Is your scooter riding child a future Olympian?
Over the past 20 years, scooter riding has evolved from being a fun, easy way for kids to get around to an action-packed, airborne competitive extreme sport that can earn riders big dollars.
Just like its reluctant bedfellow, skateboarding, freestyle scooter riding involves spectacular feats of gravity defying flips, twists and airborne tricks, all performed over the unsympathetic surface of a concrete or wooden skate park.
Brief history of scooters
- 1930s onwards: Metal and wooden scooters are a popular kids' toy for getting around
- 1987: Steve Patmont models a scooter in his family garage and begins production from his manufacturing plant, Patmont Motor Werks
- 1997: German inventor Wim Ouboter is hungry for a bratwurst that is slightly too far away, but too close to bother riding a bike, so he makes a folding scooter using rollerblade wheels
- 2000: Wim Ouboter's micro scooter explodes the market
- 2000: Dan Green reportedly lands the first backflip on a scooter, boosting the popularity of the sport and re-inventing scooter riding as a stunt sport
- 2005: Reinforced pro-scooter models are manufactured to withstand the impact of stunts and tricks in skate parks
- 2011: The International Scooter Association is formed in the UK
Following the inclusion of skateboarding, sports climbing and surfing in the Olympic program for Tokyo 2020, scooter riders are now vying for their spot on the world stage.
"Not Tokyo 2020, but soon," Australasian Scooter Association (ASA) president James Morrison said.
Mr Morrison said there were "absolutely" moves to make scooter riding an Olympic sport.
The first step is for the sport to be officially recognised by Australian Sports Commission.
"We're on the verge of that happening. I'd be hesitant to put a timeline on it but I'd be shocked if it wasn't by the end of this year," Mr Morrison said.
"The second part is we're in talks with the organisation that governs skateboarding, which is the connection to the Olympics."
The inclusion of freestyle scooter riding fits with International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach's mandate to "take sport to the youth".
"With the many options that young people have, we cannot expect any more that they will come automatically to us. We have to go to them," he said in his address to the 129th IOC session in August 2016.
As far as sports go, competitive scooter riding is incredibly popular with young people.
Riders as young as seven are competing, and 13-year-olds like Zeth Bennett, from Portland, Victoria, are attracting brand sponsorship.
"I want to make it, I want to go pro, start getting paid to ride," said Zeth, who is currently ranked seventh in Victoria.
Zeth has his sights set on the World Scooter Championship, which this year will be held in Barcelona.
Scooter kids going pro
Mr Morrison became involved in the scooter riding community after his son Dylan Morrison turned professional.
Dylan is now 19 and is ranked fifth in the world. Nationally, he is in second place, losing by just two points in 2017 to Australia's current champion, Dylan Sinclair.
He spends most of the year flying around to world competitions, all expenses paid.
The popularity of pro competitors and up-and-coming stars is also buoyed by an active, international community of Instagrammers.
"Dylan has close to 250,000 followers on Instagram. Most of these kids have amazing audiences. It's unbelievable the reach they have," Mr Morrison said.
"And that's why sponsors have locked onto them and are paying them the money they're paying them, because of their influence across the world."
The sport involves competing in two 45-second runs. The highest-scoring run is the winner.
Competitors perform as many diverse and difficult tricks as they can in a skate park, and at each event, Mr Morrison is overrun with keen competitors.
"Our membership has increased by 40 per cent in the last year. I can't get enough volunteers to schedule events I could be running right now."
Australia's representatives for Barcelona will be decided in April at the Australasian Scooter Championship, to be held in Sydney.
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ABC .net
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