Skateboarding helps mums to build confidence

The group meet on a fortnightly basis on a Sunday morning

Mums in Cornwall have taken up skateboarding to build confidence and "switch off from caring responsibilities", an organiser has said.

The Board Mums Club, at TR7 skatepark, in Victoria, Cornwall, is for skaters of any ability who want to try the sport.

Chas Merryweather, head coach, said he was inspired by his mum who also took up the sport.

"Now I'm here coaching a big group of other mums," he added. The group meets fortnightly on a Sunday morning from 10:00 to 12:00.

'Fantastic distraction'

Rebecca Leivers, who joined the group after her cancer diagnosis, said: "You have a sense of your own mortality, life is short.

"I found that skating is not just for physical health and keeping active but when I was going through treatments... it's just a fantastic distraction."

Claire Hancox-Devine, group co-founder, said: "To have this space for mums to come along and just switch off from caring responsibilities and support each other, it's just been amazing."

She said after having children she noticed a lot of women stopped taking part in board sports.

"When you've been away from something for so long you lose your confidence so we just felt that it was really important to have a group that would encourage each other and help build each other's confidence up," she said.

'Don't always get celebrated'

One mum who attends the club said: "They [her children] make it look really easy and it's not, but I love it."

Another mum added: "It really is so much more than skating.

"The build-up of confidence, that mental standard to keep pushing yourself when things have got hard or when you have fallen because falls happen and getting yourself back up again, and going 'I can do this'.

"I think as a mum we don't always get celebrated, it goes unseen sometimes the work that we do, but here every single one of us gets celebrated."