At the start of the week, England officially moved from a “stay at home” to a “stay alert” plan, with restrictions on outdoor activities being eased. Note that this does not apply to the other nations which form Great Britain; Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are still following the “Stay at Home” policy.
As of today, Wednesday 13th May 2020, English citizens are no longer restricted to just one hour of outdoor exercise. This, obviously, includes skateboarding, and we expect to see outdoor council-run skateparks to open up in the coming days and weeks; indoor commercial skateparks may take more time.
Skateboard England have released a statement clarifying their position and recommendations for skateboarders in England. We at the UKFSA suggest you follow their core recommendations; stay at least two meters away from other skateboarders (and people in general!), and limit sessions to members of your household (if you are lucky enough to live with other skaters) or one other person you don’t live with.
Skateboard England also recommend you try to avoid touching any surfaces – so no gymnast plants for the time being.
Remember: while we all want to be skateboarding, it’s important you don’t put yourself at extra risk purely for the sake of freestyle. Germany has already seen a rise in COVID-19 cases since they lessened their restrictions at the end of April, so don’t think that this means the pandemic is going away and you can return to business freestyle as normal. The confirmed death toll in the UK is currently at 33,186 at the time of writing, and everyone here at the UKFSA wants to make sure all freestylers stay as safe as possible in this frankly horrific situation.
Obviously, all events we had on the calendar prior to this lockdown are either confirmed to be cancelled or can be considered as such until we get official word. This is a sad start to what is normally the most exciting time of the year for freestyle, but rest assured that we’ll do our best to arrange a UK-based event the second we believe it is safe to do so.
In the meantime, stay at home if you can, continue working on your stationary combos in your back yards and basements, and do all you can to minimise risk both to yourself and others. Hopefully we can all get through this together and freestyle will continue to thrive.
#SkateSafeStaySafe