The Adventures of Josip & Melanie

Today we headed down to Clapham Common for something a little different. For all of you that are not familiar with a common it is another word for a park. A huge green area in an urban jungle where people hang out, try to catch some sun but usually end up becoming dehydrated and turning a darker shade of pink. The Sprite Urban games are basically a big day out with BMX biking tricks, skateboarding, break beating and djs. It was hot today even by Australian standards, the sun was beating down, the skies were blue and it made for a perfect atmosphere for the Sprite urban games.

The event runs for three days but we just attended the last day. Honestly I had no idea what to expect but London just has so many things happening in summer it’s a must to try something a bit different. We started of at the BMX bike track where loads of young guys were practicing for the finals which were on this afternoon. I can barely ride a bike and these guys were flying in the air and at the same time doing some nifty trick while suspended in the atmosphere.

We then moved on to the break beat dancing which involved lining up in the hot sun but we found a little bit of shade where we relaxed while sipping on a slurpee (slush puppee). For those of you that have never seen a break beat dance off I will explain. Two groups compete against each other with usually two people per team. They then take it in turns to strut their stuff and do all kinds of funky things. They exhibit loads of cool attitude while trying to intimidate their opponents with their suave moves. The team that gets the biggest cheers from the crowd usually wins but the head spinning moves are just amazing and the DJ mixing in the background playing funky tracks just completes the whole atmosphere.

The skate boarding was the last feature for the day but before that started we quickly popped home to grab some more sunscreen and refreshments. While we were walking back trough the common they were giving away Frisbees and peanut butter kit Kats. I think I would have preferred an ice-cream as the chocolate bar melted in about 5 minutes. But this gives you an idea of the great atmosphere of summer in the parks here as there is no local beach many people strip down to the bare minimum.

The skate boarding was also very cool and had a much more varied age group participating. There was this one poor guy who was trying to do a certain trick but just kept missing it but finally he did it after 15 attempts or so. These guys also fly in the air but I warn you watch out for the flying skateboards. The day ended at around 20:00hrs but it was still light outside, I love summer. It was an awesome day thanks to the fantastic weather and abundance of talent and definitely something worth seeing.