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Skateboarding => USELESS WOODEN TOY BANTER => Topic started by: Minoru Suzuki on March 11, 2024, 06:35:55 AM
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Started around 12-13.
Stopped around 21-22.
Brief moments of skating here and there.
Started back up regularly around 28.
I was doing my best skating during this time.
Stopped skating as regularly around 31-32.
Didn't get out much at all last year.
34 now.
Kicking myself for letting it slip away again for the past couple of years when starting back up around 28 was legit life-changing.
I've got a new deck, new set of trucks, and I've got the itch to get back out there as soon the snow melts.
Anybody else with a similar story? Whats your start-stop history?
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Started at 10 on a penny (not Tom Penny) board, was obsessed by it from the beginning.
Learned about real skateboards and tricks when was about 13, then full on skate rat until 25 or so. Peaked around 18/19.
Had another peak around 28/29 when me and some buddies had our own indoor park in a warehouse for about 2 years.
Then the decline set in, now struggling to land stuff that were once go to tricks but still love it. Never quit for a few years or even months.
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Started about 3 weeks ago at age 34.
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Got single kick when I was nine. Learned Ollie’s up curb into grass, but sometimes the wheel would slam. Plastic wheels are no good, and it cracked in half on one wheel. Out in the country, no skate shop, no CCS yet… so no new skateboard.
13 in 8th grade finally bought a complete from a surf/skate shop (1996). Learned again to Ollie, but no one skated near me, so stopped again.
16 in eleventh grade (1998) finally met skaters, and I had a car so it was on. All day everyday as much as possible.
1998-2004 skated a lot, except in winter when snowboarding, and then a year of surfing in 2004.
Moved to LA in 2005, skated every weekend on adventures taking bus and train around and just exploring.
Moved to Las Vegas in 2007, skated Anthem a lot and other parks around, 2-3 times a week. Mostly nights during the week, and day on weekends when it wasn’t 50,000 degrees out.
Moved to salt lake in 2009, snowboarded in the winter, skated some in the warm months, but not super into it.
2013 moved to San Diego and strictly surfed for a year. 2-3 times a week anytime there was surf.
2014 moved to Austin for school, and didn’t skate much at all: new baby, married, and grad school do not mix well. Not much time to skate.
2017 graduated, went skating every once in a while just to get some exercise. Nothing serious.
2019, had a chance to work on designing skate parks, and figured I better get back into skating if I was going to know what I was talking about.
Been skating 1-2 a week ever since. (So 4-5 years something like that.)
I was definitely and on/off skater, but I think maybe it’s contributed to my balance, and ability to still be skating today. I never got super buck and so never really got super hurt or burned out.
The balance is probably good… I never got really good, but that’s okay, I’m good enough to be comfortable and not look ridiculous.
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no breaks since i started in 2011, other than:
- 2012 i did something weird with my knee and couldn’t walk properly for about a month or two
- 2016 i cracked my skull and spent 11 days in the hospital, i think i skated on my third day out or something. the doctor told me not to skate anymore but the injury happened when walking down the stairs at my own house so i was like nah
i never stopped skating on my own accord and had no real injuries from skating either. if i don’t skate for like a week i can feel that something’s missing. if i feel burnt out i whip out the cruiser and go ollie up some curbs. recently i’ve been feeling kinda disconnected from the whole skateboarding industry and media due to the amount stuff coming out and the fact that it’s either pretentious free skate mag shit or „ironic” skating but my love for the feeling of skateboarding itself is still there.
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Now that I’m going into my 30’s, it seems like my start stops are getting a larger interval. Haven’t skated in a month due to work/life events and it bums me out. If I could skate every Saturday, I would. However work, school, and life events seem to take over unfortunately.
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Started: 11 years old
Stopped: 16 years old
Started again: 28 but broke my ankle 6 months into skating again
Spent 6 months recovering
Started again at 29 and now 31.
Im hungrier now more than ever, breaking my ankle fueled a fire in me cause I was so set on quitting skating forever (cost me $12k in medical bills) but one day I realized thats taking the easier way out and Im going to skate forever instead.
Another driving force is realizing I missed pretty much my entire 20's skating and I feel like Im making up for lost time now.
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since 6 never stopped, just wax + wane. over 30 now.
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Started: 11 years old
Stopped: 16 years old
Started again: 28 but broke my ankle 6 months into skating again
Spent 6 months recovering
Started again at 29 and now 31.
Im hungrier now more than ever, breaking my ankle fueled a fire in me cause I was so set on quitting skating forever (cost me $12k in medical bills) but one day I realized thats taking the easier way out and Im going to skate forever instead.
Another driving force is realizing I missed pretty much my entire 20's skating and I feel like Im making up for lost time now.
There’s a lot of good skate years left. Get on it. 8)
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Started in the mid 80’s. Haven’t stopped and won’t until I absolutely have to.
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Started around 11. Stopped around 15. Had a couple times in my twenties where someone would let me borrow a board for a day. Actually started skating again at 31. Now 35 and no plan on any more breaks aside from injuries. Missed it constantly for the time I was off the board and getting back on felt crucial. Will continue till I physically can’t anymore.
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started when I was 12
never stopped, only injuries and ongoing health problems hold me back and I have to take breaks
I will be 33 in a few days
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Started somewhere around 87-88, kept going pretty much all through the 90's, tapered off in the early 00's, pretty much dropped off entirely and started skating again actively two years ago. I'm 47 now.
First year back was horrible- plantar fasciitis, eating shit trying to manual, giving up on flip tricks entirely...
Now it's not so bad because I've accepted that 3 ollies makes me tired now, and I'm perfectly happy just cruising around doing gross slappies. I'm pushing 50 so any day that I don't wake up in pain is pretty good.
Honestly I feel like because I pretty much sucked (and still do), at least I'm not too depressed about "losing" tricks, I never had many to begin with. Be nice to be able to do heelflips again, but I'm just happy to roll around now.
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I’m coming up on 20 years of skating, and in that time I never stopped skating outside of being injured. I probably skated least often in college, but I still made time when I could. Even if it was a random parking lot sesh a couple times a month.
Right now I’m four months into an injury, which I think is the longest I’ve gone with absolutely zero skating.
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Start: 8
Stop: 18 after tearing shit in my knee. Started surfing/ diving
Start: 20
Stop: 23 after a ton of shit going on in my life and surfing more than skating
Start: 26 but this was the first time I settled with my bag of tricks and didn’t try to learn more
Stop: 28 work, life, losing skate friend connections
Start: 31. Met pals on here during COVID that motivated to try again. Have been going on/off since between injuries or being bored with skating because I pretty much won’t try old/new things if I think there’s a chance I’ll eat shit
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Started at 10 in late ‘99 when the first THPS came out. Never took a break until the pandemic hit. The only time I wasn’t skating was because I was hurt.
Badly injured my ankle in ‘16 and it totally changed the way I could skate. Took me 9 months before I could skate again. That was pretty much the begining of the end. Started skating a bit less after that.
I pretty much stopped about two years ago due to my back being fucked at the time, all my friends stopping, losing interest and getting really into BJJ and fly fishing.
Might cruise around or have a flatground/manny pad session here and there but they’re getting more and more rare. Haven’t tried anything new in years, I only skate shit I know I can land something on now.
I’m 35 now.
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Now that I’m going into my 30’s, it seems like my start stops are getting a larger interval. Haven’t skated in a month due to work/life events and it bums me out. If I could skate every Saturday, I would. However work, school, and life events seem to take over unfortunately.
Gotta get on those night time sessions just out front in the street or on the sidewalk. Even just go out cruising for 20 minutes and ollie a few manhole covers. It helps me big time to stay in it.
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Started at six on a banana board. Some years I didn’t skate much or very hard (especially when I was doing music) but wouldn’t say I ever quit. Last 5-6 years I’ve been skating 3-4 times a week. I’m 46 now.
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started at 12 skated till I was about 21 then stopped until 35. Brief spells of trying to get back into it here and there but thought it was too late for me. Then the pandemic hit and I started watching a lot of skate stuff on YouTube and realized I still had a lot of good years left. I appreciate it so much more now.
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I started in sixth grade around '06.
Stopped freshman year cause getting high and fucked up was more important.
Started again in about 2011 around junior year, filmed and edited the homies around 2013ish when I was in community college.
from there its wanned and waxed like others have said.
My issue was that life always seems to put me relatively far from a skatepark. Growing up there wasn't one i could walk to and parents weren't about to drive us.
By like my early 20s was probs my peak cause that's when we had cars to go to parks and actually skate lots of terrain a day and not just some shit street spot downtown.
Feel like if I had immediate access to a park growing up id be way better. Pretty tough learning shit on nothing but crusty street spots. Finally living close to one so I do want to really get into the habit of going
That said I've always had a board set up to get me from point a to b. might not be the best at popping tricks, but ill be damned if someone says I can't ride the fuck out of a board
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Got my first board at around 6, found out about real skating at 12, full skate rat life until 17. Then lymphomia took me out of skating (and life) for 1,5 years. After that a lot of partying to make up for the time but I slowly started again at 19. Never stopped since then, skating loads through my 20ies. I´m 40 now altough right now sessions are pretty rare (my last one was maybe 6 weeks ago) due to grown up responsibilities.
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I got a k-mart board when I was about 5 years old due to my obsession with the x-games and THPS. I occasionally toyed around on it for a few years, but never really skated it.
Then when I was 12 my friend gave me their Mongoose board and I started skating all the time and eventually got a legit complete. From there I skated daily until about 14-15 when I got too busy and involved with band.
Picked it back up again at 19 and skated consistently until I was about 23.
Then was working and going out too much so it fell away.
At 25 I started making more efforts and have since been very off-and-on with it the past few years. I'd like to at least get into skating weekly.
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Probably skated from 1990-1992, then again from 1995-2000, then a little bit in 2003-2005. Then a big big break until 2023.
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5 to 16
Stopped until 29 now 34 and still getting after it as often as possible. Which is fairly often since I live in Florida
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10-19
38-50 (now)
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How do you guys quit for so long? I think I’m too addicted
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Quitting was probably one of the biggest regrets I have in my life. But I’m back now for life, so fuck regerts.
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started at maybe 10? stopped at like 11ish or 12ish cuz sports started to get more serious.
started back up at 19 during covid, was on and off not taking it seriously til last summer at 22, and have been trying pretty hard ever since. 23 now. still suck, still pushing.
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Started at around 11 stopped at about 16 to smoke bongs full time. Skated here and there up until about 28 then started back up fully. Fucked My back at work and that kept me off from 31-33 Started back up at 33 once my back was somewhat better after yrs of physio, epidurals etc. started back just skating curbs for about a yr but now managing to skate ledges etc without too much pain after.
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Got a toy board at 9 after seeing Tony Hawk do the 900 on the x games.
Got a blank board at 10 and skated every chance I got until 18 when I got ankle surgery.
Fully recovered from surgery at 19 and came back better, was stoked, my best years of skating skills wise but weird as I only skated alone, crew stopped skating or moved.
21 Still skating, but not everyday, drugs, alcohol, and playing music took precedent. Moved to the country and started losing tricks. Moved back to the city and blew my knee out at 22.
From 22-27 I always kept a board around but just started cruising, my knee never got better but I would have sessions every now and then but I lost most my tricks. Dislocated my knee a couple times in this period and every time it just felt worse and worse. Stopped drinking/drugs and then became a parent at this time.
Started back up again at 29 after skating home from work one night and seeing a great red curb, landed my first Slappy crook first try and was instantly sparked again, started having little sessions again.
At 30 I started skating everyday and really focusing on slappies and started getting old tricks back. In this time I’ve dislocated my knee another 3 times and I’m going through it right now. The whole last year I was kind of in denial, but this last time I finally got an X-ray and have an mri scheduled but insurance is being dumb. I could go have a session rn but I have to start listening to my body…
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Started at 12 and never stopped, I'm now 50...here's to slow and shitty wins the race.....
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You think Frank Gerwer ever stopped and restarted?
I don't think so.
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Started at 15. Went strong till about 21. Fell off the wagon with adult responsibilities and kept getting injured plus a genetic back disorder. Got depressed and unmotivated. Slowly starting to pick it back up. Sometimes you need a gap, like with any physical and/or mental activity. Other things get in the way, but if you love it, it will all come back around. Still can’t land a half cab heel to save my life.
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Started in 5th grade around age 10/11. Got my first “real” board (a Blind slick complete from CCS) in 6th grade. Skated till 18. Got back into it around age 27. Stopped again at 29 when I made a career change. Got back into it at 31 and have been loving skating more than ever since then.
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Started during the summer of 1999 at 12 or 13. Then a couple months later I discovered the Tony Hawk game and learned you can do tricks on a skateboard and also it was a subculture, there were brands, teams, video parts, contests, music… it changed my life for good. Skated almost everyday until 2007ish - 2008ish. I stopped because of my office work and the doctor said my knees shouldn’t suffer like that.
Then I bought a flatland bmx and learnt a few tricks during a couple of years because it was more low impact than skateboarding. It was from 2007 to 2009. Then I quit my job and also “extreme sports”. I started working as a photographer / videographer, got married a couple years later and…
I started skating in 2016 again, only flat ground tricks. My knees couldn’t bent without pain. But I wanted to skate. My son was born in 2017 and quit skating again lol.
Finally I started again in 2022 because I discovered SLAP while looking for woodshops but I’ve been skating once or twice a month since then. I love skateboarding more than ever but my knees are in pretty bad condition.
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Got a half-toy board at 7. Friend gave me an early '80s generic Variflex at 10. Real complete at 11. Peaked at 16. Gradually slowed down by 24. Skated more at 30 due to work/live/spot convenience. Skated way less after 40.
Some family members died recently of ALS. Sudden onset at about the age I am now. I feel death is around the corner and want to skate more. Anyone else have a death scare and your first thought was that you should be out skating?
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start in 89
never stopped
only for injuries
still skate 3 times x week at 47
some days are good ,some are totally shit
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Stops? Never!!
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Started in France in spring 88 at 16 after watching the Bercy Megafree on tv.A big Skate/BMX demo event with Gonz, Staab, Gator, Ken Park and Klaus Grabke.
I never quit ever since...
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quitting has never really even seemed like an option to be honest. aside from being too injured/sick to skate, the longest i have ever not ridden a skateboard is probably a week, maybe two.
when you quit did you stop owning a skateboard? I'd trip out if i didn't own a setup
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Got a veriflex around 10 (1991) because my ymca summer camp was taking us to Venice Beach and we were allowed to bring bikes, inlines, etc
My favorite counselor “cheese” saw how much I liked skateboarding so for my birthday he gave me his vhs of animal chin and brought my mom and me to Rip City so I could get a legit setup.
Mostly skated alone on my block learning Ollies and just pushing around for a few years.
Eventually met other skaters in middle school, started collecting videos starting with Goldfish, subscribed to TWS, then powered through until senior year of high school when all my friends peeled off into smoking weed and hiking.
Kept it up til ~20 yrs old, with the last skater friend I knew from the streets, until my FT pizza delivery job took up most of my time + couldn’t push past the fear of harder tricks.
I’ve always had a usable complete in the trunk so I can still Ollie and kickflip with a warmup at 42.
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since ive been able to kickflip ive only gone 1 year without doing a kickflip. idk what you want me to say I didnt feel like doing one that year. I think it was 2016
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As many of you, I got a walmart board as a small kid when skateboarding was "in" for the first time, must have been early to mid eighties or something. We used to acid drop down stuff and roll around on our knees, bellies etc. Back then we did not know what an ollie was.
Then, in 1991, a few of the older dudes picked up real skateboards and some even learned how to ollie. When I saw it, I needed a bloard too and my mum got me a Maui & Sons complete. Of course, I was kooked to oblivion so gathered all my money and got a G&S shaped deck and trucks (don't remember what kind of wheels). We had a small crew in our village and skated most days until around 1996/1997, witnessing the whole small wheels big pants era. Gradually, I got deeper into weed smoking. As I was not able to skate when high, I skated less and less and around the millennium completely stopped.
Picked it up again on a whim on the first day of the Covid lockdowns. In the meantime I had become sober (alcohol and weed) and this gave me a boost of energy and less hanging out or being hung over meant having a lot of free time on my hands, which I spend skateboarding.
This Friday, it will be exactly 4 years since I have come back and I can do almost all tricks I could do as a teenager and even some I couldn't. I am a bit less reckless but other than that, young me would probably be proud of old me.
Thanks for reading, folks.
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Started at age 4 in 89. Quit at 17. Started again at 27, 38 now.
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If you stopped, unless because of a injury, at any age you're a disgrace.
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when you quit did you stop owning a skateboard? I'd trip out if i didn't own a setup
Even when I took like 13 years off I always kept a setup in my car and during breaks from work I'd skate flat or if I took a roadtrip I'd usually stop at the areas park and try it out. The feeling of just riding around and popping your tail has nevee not felt great
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Got my first board in 2nd grade or so. Fell in love instantly, but my dad hated it so i didnt get to skate much. By 6th grade i could kickflip. By 9th grade my dad made everything so miserable, i quit to try to make him happy (obviously didnt work).
Picked it back up when i moved away to college. Fell back in love instantly again. Been skating consistently ever since, age 31 now.
Except for one year when i was around 25 and i crashed my motorcycle and broke my ankle. But once the ankle was ready, i got back on the board.
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Writing this out made me realize skateboarding has always had some sort of presence in my life.
Childhood:
Got a tiny banana board from Toys-R-Us when I was a very young kid.
Got a "better" board from a sporting goods store around 3rd-4th grade.
THPS games were definitely a gateway drug - I would go outside by myself and try to figure out ollies after playing Tony or Bob in Career Mode.
Adolescence:
Turned into a bona-fide skate rat (skating every weekend and whenever I could during the week) by 6th grade. Learned how to kickflip, heeflip, pop shuv, ollie stairs, mini ramp basics, etc. I knew I was in love with skateboarding by that point in my life.
Had to taper off later in high school because I was accepted to an arts boarding school and the workload was pretty demanding. I still borrowed other students' boards every so often and kept my flatground basics. I also got heavily into the gym/fitness as a way to manage stress/burn off steam from the demands of boarding school - this continued through college and evolved into a focus on powerlifting.
Late junior year of college, stopped lifting as much and fell back in love with skating. The time I spent in the gym translated positively - I had better stamina, balance, more pop, etc. I had also developed some bad partying tendencies, so I would often skate buzzed/drunk. It was fun until it wasn't.
Adulthood:
Stopped drinking a little under 6 years ago. Took some breaks from skating during this time as I had a lot of associations with booze/partying and skating. Turned my energy towards the gym and powerlifting again - bulked up to the highest BW I've ever been at in my life (275-ish), but was benching 400+ lbs and deadlifting 600 lbs without a belt. Never fully "stopped" skating during this time, but I used skating moreso as a entertaining form of cardio instead of an athletic pursuit itself.
I got back into skating heavily about 3 years ago. Lost a lot of my powerlifter bulk and got most of my tricks back. I am committed to skating for as long as I possibly can now - I love this shit!
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There is no stop If you still think About it all day. If you ever skated you already see it all different that’s not just a curb. Skateboarding is not just the act of skateboarding it’s the romance you have with it. Did you ever stop loving it? Nah breh not me. Never. It’s like a religion out here breh. I read the Bible
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since ive been able to kickflip ive only gone 1 year without doing a kickflip. idk what you want me to say I didnt feel like doing one that year. I think it was 2016
I hadn't tried a kickflip for 10 years until I saw a thread about only some product limited to buyers who could land one within 3 tries. Took me more like 20.
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Expand Quote
since ive been able to kickflip ive only gone 1 year without doing a kickflip. idk what you want me to say I didnt feel like doing one that year. I think it was 2016
I hadn't tried a kickflip for 10 years until I saw a thread about only some product limited to buyers who could land one within 3 tries. Took me more like 20.
Was it for dunks? I loved hearing about the shops that would make sb dunk buyers do a kickflip right there in the shoes before they could leave. (Or an Ollie)
On the flip, those dunks probably kept a lot of shops alive and thriving in 2020.
Anyways, don’t mean to derail.
I used to have 5-0’s like NOTHING, and now they are hard as shit. It’s so weird. Even after 4/5 years back on all the time they are difficult to get. (Edit. But I think maybe it’s cause I used to skate 8’s with 14.25 or 14 WB all the time, and now I skate longer wheelbase on an 8.38x14.5 WB)
Front boards came back, though, thankfully. That was a very nice revival.
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If you stopped, unless because of a injury, at any age you're a disgrace.
Boo hoo. Now I’m sad.
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Got a Christmas complete at age 10.
Learned to push around but got frustrated after 6 months when I couldn't Ollie up curbs.
Quit for 33 years.
Back on the board at 43 and can't stop.
Old man sez: don't be like me kids.
(Unless you're old and wondering if you should pick up the board again. Then be like me. But with better ollies.)
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Skated from about 11-19. Picked up a board randomly throughout my 20's but wasn't a regular thing. Started skating properly again at 32 until about 35. Injuries have derailed me since then at 37 now. I still love skating but don't really want to deal with months being taken away from my life recovering from injuries anymore. I've been thinking about learning filming and editing as the artistic aspect is really what inspires me.
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Started at 16, skated consistently til 22, then got into snowboarding, always had a deck and would skate once or twice a year.
Picked skating back up properly in 2019, been going at it hard since. 38yo now.
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Started age 2, or however old I was when I took my first steps
Skated infrequently from 10-15 because I was too addicted to Call of Duty. During those 5 years I'd always say how much I missed it
Started consistently skating again at 15, still going at 26. Had to slow down a bit once I got a full time job but I still get out a couple times a week
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Started at 12, been on and off since 18 years old, much like a toxic relationship
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Can't stop, won't stop. Been at it for over 20 years now.
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The history is impossible.
Started 83 on a banana board.
By 86 I was all in on bloarding
First break in 92 because of wheels.
Second break 97 because of drugs.
Gave up trying to get on shit around 2001. My leg stopped working again after a surgery. Nerve damage. I had zero choice but to skate everyday all the time. I couldn't get around with out it.
I skated soft wheels and old boards till 2016 when I met Abe L. Then this guy gave me a one gig board so i could size up to normal.
I blew my ACL but didn't give up. I rehabbed my knee on the board. It was terrible.
2020 I switched to venture. I feel like I'm about as good as when I was like 12 or so. The power to jump waist high is gone.
I'm never stopping again.
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started when I was 5 or 6 skated till I hurt my back around 25 now im 31 and my back is much better and I'm trying to convince myself to skate again...
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started when I was 5 or 6 skated till I hurt my back around 25 now im 31 and my back is much better and I'm trying to convince myself to skate again...
Let's go. Just remember it's gonna hurt the first like year. 6 years off I'd say would melt away in less than two and you're gonna be right back when you left off.
I've seen it tons last few
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Started at 13 stopped at 13.
Started again at 21, I have yet to take a break (31)
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Started at the bottom, now I’m here.
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Real answer though: started in ‘82.
Took two years off around 2010-2012 for a couple of femur replacement surgeries (& attendant rehab time) & hopped right back on that shit as soon as I was able.
40+ deep & resisting the forces of gravity, friction & age every gol-blamed day I’ve got left.
To be fair, I am even more of a pile now than I was before, but I have no plans of slowing down until medically mandated.
Fuck a number!
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I started in 99 and while other hobbies like music or biking have taken priority over skating at certain points the longest I've gone without skating is three or four months.
I think ease of access and having friends you can skate with often is a huge part of keeping the spark going. I probably peaked in my mid twenties when my apartment was right outside a schoolyard spot. It was like stepping out into a personal skatepark everyday. Then I moved to a bit of a spot desert with nobody to skate with and sessions became much more rare until I started biking to spots. Live as close to where you can skate as possible.
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Non stop since 2006 at 18 years in May. Only time I've "stopped" is because of an injury or two preventing me from even standing on my board.
I wish to never stop, either! Even if I don't skate every day, I'm still watching or thinking about it every day