does not give as much speed and also makes it hard to control your skater.

2. Land that jump

A tip I picked up reading the EA Skate page over at helpmewithmygameproblems.com.

To land a huge drop, grab your board using one of the triggers just before you land. Timing is everything on this one. Go practice off a huge ledge! Make sure you set a marker first though.

Has anyone else got a tip they would like to share?

Either contact me or post in the comments below and we can create a massive list.

Someone sent me a link to this video the other day and I thought it was excellent.

It’s not quite related to skateboarding games as such (at all!), but it is certainly a good use of technology to capture some slow motion tricks with an added extra.

From the Lakai Fully Flared video. Want it? Get it here.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qT6dziQa_is[/youtube]

If Rambo could skate – this is what it would have looked like!

It’s a Monday, it’s the afternoon, it’s my coffee time – it must be time for me to post my Video Of The Week!
This week, some cool action from Project 0mega.  Especially love that last jump over the rail!

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=ohzlIQXaIso[/youtube]

And yes… it’s EA Skate again!

If you can show me some good Tony Hawk footage you have made – then let me know!!!

I like real skating.  When I am playing, I like realistic skating.   When I am watching EA Skate Reel montages – I like realistic skating.

This is perfect – a nice touch of the old’ black and white and sepia effects too!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQ2a5OlnNyg[/youtube]

Respect.