Last thanksgiving I went to visit family and my cousins son was 10 at the time and I was bringing stuff inside the house and he saw I had a board in the car, I actually brought two. He said that his dad used to skate and had an old set up and he tried it once but wasn’t any good. I told him it takes a lot of practice and you have to want to improve. He asked if we could skate in front of the house, and I said if it was okay with his parents we could. So he goes in and asks and comes back out and said it’s fine with them. So I pull out the two boards, I hand him the 10” deck with big indys and 60MM wheels and I get out my popsicle deck. He steps on and pushes and steps on, pretty shakily, but he’s doing it. We push around the sidewalk a few minutes and I’m like damn you’re pretty good. Then his mom comes out and is like wow you’re really doing it! He asks her if we could go to the school down the road and she says yes, so me, him, his sister, my son and my aunt all go down to the school and he pushes the whole way, eager and excited to just be out there. He was pushing a lot at the school and going over speed bumps and setting rocks on the deck sling shotting them, being a goofball, acting goofy, acting like a skater. He filmed me doing a boardslide and a couple of slappies and is just hooting and hollering in the clips. We go back to eat dinner, and after he’s like let’s go skate again! So we go to the apartments across the street and he is pushing better and better and by the end of the day he is pushing up the driveways and rolling down them like mellow little bank ramps. And I’m just like wow, you did a lot today little dude. Fast forward to a couple months ago and I go for a visit and he can’t wait to show me his skateboard. His dad gave him his old complete and painted the bottom with some nyjah ass tattoo looking design. Anyway we go to the same school and he is pushing around pretty confidently, and he’s like watch this and does an ollie and is so stoked. Then he did that thing where you put the board upside down on your toes and jump onto it. By the end of that day he did his first ollie while moving. We were sitting and drinking water and he said “you know who got me into skating?” Playing dumb I was like “your dad?” He’s like no, guess again and I say your friend at school you were telling me about? And he said “no it was you!”
Later, his mom told me one of the only times he seems focused is when he is skating. I’m thinking of giving him a better deck for Xmas.
Short answer, I would hand them a board and offer to go push around with them and tell them it’s all just for fun. But as someone said earlier, the interest has to grow gradually and organically. If they are older I might show them a fancy lad video or something.
Topic: Someone You Know Expresses Interest In Learning About Skateboarding (Read 3166 times)