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Most skaters enjoy the odd Red Bull

Skaters at Red Deer’s skateboard park were relying mostly on water rather than caffeinated energy drinks to keep their wheels spinning on Tuesday afternoon.
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Quenching their thirst from the left

Skaters at Red Deer’s skateboard park were relying mostly on water rather than caffeinated energy drinks to keep their wheels spinning on Tuesday afternoon.

But most enjoy the occasional Red Bull.

“I had one today. When I don’t want to drink a hot beverage, I’ll drink one of those,” said Ryan Abaya, 21, who drinks about four Red Bull a week.

He said it doesn’t impact his energy level much but he didn’t think children should have energy drinks regularly, like the recent editorial in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Renee Brinton said her two children Shayden, six, and Shalon, nine, will ask to sample her Red Bull.

“I’m guilty of sometimes drinking them and they’ll ask for a sip. The odd time they’ll drink them,” said the mother keeping an eye on her family’s skateboarders.

Since they are still so young, energy drinks aren’t a high priority. But advertising is rampant, she said.

“They’re all over the TV. They are everywhere now.”

Josh Knelson, 22, said talking about Red Bull made him think about going to the store.

“I’m probably going to buy one right now. I drink them everyday,” Knelson said.

“I don’t feel like I have energy after I drink it. It just tastes good.”

Knelson said he only has one Red Bull per day. He had his first about a year ago and was first introduced to them when he had a jager bomb, a popular cocktail of Red Bull and Jagermeister herbal liqueur.

Both Abaya and Knelson said the price of Red Bull is outrageous, at about $3 for a small can.

Kurtis Service, 21, said he wasn’t big on the energy drink.

“I like milk a lot. I probably drink more milk than anything, next to water,” said Service who chugged a carton of apple juice during a skateboard break.

szielinski@www.reddeeradvocate.com