Labour weekend has come and gone, ending the long dearth of holidays and marking the beginning of full-on Christmas advertising and the impending summer (yay for summer!). It also marks the first sunburn of the season: a mild but distict sting on my neck and number 1 shaved scalp as I step into the shower.

NZ has some of the worst skin cancer rates in the world, mainly attributed to our outdoors lifestyle and ‘she’ll be right’ attitudes. However, some blame for this must also rest with the whole western world. This isn’t rant about the ‘ozone hole’, but I do think that I get burnt more readily that when I was young.

I took Grace (my daughter) to the skate/bmx area at Mclean Park. We went at about 9 am, which is a good time to go because it is empty and we have it to ourselves. Grace was fearless and wanted to try to drop in on the quarter pipe. I didn’t let her; she’s only been riding a bike for 3 months, although she did ride down some of the other big ramps. I took both Grace and Oscar back to the park in the afternoon. It was crowded and there were a lot of older (late teen) riders.

When I first went to McLean Park in as a teenager in 1987 there was a definite pecking order: the best skaters got the most time on the (very old, run down) halfpipe. Gommets didn’t get a chance. When the put in a new pipe in the early 90s it was the same, although even the worst skateboarders were higher than all but the best inline/blade skaters. BMX was last. I was lucky at that stage that I was big enough to get respect (and ramp time). I was never serious: I just used the BMX to improve my technical skills for mountain biking.

In the last few years they pulled down the ramp and put in more of a street style park with lots of smaller ramps, rails, boxes etc. Things seem to have changed: BMX is now accepted at McLean Park, along with the kids on scooters. It says a lot for the character of the older BMX and skaters that they were very aware and respectful of all of the smaller kids around. I was pleasantly surprised. I give them all a big public thank you.