On a steep learning curve

A group of skateboarders gather around a derelict swimming pool in Dorset. Only a select few are privy to the location.

To make it common knowledge would ruin the surface and mean overcrowding.

One by one the skateboarders drop in. They're using the curved walls like waves, carving up and down, crouching low to the ground and rubbing their hands along its surface, as if they're touching the barrel of a wave.

This is urban skating.

The announcement that skateboarding is being considered as a sport for the 2012 Olympics, proves that the popularity of skateboarding is at an all-time high.

Urban skater Andy White who runs YDNA surf and skate shop in Bournemouth and designs skateboards, says it's about time skateboarding is taken seriously.

For Andy, the riders he sponsors through his shop and his friends who dedicate their life to skateboarding when there are no waves to surf at Bournemouth, skating is serious business.

Their ethos stems from the Californian skating of the 1970s; the era of Dogtown and the Z Boys - when boys and girls from unfortunate backgrounds brought a fluid style of skateboarding to the world.

Skateboarding, like most sports, has evolved.

At one time it was considered a rather regular fad sport much like the hula-hoop, but it soon grew into a form of training for surfers.

Today we're more likely to associate skateboarding with kids in half-pipes, using gravity defying tricks, but urban skating is making a comeback. Instead this form of skateboarding uses curved surfaces that mimic waves, allowing a skater to get close to the ground, touching it and using it to propel their body.

Andy explains: "On Sunday's we head down to Slades Farm. It's old-skool with great bowls and less weekend crowds. We use gloves, so we can get close to the ground, and manoeuvre our bodies like we do when we touch the waves."

It's because of this search for less crowded areas, that urban skateboarders make it a mission to find the ultimate riding surface.

"There are a few spots we love to visit in Dorset, but they are getting more well known now. Also people have covered them in graffiti, which isn't good.

"The idea behind skating in pools is to practice the tricks you want to perfect in the water. They provide you with the ideal surface. We spend hours draining the last bits of water, and making the pools presentable so they're great for riding. When people come and ruin them it's a shame; then we get the bad name."

Of course Andy and his crew are aware they are trespassing, but Andy says unlike the Z Boys who would use any suitable pool, many of his friends head out in search of pools in building that are to be torn down.

Not something he'd advise people to do, but it's all part of the thrill for many urban skaters.

But Andy is serious about his sport. The negative image of hooligans on skateboards has done it no favours. As a result, top skaters get paid far less than professional surfers, or BMX riders.

But this could all change if skateboarding receives recognition as a serious sport.

Andy says: "I grew up in Cape Town, skateboarding was all around me, but then when we moved to Milton Keynes in the 1990s and skateboarding was taken over by the likes of inline skating. It was considered a passing fad.

"It was only when I went to Portsmouth and studied Sport Science I realised there was a growing interest in skateboarding again."

Two years ago he moved to Bournemouth to open a skate shop.

"It made sense to come to Bournemouth. We had the plans for the surf reef - skating was growing as a result in an interest in surfing in this area."

But for Andy, it's all about the traditional street style.

"There are thousands of great urban skaters in this area.

"When we're not surfing, we take our skateboards and visit the local skate parks or head off in search of quiet locations. We even get friends to tow us up hills, so we can practice our carves on the way down.

"It's all about finding the perfect land alternative to the wave."