I'm an old dude...so I'll join in the fun on here.
Age: 41
Setup- 7.825 SLAVE or ZERO (I work for Blackbox), 50mm wheels (keeping it probably the lowest to the ground on here), low indys
Terrain- ledges that get lower and lower each year, manny pads, flatground for days...
Fav's- MJ, Creager, Busenitz, Gonz, Shane O'Neil, Hensley, Ray Barbee all day long
Music- early 90's gangster rap, Smiths, Cure, 80's punk
Occupation- Sales rep in Skate industry, head judge at most Pro and Am contests since 2000
The familiar theme on this whole thread is about warming up. That's seriously the most difficult thing I deal with each time I go out and I battle and battle to get over it. I was always the first try out of the car and never needed any warmup, so I really have to force myself to roll around doing barely anything these days just to get my legs going. It probably sounds so stupid to someone who's younger, but it's the biggest thing I have to get past for a good skate session.
I 100% agree with people on here who have said that ollies just aren't crispy anymore. You pretty much feel like a soggy, wet dog everytime you get off the ground. Gravity is my worst enemy these days.
But...if I just go out and keep my flatground game somewhat tight (by going out 2 times a week), everything else falls into place. I will not have skated a ledge for a while but if I've just been skating flat and keeping up with games of SKATE vs the homies, I can get down pretty easily. If I go too long between skating, then it all goes to hell real quick.
Even working in the skate industry since 1998, you would think it's just like you can skate everyday, but just like everyone else and any other job, I struggle to find time to get out and skate. If we're running a contest somewhere, sometimes we're there from 8am-7pm. Even watching all that ripping...at the end of that day I'm still thinking about going back to the hotel and chilling cause I'm beat. One thing we do have a solid tradition of though is at Tampa Am and Pro, I get the keys to the park and show up at 11pm well after everyone is gone to have a super rad private session with a bunch of old dudes. Me, Josh Friedberg, Zitzer, Vern, James Craig, Sinclair, Bob Reynolds, Andrew Cannon (not old but old at heart). That's the usual crew. I realized that about 5-6 years ago that we need to take advantage of being so lucky with places like that when we can.