Extreme sports holidaying in Los Angeles

Los Angeles is one of the world's most important cities for extreme sports, being the home of skateboarding, as well as being a great place to go surf and enjoy the big city lifestyle.

For fans of extreme sports, the X-Games is also one of the most important events of the year. For the fourth consecutive year the games will be in Los Angeles and will feature competitions between more than 150 athletes from August 3rd to 6th 2006.

The twelve events at the games include skateboarding, BMX, surfing, and for the first time this year, rally car racing. If you cannot make it to the event, then LA also has a lot of fun extreme sports that can be tried out this summer.

Skateboarding was born in southern California and there is no better place to try it out than Santa Monica Skate Park (also known as "the Cove"). This 20,000 square foot park is frequented by professionals as well as beginners, and is located at 1401 Olympic Blvd., Santa Monica.

If you are new to skateboarding then Hollenbeck Skate Park has tutorial sessions from 16:00 – 18:00 every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and a girls only tutorial from 16:00 to 17:00 Tuesday and 11:00 to 12:00 on Saturday. The park is located at the junction of Fourth Street and the 5 Freeway, Los Angeles.

One of LA's legendary surf sites is the Surfrider Beach in Malibu. However, Los Angeles also has gentler places to try surfing for the first time, with plenty of well-respected instructors on hand to help you catch your first wave.

Malibu Longboards has private and group hourly lessons, as well as five-day surf camps from 9:00 – 15:00, in Santa Monica, Malibu, South Bay and Ventura. Malibu Longboards is the official surf instructor for Santa Monica College. For more information see www.malibulongboards.com.

There are also private, group and surf camp lessons available with Learn to Surf LA based in Santa Monica. For more information see www.learntosurfla.com.

Anyone who wants to join the legions of mountain bikers in Los Angeles ¬– rife with actors in search of a washboard stomach – can explore the trails throughout the Santa Monica mountains, which are a great vantage point to take in the metropolis. Information on the trails are available from www.labikepaths.com or www.latrails.com

Cycle hire is also readily available from Spokes 'n Stuff Bike Rental, based at 1715 Oceanfront Walk in Santa Monica, so you can get up into the mountains and enjoy a different side of LA.

Hotel deals in Santa Monica are available at the four star Sheraton Delfina (£69 per person per night) via www.flightcentre.co.uk. The site also has listings of deals on flights to Los Angeles. XXX