What happened to the kids you started skating with?

[igrindtwinkies]

Just doing a general survey here.  Do any of them still skate regularly or at all?  Prison?  Drugs?

Small group of like 5 for me.  One of them still skates a little, but is all into Qanon type shit.  I think two of them are tweakers and one's currently in prison.  The dude who taught me to ollie is always in and out of prison too, probably addiction related.

One of my old friends will take profile pictures with his skateboard, but hasn't actually skated in years.  Always tries to talk to me like we were serious business back in the day.  He makes a lot of comments like, "do kids even skate street anymore!?!??".

[Ninj2]

They all post here and lie about it.

[LUGR]

Only one still skates, but he has been pro for the last 20ish years…..so he is a bit more invested in it as a career than the rest of our crew was. Everybody else went on to get jobs and be fairly productive members of the world as far as I know.

[DarthDingusMaximus]

Jail, quit skateboarding because they're pussies, drug's, dead.  Some notable few made it somewhat successful albeit consolidated board brand, human, and I-Level, chapter 7 and myself on a Christian skate am team. The South Alabama TN and Georgia, although beacons now.... During mid to late 90's it was get in wherever you fit in.

These included the likes of which Ozzy Alvarez, Kris Markovich, Scott Bourne, Andy MacDonald etc.

[Mongo Lloyd]

The main hype man robbed a bank, served time, robbed a bank when he got out, served time, then committed suicide after a stretch of being clean and doing well for himself.

RIP Greg, you had heart kid.

[lamfordie]

I first started skating with my two cousins. One of them is about to have his 2nd child with his wife. I did skate with him lil over a month ago and it was fun hanging out. My other cousin is living at my grandmas house doing God knows what. I think he hasn't skated since we were 18.

[Tommy G]

My best friend still skates all the time, much better than me
One is a stoner, has 3 kids but is a flatground guru
Dude and his brother still skate, his older brother taught me how to skate
Z got hooked on heroin, had a promising future but screwed it up royally
One kid who ate shit dropping in quit and became a complete frat boy
J went to jail multiple times
My other best friend had to quit because he has 3 kids and a factory job he can't afford to get hurt
H was in and out of drugs, pretty sure he stopped skating
The one girl skater we had stopped after being in a toxic marriage with a kid, love her to death though
First friend I ever skated with moved away and stopped
We've had two people in our scene die due to drugs, RIP Ryan and Muska

[sexualhelon]

The one who was the "best" skated for 1031 then ended up becoming a rocket scientist and working for NASA. I had some flow stuff then worked in "the industry" for a bit before I became a software developer. One is living in an RV and a sales rep for a major skateboard company. I guess most ended up pretty "normal". The other one's did the usual - either got a factory job and/or into drugs. Considering I'm from a small town in Mississippi, it's pretty crazy to think how a lot of us went on to do some of the things we did.

[kookdusoleil]

Two are dead. The rest don’t skate anymore.

[bob george]

I'm the only one that still skates of the kids I started with.

My main early skate companion is an intense alcoholic who also smokes (this is not a joke or an exaggeration) 100 cones every morning before work. He had two kids with a girl pretty early on - both of the kids are significantly disabled and he was embarrassed of them - so she left him and now he's just a very sad, pathetic man. He was the rich kid growing up, who had all the skate gear the rest the rest of us dreamed of and was a total brat. He's a concreter I believe. I don't really have anything to do with him.

The other main dude had became a chef and is like a semi-pro fisherman kinda thing. He tried skating again in covid lockdowns, not with me, but i saw it somewhere on the net. I think he just loves fishing.

I have returned to living where I grew up - so I see people around the area who used to skate. They're usually a bit fat and have a bunch of kids.

There was this one young girl (she would've been like 5 years younger than me I'm guessing) who used to skate with us who I still see around, but she doesn't want to connect. She's a pretty dedicated "eshay" (if you're not australian you may like to google that subculture) and i'm presuming some very fucked up, traumatic events occurred in her life because she is a shell of the person she used to be.

[Dad Board]

I'm the only one that still skates of the kids I started with.

My main early skate companion is an intense alcoholic who also smokes (this is not a joke or an exaggeration) 100 cones every morning before work. He had two kids with a girl pretty early on - both of the kids are significantly disabled and he was embarrassed of them - so she left him and now he's just a very sad, pathetic man. He was the rich kid growing up, who had all the skate gear the rest the rest of us dreamed of and was a total brat. He's a concreter I believe. I don't really have anything to do with him.

The other main dude had became a chef and is like a semi-pro fisherman kinda thing. He tried skating again in covid lockdowns, not with me, but i saw it somewhere on the net. I think he just loves fishing.

I have returned to living where I grew up - so I see people around the area who used to skate. They're usually a bit fat and have a bunch of kids.

There was this one young girl (she would've been like 5 years younger than me I'm guessing) who used to skate with us who I still see around, but she doesn't want to connect. She's a pretty dedicated "eshay" (if you're not australian you may like to google that culture) and i'm presuming some very fucked up, traumatic events occurred in her life because she is a shell of the person she used to be.

I tried to educate myself on what an Eshay is and I’m even more confused now.

[SATIVA HYBRID]

from elementary years, only one still skates, and i don't see him at the park often. a few people i know from middle/ high school still skate, but some have gotten serious jobs or moved or even passed away. i don't skate half as much as i used to, but i still try to go to the skatepark fairly often to get some runs and hang out with the younger guys

[SATIVA HYBRID]

when i look back, most kids i started with quit pretty quickly. growing up in the era of playstation/xbox made it easy for kids to quit only the real die hards stuck with it

[pops]

They probably got jobs and pretended they're too mature to skate, I mean fuck that. Some got wasted and disappeared. Luckily I made new friends who have similar life situation (job, family etc) and we try to skate together whenever we get a chance.

[fakie nollie]

Very interesting thread

0 people from my original core crew still skate. One was in and out of prison, another was a pseudo gangbanger and the third went to rehab in another state and never looked back. The 2nd and 3rd degree still do sometimes but need to be forced to, or they prefer to surf instead.

[botefdunn]

Most of them have a garage full of beautiful wall hangers, a head full of memories, and love to talk about skateboarding. Very nice people.

[roba]

from the OG crew:
1. became a beatboxer, got into cars and doesn’t skate anymore
2. became a programmer, barely skates
3. studies architecture, occasionally skates
4. got into hip hop and streetwear, i have no idea what’s up with this dude
5. moved to the uk, makes music, still skates often

1 and 4 pretty much quit around 2014, 2 and 3 have been on/off since around 2015, 3 skated the most throughout that time but he liked to party too (still does but he’s good, nothing crazy just some beers and spliffs within reasonable limits)

no drug casualties and no jail sentences in my squad

[Sangriawaterfall]

A lot have passed away. A few in prison. The few that are still skating are thriving on and off the board

[AitchBeeGayBuh]

Jaime had a chance, she really did (Whoa oh). Instead she dropped out and had a couple kids (Whoa oh).

Mark still lives alone, he’s got no job (whoa oh). Plays guitar and smokes a lot of pot.

Then there’s my buddy Pete. I had a girlfriend who worked at the renaissance fair. She got him a job and at 18 decided to leave his family to go around the country doing blacksmith shit with the fair. Few years later I heard he lived on the beach in Hawaii carving and selling didgeridoos. Don’t think he skates anymore.

[RoaryMcTwang]

I shit you not. Everyone from my crew stopped skating, got PhDs and work at various universities now.

[Fooj]

Early 30s here, all stopped skating except for the 1 quiet, meticulous kid who always wore a bucket.  Doesn't wear it anymore but he rips now.  Hes the only one i see at the park these days.

[Yakusoku2]

I lost contact with my first skate crew after they moved to Kyoto and other prefectures for college. We were together from 1999 to 2006. I don’t know about them anymore. No social media at the time and once you changed your phone, your mail address changed too. Then I started skating with a new crew but we started a band and started playing at shows so we couldn’t get injured and eventually stopped skating around 2008 or 2009. They don’t skate anymore and I only talk with one of them just to say hey what’s up happy new year. I skated during 2016 alone. Then started skating again in 2021 or 2022 with my son. Never had a crew anymore.

[devils acrobat]

Very interesting thread, brings me back to my youth. Insane how many of you report that at least one got 'distracted' by drugs. Same happened to the best guy from our crew. He cleaned his mess up afaik but doesnt skate anymore. My brother pretty much stopped when I got better than him no joke. Others lost interest as most of us moved away. My oldest friend is a lawyer and skates from time to time when we see each other. I am sure we would skate a lot if we lived in the same city again.

[The Drew]

in Aus... most of my friends still skate and make little local brisbane vids
everyone has kids and work responsibility but they make time to get out and about.
my best friend got pretty jaded with the whole skateboarding thing (he got into photography and was getting published frequently in aus mags in the early 00's ... but he got shafted by a large corporation (converse AUS i think from memory) and just got over dealing with it all the mess)
he still works in the industry though

in japan... everyone i started skating with when i first moved over still skates.. and they are all very very good (way way better than me)
we don't get to skate as frequently as before but though

[Hyliannightmare]

Almost  all of them had started Flaming put by the end of middle school and started partying. A couple still skating a little in high school but its impossible to get them to skate in 2024. Ones a pretty legit tattoo artist so he's gotta save his hands. The other came out to a skatepark one time about 5 years ago but has 3 kids and is an electrician for disney so his always worried about injuries. I never see the middle school gang but I know 2 did a few years andnow they have kids and work all the time

[moonordie]

I guess the usual: Some dropped after finishing high school, other after university, other after starting a family. Pretty lame if you ask me, you can do everything and still find time to skate. For me that's the difference between somebody who skates and a skateboarder.
I still have some OG homies from my 20 something pole crew who still skate, actually 2.

[fur lined sea]

Love reading this thread, like fakie nollie said, such an interesting topic.

Such a coincidence, yesterday I was randomly reading this old thread from 2007:

https://www.slapmagazine.com/index.php?topic=20067.msg468684#msg468684


I remember someone saying on here if you keep skating then get used to getting new friends every 5 or so years. I'm sure that applies to not just me here.

I know for sure nobody in my original crew still skates. We all started together but they only lasted a year or two. Number 4 skated probably the longest, which isn't saying much, I think around 5 years.

1. Quit skating as soon as we started going to the park and getting hassled by deranged people who would pass by. Funny looking back because we would always skate spots with no issues (we both kickflipped our first set at our old school). When he quit at age 13 he told everyone he 'retired'. We all made fun of him for that. He played football and became a tiler or some shit.
2. Became a bull rider and travelled around the US. Was fearless and would try anything and progressed very quickly, was fun trying to keep up with him. I remember him trying to switch ollie sets before even trying to roll switch. He had the only Hook Ups board I've ever seen in the wild. Also had some crazy roofies weed leaf griptape on an MJ Enjoi board. He tried skating a few years later and lost the fearlessness after he fucked his shoulder up from bull riding. 
3. Became a sheep shearer. That one kid who didn't know his stance, one of the reasons I wanted to learn nollie and switch flips. Every skate with him was wild, always getting into some mischief. He hit the weed and alcohol hard by about 13/14 and that was that.
4. Started playing tennis and was studying engineering last I heard. Randomly came to my house one summer after I hadn't seen him for 6 or 7 years. We went skating and had a blast. I remember texting him years later and he was replied "I haven't skated since I've seen you". Haven't heard from him since.
5. Quit to play football. Worked in a bank then became a teacher like his parents (I also teach so no judgement). He had two younger brothers who got better everytime I saw them. I thought for sure we were all going to keep skating together. They had some land with a massive concrete slab where his dad built a steep quarter and some flatbars. All three brothers quit at the same time only a year or two in. I watched my first full length video at their house.

I haven't seen or talked to any of these people in over 10 years.


This has got me thinking of several other people from different crews/times. Life is a trip.

[Matze]

first phase: 1997-1998, hometurf:
we formed a local crew with about 7 guys. 2 got into raving/drugs, 1 became a nazi, had to put one in a mental hospital and 3 (including me) still skate. one is even my best friend to this day. we teach our kids to skate too.
second phase:1999-2004, the inner city kids:
5-6 out of the 15+ crew still skates, some even work in the industry. can't really say about the guys who quit, cause they're long gone. pissdrunx era was bad for your health, but most of us made it somehow. we even made a skate video.

[Gab]

My crew was all older than me so by the time they all finished high school everyone went their separate ways.
One moved to Southern California and works in the film industry.
One became a camera operator for the news.
I believe they both still skate occasionally, found them both on IG a couple years ago.
And the other one got into drugs, haven’t heard about him in years, hope he’s good.

[TheDraught]

I skated with a kid from the neigborhood in the late 80's/early 90s. He quit in 1992 iirc and took up bodybuilding.

Never heard from him again until he sent me a LinkedIn invitation. This was way before all the bullshit people post there now every day, I think even before you could follow someone.

He started commenting on every new job title, job anniversary and birthday even though we never spoke outside LinkedIn again.

Felt akward and I started to dislike LinkedIn, stopped using it.

If it weren't for him perhaps now I was posting on LinkedIn how observing my cat made me a better manager or some bullshit like that.