Until last year my favourite hobby was cycling. I spent most of my time going on bike rides around the countryside with my friends. We would take a picnic in our backpacks and spend the whole day away from home enjoying ourselves.
Then my cousin Jack was given a skateboard as a birthday present. Before that I did not know very much about skateboarding. However, I watched Jack going out on his skateboard. He was doing some interesting and adventurous jumps and I was envious. Skateboarding looked such a lot of fun.
I asked my parents about getting a skateboard. They said no. Usually, they very understand parents and I was both surprised and disappointed. Then they explained that they thought that skateboarding was too dangerous hobby for me to take up.
They were worried that I might get hurt. I could understand their concern. The son of a friend of theirs fell and hurt his head badly when doing a particularly complicated jump a couple of years ago.
I explained to them that skateboarding is no longer as risky as it once was. Nowadays, sensible skateboarders wear protective clothing. They all wear safety helmets on their heads and many of them also wear safety pads on their knees and elbows. This means that, if they do fall off their skateboards, they will not hurt themselves badly.
My parents were beginning to come round to the idea of skateboarding, but they still had doubts. They were not happy about the idea of my skateboarding on the pavements and streets of our neighborhood.
Then the town council announced that they were opening a skateboarding park. That was the end of my parents’ objections to skateboarding. Now I have their approval to enjoy skateboarding as often as I want to.
Vocabulary
Adventurous—full of adventure
Envious—jealous
Complicated—difficult to understand
Risky—dangerous