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I started about a year ago after a decade+ off the board as well. Not gonna lie, it's been tough going. 4 months of time off pretty much off the bat for rolled ankles (rolled one. Recovered. Rolled other immediately) plus 4 months of winter left me feeling like i made zero progress since my return. Now I'm dealing with a lot of those mental blocks you speak of because I literally can't afford to injure myself. But I'm starting to get my rhythm back slowly as summer begins...
For me it helps to skate with someone who skates about the same level as me. But since you've been of for a while it might be hard to find someone like that.
LOL them back handed compliments there
But in all seriousness, what I actually need to do is skate with some dudes my age (give or take a few) who are
better than me. I spent most of my youth skating with people who were at the same level or worse than me, and I started to feel a distinct lack of motivation. It's not that I need competition per se, just that being around people doing things I want to do but can't quite manage encourages me rather than frustrates me.
I went to this skatepark near me that I had no idea existed yesterday. I grew up skating in NYC in the early 90s; I had literally
never skated a concrete park until yesterday. I was alone, and though it was incredibly frustrating and I ate shit 5 or 6 times leaving bleeding and bruised by 10am, I feel better for it. One thing I noticed straight away, skating street and skating transition/parks requires a totally different set of muscles; I feel like my core and shoulders got punched a lot. I plan to continue making a fool of myself there, but as long as I live near enough to a city or town, I will always want to skate street more. Street is why I skate, period. Even if it's sessioning an ankle-high manny pad for an hour like I did this evening. The park provides a strange sort of hamster wheel sensation of exerting ones self completely, while going nowhere. I like that it teaches me new things, and forces me to adapt, but I miss that sense of genuine locomotion you get on those crisp city evenings, ollieng sewer caps and firecrackering curbs and all that good, old, simple shit....