Xia Jianguo and Li Chunmei went to open the shop early.
Xia Minmin packed her water bottle and tissues into her newly bought sports bag and slung it across her body. She was going to learn skateboarding today, so to avoid injury, she took off the sandbags from her ankles.
I changed into my new skateboard shoes from yesterday, locked the door, and skipped downstairs.
Tang Meng was already waiting in the pavilion.
"Mengmeng, I'm sorry I'm late."
Xia Minmin jumped into the pavilion, using the 80-centimeter railing as support, which made Tang Meng burst into laughter.
"Xiaomin, it looks like you've taken the sandbags off your legs?"
"Hmm, have you taken yours off yet?"
"You specifically told me this yesterday, how could I forget!"
"Let's go! Let's go have breakfast."
Xia Minmin and Tang Meng finished eating two meat buns while waiting for the bus outside the residential area.
When we arrived at the skateboarding training ground, Teacher Niu was already there, with four or five skateboards and a cardboard box at his feet.
Xia Minmin and Tang Meng quickly greeted, "Good morning, Teacher Niu!"
Teacher Niu pointed at Xia Minmin and Tang Meng and said, "Good morning, you are Xia Minmin! You are Tang Meng! This is my first time teaching girls to skateboard. If you have any problems or feel unwell, just tell me."
Xia Minmin and Tang Meng nodded, "Understood, Teacher Niu!"
"You two girls are quite well-prepared, you even brought bags."
“We carried it all the way here specifically to carry our protective gear home.”
Teacher Niu waved to them, "The protective gear and skateboards you ordered yesterday have arrived. Come and choose."
Xia Minmin and Tang Meng walked up to Teacher Niu and looked at the protective gear. They thought there would be many colors to choose from, but they were all black. Even the skateboard was entirely black.
Xia Minmin and Tang Meng remained silent for a long time, squatting on the ground looking at the pile of protective gear and skateboards.
Teacher Niu scratched his head and said, "Don't you guys like black? Black is the most suitable for beginners. You can't even tell if it gets dirty. Aren't your own sports bags black too?"
Xia Minmin raised her hand and looked at Teacher Niu, "But all the teachers' skateboards are black, so we need to tell which skateboard is ours."
"Yes! Teacher, how do we distinguish them?"
Teacher Niu squatted down and pulled out a stack of colorful paintings from the bottom of the cardboard box.
"Look at the stickers I specially ordered for you. Just stick them on the back of your skateboards."
Teacher Niu handed a stack of stickers to Xia Minmin and Tang Meng.
"Slam Dunk!" Tang Meng immediately screamed.
Tang Meng looked at Teacher Niu excitedly, "Teacher, do you like Slam Dunk too?"
"Hmm, not bad. Hurry up and choose your stickers! If they come, you might not be able to choose your favorite characters."
Tang Meng quickly lowered her head and took out Rukawa Kaede, while Xia Minmin randomly picked one.
"Xiaomin, you're so lucky! I've been torn between Rukawa Kaede and Mitsui Hisashi, but I never expected you to pick Mitsui Hisashi."
Teacher Niu rubbed his temples, looking pained. He really hadn't expected that the seemingly quiet girl would become so talkative when she met someone she liked.
Tang Meng carefully applied the stickers and then repeatedly admired them while holding her skateboard.
Not long after, the other two students arrived, and after everyone had put on their protective gear, the skateboarding lesson officially began.
"Hello everyone, I will be leading you in learning skateboarding for the next two months. Just call me Teacher Niu."
"Let me first introduce the main character of our class—the skateboard. It has upturned ends, which allows it to perform many extreme tricks. It can also be used for everyday transportation, such as going up and down small steps. I will teach you how to use it gradually in the following time."
After Teacher Niu finished speaking, he gave a demonstration for everyone. There were only four students, but the applause and cheers were quite loud.
"Okay! We should start class now! Everyone, pay attention, otherwise you'll fall behind if others learn it before you do."
The four people shouted, "We know!"
"In the first lesson, we will learn to glide simply. As beginners, the first step is to distinguish between the front and back feet. Follow me and lean forward. The first foot you step out is the front foot, which is also our supporting foot. On the skateboard, the center of gravity falls on this foot."
Teacher Niu repeatedly pointed out the forward leaning movement until everyone could distinguish between their front and back feet.
"The second step is to step onto the board. The supporting foot should step onto the board first. Note that the supporting foot should be placed on the second row of bridge nails, and the toes should not go beyond the first row of bridge nails. At this time, the center of gravity should be on the supporting foot."
"At this point, try lifting your back leg and rotating your hips accordingly, placing your back leg horizontally on the four bridge nails behind you, understand?"
"The dismount is simply the reverse of the landing motion. Everyone, practice with me!"
After leading everyone through the exercise several times, Teacher Niu provided individual guidance.
"Mengmeng, the hip rotation movement is similar to the leg techniques in our Sanda (Chinese kickboxing)."
"I also think it's easy, but I don't know when we'll be able to learn more difficult moves."
Seeing the two girls skillfully getting on and off the board, Teacher Niu said, "I didn't expect you two to be so quick learners; you mastered it so fast."
"Teacher, this is somewhat similar to the leg techniques in our Sanda (Chinese kickboxing)."
Thirty minutes later, everyone had basically mastered the steps of going up and down the board.
"The third step is to familiarize yourself with your center of gravity. Let's put our weight on our supporting foot, and make sure that the supporting foot is in the same position as the board! Let's get used to standing on the skateboard with our supporting foot on the board, lifting our back foot off the ground, and holding that position for at least six or seven seconds. Everyone, try it out."
This was simple for Xia Minmin and Tang Meng, who often kicked the sandbag with one foot.
In contrast to them were the two boys standing next to them, who could only stay on the board for two or three seconds before falling down.
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