Tomorrow night at UFC Live, Jon Jones will try and prove to the masses that he's ready for the big time. Vladimir Matyushenko, on the other hand, will be trying to show that he's hardly irrelevant at this stage of his career. In other words, this should be one interesting encounter. But then what's next? Or rather, who's next? Here are some possible opponents for the winner.

Randy Couture: Couture is about to take on James Toney. If he wins, expect "The Natural" to strongly consider the idea of solving the Jones puzzle.

Forrest Griffin: Griffin has a big name and is a former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion.

The Quinton "Rampage" Jackson-Lyoto Machida winner: It would be a long wait if this were the case, as Jackson-Machida will likely go off sometime in November. Still, can you imagine Jones taking on Rampage? Or how about Matyushenko trying to get Machida to the ground. Or really any combination of fights here, for that matter.

Antonio Rogerio Nogueira: Matyushenko would probably love to get the chance to avenge his loss to Nogueira. On the other hand, if Jones were to fight him it would definitely be a match up between a potential future legend and an already established star.

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Who Should The Winner of Jon Jones vs. Vladimir Matyushenko Get Next? originally appeared on About.com Martial Arts on Saturday, July 31st, 2010 at 17:16:38.

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Randi Miller was a Texas high school state runner up in female wrestling.  She then wrestled in college as well, at Kansas' Neosho County Community College, MacMurray College in Illinois, and finally the University of Northern Michigan, though initially wasn't very successful in her own mind.  But then, according to MMAJunkie.com, she saw a tape on Iowa college wrestling.  And that's when everything clicked.

"At Iowa, the technique was important, but it was behind being in physical shape and the attitude about training and winning," Miller said. "I can't even explain why I liked them as much as I did, but it changed everything."

During the three years after viewing the tape, Miller's wrestling career blossomed.  And in the end, that equated to her being named the 2008 U.S. female wrestler of the year and a Texas wrestling hall of famer, as well as winning a 2008 Olympics bronze medal and taking home a Pan-American championship.

Now Miller wants to fight in MMA.  Along with this, she's put in six weeks of focused training and is currently looking for her first fight. 

The bottom line is that male wrestlers really do well in MMA.  So there's no reason to suspect that similar female athletes won't do just as well.  In the end, as more female wrestlers make the jump, two things are probably going to happen.  First, female MMA fighters will become better and the talent pool will grow.  Second, female wrestling may become more popular due to its ties to a professional sport like MMA.

Looking forward to seeing what Miller can do.

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Randi Miller Has Something Most Of Female MMA Doesn't - A Significant Wrestling Background originally appeared on About.com Martial Arts on Saturday, July 31st, 2010 at 08:19:38.

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The Olympics....I mean, what's bigger than that?  Along with this, usually buried beneath all of the other Olympics coverage are the Tae Kwon Do competitions.  And by placing second at the United States Taekwondo Senior National Championships in Orlando, Florida, on July 4, 18 year old Shaina Krause qualified for a chance to compete at the 2012 Olympic team trials in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Betcha that's more than most freshmen at George Mason University can say.

Even though she's trying not to think too much about a try out that won't happen for about a year, the whole thing is the culmination of a lot of hard work for Krause.  After all, the 5-foot-7 practitioner has been thinking about this for awhile now.

"When I started watching the Olympics, I knew that I wanted to be there," she said, according to a Fairfax Times article.

Good luck to her in seeing a dream potentially come true.

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18 Year Old Tae Kwon Do Practitioner Shaina Krause Hoping To Make Olympic Team originally appeared on About.com Martial Arts on Friday, July 30th, 2010 at 14:50:45.

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Zuffa is the parent company of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).  In a lawsuit filed today, they have accused MMA agent Ken Pavia of illegally passing on confidential contract information to Bellator Fighting Championships, according to Yahoo Sports columnist Kevin Iole.  In more formal legal terms, we're talking about alleged theft of trade secrets here, folks.

Pavia is the founder of MMA Agents, and his agency is one of the most influential in MMA.  Along with this, he represents over 50 fighters, many of whom fight for Bellator and the UFC.  Both Pavia and Bellator are named as defendants in the suit.  Zuffa claims reportedly point to email conversations between Pavia and Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney as evidence.

Lots of legal action lately on the UFC/Zuffa's part.

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Zuffa Accuses Ken Pavia Of Giving Contract Information To Bellator originally appeared on About.com Martial Arts on Friday, July 30th, 2010 at 07:15:04.

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You've got to say one thing for James Toney - he's not exactly hoping to come into the sport of MMA and get a token win over a lesser fighter.  As everyone knows by now, he'll be taking on Randy Couture at UFC 118.  But before that fight materialized, Toney had other ideas.  Namely, he wanted to take on UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar.

"He's a champion, I'm a champion and I wanted to do it," Toney said in a live chat with MMAFighting.com regarding his request to fight for a championship in his MMA debut. "But they said I couldn't do that. Then they said, 'How about Kimbo (Slice)?' But I said, 'That's too easy. That's like kicking a little kid's butt.' But then Randy started saying he wanted to fight me, so I said, 'OK, you're the first one getting it.'"

Toney has been talking a lot of junk coming into this match up with Couture.  He seems awful confident for a man that has never embarked on an MMA journey before- I mean, he asked for the UFC champion in his debut.  The good thing?  He knows how to hype a fight.  The possible bad thing (at least for him)?

With all of his verbalized confidence, if he loses, he's not going to look too good.

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James Toney Asked For Brock Lesnar First originally appeared on About.com Martial Arts on Thursday, July 29th, 2010 at 08:12:32.

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There are people out there that believe James Toney is going to defeat Randy Couture at UFC 118.  I am not one of them.  Rather, I believe that there is very little chance that "Lights Out" lasts more than one round with "The Natural".  Does he have a puncher's chance?  Yes.  But that's not a great chance.  Regardless, I believe that Toney's appearance at UFC 118 is likely to improve MMA.  Why, you ask?

First, because Toney will bring fans and interest from the boxing world.  This will allow a wider variety of combat sports fans to witness what the great sport of MMA has to offer, and that will translate to even higher pay per view sales and more money for everyone involved.  Second, Toney's emergence will compel other high level boxers to make the jump.  And when these athletes start in at training facilities, it will result in the improvement of stand up fighting in MMA to some degree.

A win-win situation. 

Of course, if Couture gets knocked out- which is something I don't believe is going to happen (Randy Couture vs. James Toney prediction)- then that might not be the best thing for the sport.  In other words, boxing might be looked at as superior by the masses, which could actually result in less boxers making the jump to MMA (why would they then?). 

In the end, the Randy Couture vs. James Toney fight will go down in combat sports history as highly important, no matter what the outcome.

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The Appearance Of James Toney At UFC 118 Could Improve MMA originally appeared on About.com Martial Arts on Thursday, July 29th, 2010 at 06:16:11.

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Combat sports are a tough one.  The far majority of the time, athletes that participate in them come out of matches okay.  But every now and then, due to the nature of these sports, someone gets hurt or even killed.  Unfortunately, according to the Orange County Sheriff's Office, Adrienne Simmons received a left hook from Lindsay Scheer during their Muay Thai kickboxing match on Sunday from the Orlando Marriott World Center Resort.  The punch, which happened in the third and final round, sent Simmons to the canvas, where the referee ended the bout immediately. 

After the fight, she sat up and spoke with doctors attending to her.  Simmons was then led out of the ring by medical personnel, prompting her coach, Eric Haycraft to write on his public Facebook page that it all "seemed like a normal bout."

Unfortunately, it was anything but.  Soon after, Simmons was airlifted to the hospital.  She died on Monday at the Orlando Regional Medical Center.

Sad news.  Our hearts go out to her friends and family.

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Female Kickboxer Dies After Bout At The Orlando Marriot World Center Resort originally appeared on About.com Martial Arts on Wednesday, July 28th, 2010 at 07:14:59.

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Taylor Lautner is more than just the next big time action hero in the movies.  He's also a very well-accomplished karate practitioner that by the age of 11 was ranked number one in NASKA's Black Belt Open Forms, Musical Weapons, Traditional Weapons, and Traditional Forms.  And let's put it this way- his Hollywood co-stars are beginning to take notice.

"He's a martial arts prodigy," Abduction co-star Jason Isaacs told Metro on July 25, 2010. "Even at 11 he looked like Bruce Lee. He's a phenomenon; he's like a gold-medal gymnast."

Then Isaacs went on further to say "He's been doing karate since he was six! I've done 10 kickboxing lessons. Hollywood decided he is the latest action hero apparently, and I'm there in this film to make him look even more muscular. And I'll do that."

Lautner is getting all types of roles lately.  Don't be surprised if his martial arts acumen coupled with his acting abilities make him an absolute superstar very soon.

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Taylor Lautner Impressing Abduction Co Star With His Martial Arts Skills originally appeared on About.com Martial Arts on Tuesday, July 27th, 2010 at 06:00:30.

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Coming into his UFC 117 bout against Anderson Silva, Chael Sonnen has likened the black belt Silva received from the Nogueira's in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu to "a toy that you get in a happy meal."  Then there was the time when he said that Silva's "going to punch the air, he's going to dance, he's going to look more like Michael Jackson than a cage fighter."  And that's really only been the tip of the iceberg.  If you've been watching all of the pre-fight chatter unfold, Sonnen has literally been talking more junk than any fighter in recent UFC memory, which is particularly shocking considering the caliber of fighter he's taking on. 

That said, Silva and his manager Ed Soares have seemingly been unphased by it all.  But apparently that's not entirely true, at least not for Soares.  You see, at the UFC Fan Expo this past May Silva's manager saw something that he didn't like very much. 

"I was walking back to the hotel and Anderson was signing autographs for I don't know, there was maybe 15, 20 kids around and their parents, and there's a crowd around him," he told MMAWeekly.com. "Chael walked by completely by himself with his manager, and he says 'go ahead, sign all those things because in a couple months nobody's going to want your signature. Nobody's going to want that.'

When he said that, it's in front of kids, it's the first time that it kind of pissed me off."

It's all very interesting, isn't it?  Sonnen would be the clear bad guy here if it weren't for the way that Silva acted at UFC 112 while taking on Demian Maia.  It was such a disrespectful performance by the current champion that people are giving Sonnen a pass no matter what negative things he throws Silva's way. 

Regardless, all of Sonnen's talk is either going to cause Silva to make a mistake born of aggression or  motivate the current UFC Middleweight Champion.  My guess?

I think Silva will be motivated (though I still think Sonnen is a lot of fun).  And a motivated Silva is one you don't want to mess with- just ask Forrest Griffin.

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Chael Sonnen Draws The Ire Of Anderson Silva's Manager originally appeared on About.com Martial Arts on Monday, July 26th, 2010 at 20:00:51.

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There are all types of records being broken every day.  So why not attempt to break the world record for number of participants during a Tai Chi lesson?  It appears that exact thought came to at least a few people recently. 

You see, this past week in Endcliffe park (Sheffield, England) more than 100 martial arts practitioners came for a Tai Chi lesson, according to the Sheffield Telegraph.  But that was hardly it.  One hundred groups across England simultaneously participated, looking to break the previous record of 33,966 total people.

"It was wonderful to see so many people and fingers crossed we have broken the record," said Rachel Barrow, from the Sheffield Tai Chi association (Kingfield Hall).

Guinness World Record Officials will announce whether they have broken the record some time in August.  Regardless, the effort was impressive.

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Tai Chi Practitioners Attempt To Break Record originally appeared on About.com Martial Arts on Monday, July 26th, 2010 at 06:25:28.

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"I was so nervous that I was up all night," said Ponce. "This is the biggest contest for women's skateboarding. The McTwists I tried today were the closest I have ever gotten because I was so pumped."

Ponce's method and momentum featured plenty of hangtime and awesome tricks, including a huge backside blast, double kick, nose grab, gay twist, back-to-back airs and efforts to stick the McTwist. Silver medalist Adams Hawkins impressed the packed NOKIA Theatre with her kick flip indies and multiple attempts to grab the elusive McTwist. At one point, the audience chanted "Twist, Twist," and her last chance ended with her skateboard getting caught and dangling from the safety net.

"Women's Vert was awesome this year as we are pushing the envelope and progressing every year," Adams Hawkins said. "The new format gave us all a chance to work on something towards the end with the 5-wall max for ten minutes."

Karen Jonz finger flipped to indy and landed in third place to take her fourth X Games medal in bronze.

Final standings from X Games 16 Women's Skateboard Vert Final:

• Gaby Ponce, from Tenafly, N.J.
• Lyn-z Adams Hawkins, from Cardiff-by-the-Sea, Calif.
• Karen Jonz, from Santo Andre, Brazil
• Mimi Knoop, from Chesapeake, Va.
• Cara-Beth Burnside, from Encinitas, Calif.
• Nora Vasconcellos, from Pembroke, Mass.
• Allysha Bergado, from El Segundo, Calif.
• Julie Kindstrand, from Santa Ana, Calif.

X Games 16 - Gaby Ponce Pounces and Punches Her Way to Gold originally appeared on About.com Skateboarding on Friday, July 30th, 2010 at 22:36:04.

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"I feel really good about my new trick. When we get more practice everyone can expect to see more 900s now that we have a place to practice," Brown said. "I'm really excited for next year."

Brown backflipped the gap and boosted 22.7 feet with a 540 to take his second X Games gold medal in as many years. Right on Brown's heels was Burnquist, as the duo pushed each other throughout the night at The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum with Burnquist continuing to attempt his elusive 900.

"Bob is such a great competitor and I have to push myself just to be at his level," Brown said. "We're competitors against ourselves. Rob is so gnarly that it's an honor to think I'm anywhere near him."

"I'm so impressed with Jake and how he puts it together," Burnquist said. "Everyone was going really big. People usually don't do 20 plus feet on the quarterpipe and this was a great competition for that." Final standings from the ESPN X Games 16 Skateboard Big Air competition:

• 1. Jake Brown, from Carlsbad, Calif. - 93.66
• Bob Burnquist, from Sao Paulo, Brazil - 93.00
• Rob Lorifice, from Encinitas, Calif. - 87.66
• Pedro Barros, from Florianopolis, Brazil - 86.66
• Adam Taylor, from Cocoa Beach, Fla. - 80.00
• Edgard Pereira, from Sao Bernardo Do Campo, Brazil - 2.33

X Games 16 - Brown Backflips For Back-to-Back Gold Medals originally appeared on About.com Skateboarding on Friday, July 30th, 2010 at 13:15:07.

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Catch X Games 16 on TV! Just to make it easier for you guys, here's the TV schedule for X Games 16, 2010 (All times listed are Eastern Standard Time (EST) and can change):

Thursday, July 29th 2010
• 2 - 5 p.m. on ESPN, featuring BMX Park Elimination, Skateboard Street Elimination
• 8 - 11 p.m. on ESPN, ESPN 3D, featuring Moto X Freestyle Round 1, Women's Super X Final, Men's Super X Final, Moto X Freestyle Final, Skateboard Big Air Final
• 12 - 1 a.m. (Friday) on ESPN2, featuring X Center (highlights and coverage of the day's events and standings)

Friday, July 30th 2010
• 2 - 5 p.m. on ESPN, featuring Skateboard Park Elimination, Adaptive Super X Final, BMX Street Elimination
• 7 - 11:30 p.m. on ESPN, featuring BMX Vert Final, Moto X Step Up Final, Skate Vert Final, Moto X Best Whip, Moto X Best Trick Final, Skateboard Vert Best Trick
• 2 - 3 a.m. (Saturday) on ESPN2, featuring X Center

Saturday, July 31st, 2010
• 2 - 6 p.m. on ESPN, featuring BMX Park Final, Rally Car Racing Seeding, Skateboard Street Final
• 7 - 11 p.m. on ESPN, ESPN 3D, featuring Rally Car Racing Elims, Quarters, Semis and Final, BMX Big Air Final, SuperRally Final
• 11 p.m. - 12 a.m. on ESPN 3D, featuring Skateboard Big Air Rail Jam
• 2:30 - 3:30 a.m. (Sunday) on ESPN2, featuring X Center

Sunday, August 1st, 2010
• 1 - 3 p.m. on ESPN2, featuring Skateboard Real Street, BMX Street Final
• 7 - 11 p.m. on ESPN2, featuring Game of SK8, Skateboard Big Air Rail Jam, Skateboard Park Final, Women's Skate Street Final, Moto X Speed & Style Final
• 11 p.m. - 12 a.m. (Monday) on ESPN2, featuring X Center

Here's what ESPN adds about these times and shows - "Even more coverage will play across ESPN's platforms, including ESPN3.com, ESPN.com/action, ESPN International and X Center."

How, Where and When to Watch X Games 16, 2010, on TV originally appeared on About.com Skateboarding on Thursday, July 29th, 2010 at 18:07:44.

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The X Games has begun!  Here are the Elimination Results from the Skateboard Big Air competition held today at the The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The top three finishers will advance to the final to meet the prequalified Big Air medalists from X Games 15.

1.     Edgard Pereir -  Sao Bernardo Do Campo, Brazil - 88.00

2.     Pedro Barros - Florianopolis, Brazi - 87.33

3.     Adam Taylor - Cocoa Beach, Fla. - 85.00

4.     Andy Macdonald - San Diego, Calif. - 83.00

5.     Elliot Sloan - New York City, N.Y. - 78.66

6.     Lincoln Ueda - Sao Paulo, Brazil - 77.66

X Games 16 - Skateboard Big Air Elimination Results originally appeared on About.com Skateboarding on Thursday, July 29th, 2010 at 17:50:01.

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Thanks to a reader named Brad who runs his own site, I've got two new great skateboarding games to add to the Top Free online Skateboarding Games page! The first one is called Kickflip, and it's actually pretty detailed and a lot of fun. the graphics are cool, and you there are a LOT of tricks you can try. The other new game is called Skatefall - it's a skateboarding remake of the old school game Pitfall, complete with 8-bit music and sound effects and blocky graphics! Both of these games are free and easy to play. Check out the list of the best free skate games, and waste some time!

Two New Top Free Skateboarding Games to Waste Time On! originally appeared on About.com Skateboarding on Wednesday, July 28th, 2010 at 15:39:23.

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I just got back from a trip to Six Flags, where some friends of mine and I rode the Tony Hawk Big Spin ride. It's a great ride, where you sit in these cars and get spun around while the car zips along doing loops and what not. It's a great ride if you want to have fun, AND feel like throwing up, all at the same time. Once my friends and I got off the ride, laughing, I explained to them that that's basically EXACTLY what skateboarding feels like!

These guys know of course that I was joking, but they aren't skaters. They really have no idea. I got to wondering, what DO people who don't skate think skateboarding is like? Do non-skaters think it feels anything at all like this? I remember this time I was at the X Games, and after an event the pro skaters all go to a room full of reporters. I remember hearing a reporter asking Shaun White, "So does it feel like you're flying when you're up there?" Shaun sort of smiled and said, "Well, no, not really..." It was an awkward moment that really stuck with me. I realized then that most of these guys writing the stories that people would read don't actually know what it feels like to skate. What do non-skaters think it's like?

I wanted to open this up to you guys here - If you are a skater, what did you think that skateboarding would be like before you started skating? What did you picture it like? And how would you describe it now? Leave a comment below. If you aren't a skater yet, what do you think skateboarding is like?

Skateboarding is Exactly Like a Roller Coaster Ride, Except Not originally appeared on About.com Skateboarding on Monday, July 26th, 2010 at 20:11:24.

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There are all kinds of ways to catch what's going on for X Games 16! Here's where you'll be able to catch news and coverage:

• Television: ESPN will increase its X Games coverage to 31 hours in 2010, compared to 20 last year. ESPN and ESPN2 will feature eight windows of original competition coverage. ESPN2's X Center, nightly highlight show, will air each night of the event.
• Online: ESPN3.com will carry 27 hours of simulcast coverage from X Games 16, plus an additional ten hours of exclusive content.
• Mobile: ESPN Mobile TV will carry 28 hours of live coverage of X Games 16, including live coverage of Burger King X Center. ESPN Mobile TV will also deliver encore content from X Games 15 Classix. ESPN Mobile TV viewers will once again be able to participate in text voting opportunities and receive 24/7 mobile alerts.
• ESPN International: Outside the United States, X Games 16 will be delivered to more than 224 million homes and will be telecast live to 175 countries and territories, including Africa, Asia, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Caribbean, Europe, Israel, Latin America, Mexico, Middle East and New Zealand.
• iTunes: On July 26th, go to www.iTunes.com/XGames for all things X Games 16. The page will include current X Games 16 content (daily highlights and discipline highlights), ESPN Films (30 for 30: The Birth of Big Air, 199 Lives: The Travis Pastrana Story, Shaun White: Don't Look Down, Moto X: Evolution of the Trick, and Down the Barrel), Athlete Music Playlists (from Mat Hoffman, Kenny Brack, Blake "Bilko" Williams, and Josh Hansen), As Heard at X music playlists (from our on-air broadcast), Phone Aps, and Free Podcasts.
• X Box Live: X Games 16 content will include Days 1-4 highlights, Best of Skate, Best of BMX, Best of Motors, and X Games 16 Slammed/Stomped.
• YouTube: ESPN will produce Let's Talk About X segments which will live exclusively on ESPN's X Games YouTube channel. Let's Talk About X will be produced by the ESPN Digital Media team and will feature daily content giving a fans point of view from the X games 16 venues. All X Games 16 content can be found by visiting youtube.com/xgames)
• Facebook: ESPN's X Games page will feature a daily X Games 16 photo gallery, video content, athlete chats, and a daily morning and afternoon show called Inside X. The page will also feature an X Games Gear photo contest where users can upload photos and vote to win autographed X Games 16 items.

Where You Can Catch X Games 16 Coverage originally appeared on About.com Skateboarding on Thursday, July 22nd, 2010 at 22:48:09.

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There's a cool video piece about longboarding over on the New York Times main page - check it out! Downhill Longboarding Grows Up. It's a piece about the Maryhill Festival of Speed, and longboarding's rapid growth in popularity. Good stuff!

Have any crazy, creative things you've seen people do on longboards? Post a comment! Where do you think longboarding is going to go from here?!

Downhill Longboarding Grows Up originally appeared on About.com Skateboarding on Wednesday, July 21st, 2010 at 23:59:40.

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I just got an e-mail from a skater named Trisna, who was wondering where skateboarding tricks got all of their names. Good question! Maybe you picture some kind of skateboarding council deciding what will be called what, or the skate guru sitting up on a mountain top handing out names ... or maybe, more likely, you picture pro skaters getting together and deciding what names things will be called? Well, the truth is a lot more messy:

• A lot of skate tricks get named after the skaters who make up the trick. The Ollie, for example, is named after Allan Gelfand, who's nickname was "ollie". That makes sense, right? And the Caballerial is named after Steve Caballero, who invented it. The Christ Air was named after the skater who invented it, Christian Hosoi. A lot of tricks are named like this.
• Then there are tricks that are named by the skater who invented them, but aren't named after them. Like the Benihana - Lester Kasai gets the credit for it, and rumor has it it's named after the restaurant. Apparently he and his bros liked to eat there.
• A lot of tricks and parts of tricks are named after surfing, where skateboarding really began. For example, the terms frontside and backside are from surfing.
• Some tricks are named so that the name actually describes what the trick looks like or does. The kickflip is a good example of this, or a 180 or 360. The darkslide is a boardslide that's upside down. For a 50-50 grind, your trucks and half on and half off the edge. A 5-O is half of a 50-50. Names like this are nice and easy to understand!
• But then some tricks have crazy, funny names that either the inventor came up with, or just stuck for one reason or another. The sex change is a good example of this - rumor has it that there's actually reason behind that name, and I've heard it, but I don't believe it! Or how about the caveman? Or the sack tap? Some tricks were named just for fun, and the name stuck!

And that's how it all really works out. A trick is created, and someone names it - maybe the inventor, maybe his friends, or maybe the skate media. The name gets tossed around, and maybe new names are created, until one day we all just find ourselves calling it one thing. It sure makes naming tricks hard, but this is pretty much how naming skateboarding tricks works! And sometimes a name gets established, but then it gets changed somehow - like the primo used to mean something different than it means today, and word on the street is that it's a combination of video games and skateboarding videos that got the name mixed up! And with the fact that there is no one who has the final say in skateboarding (which is a good thing!), tricks get named what we all just start calling them!

"Who Named All These Skateboarding Tricks?!" originally appeared on About.com Skateboarding on Monday, July 19th, 2010 at 04:50:41.

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We all know skateboarding is dangerous - you're riding at high speeds, with nothing but gravity and good sense keeping you from a nasty fall. We've all been hurt from time to time. But sometimes, the worst happens. A reader just tuned me in to a conversation going on over at Silverfish Longboarding about the large number of skateboarding deaths that have been reported in the last month. It's a lot. Check out the post and what people are saying about it on the Silverfish Forum.

It's sobering to read about some of this stuff. I mean, we all KNOW skateboarding is dangerous, and with the huge numbers of people skateboarding all over the world, there's going to be some pretty serious accidents. There's just going to be. But still, I just don't think about it. I don't REALLY think it could happen to me, or to anyone I care about.

I can't help but post a link here to my Skateboard Safety article - if you know someone who isn't skating safely, please shove this in their face. Get in their face yourself. If you care about them, and you don't, then do you really care?

It's just tough to read all of this, and no matter how safe you might try and be, accidents can still happen. If you've lost someone, or if you have some thoughts of feelings about all of this, please post a comment below.

Summer Swells Numbers of Skateboarding Deaths originally appeared on About.com Skateboarding on Wednesday, July 14th, 2010 at 16:39:38.

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