Roller skating photography, West Yorkshire

Secret backyard bowl, skate photography

As a sports and fitness photographer based in West Yorkshire, I love getting out and about and yesterday’s mission was Roller skating photography. I was invited by the fab team at Be Good Skates to accompany them on a bit of a secret skate mission to the infamous Yoyo’s bowl.

Back in time

Twenty years ago I was deep into the skateboarding scene and it was pretty much my life and at the time I remember rumours of someone having their own backyard pool. The rumours happened to be true and I started to see pictures appearing in magazines of this amazing location. The sessions were always invitation only and to be honest pool skating wasn’t really my biggest strength.

Roll on 20 years

As soon as I arrived at yesterday’s session, I knew as soon as I walked in that this bowl was the infamous Yoyo’s bowl which I’d seen in magazines 20 years ago. It’s so funny how things happen. Due to the fact I’m 20 years older I’ve not really skated very often and the bowl looked pretty intimidating. After chatting to Dave the owner I got straight in and my word, how much fun! There’s something very soulful about carving around a bowl and you don’t even have to worry about doing tricks.

Be Good Skates

Whoops, enough about me, this was about Be Good Skates. I love going on little missions with the team, we always end up in some crazy location and everyone is really lovely. They even put up with my motivational chats (basically pushing them out of their comfort zone). I think everyone was a little intimidated about the bowl at first but after a few go’s people were jumping in left, right and centre.

1970’s California

The whole experience was a little surreal, at times I was looking through my camera and it looked like 1970’s California. Len and Mel were wearing these mustard coloured dungaree things and Len also had this crazy helmet and it did feel like I’d gone back in time.

Loads of fun

The day was so much fun, everyone was so nice. I had a great time just sat chatting to Dave and reminiscing about the good times. In between chatting and skating I did actually take a few pictures, so be sure to check them out.

If you’re looking for a photographer to come and shoot the story of your hobby or sport then please get in touch john@johnsteelphotography.com