7 Brilliant Reasons to Teach Your Kids to Ripstik

Parents face so many choices how to raise their children. It’s difficult to make the right one every time. However, teaching a kid to ripstik is always a positive choice. It’s not particularly important whether they become ripstiking expert. Instead, the learning process itself is the main selling point.

For our family, it’s really important that we do a lot of things together. The main activities we do at our home on Siargao Island are water-based: surfing, snorkeling, rock pooling, swimming, and stand up paddle boarding. Unfortunately, we’re don’t always live near the sea. Therefore, we looked for similar land-based sports. While our son Raf tried skateboarding at five years old, he didn’t enjoy running to buildup momentum. Thankfully, we discovered the ripstik board, which perfectly captures the carving sensation of surfing. It features a pivoting deck and 360° inclined casters, which allows Raf to buildup speed with rapid hip movements. It’s been the perfect compliment to our water-based lifestyle. Now we’re a family who surf and ripstik together. Raf loves it. We all love it!

We think there are seven brilliant reasons why you should follow in our footsteps and teach your children to ripstik too. Read through them and consider what’s stopping you from investing in a board today.

1. It makes them happy

The primary goal of most parents is for their children to find joy. Cruising around on a ripstik brings a smile to the face of every child who tries it.

2. It gets them out the house

A ripstik gets kids out of the house and cruising along side walks and up and down ramps. It’s the perfect activity to get them away from the television and off devices, a major goal for many parents in our technology-obsessed society.

3. It gets them fit

Child obesity is an epidemic in the western world. Sedentary activities like watching TV, texting friends, taking the car to school and playing video games all take their toll on children’s bodies.

4. It gives you a fun activity to do together

Ripstiking has been an incredible activity for my wife, son and I to do together. We love sharing time with him at the skate park or on isolated streets. Raf has turned the sport into an elaborate rescue game where he races with ever greater enthusiasm towards imagined dinosaurs and prehistoric mammmals.

Children grow up so quickly and you never get the chance to relive their childhood years again. With ripstiking you spend hours and hours together in the great outdoors and, at the same time, create memories that last forever.

5. It provides new friendship opportunities

Choosing a hobby other than watching TV on your couch will definitely make it easier to make friends. In the western world, it’s easy to run into people at skate parks and make friends. In Saudi Arabia, isolated by location and language, our son shared his board with Syrian refugees in Saudi and a Sudanese roller skater. It led to some really unlikely friendships flourishing in the desert.

6. It teaches them resilience

In a world of on demand entertainment, ripstiking provides a stark contrast. You cannot just order a board and instantly turn it on and have fun. I watched my son master an iPad game in two days. Not so with ripstiking; Raf loves the challenge of every session.

It takes time to get good at the ripstiking, which teaches kids resilience and hard work. They might have to practice for weeks to improve their turns or tricks, but they stick with it and learn the value of staying with something. Life is tough these days, and learning to push through using your own determination is an ever important life skill.

7. It keeps them up and riding

Number seven is only a reason for kids who already surf. When they ride their ripstik out of the water it helps them slowly build skills to improve turns and speed generation on a surfboard.

Rafsworld Video Highlights – Ripstik Saudi