This week we were speaking to Matt from Ride Collective, a community of Skate-park users who practice sports such as BMXing, Skating & Rollerblading in and around Loughborough.

What is Ride Collective all about?

We are a society for all Skatepark users…BMX, Skateboard, Rollerblades…Well, anything you can ride!

When did the Ride Collective start?

It was mid-April 2015; I had bumped into a few Uni students down at the local skatepark in town and we got talking about how AU Cycling did nothing for BMXer’s and how there was a skateboard society but it had been very quiet for a couple of years.

Two weeks later and we had taken over the old Skateboard soc and were well on our way of rebranding into the Ride Collective.

Within a couple of weeks of us having the society signed over to us, we had formed a Facebook group, inviting anyone we knew who would be interested, chasing people on campus who were riding a skateboard and adding them.

We all arranged to meet one evening on the last week of term down at the local skatepark, we weren’t expecting many people but somehow we had filled out the park. That was a very real moment for us.

What are your plans for the future of the Ride Collective?

Our aim is to set up a platform for Urban Sports here in Loughborough. We are going to set up jams, comps, trips and socials. We have been in talks with Kore, our local Skate/BMX shop in town and they want to be involved, as well as the local indoor park.

Sno, Loughborough’s Snowsports club, is also keen to get us involved in their stuff – being fellow adrenaline junkies! So there’s lots of exciting stuff in the pipelines for us in the future.

What would you say to someone thinking about joining the Ride Collective?

Join us! We are all like-minded people wanting to Ride! We’re really keen to get members that may never have tried these sports before. Ride is as open to complete beginners as people who have been in the park for years, and we get just as stoked for someone who sticks their first drop in as their first flip!

Finally, what’s one take away fact you want us to know about you, the Ride Collective?

We are a society for Riders, run by Riders.

You can get in touch with Ride Collective by going into the Societies office if you’d like to join or have any queries, or find them on Facebook and Instagram (@ridecollective).

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