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Skateboarding => USELESS WOODEN TOY BANTER => Topic started by: camel filters on October 15, 2019, 09:56:35 AM
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What is one tip or trick that you wished you learned sooner because it helped with skating? I only recently realized I was holding my breath or taking shallower breaths before popping tricks, leaving me winded during sessions.
Hopefully this thread will generate some ideas that should be obvious but often are overlooked when skating.
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Mostly to just not be afraid. Of anything--that includes doing tricks deemed uncool at the time, or looking worse than you really are because you need to relearn something you skipped over years before.
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How to fall/slam properly. Tuck that shit in, take the hit.
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Make better use of the time I had to actually skate. Spent too much time sitting at spots, or the shop or wherever and not skating.
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in a more general sense, to be as comfortably oriented to the nose of the board as i am to the tail of the board--definitely an old dude issue.
started skating in the early eighties--i guess you'd say part of the first generation of "street skaters"--and didn't really consider the nose much of an option until Vision put out that Lee Ralph model (if i remember correctly--Chris Miller had an early board with a big nose too on Schmitt Stix). i feel like we didn't really start consistently considering the nose of the board as an option until later down the line, past those early/foundational years when all that muscle-memory is established...i hope this makes sense.
anyway, to this day, nose manuals and nollies come and go, and i have to work to keep them...
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Oh man. Wear better shoes that fit proper.
Don’t skate in the winter.
Don’t skate when tired.
Don’t skate stairs.
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Oh man. Wear better shoes that fit proper.
Don’t skate in the winter.
Don’t skate when tired.
Don’t skate stairs.
Sounds like you may have had a traumatic incident involving ill fitting shoes in the winter while skating stairs, tired?
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Make better use of the time I had to actually skate. Spent too much time sitting at spots, or the shop or wherever and not skating.
This still holds true for me.
For me it was.....this sounds so pathetic it’s kinda hard to write: practicing tricks wasn’t really cool. Training wasn’t cool. Trying and slamming wasn’t cool. Not trying and coming close was cool. That makes no sense. But that’s how I saw it, didn’t like to try and then fail. Held me back in a lot of ways, in particular learning new tricks or terrain past a certain age. Felt like I should already know. The irony is now everything is a struggle and I frequently look like I just started skating, and due to frequent bouts of time of board that’s not far from the truth. The too cool to try thing seemed to give way when skate parks became more acceptable/available. I remember seeing very talented locals/former pros skate, slam once and then leave because that was just too much. Not the physical pain mind you, just the notion that something wouldn’t work. I feel like that’s why it wasn’t really common for even pros to have every trick, people just did the stuff that they were naturally a little more able to do, and went with it.
Or I’m totally wrong.
Either way, had/have fun skating, and just forking around, but would maybe have more fun now if I had worked for some stuff.
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Properly pushing switch as fast and comfortable as regular, still can't really do it and I think my hips hate me for that.
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don't bring your camera to the skatepark EVERY TIME because everyone will ask you to film them and then you'll get stuck in a vicious cycle of going to the skatepark and filming instead of skating roughly the entire time.
I did that for about 6 months around the age of 13 or 14 and got so burnt out on filming that i stopped bringing it to the park and not only enjoyed skating so much more but actually progressed where as the previous 6 months my ability stayed the same.
Oh and if you are a filmer and you spend a decent amount of your time on the streets filming, don't film iPhone clips when homies ask you unless nobody else is around. I spend enough time behind a lens as is and don't need to waste my time at a park or warm up spot holding an iPhone. I need to skate too! another homie can always film iphone clips
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to stretch out properly before and after the session.
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Oh and always have Wax, extra shoelaces, and a skate tool around if you can
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Wish I had cared more about skating switch young. Now i have no will to practice tricks that have me looking like an 8 year old on his first board.
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A) just how steep and jagged the progression curve can be; and B) you're skating for yourself, don't worry about what other people, esp. people who dont even skate, think.
live journal response:
as an adolescent I loved skateboarding. I loved circling items in the CCS catalog, watching skate videos, wearing the clothes. pushing around my driveway and pretending the hill part of it was a bank. but no matter how much i loved it i was still terrible at it. I got discouraged when i started to notice people who cared less about skateboarding than me progressing way faster. i was embarrassed when i was the only kid in the neighborhood who couldn't land the jump ramp the neighbors set up. i stopped going to the skate park because i felt like a poser watching people who started after me skating up on "the big ramps" while i was on the ground still trying to ollie onto a curb sized box. i remember some highschool kid who didn't even skate and was just there to smoke pot made a comment along the lines of "for how much time you spend here you really suck." Eventually I just gave up on skateboarding and put the board down for a full decade. now my approach to skating is way different. i'm not worried about any one else's progression but my own and the only opinion that matters about my skating is my own.
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I wish I'd started sooner and not been as scared of getting hurt.
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I wish I could revisit my 15 year old self and beat the shit out of him for thinking that wearing super tight pants was cool.
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I wish had learned sooner not to drink and skate and not to skate hungover. That might have prevented some of that osteoarthritis in my ancle that has been killing me lately.
It might have been nice to have stretched more and to properly learned tricks instead of throwing myself arround and getting out aggression trying things I couldn't really do. I don't really regret it though. It was probably necessary at the time.
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It is strange, I like how my skate career turned out so I wouldn't want to change things too much.
But, I've certainly learned that the "cool" kids aren't all that cool. When I was 18, trying to be part of the crew didn't help me any when it came to going to school, getting a decent job, or even maintaining a spot in skateboarding. The "cool" kids burned out quickly. Shit, out of that whole group of "cool" kids there is only one other guy who is still a part of the scene.
Also, trying to get a job in the skateboard industry isn't worth it. The idea of working around skateboarding sounds fun, but the industry guys are often just complete garbage and the pay usually sucks.
Finally, just because pro skaters are good at skateboarding, it doesn't mean they are interesting/good people.
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Go faster. My worst injuries always happen when I'm being cautious. If I'm fully committed and going for it, I can always get out ok.
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That nobody really cares about what I'm doing. If I'd spent more time enjoying the moment than trying to impress people (that I don't even know) I would've had a lot more satisfying sessions.
Also just knowing when to give up on a trick or line. So many times I've skated to exhaustion, stubbornly trying to land something, but it just put me at risk for some lame fucking injuries.
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What is one tip or trick that you wished you learned sooner because it helped with skating? I only recently realized I was holding my breath or taking shallower breaths before popping tricks, leaving me winded during sessions.
Hopefully this thread will generate some ideas that should be obvious but often are overlooked when skating.
I should have been a goofy footed skater. I realized while skating regular, that my front foot naturally sits heavier on the board. That's why I had trouble learning basic shuv its and flicking kickflips.
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Don't film if you're not having fun.
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Don’t jump down what you can’t jump up.
Surfing is fun as fuck.
Running out on tranny will destroy your knees.
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Stretch before and after, always eat something small before the session, drink lots of fucking water ( I suck at this in general as I drink way more coffee than what is healthy) and wear shoes with good support and cushioning. Also if you’re not feeling it don’t force it just try something else
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transition, rails and smith grind variations.
it’s scary, baby
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Don't be afraid of the big kids.
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Expand Quote
Make better use of the time I had to actually skate. Spent too much time sitting at spots, or the shop or wherever and not skating.
This still holds true for me.
For me it was.....this sounds so pathetic it’s kinda hard to write: practicing tricks wasn’t really cool. Training wasn’t cool. Trying and slamming wasn’t cool. Not trying and coming close was cool. That makes no sense. But that’s how I saw it, didn’t like to try and then fail. Held me back in a lot of ways, in particular learning new tricks or terrain past a certain age. Felt like I should already know. The irony is now everything is a struggle and I frequently look like I just started skating, and due to frequent bouts of time of board that’s not far from the truth. The too cool to try thing seemed to give way when skate parks became more acceptable/available. I remember seeing very talented locals/former pros skate, slam once and then leave because that was just too much. Not the physical pain mind you, just the notion that something wouldn’t work. I feel like that’s why it wasn’t really common for even pros to have every trick, people just did the stuff that they were naturally a little more able to do, and went with it.
Or I’m totally wrong.
Either way, had/have fun skating, and just forking around, but would maybe have more fun now if I had worked for some stuff.
same here. trying hard didn't seem cool. like the tricks had to come easily and naturally. I would have skated more with the intention of learning a lot of tricks.
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Let your ankle fully heal before you get back out there...
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Expand Quote
Expand Quote
Make better use of the time I had to actually skate. Spent too much time sitting at spots, or the shop or wherever and not skating.
This still holds true for me.
For me it was.....this sounds so pathetic it’s kinda hard to write: practicing tricks wasn’t really cool. Training wasn’t cool. Trying and slamming wasn’t cool. Not trying and coming close was cool. That makes no sense. But that’s how I saw it, didn’t like to try and then fail. Held me back in a lot of ways, in particular learning new tricks or terrain past a certain age. Felt like I should already know. The irony is now everything is a struggle and I frequently look like I just started skating, and due to frequent bouts of time of board that’s not far from the truth. The too cool to try thing seemed to give way when skate parks became more acceptable/available. I remember seeing very talented locals/former pros skate, slam once and then leave because that was just too much. Not the physical pain mind you, just the notion that something wouldn’t work. I feel like that’s why it wasn’t really common for even pros to have every trick, people just did the stuff that they were naturally a little more able to do, and went with it.
Or I’m totally wrong.
Either way, had/have fun skating, and just forking around, but would maybe have more fun now if I had worked for some stuff.
same here. trying hard didn't seem cool. like the tricks had to come easily and naturally. I would have skated more with the intention of learning a lot of tricks.
Absolutely agree with this sentiment, I tried too hard to look cool which in hindsight it can have positive but also negative affects when dealing with certain types.
I wished I had learned to pull my feet up to land bolts every time and I've been getting better however old habits die hard, anyone know a method to learning how to land bolts?
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I wish I could revisit my 15 year old self and beat the shit out of him for thinking that wearing super tight pants was cool.
So true.......
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In addition to my earlier statement. Skating ledges. Rolling up to ledges feel so foreign to me. I have no issues on flat bars or hand rails even hubbas(yes I know its essentially a ledge down something). But a flat ledge or a bench is like kryptonite. Only thing I feel comfortable on with ledges are crooks.
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In skate life and real life - Travel more. I wasted way too many weekends getting hammered for no reason and sticking around in my comfort zone.
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In skate life and real life - Travel more. I wasted way too many weekends getting hammered for no reason and sticking around in my comfort zone.
That one for sure, I spent a ton of dumb money on shit I didn't need that could have been plane tickets.
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I was mostly partying during my prime skate days and now I don’t party, skate but my legs aren’t what they used to be.
Just be cool you’re not going to get sponsored, nobody is going to remember your skating, get some good photos of yourself at cool spots with friends. Do whatever tricks you want on whatever board. Cruise more, figure out a way to make money that gives you free time. You are free to skate as little or as much as you want, you are free from any sort of competition with other skaters, you never have to film a trick ever again.
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Don’t party constantly because it’s a waste of time. Don’t jump down big shit because your body will turn against you in your late thirties. Don’t wear size 40 waist blind and new deal jeans with bob sized shirts because you look like an asshole.
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Spend more time skating ledges. Keep skating (I'd take long periods of time/years off skating because I'm busy or too immersed in something else). Don't get really drunk so you can almost, sort of skate on your ankle that obviously needs medical attention. Don't feel uncomfortable skating in front of lots of people you don't know; it's not like it matters if they know you or not.
All in all, I actually don't really regret much. I just got done skating like 20 minutes ago and it was fun. I think I like it more in the past few years than I have since in a long time. I'm not the best, but I never really aimed for that. It's just so much fun.
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I had older skaters around so getting proper advice happened all the time. I'm not into regret. So no regrets. I agree with the filmer comments earlier, be cautious heading into that world.
For skaters getting into their later years, treat skateboarding like exercise. Fuck landing a certain trick. The session is successful if you're breaking a good sweat. I forgot about this philosophy and it slowed me down skate wise for a few years. Mid-30's skateboard go to tricks are not like riding a bike, which super frustrating and will drive you to quit. Focus on getting a good workout and your body might be ready to try something hard.
Sticking too much with a certain crew. If you're not skating that much, sitting around debating where to go, where to eat, whose driving, random drama, all that bull shit...get the fuck outta there. Stay as friends but go skate with less people and get more shred time in. Still be homies with them, but if you're not progressing, bounce the fuck out.
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I had older skaters around so getting proper advice happened all the time. I'm not into regret. So no regrets. I agree with the filmer comments earlier, be cautious heading into that world.
For skaters getting into their later years, treat skateboarding like exercise. Fuck landing a certain trick. The session is successful if you're breaking a good sweat. I forgot about this philosophy and it slowed me down skate wise for a few years. Mid-30's skateboard go to tricks are not like riding a bike, which super frustrating and will drive you to quit. Focus on getting a good workout and your body might be ready to try something hard.
Sticking too much with a certain crew. If you're not skating that much, sitting around debating where to go, where to eat, whose driving, random drama, all that bull shit...get the fuck outta there. Stay as friends but go skate with less people and get more shred time in. Still be homies with them, but if you're not progressing, bounce the fuck out.
That last paragraph is soooo true, I knew too many people who would just bitch and complain, thank fuck I always bailed and did my own shit.
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Let your ankle fully heal before you get back out there...
THIS SO VERY MUCH.
I was so OCD about not taking any time off, even if I could barely walk, I'd go skate again. It's why I've sprained my left ankle nearly a dozen times and the right a few as well, once I fucked myself up the first time, I never ever let things heal properly and it just lead to being injured more often. Never had proper flick because the front foot was always in bad shape, and it always pissed me off.
Years later, when I fucked up some ribs trying to switch 50-50 a knee high flat bar and went straight to my side on it, I actually took a few weeks off and found out it didn't ruin my life to stop skating long enough to heal properly. I know it's hard to put the board away for a while since that shit's a drug in itself, but sometimes, taking extra time is a good thing.
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To treat my body better, and fucking regular kickflips. Had nollie, switch, fakie but couldn’t do it regular. Shit took almost 10 years to learn, literally one day it just clicked and I was fucking blown away. Such a simple flick of the ankle, I couldn’t believe it took so long when it had been so simple. I make it a point to do at least one any time I get on my board just thinking “I fucking beat you kickflip”
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Who is Stefan janoski
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Don't stop skating to make time for smoking meth and dosing GHB.
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Have a warm up routine even if it’s like 10 minutes of Ollie’s and carving around
Wish I cared about that earlier
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One thing I always tell the younger kids around my area who are just starting is “learn to get real good at the easiest stuff first!”. Basically meaning get comfortable pushing, cruising, power sliding... just as comfortable as you can on your board before you start trying to learn tricks.
I hate that I spent the first year of my skating trying to kick flip, 360 flip and nollie flip before I could even do a solid 180. Often you watch the videos and think “I wanna do that!!” and you skip over all the basic parts.
And don’t get old... it really sucks
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not bein a BITCH
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Quit smoking.
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Don't stop skating to make time for smoking meth and dosing GHB.
Ah, there's always time to dose GHB after the session is done. Gets you well-rested for the following day!
I miss that stuff, was the best sleep aid I ever used.
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i wish i started skating earlier like at 4 or 5 instead of 13
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Step out of your comfort zone. It's really easy to go to the park and only do what you're good at all the time and look good. If you only skate ledges make sure you got your transition basics down. If you only skate gaps make sure you're comfortable with rails too. If you only do frontside tricks get comfortable with skating obstacles backside etc. etc. For example a lie I believed growing up as a ledge skater was that transition isn't useful for street skating. Until I would get to spots with my friends and I would be the only one who couldn't skate the bump to rail because i never learned to pump properly out of transition and milk big air out of steep bumps. It's all tied together, don't focus too much on a single aspect of skating.
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I rode soft wheels for too long
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I would definitely have approached skateboarding way differently if I knew what I know now. Here’s things I would have definitely changed.
1. Learning to skate switch and pop off with my switch foot, and in general strengthening that front leg. I can’t skate switch to save my life. There’s a really good interview on Rodney with clothing in the winter on this specific issue and it’s definitely the truth.
2. Would have worked on skating and traveling to a bunch of parks, skating multiple parks allows for a low of beginners, medium, and advanced variations of obstacles, and more or less make u more well rounded. Skateboarding isn’t like a super gym where u can stay in one place and become the best.
3. I would have done a lot more basketball related workouts off of jumping on one leg, in basketball traditionally they jump off one leg, and basically any flip trick is jumping off one leg.
4. I would have mastered my entire flip trick game down stairs.
5. I would have skated transition more and worked on getting inverts and solid airs.
6. I would have spent more time getting ledge tricks fundamentals better, same goes with round flatbars.
Lots more stuff just can’t think off the top of my head. I wouldn’t say they are regrets but they definitely would have served me out better now.
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Pretty good idea for a thread, there’s a lot of interesting responses.
-I wish I invested at least a little bit of time to learning how to skate transition. My younger self just didn’t give a fuck about it for some reason.
-Fix all my little bad habits immediately instead of allowing them to ingrain themselves into my muscle memory. It’s a hell of a lot easier to correct a trick you just learned versus one you’ve been doing for years.
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One thing I always tell the younger kids around my area who are just starting is “learn to get real good at the easiest stuff first!”. Basically meaning get comfortable pushing, cruising, power sliding... just as comfortable as you can on your board before you start trying to learn tricks.
I hate that I spent the first year of my skating trying to kick flip, 360 flip and nollie flip before I could even do a solid 180. Often you watch the videos and think “I wanna do that!!” and you skip over all the basic parts.
And don’t get old... it really sucks
Reminded me of a tattoo my childhood friend had, it was an hour glass and somehow incorporated a skateboard too that said NEVER GROW OLD. Lol. I hope he still skates.
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-Proper push
-Skate how you want, where you want, don't pressure yourself to follow trends.
-Loose wide, low to the ground board will help you. If I have to choose one lesson.
-Late (ie proper) grabs on vert.
-Frontisde slappies, smightgrinds and frontside rock and rolls aren't that hard, get busy with them.
-More hills.
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It never hurts to have a stack of napkins in your pocket if you're out of town or away from the car
Disenchant brands, people and shops. Figure out what you need in order to feel your skating (aligning to legitimate examples irl and skate related)
Real recognize real
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A lot of the crucial time (for most) are those adolescent years that are just tough to navigate in general. I wish I had put more time on the board when I was in undergrad because I definitely had a lot of free time. I felt “old” at 19 but looking back I was my healthiest and most energetic.
Going faster as well, for all tricks, just less likely to hurt yourself
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To stretch. Not to be jumping down big shit. Such a waste. Buy some fucking thunders and stop buying shit trucks! Skate curbs. I was thought curbs weren't considered legit so I tried to learn EVERYTHING on almost knee high ledge. That limited me. Not be so serious.
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I should have told myself back in community college that there’s always somewhere to skate. Campus was off limits but I could’ve gone to any parking lot in that podunk-ass town and skated and I wouldn’t have been bothered. I just got depressed that I only skated once a week and I haven’t skated near as much since high school so I plateaued.
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don't bring your camera to the skatepark EVERY TIME because everyone will ask you to film them and then you'll get stuck in a vicious cycle of going to the skatepark and filming instead of skating roughly the entire time.
I did that for about 6 months around the age of 13 or 14 and got so burnt out on filming that i stopped bringing it to the park and not only enjoyed skating so much more but actually progressed where as the previous 6 months my ability stayed the same.
Oh and if you are a filmer and you spend a decent amount of your time on the streets filming, don't film iPhone clips when homies ask you unless nobody else is around. I spend enough time behind a lens as is and don't need to waste my time at a park or warm up spot holding an iPhone. I need to skate too! another homie can always film iphone clips
I feel this so much. I became the skatepark "filmer" back when I was 16 and I regret it so much. People will still hit me up every time I'm in my hometown to film them for some video they're either doing or want me to do. It gets aggravating especially when you just want to skate a spot and you know it's going to take them forever or they're not gonna land the trick. Nowadays I just want to skate and have a good time.
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I wish I’d learned to be more comfortable going backside on ledges early on.
I’d tell myself that going fast and grinding and sliding is way more fun than trying anything from New Deal’s “Whatever” while barely rolling.
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Skate more by yourself.
I'm older now and sometimes it's harder to meet up with friends and go to the skate park. But I should go out by myself and meet new people at the park and make friends that way. More skate friends you got, the more people you have to skate with.
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1. Being more intentional with movements, pop, and where body weight is during tricks. I would often kind of lazily float around and lately I’ve been concentrating on things like both trucks locking in on a frontside 5050 on transition, and I’m getting way more consistent.
2. Just saying hello to everyone at the park / spot, it goes along way with meeting skate friends and I’ve been trying to break out of my isolated introverted tendencies.
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Slappies. Really opens up available spots when you don’t feel like driving far. Now that I got em I feel dumb for not having them way sooner.
Better late than never.
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Awesome thread! The responses are all really informative and interesting coming from other folks!!
If I could've learned something sooner it would be consistency with flip tricks and focusing on the basics. Skating transition always came really easy to me but for some reason the same muscle memory doesn't apply to certain tricks on flatground. I can bigflip better than I can kickflip and could always do random stuff down stairs because of the drop. With skipping over tricks that gave me too much trouble years go I get S in SKATE bc my add/ adhd 12 year old self got bored with ripping my shoes trying fs flips and went to learning frontside airs.
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If you build a rectangle with grindable edges you can figure out how to get almost anything if you just focus. Grinds slides manuals will become easy. Switch grinds are not really hard, in fact they are a great way of building fundamental comfort skating switch. Even if it is a few pallets and plywood, it can be an entry into the way, allowing for the emergence of style that fuses deliberateness and effortlessness.
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Mostly to just not be afraid. Of anything--that includes doing tricks deemed uncool at the time, or looking worse than you really are because you need to relearn something you skipped over years before.
can't stress enough how good this piece of advice is. skating feels fresh and fun again thanks to just saying fuck it and go back to even the most basic tricks if you need to.
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Ollie into the trick, not onto the ledge.
Also want to stress being intentional with movement. I will literally repeat “be intentional” like a little mantra if the session is feeling off.
Put your arms up! I think I was afraid of looking goofy when I was younger, being a little self conscious of my lanky body, so I never used my arms to balance like I should have.
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I've always had problems with jumping down stairs as well as lofting over things consistently. Only recently I realized the importance of really lifting my back foot after popping as well as what I can best describe as pushing the board forward while in the air.
20 some years after starting, I now take great pride in being able to finally ollie over a overturned trash can/construction barrel.
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I have no regrets about goofing off, not taking skating seriously, not learning bs 180 ollies until I was 39, not turning skating into a quantifiable ladder of progression with specific goals.
I had tons of fun for 35 years, no regrets about only being able to do one flip trick (badly).
What I do regret is slouching and having terrible posture. 35 years on, I’m paying the price and only know learning how to hold myself and avoid lower back pain.
Also, get into a habit of doing yoda and stretching every day, it will extend your skate life by years, if not decades
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Speaking as a past his prime skater (yet still skating):
Skate faster and commit. Don't half ass it.
Ollie that shit, actually fucking ollie first, pop and suck up those legs and get OVER your board, you are now in full control to just land that shit...this goes for gaps, rails and ledges.
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Ollie into the trick, not onto the ledge.
What the hell does that mean?
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Also, get into a habit of doing yoda
Nah, man, I'm good
(http://www.fairfaxunderground.com/forum/file.php?40,file=78356,filename=yodaeating.jpg)
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Staying in my comfort zone too much. If I learned how to hold a grind really long or pop a trick over something high and it looked good I'd just keep doing that rather than try new stuff. I also wish I went out to more different spots since that contributed to me not learning as much new stuff as well.
Let your ankle fully heal before you get back out there...
Wish I had cared more about skating switch young. Now i have no will to practice tricks that have me looking like an 8 year old on his first board.
These hit me. Also wearing ankle braces. Would have saved a lot of recovery time when I was younger. Sometimes I wish I didn't take as much time off skating as I did for other stuff (school, work, medical shit) but to be fair it's probably better I focused on those things.
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To not wear vans when jumping big gaps, stairs etc. My ankles hate me
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If I had one regret is that I wish I knew how to fix cracks and work concrete way back in my prime skate days. I should have built a little foot tall bump ramp to haul around in my car with the trash cans I skated.
The other regret is I wish I had known how to properly rehab injuries.
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Awesome post. I'll be checking in here pretty often.
For me personally I focused on flatground way too much. I have some decent flatground tricks nowadays but nothing too crazy, but I am terrible at ledges. A few shinners and slip outs and I was like fuck that. I can't do anything backside except noseslide and the occasional 5050 on lower ledges and it feels pretty crap, and even now when I'm trying to get out of my comfort zone more I'm still keeping one foot in and not fully going all out.
Rails too, I only have boardslide variations and it feels pretty lame. I can't even front board properly, so I wish I spent more time on that. And I guess following the advice in this thread about how we should re learn basic tricks even if we look stupid (people always call bullshit when I tell them I can't front board) I think I'll go out to the park and look like a dumbass and probably eat some shit first.
I am happy I started skating transition though, it rekindled my love for skateboarding after a long plateau of street skating. Now I street skate almost all the time with some mini ramp sessions in between. It's a good balance.
Whenever I feel frustrated with skateboarding, just cruising down a good street fires me up like nothing else, and I fall back in love all over again. So yeah, pace yourself, push your limits, but don't forget why you even started skating in the first place. I think too many people lose sight of the fun part of skating and it all just becomes one big competition with others and themselves, and that's when people start quitting. Sad.
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Appreciate the commarady you've found while you have it. I took that for granted at 14. And a 27 year old I wish I was as tight with my friends now as I was my skateboard friends back in the day.
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1. Being more intentional with movements, pop, and where body weight is during tricks. I would often kind of lazily float around and lately I’ve been concentrating on things like both trucks locking in on a frontside 5050 on transition, and I’m getting way more consistent.
2. Just saying hello to everyone at the park / spot, it goes along way with meeting skate friends and I’ve been trying to break out of my isolated introverted tendencies.
This! I'll also add: if it's thigh high or less there's literally NO reason not to try that weird and/or uncomfortable trick that you came to think of. Like Kostons bsnbs at Hubba - start out just posing it and you'll probably get it.
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Not to go to slumber parties at Neil Hendrix’s
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Transition skills. When I got into skating I exclusively skated street because of the lack of parks near me. So as far as cruising the city goes, I'm on point but when it comes to hitting up a miniramp I'm trash. It's hard to wire my brain to skating transition now that I'm older and stuck in my ways more. I wish I was more well rounded about my skating when I was younger.
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Don’t jump down what you can’t jump up.
This.
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Also: separate set-up for cruising is not lame.
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Slappies. They’re fun as heck and our spot as kids had the perfect curb that my friend slappied all kinds of craziness on and I just scoffed and Ollie’s onto the ledge. Wasted years.
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Eat right, go to the gym if it's raining, and learn how to recover properly. Unless you've had major injuries and havn't taken care of yourself you should still be able to skate well and still learn new stuff in your 30's .
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Block your insecurities telling you that there's stuff you just can't do, and give everything a try if you think it's technically in your reach (it usually is or you most likely wouldn't even visualize the trick / spot in the first place). Basically come to terms with how the little excuses we're always tempted to find not to try shit are really just cop outs for not wanting a trick that bad. Thing is if you want to see said trick go down the way you mentally picture it, then you're going to have to go and materialize it yourself because no one's going to do it for you, or do it the way you imagine it. I find that to be a great motivator to get the most out of every session.
And even when trying a trick - realizing that not coming anywhere close after dozens of attempts although you know there's a chance you could technically land it only means that subconsciously, part of you doesn't really want to land the trick right then and now (which is OK, sometimes just the process of trying itself is fun), and instead of mindlessly repeating the same mistakes over and over again you really need just one go where you actually really, really want to do it, blocking all doubt in your head and just looking forward to rolling away because, why the fuck would you not roll away? Just a bunch of mental stretching in general, but I believe those are fundamental cognitive matters that really affects how one skates.
Skating with older folks is inspiring when you're young but don't only skate with older folks in your mid to late 20's, as people in the 30+ crowd (which I'm part of) love finding excuses about not being as good as they used to be, fantasizing about their own old achievements or abilities and are basically resigned that they are past their prime like part of them is dead inside already. I skated with people like that almost exclusively for a few years and their energy had started to rub off on me, I was starting to find excuses for not doing hard tricks again and basically, technically regressing. Then I started skating with kids 10 years younger than me again and realized my fuck up, the kids have energy to spare and still more excited than jaded about skating. I quickly realized it was more fun to be in such an environment too sometimes and now that energy started contaminating me instead; got all my old tricks back when I thought they were forever lost, and started progressing like I was suddenly 17 again. Started watching what I'd eat a lot more around that time period too, probably helped. Nowadays back home I mostly skate alone though.
You don't have to skate 10 hours a day every day, your body needs the rest or you'll just ruin it. Off days are a thing and completely acceptable, you don't have to battle yourself for all the entire afternoons you spend skating shitty spots and every kickflip you do rockets. Just cruising around is amazing too.
Maybe a stupid one but, wear clothes and shoes you actually feel good skating in.
edit - was high as fuck when I originally wrote this, edited for clarity
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I'd just want to tell 19 year old me to not quit skating just because all my crew went off to college and I got "left behind" which caused me to latch onto BMX because I was looking for something to identify with and those guys were right there.
They were good dudes, I just always sucked at BMX and it tore both my ACL's, destroyed my shoulder and gave me about six concussions.
Skateboarding is beautiful.
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Block your insecurities telling you that there's stuff you just can't do, and give everything a try if you think it's technically in your reach (it usually is or you wouldn't even visualize the trick at that spot). Basically come to terms with how the little excuses we're always tempted to find not to try shit are just cop outs for you not really wanting to do your trick that bad. Thing is if you want to see the trick go down the way you mentally picture it, then you're going to have to go and do it yourself because no one's going to do it for you, or do it the way you imagine it. And even when trying a trick - realizing that if you're not coming anywhere close after dozens of attempts although you know there's a chance you could technically land it, then such a behavior only means that part of you subconsciously doesn't really want to land the trick (which is OK, sometimes just the process of trying itself is fun), and instead of mindlessly repeating the same mistakes over and over again you really only need one go where you actually really, really want to do it by blocking all doubt in your head and just looking forward to rolling away because, why the fuck would you not roll away? Just a bunch of mental stretching in general, but I believe those are fundamental cognitive matters that really affects how one skates.
Skating with older folks is inspiring when you're young but don't only skate with older folks in your mid to late 20's, as people in the 30+ crowd (which I'm part of) love finding excuses about not being as good as they used to be, fantasizing about their own old achievements or abilities and are basically resigned that they are past their prime like part of them is dead inside already. I skated with people like that almost exclusively for a few years and their energy had started to rub off on me, I was starting to find excuses for not doing hard tricks again and basically, technically regressing. Then I started skating with kids 10 years younger than me again and realized my fuck up, the kids have energy to spare and still more excited than jaded about skating. I quickly realized it was more fun to be in such an environment too sometimes and now that energy started contaminating me instead; got all my old tricks back when I thought they were forever lost, and started progressing like I was suddenly 17 again. Started watching what I'd eat a lot more around that time period too, probably helped. Nowadays back home I mostly skate alone though.
You don't have to skate 10 hours a day every day, your body needs the rest or you'll just ruin it. Off days are a thing and completely acceptable, you don't have to battle yourself for all the entire afternoons you spend skating shitty spots and every kickflip you do rockets. Just cruising around is amazing too.
Maybe a stupid one but, wear clothes and shoes you actually feel good skating in.
I know people like this in their early 20s and it astounds me.
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Skate with the groms, they have the energy you need.
They get hyped on a session and you get to relearn some wacky trick that would never normally do.
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Skate with people that are cool regardless of their ability.
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Surprised that “learning to fall” isn’t mentioned more often. I sprained/fractured wrists way too many times by not tucking everything in or learning to roll out out slams like Cardiel or Daewon. Still suffer from that now that I’m old, a bruise is way better than a break. This and skating faster are vital.
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i wish i could go back in time and erase all the noseslide shuvits and half cab nose slide shuvits that I did. I wasn't too many, but fuck that. (inside shuvit)
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I wish I didn’t take so many years on and off in my 20s. I’m happy now but I’m like I’d probably know a lot more tricks if I didn’t.
I wish I spent more time learning flip tricks and not just trying skate stuff I thought was big.
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Ollie into the trick, not onto the ledge.
What the hell does that mean?
I often found myself, especially on higher ledges, focusing way too hard on just getting up there when I didn't need to. The pop was there, but my approach was wrong and in turn I would come down way too hard and that jolt would fuck up my balance and make me lose speed. Now I visualize myself landing a good 6" to 12" further forward than I used to. I better position my body to be ready to slide/grind before I even pop my tail. It all ties into the other parts of the post - being intentional and using my upper body to balance.
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Wish I had cared more about skating switch young. Now i have no will to practice tricks that have me looking like an 8 year old on his first board.
I'm learning sw flips in my late 20s. Yes it sucks to not land a basic flip but actually the dudes at the park were pretty supportive when they realized I was going switch.
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Ollie into the trick, not onto the ledge.
What the hell does that mean?
I often found myself, especially on higher ledges, focusing way too hard on just getting up there when I didn't need to. The pop was there, but my approach was wrong and in turn I would come down way too hard and that jolt would fuck up my balance and make me lose speed. Now I visualize myself landing a good 6" to 12" further forward than I used to. I better position my body to be ready to slide/grind before I even pop my tail. It all ties into the other parts of the post - being intentional and using my upper body to balance.
Ah, gotcha. Interesting.
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Another thing I wished I learned sooner is that skateboarding isn’t about chillen with the homies and doing it for the love and passion of it, it’s about getting good enough to achieve hometown hero status and vibe everyone at your local park.
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Surprised that “learning to fall” isn’t mentioned more often. I sprained/fractured wrists way too many times by not tucking everything in or learning to roll out out slams like Cardiel or Daewon. Still suffer from that now that I’m old, a bruise is way better than a break. This and skating faster are vital.
sliding on my back and/or rolling when falling is probably one of the most important things (if not most important) i've learned fortunately. I wish I learned that sooner so i wouldn't have some odd liquid built up in my elbow from all of the swellbows i got between the ages of 13-17
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Shout out to everyone who responded (even the funny posts). Was sure this was a topic already but couldnt find it in search. It's been great reading everyone's experiences.
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That having fun is more important than being good.
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That building a high tolerance for pot is more important than being good.
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wish i had learned to skate transition earlier
having a bitch of a time learning
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That building a high tolerance for pot is more important than being good.
User name checks out
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I wish I never quit from 16-21, probably the years that I had more free time in my life. I don't how I preferred to play handball instead of skating...
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I wish I learned how to skate transition 10 years before I learned how.
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pushing switch is the biggest one I've seen mentioned already in this thread. It seems like pushing with one foot dominantly for many many years has the real potential to fuck up a skateboarders back and hip.
push switch often.
and skating transition growing up skating in NJ/NYC the late 90's early 00's was not the easiest thing to learn. we had no parks . but damn I wish I would have tried harder to get good on mini-ramps etc.
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Learning that there's more than one way to skin a cat. I never got too big into crazy flat skills or flipping my board and that really limited my skating because my friends all had crazy switch game and ran SKATE like clockwork. I could hold my own but I was never consistent but John Fitzgerald kind of opened my eyes to the fact that there's much more.
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- slide and flick your kickflips...I got my kickflips dialled but in the worst way, and only recently started focasing on getting them looking good, fighting that muscle memory is hard
- just saying hi when a skater arrives will break usually break that tension of you two vibing each other out
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I wish I never quit from 16-21, probably the years that I had more free time in my life. I don't how I preferred to play handball instead of skating...
The lord works in mysterious ways. This is especially mysterious.
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backside airs and judos.
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Don’t jump down what you can’t jump up.
IMO this is just for the old and injured(me). Kids should jump off loading docks.
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1. Don't get stressed when you're younger and your crew is filled with sponsored rippers...they're your buddies not some evil competition.
2. Skate transition..as now that you're in your 40s there's going to be parks EVERYWHERE.
3. Follow the old Cab rule of "work on 3 tricks at a time" and get them dialed in. Build from that.
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I wish I spent way more time skating ledges in my formative years because now I'm terrified of them.
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tranny.
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tranny.
My excuse is we didn’t have any parks when I was growing up.
But, yes, tranny.
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My excuse is we didn’t have any parks when I was growing up.
But, yes, tranny.
I didn't have tranny and proper ledges growing up either and to this day those aren't my forte. In a miniramp I'll have my little repertoire and do some tricks, but also look super uncomfortable in general because I'm used to the pace and stability (or unstability?) of skating street. I'm used to wide open spaces, so going back and forth between walls in a straight line without being able to carve in sharp turns and react accordingly the way I've always been used to messes me up.
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Although frontside stuff came to me pretty easy I wish I skated backside more often. There's so many basic tricks that take me a few tries backside I.e. backside 180s and backside grinds on transition and ledges. For some odd reason I can do switch backside flips pretty consistently though...
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Wish I skated faster.
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Skate fast and practice the consistency of the basics a lot. I got carried away with doing as many tech combos as I could, loosing the basics in the process. If you have the basics down every try, then combining them into combos on less scary spots shouldn't be that hard.
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two things:
- push switch
- learn transition
But since I can't see through my left eye both of those were pretty hard, since I couldn't really see where I'd be going (I'm goofy).
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1. Being more intentional with movements, pop, and where body weight is during tricks. I would often kind of lazily float around and lately I’ve been concentrating on things like both trucks locking in on a frontside 5050 on transition, and I’m getting way more consistent.
2. Just saying hello to everyone at the park / spot, it goes along way with meeting skate friends and I’ve been trying to break out of my isolated introverted tendencies.
this is a good one
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Improving in small increments over a long period of time will get you a lot better and is more fun than going nuts trying to do stuff way beyond your current level. I used to get so frustrated when I was a kid that I couldn’t see myself making big leaps in skill.
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I wish that I'd put more effort into learning grinds and slides other than a front board/front board fakie.
Also, wish I could go back to my early teenage years and slap myself for thinking that only kickflips and 360 flips mattered.
Oh, and don't fucking kick out and try to land on your feet or you will completely shatter your meniscus and ACL.
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Have fun and also if you get a serious injury let it heal properly and go to physical therapy.
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Someone said it earlier but running out on transition kills your knees in the long run. Running out of anything is probably worse than slamming or rolling if you want to be an ambulatory older person.
Wish I hadn’t believed kickflips were impossible and resisted the switch to popsicle shapes for three years.
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Exercise and jump rope before skate sessions... and everything you throw will spin and it's on your most inmediate duty to figure it out if you can land on top of your board or try it again... or as I would say to the youngsters "less Luan and more Gino"... it's all about the substance of the sessions, not the circus tricks you put on them.
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not worry about fucking my griptape.
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I wish I'd known that at best we only have 20 summers at a decent skate level.
Say you start at 15, by 17 you've already handled the basics, the from 17-37 you will have your most fertile phases.
From then on it's low impact skating and trying not to forget tricks.
20 summers.
And then it's over.
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Learning how to bail properly.
Be smart about choosing your battles.
Don't force it if it's not making sense today.
Be intentional with what you do; I often got injuries when I was just dorking around.
Get your gear dialed, figure out what you like and stick with it. When you look down at your clothes/board, you should be happy and feel confident like you know what you're doing.
Watch closely how other people set up for tricks and don't be afraid to play around with how you set up for things.
Sometimes the tiniest adjustments (put your foot more in the pocket, don't dip your head, get a little wind-up before, pay attention to shoulders and hips, keep your weight on the balls of your feet or toes) make a huge difference.
It's not what you do, it's how you do it (and how that compares to how you visualized yourself doing it)
Visualization in the first place: see yourself doing it and walk through how it will feel when you're doing it.
Pay attention to your back foot (on flip tricks).
Most importantly, do everything you can to avoid long-term frustration and getting upset with yourself. Do the little things that feel good to you and push yourself strategically on only a few tricks (i like the Cab rule of 3 tricks, never heard of that), trying things that are within your ballpark.
Jump WITH the board.
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yo Shauna
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I wish I'd known that at best we only have 20 summers at a decent skate level.
Say you start at 15, by 17 you've already handled the basics, the from 17-37 you will have your most fertile phases.
From then on it's low impact skating and trying not to forget tricks.
20 summers.
And then it's over.
I disagree, because I hope I will have a few more summers than that. I am 34 now and I regularly skate with a friend who is 43. He's still got it and I have seen him improve in the past two years. I don't think he is as good as he was in his twenties, though...
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not worry about fucking my griptape.
This should be a sign on the front door of every skate shop. Re-gripping kids' boards is a nightmare.
I used charge the parent's a 5 dollar service fee for pulling off the grip and adding new grip.
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I wish I'd known that at best we only have 20 summers at a decent skate level.
Say you start at 15, by 17 you've already handled the basics, the from 17-37 you will have your most fertile phases.
From then on it's low impact skating and trying not to forget tricks.
20 summers.
And then it's over.
I disagree, because I hope I will have a few more summers than that. I am 34 now and I regularly skate with a friend who is 43. He's still got it and I have seen him improve in the past two years. I don't think he is as good as he was in his twenties, though...
yeah, it varies. there's tony hawk at 50 or salba, who's like... 61? point is, I just wish I'd been more aware of the time frame we have to learn, progress and enjoy skating without chronic injuries/pain or the unavoidable degeneration the body endures past 40...
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To not be so concerned with being "good" and to just have fun with it. Sometimes when you're too concerned with being good you get so engulfed in that that it loses its fun, you start getting bummed on yourself for not having this trick or that trick, etc.
I mean obviously you have to put some sort of care into getting good otherwise you're never going to progress, but it's just so much more fun when you don't really give a shit and let the progression come naturally as opposed to trying to force it.
I have way more fun now in my late 20s/almost early 30s just cruising around than I did as a stubborn teenager who HAD to do 100 fs flips a day because "I missed five in a row just a second ago so that means I don't have them on lock anymore" because I had to "get good".
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not worry about fucking my griptape.
This should be a sign on the front door of every skate shop. Re-gripping kids' boards is a nightmare.
I used charge the parent's a 5 dollar service fee for pulling off the grip and adding new grip.
The shop locals taught me in fourth grade how to get the Target grip off with a hairdryer and hooked me up some real grip when I did it
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develop a really strong core. it helps so much with popping higher and later in life, it saves you a lot of back pain
also i don't really know how to put it, but you want to have very sensitive feet when you approach your board, in my mind, similar to how a really good soccer player approaches the ball with their feet, light touch, finesse
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Something as simple as dropping in, I put it off for years just because I was intimidated by it and built it up to be some big scary thing when really its so fun and simple when you get out of your own head
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Something as simple as dropping in, I put it off for years just because I was intimidated by it and built it up to be some big scary thing when really its so fun and simple when you get out of your own head
rolling in over coping is also a very useful thing to learn
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20 summers.
And then it's over.
)':
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I wish I didn't drop and pick up skating so much in my younger years and just stuck with it, I'd be 10x more comfortable on the board and I wouldn't have to relearn so many tricks again.
develop a really strong core.
this is another great one, also to not hunch over.
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listen to more jeru the damaja
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Great thread.
I wish I could trade the jumping down stuff for learning new flatground. Also wish I would have pulled the trigger on dropping in on a legit vert ramp the few times I had the chance.
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Something as simple as dropping in, I put it off for years just because I was intimidated by it and built it up to be some big scary thing when really its so fun and simple when you get out of your own head
For sure, things that seem like they should be taken for granted can take some time to overcome the mental barrier of just doing it without holding back
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Skate the nose if your tail lost its pop.
Don't buy cheap shoes.
A shitty flat ground session on rough asphalt isn't worth razor tailing your new deck.
Skate parks aren't lame, they're literally the best place to progress faster.
Don't neglect tricks because you can do one variation easier. (It feels pathetic that I can f/s 50-50 a hubba, but can barely b/s 50-50 a curb.)
Skate switch more.
Skate more.
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I spent the first few years skating big gaps and handrails. Should of been at the park skating a ledge but I guess its cool to have jumped when I could
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Skate video parts are not filmed in a day, many of the stunts that I used as a measuring stick are a testament of time and commitment.
I was better than I realized, I should have skated more and partied less.
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All the tricks
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1. Don't get stressed when you're younger and your crew is filled with sponsored rippers...they're your buddies not some evil competition.
2. Skate transition..as now that you're in your 40s there's going to be parks EVERYWHERE.
3. Follow the old Cab rule of "work on 3 tricks at a time" and get them dialed in. Build from that.
I’ve never heard that Cab rule but it’s brilliant.
I don’t really regret anything, just wish I would have spent more time getting consistent on tricks. More or less, now I do the same 10-15 tricks to get more consistent. I try to do them in lines, and usually try to learn a new trick if I see a homie trying something I like. I also like what was said about making excuses for ourselves if we want it bad enough you can do any trick you want.
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Everybody saying to just have fun and not worry about how far everyone else in your group is progressing or how others at the park/spot might be better than you. That's so important. I grew up with dudes that could land tricks after a couple tries and I was just never that person. I gave up on skating and trying to follow it around 2003, just randomly checking in and going in to a shop every so often just for nostalgia or spending 10 minutes at a park and then leaving. Finally, I started skating around town and my buddy built a mini ramp like 10 years later. Stopped after we all moved on for like 5 years. Now, I've been skating at least once a week and try to swing by shops when I travel just to talk about local hangs, skating, whatever. I've been collecting stuff from shops, wall hangers and just appreciating being able to ride around and ollie sewer caps, up a curb or even a mini session on a bank.
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It's crazy that we easily look down on our selves for not doing the most extreme shit but at the end of the day an ollie up a curb or over a sewer cap is amazing... Never forget that slapbros
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I probably spent the first few months of my young skateboarding career skating switch, because I thought "goofy" was code for backwards.
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20 summers.
And then it's over.
)':
The existential dread hits hard. I'm only in my mid 20's and I still worry about how much longer I've got left to learn new tricks. Eating right, exercise, and not trashing your body unnecessarily go a long way though.
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just surfing I guess. But I haven't been surfing lately anyway.
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20 summers.
And then it's over.
)':
The existential dread hits hard. I'm only in my mid 20's and I still worry about how much longer I've got left to learn new tricks. Eating right, exercise, and not trashing your body unnecessarily go a long way though.
Facts. Even though I got a lot of distractions from skating these days I still try to get out as much as possible and at least push around and skate some flatground every day. I wanna be able to still do tre flips when I'm 50
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you can't expect skateboarding to be the same for you forever.....it's up to you to figure out how to enjoy it....it's not that tough....skating is a gift.
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you can't expect skateboarding to be the same for you forever.....it's up to you to figure out how to enjoy it....it's not that tough....skating is a gift.
well the concrete still hurts, i can testify that
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patience and better taste in choosing what influenced me in what i liked to skate. not to say i was any good at skating stairs, i sucked, but i focused on learning two or three tricks to huck down a set instead of ledge/manual tricks for ages.
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That 21 wasnt old...neither was 25....or 30
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you can't expect skateboarding to be the same for you forever.....it's up to you to figure out how to enjoy it....it's not that tough....skating is a gift.
damn man...amen.
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Phelps never stopped with his bs roll ins into vert. I still havent done that one (frontside or bs). Yah dont even need any pop for that one. Esky pesky.
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I wish I knew there was more to skateboarding than where I put my feet. Weight distribution seems to be everything right now. I also wish I knew that skateboarding is what makes you a skater. My young, naive self thought I had to also dress/talk like a “skater” and listen to “skater” music.
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Great thread.
I'll echo some people's statements about being comfortable skating transition. It feels like something I should be a lot better at than I am, but I'm slowly starting to get out of my comfort zone and learn some new things and feel more comfortable.
I wish I learned about wheelbases earlier. I'm a pretty tall guy (6'4") and finding the right wb for me has been completely game changing. I'm learning flatground tricks so much easier and consistently than I've ever been able to. Since I started skating the same wb with every board, I realized I haven't complained about a single board I've had. It feels good to not have to get used to a new board every time.
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I wish I would have skated more switch
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How to fall/slam properly. Tuck that shit in, take the hit.
SKATE TRANY LIKE A GROWN MANI wish I would have skated more switch
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-Stand up straight (really)
-Go a bit faster, it's fun
-Grind on rails (I can't do it and I wish I could at least 5050)
-Think about your shoulders. What they're supposed to do, how much they rotate/should/could. Anything front side is easier with your shoulders perpendicular to the board (looking forwards) because your shoulders have to rotate less.
- be respectful to and mindful of pedestrians
-When learning something, think about it first.
-Breathe
- "Don't think, feel. Like a finger pointing to the moon..."
-Keep skating, don't mind the parties and/or drugs. (Knew it already, but many friends have come and gone because of this)
-Pop down. Jump up.
-Have fun. It's not a contest.
-Enjoy these moments
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Being more patient trying to get the basics more locked in rather than spending insane amount of attempts on technical tricks way out of my league, maybe landing them shitty once and then moving on to the next thing.
Committing and taking slams is much better than spraining ankles and wrists countless times trying to avoid them.
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Squaring your shoulders helps with board control is one thing I wish I didn't have to discover that the hard way. Also, I wish I knew from the jump that the spots in videos were actually way harder to skate than they looked (aside from some low LA handrails and picnic tables), and that the guys skating these spots were going stupid fast. Sometimes video footage doesn't do a spot justice, and it doesn't do the skater justice since it's moving at the same speed more often than not & it's hard to judge how fast they're really going. Before I went to my first couple of spots that I saw in videos, I thought I was going to go to these places and fucking dominate them. Needless to say that wasn't the case, and I came back with next to nothing clip-wise. The experience gave me a deeper appreciation for all of the skateboard media I consumed up to that point.
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I wish I’d learned to be more comfortable going backside on ledges early on.
I’d tell myself that going fast and grinding and sliding is way more fun than trying anything from New Deal’s “Whatever” while barely rolling.
I've always had backside 5-0s on ledges, but nothing else. Lately I've been in the mindset to attempt back lips. Eventually back tails. I feel extremely uncomfortable with my body going that direction though and am working on breaking that mentality. I can barely do back 180s on flat. On transition I can do backside ollies just fine though.
Also wish I would have learned nosegrinds early on instead of attempting to learn it now in my late 20s.
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I wish I would have skated more switch
this is a good one, i never even thought about skating switch when i was a teenager, i was to busy trying to learn everything i could regular, now its hard enough skating regular well for me
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Eat right, go to the gym if it's raining, and learn how to recover properly. Unless you've had major injuries and havn't taken care of yourself you should still be able to skate well and still learn new stuff in your 30's .
I hate the gym and I can’t stand Most of the people who hang out there. Gym bro’s and betty’s Are seriously some of the worst people I’m not interested in being the best at exercising, I know when I’m solid, based on my ability to eat shit but pop back up. I’ve always understood the importance of staying loose and limber. Also, just don’t overeating often. For instance, I’m 39, but feel capable of achieving any physical goal I’ve done in my younger years
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Honestly, the one thing that I look back on and wish I would have thought differently on is being such a straightedge cornball. I was so militant about it in high school that I alienated myself from friends that I grew up skating with which led to other shitty outcomes for me.
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Great thread.
I'll echo some people's statements about being comfortable skating transition. It feels like something I should be a lot better at than I am, but I'm slowly starting to get out of my comfort zone and learn some new things and feel more comfortable.
I wish I learned about wheelbases earlier. I'm a pretty tall guy (6'4") and finding the right wb for me has been completely game changing. I'm learning flatground tricks so much easier and consistently than I've ever been able to. Since I started skating the same wb with every board, I realized I haven't complained about a single board I've had. It feels good to not have to get used to a new board every time.
What WB do you prefer? We're the same height.
As for me, I've been a pussy my entire skate career. I suck at drop ins. I have an awful time committing to anything that I feel like I might fall to hard on. It's crippling and something I'm trying to get over.
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Great thread.
I'll echo some people's statements about being comfortable skating transition. It feels like something I should be a lot better at than I am, but I'm slowly starting to get out of my comfort zone and learn some new things and feel more comfortable.
I wish I learned about wheelbases earlier. I'm a pretty tall guy (6'4") and finding the right wb for me has been completely game changing. I'm learning flatground tricks so much easier and consistently than I've ever been able to. Since I started skating the same wb with every board, I realized I haven't complained about a single board I've had. It feels good to not have to get used to a new board every time.
What WB do you prefer? We're the same height.
As for me, I've been a pussy my entire skate career. I suck at drop ins. I have an awful time committing to anything that I feel like I might fall to hard on. It's crippling and something I'm trying to get over.
I'm 6'4 also and found 14.25 works best for me as it's a good middle ground for flip tricks and ledges. I also skate thunders though so that extends the wheelbase a bit more.
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Stay away from smaller boards. I had a 7.75" Guy Mariano deck in 1998 just like everybody else, wore the huge puffy shoes too and couldn't do shit for years, rolled my ankles way too many times. One day in the mid 2000s I bought a 10" wide Santa Cruz Reissue and some Chuck Hi's and had the time of my life on that stick like it was 1988. Haven't bought a deck smaller than 8.5" since then
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just surfing I guess. But I haven't been surfing lately anyway.
You should get a cruiser board
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Great thread.
I'll echo some people's statements about being comfortable skating transition. It feels like something I should be a lot better at than I am, but I'm slowly starting to get out of my comfort zone and learn some new things and feel more comfortable.
I wish I learned about wheelbases earlier. I'm a pretty tall guy (6'4") and finding the right wb for me has been completely game changing. I'm learning flatground tricks so much easier and consistently than I've ever been able to. Since I started skating the same wb with every board, I realized I haven't complained about a single board I've had. It feels good to not have to get used to a new board every time.
What WB do you prefer? We're the same height.
As for me, I've been a pussy my entire skate career. I suck at drop ins. I have an awful time committing to anything that I feel like I might fall to hard on. It's crippling and something I'm trying to get over.
I'm 6'4 also and found 14.25 works best for me as it's a good middle ground for flip tricks and ledges. I also skate thunders though so that extends the wheelbase a bit more.
Maybe our legs are different lengths, because I've been riding 14.75" wb religiously, which I'm fully aware is a really long wb. Plus skating ventures that notoriously push it out even further.
I think you just gotta bite the bullet and try a bunch of different lengths and figure out which works best for you.
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I wish I would have skated more switch
this is a good one, i never even thought about skating switch when i was a teenager, i was to busy trying to learn everything i could regular, now its hard enough skating regular well for me
yea i've realized that you don't really have to try as hard or work for it... it seems harder doing things regular and not making it vs doing it switch and not making it, so it makes sense to have done it both ways
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Great thread.
I'll echo some people's statements about being comfortable skating transition. It feels like something I should be a lot better at than I am, but I'm slowly starting to get out of my comfort zone and learn some new things and feel more comfortable.
I wish I learned about wheelbases earlier. I'm a pretty tall guy (6'4") and finding the right wb for me has been completely game changing. I'm learning flatground tricks so much easier and consistently than I've ever been able to. Since I started skating the same wb with every board, I realized I haven't complained about a single board I've had. It feels good to not have to get used to a new board every time.
What WB do you prefer? We're the same height.
As for me, I've been a pussy my entire skate career. I suck at drop ins. I have an awful time committing to anything that I feel like I might fall to hard on. It's crippling and something I'm trying to get over.
I'm 6'4 also and found 14.25 works best for me as it's a good middle ground for flip tricks and ledges. I also skate thunders though so that extends the wheelbase a bit more.
Maybe our legs are different lengths, because I've been riding 14.75" wb religiously, which I'm fully aware is a really long wb. Plus skating ventures that notoriously push it out even further.
I think you just gotta bite the bullet and try a bunch of different lengths and figure out which works best for you.
I agree with you there, I had to try a whole bunch of different types of boards to find what felt best to me. Maybe I'll try another long WB soon just to see how it works out. I think learning most of my tricks on a shorter WB plays into it also.
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Anyone have anything specific they wish they could tell their mid-twenties selves? Occasionally I get that nice existential dread that I'm no longer improving and that this will all have to stop at some point, even though that's bullshit. I usually just go out and do a few tricks I know I've got to reaffirm that's definitely not the case.
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I guess it really all just boils down to how badly you want to progress. Being willing to eat shit is a huge step. I'm not mid 20s yet but I've recently started skating a lot with a 27 year old buddy and he is pushing it super hard. Mid 20s is not that old yet, sure you get sore faster and you can't skate as much as when you were a little energetic skate bunny but you can definitely still take slams. We all just have one life and I guess we decide what we do with it, when you go to the skatepark are you gonna spend all your time doing tricks you normally do (like I did before I started skating with this guy) or are you just gonna say 'fuck it,' and send it?
There are definitely comfort zones in skateboarding, and it's so easy to stay in them because it feels fun and easy doing tricks we already know how to do. But that feeling doesn't last forever like I'm sure you know, some day you're just gonna think that it's getting stale and you wish you could do something else. Just expand on what you already know, and do whatever you haven't done before that you feel like you could do.
But yeah I'm 23 soon and thought I was growing old already at some point, but skating with different people older than I am and seeing them take slams and rolling away afterwards just going for it is really inspiring. I guess skating with different people would help as well. I used to skate with a crew much older (mid 30s to 40s) and I didn't really learn much because I was just doing the same shit over again and they were progressing but on tricks I already knew how to do. I heard somewhere that skating with people better than you is a big help in your own progression and it's so true. I'm still a pussy, but I go for it more often than I used to.
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Anyone have anything specific they wish they could tell their mid-twenties selves? Occasionally I get that nice existential dread that I'm no longer improving and that this will all have to stop at some point, even though that's bullshit. I usually just go out and do a few tricks I know I've got to reaffirm that's definitely not the case.
But yeah I'm 23 soon and thought I was growing old already at some point, but skating with different people older than I am and seeing them take slams and rolling away afterwards just going for it is really inspiring. I guess skating with different people would help as well. I used to skate with a crew much older (mid 30s to 40s) and I didn't really learn much because I was just doing the same shit over again and they were progressing but on tricks I already knew how to do. I heard somewhere that skating with people better than you is a big help in your own progression and it's so true. I'm still a pussy, but I go for it more often than I used to.
Early to mid 20s was my window in terms of getting gnar. I did my biggest gaps and some proper handrails at that time. By my late twenties I was more hesitant to do any drops and skated way more low impact but my tricks and consistency drastically improved.
I mean Tony Hawk released a part this year skating handrails at Berrics(?) so twenties is prime years.
Definitely establish good health habits now though if you wanna keep the party going.
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I wish I tried to film more after high school. Traveling, filming and making a video during those years were some of the best times in my life. Never stopped skating but definitely lost the motivation to progress in terms of trying bigger shit. Cruising around the right city or town and hitting spots for the hell of it can be just as fun though (honestly maybe more fun when I think about certain nights) I ended up doing that through my 20’s. Now I’m entering my 30’s, my knees fucking hurt and I’m just maintaining. I’m good with a chill box or ledge or best case scenario mini ramp.
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Being a skater may be the best thing you'll ever be.....
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I wish I was more open-minded about downhill.
I was a follower of the ‘long boarding is for kooks’ prejudice until I was doing a zine article about people in the skate community doing cool stuff.
Turns out, nobody in the ‘cool’ community was, but the skateshop pointed me to a crew of downhillers that hold weekly events and meet-ups.
I went to one, they made me wear a helmet (which I thought was stupid) until they saw I knew how to stand on a board.
The first time was mellow, but the main guy in the crew, a downhill board designer and racer showed me some downhill vids and I was blown away.
He hooked me up with a factory second and I got the rest of the gear second hand, and holy shit once you start sliding it’s fun. Nothing better than drifting a looooong coleman around a corner while cooking.
Learning how to slide, corner, and drift on paved bike trails (and barging golf courses) was like putting a line together, figuring out how to navigate each curve and then putting it together in a single run, and then trying to do it at speed.
Plus it reminded me of the camaraderie skaters had in the 80’s, when we were hated. That spirit lives in the downhill scene, and there is a pretty punk feel to it, dodging cops, outlaw races, etc.
I know most of you will write this off and kook me for it, but I’m glad I gave it a chance. Plus, it’s not that bad for an aging body.
Oh, and I finally understood why they have the helmet rule, locking up while in a slide can send you to your head really, really easily.
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I wish i had focused more on having fun instead of becoming "better". I wasted so much time being frustrated over tricks which slowed my progress a ton, as soon as i've focused on enjoying my time with my friends everything comes easier to me
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Honestly wished I didn't care so much for trends and skate how I want to. I remember when I first started skating I would get made fun of for not being able to ollie on my first week of skating, all those dudes claimed they learned how to ollie on their first day which I find bs. But i'm proud I stuck with it. It's my favorite toy.
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Dude go for fucking broke. Skate your heart out. Keep your head up. Don't tweak. Skate with people. Talk less and listen more. Don't be afraid to butt heads. Tell people off. If the dude you don't like is at the spot. Make it your spot. Shred the world. Buy the shoes you want. Buy the boards like. You don't gotta prove nothing to nobody. Eat good. Relax. Be a skater. It's embarrassing when the posers show you up. Every minute your not doing something for yourself. Somebody is doing something for themselves. Shine on
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Keep skating. Keep hanging out. Keep in the streets. Keep creating.
Edit: can't pick one
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Eat right, go to the gym if it's raining, and learn how to recover properly. Unless you've had major injuries and havn't taken care of yourself you should still be able to skate well and still learn new stuff in your 30's .
You're being incredibly judgemental about it though. All types of people go to the gym lol. No one is forcing you to talk to anybody there.
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Fierce localism works. Invaders must die. Don't let your spot become soft.
Make the family that sets up shop inside the skatepark uncomfortable and don't be polite in telling them to fuck off, with any luck little johnny and his scoot-scoot will not be allowed back.
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wallies
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To take advantage of all of that time. I have not enough time to skate as much as I would like now at all.
And with the wear and tear, it is harder too. Enjoy that time young man.
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im still pretty young (21 now), and one of the biggest things ive struggled with is the whole social aspect of being a skateboarder. it took me a lot to be able to go to events and just simply talk to people and create connections and friendships and enjoy skateboarding culture with others.
one thing i can teach to someone younger than me is that no one cares. really, no one cares about anything, and it doesn't matter what your social media looks like or how many followers you have, and no one is going to care about you if you aren't just a good, genuine person.
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Don’t jump down what you can’t jump up.
Surfing is fun as fuck.
Running out on tranny will destroy your knees.
Definitely should have taken up surfing earlier. Started a few years back and it’s one of the best choices I’ve ever made. I’m in so much better shape. Would have really helped back in the day
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I’m glad I didn’t beat myself up too much for being a chicken because I don’t have any nagging injuries and can still skate
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To not compare myself to others.
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actually wanted to start a thread similar to this. will hopefully have time to go back and read it all later.
-when you are working on flat land, have a tiny bit of speed, dont just stand completley still.
-to learn grinds , just learn the stall first on a curb. then just slowly work your way up with more and more speed. its sick to do every trick at 20mph but check yourself realistically do you need to go that fast to clear the gap ypou are trying to skate? also are there situations where possibly more speed could help like on a grind? keep speed in mind always.
-dont waste your time on spots that are too shitty to skate and try and muscle your way through. it would be better to spend time either repairing the spot to make it good or just skating a different spot.
-are you running up to the spot the most ideal way? is there perhaps an easy way to approach the spot? i was skating a spot with a narrrow runway and finding it hard to throw my board down and get speed. my friend just put his board down, took a sprint and jumped on the board that was already chilling on the ledge and got way more speed. another example i remember seeing someone try to throw down from a wall then a pro came and instead took a longer approach but then carved in last second was able to get much better speed + setup and opened the door for others to get tricks down the set lol.
-if you want to be godlike, put in hard work trying to overcome tricks you dont understand / dont get. dont just ignore those tricks and write them off as "i cant do that shit".
-that being said it is good to focus on your strengths when you are making video parts and shit. no one really cares to see the shit you are struggling with but evnetuallky you might turn those tricks into something you are good at over time.
-dont just settle on doing a trick once, practice doing the difficult things regularly. i watched morgan smith skate a lot and i noticed he would just go back and forth doing the same flip trick, same grind, back and forth, like 10x each and go thourgh like hundreds of tricks. that was like every single time he skated. appreicate that your tricks might not look good at first but always try your best to continue to improve them and never settle on something you arent 100% happy with.
-travel as much as you can and meet people. skate with as many people as you can. dont give a shit about pepoles ability level rather their overall package as human beings. there are lots of people who are good at skateboarding but they dont last - ultimately the people with staying power have more to bring to the table than just being good skaters. surround yourself with those types of people. stay away from people who are trying to cock block or beef.
-film as much as you can. you can review your own skating and see where improvements need to be made early on and evolve. also good tool to show your progression. its also nice to have when you get old its good memories.
-work out, eat healthy. smoking weed and drinking doesnt make you better at skating.
-hard work is ultimately what gets you places. whether you become the top pro or not doesnt matter its whether you learned something along the way and had fun and enhanced your life experience thorugh skating. you will be able to take this skill and apply it to anything else in life that you set your focus on
-certain tricks are more conducive to certain obstacles. I.e. a salad or smith grind is more ideal on a rail. tailsldie usually more ideal on a ledge. sometimes it helps to find the right obstacle to get started learning a trick isntead of trying on something that is not a good fit for that trick.
-learn to ride siwtch a lot early on and a lot of transition. doesnt have to be tricks even. it just gives you a better understanding and better style overall and will help you roll away from more shit.
good luck, skate straight!
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dont let anyone tell you that being a try hard in something isnt cool. it is. the people who just sit around and pile out are typically depressed or fall off. be proud of what you have accomplished.
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Pushing mongo. Almost everyone I know who can switch push without much thought started out as a mongo pusher. I never did, and although I can do it, my switch push is definitely forced.
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I would have never quit skating. In quitting it led me down a really bad path. I started skating again a year ago after like 13 years of not skating and I regret ever stopping.
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- As a kid I should had worked harder on my Ollie. As soon I could go up a curb I stopped caring and that's why now my Ollie sucks.
- Don't get stuck for too long with a line or a trick. If is not working just try something else and try again later or another day.
- Drink s lot of water.
- Is ok to not skate sometimes, if one day you just feel it give yourself a break. Skating by inercia is the worst.
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that board wants to fly higher, just lift your legs up more and give it space before catching it
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It's something I heard Matt Rodriguez say in his Chromeball intervew that he was front foot heavy because he started off pushing mongo. Reading that made me realize I'm the same way I just never had a name for it. I've had it my whole skate life looking back though and it has made some tricks easier and some harder. Now that I'm a little older n know stuff after all these years I realize it was the reason I could never pop flips outta tailslides or big spins as easily(or ever) as others in the early 2000's.
Finally realized this after many years of skating and at 37 and a part of me asks, "Do I try to change it up? or just flow n keep doin how I've been doin"?
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Eat right, go to the gym if it's raining, and learn how to recover properly. Unless you've had major injuries and havn't taken care of yourself you should still be able to skate well and still learn new stuff in your 30's .
regarding your issues with the gym--headphones?
i'm almost 50, been skating since i was about 10 or 11 (including plenty of years jumping down shit), recovering from tearing my ACL and meniscus--and the subsequent surgery--not too long ago and if any of you younger heads want any kind of significant longevity, i don't know how you plan to do so without going to the gym on a regular basis once you get into your mid- to late-thirties...including plenty of stretching...
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I would have never quit skating. In quitting it led me down a really bad path. I started skating again a year ago after like 13 years of not skating and I regret ever stopping.
This. I didn't go down a bad path, but I took about 16 years off, started back up about four years ago. At almost 36, I wish I would have kept skating, but when you're 16 and all of your friends stopped years before you, you can fall into doing the same pretty easily. I always had a board, and would goof off on it once in a great while, but skateboarding has become all consuming again, and I love it.
I enjoy skateboarding now more than ever, which is partially credited to that gap. I don't see myself stopping until my body fails me.
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Eat right, go to the gym if it's raining, and learn how to recover properly. Unless you've had major injuries and havn't taken care of yourself you should still be able to skate well and still learn new stuff in your 30's .
regarding your issues with the gym--headphones?
i'm almost 50, been skating since i was about 10 or 11 (including plenty of years jumping down shit), recovering from tearing my ACL and meniscus--and the subsequent surgery--not too long ago and if any of you younger heads want any kind of significant longevity, i don't know how you plan to do so without going to the gym on a regular basis once you get into your mid- to late-thirties...including plenty of stretching...
i heard if you dont know how to stretch properly it can actually be worse for you. andy anderson says "go to a yoga professional and pay them to teach you" lol idk if i will do that but you got any recommendations for stretches? i have kinda just been doing ankles, back, neck, shoulders, groin - basically everywhere i have pulled muscles in hte past. i have enver stretched my knees but i also have never had knee issues. anything you do in particular to save your knees??
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I wish I was more open-minded about downhill.
I was a follower of the ‘long boarding is for kooks’ prejudice until I was doing a zine article about people in the skate community doing cool stuff.
Turns out, nobody in the ‘cool’ community was, but the skateshop pointed me to a crew of downhillers that hold weekly events and meet-ups.
I went to one, they made me wear a helmet (which I thought was stupid) until they saw I knew how to stand on a board.
The first time was mellow, but the main guy in the crew, a downhill board designer and racer showed me some downhill vids and I was blown away.
He hooked me up with a factory second and I got the rest of the gear second hand, and holy shit once you start sliding it’s fun. Nothing better than drifting a looooong coleman around a corner while cooking.
Learning how to slide, corner, and drift on paved bike trails (and barging golf courses) was like putting a line together, figuring out how to navigate each curve and then putting it together in a single run, and then trying to do it at speed.
Plus it reminded me of the camaraderie skaters had in the 80’s, when we were hated. That spirit lives in the downhill scene, and there is a pretty punk feel to it, dodging cops, outlaw races, etc.
I know most of you will write this off and kook me for it, but I’m glad I gave it a chance. Plus, it’s not that bad for an aging body.
Oh, and I finally understood why they have the helmet rule, locking up while in a slide can send you to your head really, really easily.
Lots of dh guys shred street as well. The helmets make sense too because youre not bailing at like 10mph you're essentially bailing a motorcycle crash at like 40+.
I think bc they're easier to push on and have been largely adapted by fags who don't ride them down hills, just push on campus and pose on IG, dh riders and campus posers get put in the same category and it makes me sad.
I've never skated dh but my friend does, and he shows me videos from time to time and it looks like so much fun tbh
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i wish i started skating earlier like at 4 or 5 instead of 13
My dad had me on a board before I could even walk and I still suck.
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I would have never quit skating. In quitting it led me down a really bad path. I started skating again a year ago after like 13 years of not skating and I regret ever stopping.
When you come back to it you pay double
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That it is greatly beneficial to skate with people better than you.
That you actually can get pretty good if you put in the time and think about skating in different ways.
I wish I was more into tech when I was young, it didn't interest me even though I wished I could do all those tricks. All I learned how to do was ollie big shit.
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I always regretted not really learning all the flip tricks / having flat ground game. Later it made filming stuff so difficult.
I can’t remember who, but someone really respectable recently said something about a great skater has great flat ground. I think it’s kinda true, and it kinda made me depressed. I’m too old now to really figure out a proper nollie heelflip. Or how to do frontside flips on flat. For example.
When I was young it was just too frustrating and time consuming. I just wanted to go fast and do grinds.
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...that wearing your correct shoesize and paying attention to what kind of shoe you skate in (protection, as well as the silhouette of the shoe), does pay off when you're in your 30s.
My feet hurt from wearing too small vans shoes all my puberty
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Dude go for fucking broke. Skate your heart out. Keep your head up. Don't tweak. Skate with people. Talk less and listen more. Don't be afraid to butt heads. Tell people off. If the dude you don't like is at the spot. Make it your spot. Shred the world. Buy the shoes you want. Buy the boards like. You don't gotta prove nothing to nobody. Eat good. Relax. Be a skater. It's embarrassing when the posers show you up. Every minute your not doing something for yourself. Somebody is doing something for themselves. Shine on
That's a good one
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i wish i did more kickflips.
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If you want to try something hard, try it between ages 18-28.
Move somewhere that has better stuff to skate. Skating difficult terrain doesn’t magically make you better, it just makes skateboarding harder.
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It's okay to stop if you're not feelin it.
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Not getting addicted to heroin at 19 would have been a great choice.
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Not getting addicted to heroin at 19 would have been a great choice.
i dont know man. i really get down with their shapes
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The first post reminded me that I've been meaning to search the forum for posts about breathing while skating. Might as well try to open up a dialogue about it now. What's the best way to breathe while doings tricks? Like OP, I always held my breath but eventually realized I should probably exhale as I pop. This is just going off of how they say to exhale while lifting during an exercise. I wish I'd thought about it when I was younger, now I'm trying to rework years of what's essentially respiratory muscle memory.
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Dude go for fucking broke. Skate your heart out. Keep your head up. Don't tweak. Skate with people. Talk less and listen more. Don't be afraid to butt heads. Tell people off. If the dude you don't like is at the spot. Make it your spot. Shred the world. Buy the shoes you want. Buy the boards like. You don't gotta prove nothing to nobody. Eat good. Relax. Be a skater. It's embarrassing when the posers show you up. Every minute your not doing something for yourself. Somebody is doing something for themselves. Shine on
That's a good one
Life is not a competition, learn to take a breather.
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back tails
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I wish I learned switch push like 20 years earlier.
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bs 50-50s
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I always regretted not really learning all the flip tricks / having flat ground game. Later it made filming stuff so difficult.
I can’t remember who, but someone really respectable recently said something about a great skater has great flat ground. I think it’s kinda true, and it kinda made me depressed. I’m too old now to really figure out a proper nollie heelflip. Or how to do frontside flips on flat. For example.
When I was young it was just too frustrating and time consuming. I just wanted to go fast and do grinds.
I’m very much the opposite. Figuring out flatground and flip tricks has always been the most fun part for me and an aspect of skating that I feel like if I just put in the time I can learn. Not that I have the deepest bag of tricks at all (switch game basically nonexistent) and now as an adult I don’t have enough skate time to keep everything consistent, but generally I feel like, give me an empty basketball court and some hours and I’ll figure the trick out at least once to start.
Learning new grinds on the other hand is scary and awkward and I often dont know where to begin. I would love to have more than 50s, noseslide variations and bs crooks. Unlocking grind tricks doesn’t work like flatground for me. It’s probably because I’m being a pussy.
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Wish I started skating transition earlier. Oh well. Enjoying learning it now.
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Learning new grinds on the other hand is scary and awkward and I often dont know where to begin. I would love to have more than 50s, noseslide variations and bs crooks. Unlocking grind tricks doesn’t work like flatground for me. It’s probably because I’m being a pussy.
same here. i can bust out most flips without regards to form after forcing myself to attempt them for a while, but i constantly have to relearn how to do grinds and slides. it's like every year i lose two i have on lock and get two new ones that i can only do very shitty.
i just want to keep the bs 50 plz.
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I always regretted not really learning all the flip tricks / having flat ground game. Later it made filming stuff so difficult.
I can’t remember who, but someone really respectable recently said something about a great skater has great flat ground. I think it’s kinda true, and it kinda made me depressed. I’m too old now to really figure out a proper nollie heelflip. Or how to do frontside flips on flat. For example.
When I was young it was just too frustrating and time consuming. I just wanted to go fast and do grinds.
I’m very much the opposite. Figuring out flatground and flip tricks has always been the most fun part for me and an aspect of skating that I feel like if I just put in the time I can learn. Not that I have the deepest bag of tricks at all (switch game basically nonexistent) and now as an adult I don’t have enough skate time to keep everything consistent, but generally I feel like, give me an empty basketball court and some hours and I’ll figure the trick out at least once to start.
Learning new grinds on the other hand is scary and awkward and I often dont know where to begin. I would love to have more than 50s, noseslide variations and bs crooks. Unlocking grind tricks doesn’t work like flatground for me. It’s probably because I’m being a pussy.
Can relate to this. Flat ground has always been fun and I felt I could sort of figure out any flip trick with enough practice. I wish I devoted more times to grinds and stuff. I have some but wish I had more. My back tails are like backside ollie to firecracker lots of the time.
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I always got self conscious at sessions with the older dudes who were WAY better than me. It gave me anxiety and I eventually stopped meeting up with them to skate. I figured they thought I was lame because I couldn't do as many tricks as them and hadn't been skating as long. In reality they probably didn't give a fuck at all and would have helped me progress faster. At the time I was too caught up in the fact that I wasn't good and didn't realize that didn't matter. It's just about having fun.
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Correcting mob and downward push on switch and nollie flips. I was always consistent at them but it has always been a problem. It wasn't until I was 35 last year I went out on a solo flat sesh and decided I was gonna force myself to get the timing right and kick straight out with the flick. It felt like shit at first because of the awkwardness but no matter what I was gonna imitate the exact motion as my reg kickflips. I got it within a half hour.
Crazy like 50% of pro's in the late 90's early 00's had some sort of deficiency with it.
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Skating difficult terrain doesn’t magically make you better, it just makes skateboarding harder.
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That only a few wheel/truck brands are worth buying at all.
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Wish I started skating transition earlier. Oh well. Enjoying learning it now.
I second this times a fucking thousand. I grew up skating shitty driveway flatbars, so that naturally progressed into street skating. The crew of dudes I'm with now all rip transition, and it made me realize that I hardly ever gave it a chance before. A couple years ago I wasn't grinding anything over 4ft. I'm standing on f/s 5-0s on like 5 and 6 ft now. Feels so good, makes me feel better about getting older too, since I know I'll be able to do that shit way longer than all my ledge tricks.
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Skating difficult terrain doesn’t magically make you better, it just makes skateboarding harder.
Ay for real though, otherwise there'd be way more dudes coming out of the Northwest or similarly oppositional environments.
Not to say there aren't some dudes up there that don't rip, but they're good in spite of their climate not because of it.
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to stretch out properly before and after the session.
Good one.
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"If you wear pads, you'll have way more fun on transition."
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Wish I started skating transition earlier. Oh well. Enjoying learning it now.
Yup.
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Stretching before and after.
I was the guy that never stretched at all, and now my ankles, hips, back, wrists and neck are all fucked up at 31 years old.
I also regret learning varial flips and 360 flips before pop shove-its. I've been skating 21 years and can't pop shove-it. Even if I try really hard, it'll end up being half a varial flip. I can do almost waist-high front shoves, but can't pop shove-it to save my life. I MIGHT get one in a game of skate if I'm going really slow, and it'll be one of those low ones that barely get off the ground and then again I might not even get it. My back foot is conditioned to go for a varial/360 flip. Kind of embarrassing.
Wish I had learned a few flatbar tricks, but rails scare me. I can do exactly four flatbar tricks : bs/fs boardslide (much more balance going backside, though), frontside noseslide and backside nose bonk. I can't do anything else, even backside feebles. I scorpion'd really hard last time I tried a few years ago.
Also kind of wished I learned to push switch, but I wanted to be like Rob Welsh and Josh Kalis and go switch mongo.
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Wish I knew that if you stop lifting weights it turns to fat. Havent felt right on a board since...
fuck heavy lifting
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how to push switch without it looking like you don't know how to skate.
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Stretching before and after.
I was the guy that never stretched at all, and now my ankles, hips, back, wrists and neck are all fucked up at 31 years old.
I also regret learning varial flips and 360 flips before pop shove-its. I've been skating 21 years and can't pop shove-it. Even if I try really hard, it'll end up being half a varial flip. I can do almost waist-high front shoves, but can't pop shove-it to save my life. I MIGHT get one in a game of skate if I'm going really slow, and it'll be one of those low ones that barely get off the ground and then again I might not even get it. My back foot is conditioned to go for a varial/360 flip. Kind of embarrassing.
Wish I had learned a few flatbar tricks, but rails scare me. I can do exactly four flatbar tricks : bs/fs boardslide (much more balance going backside, though), frontside noseslide and backside nose bonk. I can't do anything else, even backside feebles. I scorpion'd really hard last time I tried a few years ago.
Also kind of wished I learned to push switch, but I wanted to be like Rob Welsh and Josh Kalis and go switch mongo.
learn switch nose slides? Crooks are easier that front nose slides on flat bar i feel.
I can front feeble sometimes but not back feeble. Idky..
I believe anyone who can get over the rail can do these tricks if they want. Flat bar is all about going straight at it and going fast.
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SPONSORSHIP IS BULLSHIT
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How to get along with others while skating.
I get bummed by civilians talking to me while im skating
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Bumping because there was a bunch of posts that I missed since I last checked. Completely forgot I started this thread and read through almost every one now. Just want to say thank you all. Been a bit down on my skating lately and this was a good pick me up to read. Cheers all.
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Probably replied in here before but:
1) Enjoy that care free time when young, it goes away
2) Enjoy those ankles while young, they go away
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That there’s no point in practicing forward-facing, obstacle-less ollies nonstop. I would’ve had an easier time getting consistent straight ollies up/over stuff after getting past the fear and probably wouldn’t have ragequit after 2 years
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To justify the bumping I guess I should also offer something I've realized lately:
Don't dedicate your entire session to one trick if it's not feeling good at all. It's been ruining sessions lately and I think it also doesn't help you learn/perfect that trick if you're mentally not feeling it.
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g$ = ski tem
(https://i.redd.it/bj0c6ob4cdc11.jpg)
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Probably replied in here before but:
1) Enjoy that care free time when young, it goes away
2) Enjoy those ankles while young, they go away
God. These.
And that if I take time off skating, I won’t lose tricks, I’ll just lose the ability to feel comfortable riding around on a board, which is far worse.
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I really genuinely believed that you just either had it or didn't skate wise. So I figured since I couldn't tre I didn't have it. Which meant unfulfilled sessions, non stop bailing, and a weird "I'm into running" fitness thing instead of skating.
All that is to say, as mentioned elsewhere, you gotta skate. It's not even like practice, but you gotta do it. If you don't stay with it and try, yer a 30 sumthing gimp who most likely will never tre.
Also ,banned, my man. Bummed when civilians try and talk to you is amazing, thank you.
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Powerslides. Wish I would've learned them before I learned to ollie cuz dam they're fun
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Going fast and being comfortable tucking and rolling out of bails, is safer than going slow and actually makes a lot of stuff easier. I didn't know this as a teenager.
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Wish I knew that if you stop lifting weights it turns to fat. Havent felt right on a board since...
fuck heavy lifting
maybe its because your eating like your bulking and not lifting?
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Expand Quote
Wish I knew that if you stop lifting weights it turns to fat. Havent felt right on a board since...
fuck heavy lifting
maybe its because your eating like your bulking and not lifting?
feel free to kook me...
making the most of your pop, tuck those legs, jump with your upperbody
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I really genuinely believed that you just either had it or didn't skate wise. So I figured since I couldn't tre I didn't have it. Which meant unfulfilled sessions, non stop bailing, and a weird "I'm into running" fitness thing instead of skating.
All that is to say, as mentioned elsewhere, you gotta skate. It's not even like practice, but you gotta do it. If you don't stay with it and try, yer a 30 sumthing gimp who most likely will never tre.
Also ,banned, my man. Bummed when civilians try and talk to you is amazing, thank you.
ya man, I know this sentiment. There was all sorts of stuff my mind limited me to when I was coming up skating, "I can't x,y,z because he's doing that and he's a better skater, so I won't even try" sorta thing. Now that I started skating again at 35, I've got all my old tricks back in a short time and I'm learning more new tricks in the past 5 months than in the past 10 or 15 years because I've realized that if someone else is doing, excluding stuff I can't do due to extreme physical conditions/limitations, it's probably possible for me to get somewhere close. And if it don't happen, it doesn't matter! just skate. keep pushing
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hanging on to old boards, wheels, and trucks is not stupid but throwing them in the trash is stupid and environmentally not ok
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To justify the bumping I guess I should also offer something I've realized lately:
Don't dedicate your entire session to one trick if it's not feeling good at all. It's been ruining sessions lately and I think it also doesn't help you learn/perfect that trick if you're mentally not feeling it.
makes sense to me, but literally the more kickflips i do the shitter they get it bums me out so hard
like probably 6 months ago i could do them every try basically, could do them into manual and fs5050. Now I go skate and land maybe 3 good ones in the entire session. I don't go hunting for them anymore every session like I used to but it sucks to see it get worse and worse all the time I just wish there was something I could do to make them suck less
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No tricks are illegal if you’re not sponsored/pro
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No tricks are illegal if you’re not sponsored/pro
yeah, but no one should ever call a backside hardflip a "ghetto bird"
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To justify the bumping I guess I should also offer something I've realized lately:
Don't dedicate your entire session to one trick if it's not feeling good at all. It's been ruining sessions lately and I think it also doesn't help you learn/perfect that trick if you're mentally not feeling it.
i use this method, and it means i have a really weird relationship with learning tricks
i'll only sink a bunch of attempts into something if/when i'm feeling it
(as far as new tricks go, that is - existing ones i'll sweat myself to death to get a decent make)
as a result, i tend to learn tricks very slowly in terms of actual time, but quite quickly in terms of attempts
i'll typically learn a trick in around 100 tries, but the first 50 will be spread out over like ten years and the second fifty will be on that one afternoon where it finally felt good to go after it.
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Wish I had taken more time to let injuries healed before they caused long term damage, also maybe would've tried to eat a bit healthier and be more active outside skating.
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go fast and reeeelax
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I wish I learned that transition skating is alot easier if you are listening to a rythm/beat. I heard Ronnie talk about it on the 9 club, "once you find your rythm it's almost like you are unstoppable." I am skating by myself alot and it's hard to motivate yourself to stick shit when you are alone and scared. I bought a boombox and that thing is like having a couple homies on the session.
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1. if you dont live in a big city the chances of getting "sponsored" are very very very slim.
2. if you don't move to a big city right after high school your chances of getting "sponsored" are very very very slim.
3. the cool kids most certainly arent cool.
4. when you hurt something QUIT SKATING TIL ITS HEALED
5. cherish the different crews, periods, phases, friends, filmers, clips. People get busy and skating changes in your mid-late 20s.
6. Dont look up to the good kids your age. Look up to the old guys that are 35 still skating.
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This may be a controversial one, but studies show that a diet which contains meats is associated with higher circulating levels of GGT and hs-CRP. A simpler explanation is that these levels increase when there is inflammation in your body. Having higher inflammatory levels, in turn leads to delayed recovery and increased muscle soreness.
I'm 30, and I noticed that every single time I skated, I would get so sore that I'd have to rub arnicane all over my body, take multiple epsom salt baths, and if I was lucky after a few hours of skating I could skate 2-3 days later. I didn't think much of it, I figured that this was what comes with skating when you're older. After looking for more supplements to help with soreness, I ended up coming across a multitude of studies that show there is a positive correlation with eating meats and increased inflammatory levels in your body. The muscle pain is due to inflammation within the muscle, which is one of the main triggers for this muscle soreness.
I was at a point where I figured I have nothing really to lose, so 2 months ago I switched to a vegan diet (plant based with no food containing animal products whatsoever) and I really haven't looked back since. There's a plant based alternative for almost every food out there now, so making the switch wasn't as hard as I had anticipated. I skated for about 3 hours last night, and I woke up this morning ready to do that again tonight. For me it's a night and day difference.
For those of you who find reading the below studies boring, I highly recommend watching "The Game Changers" on Netflix.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5540319/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22426755/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30571591/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25365383/
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Footprint insoles work and if your feet are fucked up you should put them in everything
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If you’re young stop trying to one up friends and do your own thing, you’ll improve faster and actually develop your own tricks. The one thing I learned from friends that almost-made-it-but-didn’t is that they forced what they thought they should do and who they should be and they ended up with muted styles and trick selection.
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skate for yourself
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fs boardslides to fakie are easier as usual fs boardslides.
still scary but easier. at least for me.
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Started to skate a year and a half ago at 19 after many years of interest towards skating and found a crew of oldheads who gave me much advice like the one in this thread, and that shit is a goldmine. Skating with old dude's is the best, youve got living encyclopedias that know every nook and cranny of a flip and what bearing swork best for wet weather, which wood you should ksate when on a budget...
Alot of stuff posted here you alos discover yourself i feel. Boredom is a big thing i relate to, fear is also a huge thing. I've improved in huge strides ever since i got rid of that doubt and fear when trying big stuff, most of the time the worst thing that can happen is a zipp out or a big bruise on your elbow
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No tricks are illegal if you’re not sponsored/pro
The real ghetto bird is a nollie hardflip bs 180. I don't know why people can't see this with their own eyes.
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Transition
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I grew up as a transition kid and never went through a tight trucks skinny board phase and still cannot kickflip to this day as a result. I cant really do any flip tricks at all. My flatground only consists of rotations, shuvs, and impossibles.
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Skate first then start drinking
.
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I wish I never took a 16 year break from skating. This shit is a hoot!
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Eat anything and everything that has omega 3's in it from a young age.
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Kickflips
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Do some consistent strength training.
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That you can grab mute
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Don’t stop. Find the time.
Learn literally anything switch.
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Move if your spot options are weak.
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Go faster
Don’t be ashamed of skating if people in your life declare it childish. These people have no idea.
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1. dont skate stairs larger than 3
2. better kickflip fundamentals
3. how important wheelbase is
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1. dont skate stairs larger than 3
2. better kickflip fundamentals
3. how important wheelbase is
Nah...
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Slappies. I just learned them (I thought I learned them 4 years ago but I was lifting my front truck). Took a really well waxed parking curb and some big wheels and a big board to figure em out.
Don’t stop. I’ve had numerous 6-12 month breaks from skating and one bigger 3ish or so year stretch. A lot of the tricks stay, but the muscle memory/general ability to control your board and feel comfortable takes awhile to come back.
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Started to skate a year and a half ago at 19 after many years of interest towards skating and found a crew of oldheads who gave me much advice like the one in this thread, and that shit is a goldmine. Skating with old dude's is the best, youve got living encyclopedias that know every nook and cranny of a flip and what bearing swork best for wet weather, which wood you should ksate when on a budget...
Alot of stuff posted here you alos discover yourself i feel. Boredom is a big thing i relate to, fear is also a huge thing. I've improved in huge strides ever since i got rid of that doubt and fear when trying big stuff, most of the time the worst thing that can happen is a zipp out or a big bruise on your elbow
Welcome to the team! My wife is finally getting into it after wanting to for a very long time and as an old guy I would like to point out that it’s really cool to skate with new skaters. It really does help us olds maintain our stoke to see people feeling the stoke we had waaaaay back when. So everybody wins.
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Here's mine:
1) Focus on set up tricks like axel stalls instead of just going for airs on vert
2) Forget pressure flips - perfect tre flips
3) Learn how to talk to women
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Here's mine:
1) Focus on set up tricks like axel stalls instead of just going for airs on vert
2) Forget pressure flips - perfect tre flips
3) Learn how to talk to women
I spent too much time doing this instead of skating.
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Move if your spot options are weak.
I am currently experiencing this lesson as i speak. hoping to move soon lol
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Move if your spot options are weak.
i literally stopped skating hard at the end of college cause the town I lived in had no spots and no park.
I moved to a big city with good spots, multiple parks and tons of people that skated. Fell in love like i was 11 years old again at 24. At 28 im now the best I've ever been. If i would've stayed where I was i would've never continued skating (or "progressing" rather). unfortunately skateboarding does rely on the environment you live in at times.
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Not to skate big gaps at an early age
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don't just accept the first one you land. keep trying til you get one you're satisfied with.
don't base your self worth on being good at skateboarding. it's never going to be enough.
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I always regretted not really learning all the flip tricks / having flat ground game. Later it made filming stuff so difficult.
I can’t remember who, but someone really respectable recently said something about a great skater has great flat ground. I think it’s kinda true, and it kinda made me depressed. I’m too old now to really figure out a proper nollie heelflip. Or how to do frontside flips on flat. For example.
When I was young it was just too frustrating and time consuming. I just wanted to go fast and do grinds.
Too old to learn flatground is the dumbest excuse I've ever seen, if you can jump a foot from the ground you can do most flatground tricks.
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I always regretted not really learning all the flip tricks / having flat ground game. Later it made filming stuff so difficult.
I can’t remember who, but someone really respectable recently said something about a great skater has great flat ground. I think it’s kinda true, and it kinda made me depressed. I’m too old now to really figure out a proper nollie heelflip. Or how to do frontside flips on flat. For example.
When I was young it was just too frustrating and time consuming. I just wanted to go fast and do grinds.
I second this, I'm pretty creaky at 35, and came back to skating after a 15 year break... i've learnt more new flatground tricks in the past year than i did in 5 years of skating as a teen.
If you've got the confidence to go fast and do grinds, you've got the confidence to roll around a car park at 5mph and learn the fundamentals of flatground... go get some!
Watch a ton of youtube vids, and remember that foot position is everything, you'll be surprised what you unlock. This past week i learnt fakie bigflips, and I never ever thought I would be capable of a trick like that when I started skating again.
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I always regretted not really learning all the flip tricks / having flat ground game. Later it made filming stuff so difficult.
I can’t remember who, but someone really respectable recently said something about a great skater has great flat ground. I think it’s kinda true, and it kinda made me depressed. I’m too old now to really figure out a proper nollie heelflip. Or how to do frontside flips on flat. For example.
When I was young it was just too frustrating and time consuming. I just wanted to go fast and do grinds.
Found this out recently when a friend asked me to land a hardflip and I finally realized what was wrong after a few years of not doing them, before I could land every try.
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No tricks are illegal if you’re not sponsored/pro
The real ghetto bird is a nollie hardflip bs 180. I don't know why people can't see this with their own eyes.
Because the names of tricks don't appear in front of you when people do them in real life
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mainly how to fall right (rolling out, keep feet flat from tweaking them) and to always be yourself, wear what you want to and skate how you want to, kinda sucks seeing kids following the newest trends and im guilty of it coming up but its funny how the "cool" things to do are constantly changing in skateboarding and its better to have a giant spectrum of dif styles and input then just the same trendy thing that becomes lame a month later.
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Comparison is the death of joy
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MY ONLY REGRET IN SKATEBOARDING IS THAT I QUIT!
Chicks are cool, partying and drugs can be cool, but all of that got in the way of skating and eventually skating was no longer a priority. Fast forward a couple decades and I'm back on the board and the realization of what a waste of time all those distractions were. Nothing in my life has ever been as enjoyable as skating. Take my advice... as you grow and mature, life will throw a myriad of obstacles your way. You don't have to quit because of your job, your girl, your friends, your too old... whatever! FUCK ALL OF THAT... handle that shit and keep skating! Never stop!
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dropping in
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MY ONLY REGRET IN SKATEBOARDING IS THAT I QUIT!
Chicks are cool, partying and drugs can be cool, but all of that got in the way of skating and eventually skating was no longer a priority. Fast forward a couple decades and I'm back on the board and the realization of what a waste of time all those distractions were. Nothing in my life has ever been as enjoyable as skating. Take my advice... as you grow and mature, life will throw a myriad of obstacles your way. You don't have to quit because of your job, your girl, your friends, your too old... whatever! FUCK ALL OF THAT... handle that shit and keep skating! Never stop!
!
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Learning how to skate switch. Took me like 12 years to land my first nollie flip and another year to learn switch flips. Now they’re my warmups and god DAMN do they feel great, and fun as hell.
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Taking stretching more serious. Didn't start to stretch until years after. I do a lot of it now but my level of skating is nowhere near my younger years.
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let your injuries heal
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Shoulders are key to every fucking trick. I wish someone would have told 14 year old me
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If skating something big, and it’s not getting close in the first 10 tries, come back later.
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Wish I knew that if you stop lifting weights it turns to fat. Havent felt right on a board since...
fuck heavy lifting
maybe its because your eating like your bulking and not lifting?
That and boozing a little too much
Love chub
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Pop early
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lol please explain the science behind a muscle turning into fat. spoiler alert: they dont, you just eat like a fat shit. how are people so dumb.
Anyway,
the foot you pop withis the limiting mechanism on your pop for flip tricks. want a fat bs flip? pick up your back foot.
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It's just skateboarding, it's not serious. Just have some fucking fun with it.
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lol please explain the science behind a muscle turning into fat. spoiler alert: they dont, you just eat like a fat shit. how are people so dumb.
Anyway,
the foot you pop withis the limiting mechanism on your pop for flip tricks. want a fat bs flip? pick up your back foot.
Tyrone sweetheart,
twas a joke
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You will almost certainly, at some point in your life, (~early/mid 20's for sure) be tempted to start spending less and less time skating and more and more time socializing/schmoozing/boozing which eventually leads to a big decline in your skateboarding. It might even disappear from your life before you realize it is gone.
It's good to be social if you can do that, but beware, because for antisocial ppl like many skaters are... the alcohol that always goes along with the social situations creates a crutch that you cannot sling your mind away from. It will take your body and your balance and worst of all, your natural confidence and inspiration for skating.
In short, don't waste your 20s spending too much time in bars, parties and clubs and trying to meet people and impress people. You will find your people and your significant other if that is what you seek.
You will only have a body able to skateboard for so long though.
Get out. Move. Ride the landscape. Free your mind.
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I should’ve gotten into a trade fresh outta high school.
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i feel these last two posts
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I feel the last two post heavy too except fuck trade school get an apprenticeship and get paid while you learn
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You will almost certainly, at some point in your life, (~early/mid 20's for sure) be tempted to start spending less and less time skating and more and more time socializing/schmoozing/boozing which eventually leads to a big decline in your skateboarding. It might even disappear from your life before you realize it is gone.
It's good to be social if you can do that, but beware, because for antisocial ppl like many skaters are... the alcohol that always goes along with the social situations creates a crutch that you cannot sling your mind away from. It will take your body and your balance and worst of all, your natural confidence and inspiration for skating.
In short, don't waste your 20s spending too much time in bars, parties and clubs and trying to meet people and impress people. You will find your people and your significant other if that is what you seek.
You will only have a body able to skateboard for so long though.
Get out. Move. Ride the landscape. Free your mind.
Well gahddamn
You just brought me back. Gonna try and stay on topic here but I wish I learned that the world was big before my twenties. Value time with my friends on the road early, skating all day and being stank as hell in bars all night.
I should’ve gotten into a trade fresh outta high school.
I know im not that old to be saying it, but this is so true. An old high school teacher of mine said to take a year or so off to find out who you really are and what you really wanna do, and as much as I love the act of skateboarding adulthood creeps up kinda quick. Before you know it that year off turns to seven and you´re 25 with no degree or any real skill.
Wouldnt trade that shit for anything though
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I wish I knew that I would still want to skate when I’m 40. Otherwise I would have never been so half-assed about it. But from 15-30 I half-assed everything I did in life, not just skating.
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If you hurt your ankle STAY OFF IT, when you’re young it’s cool coming back really fast but after you pass 30 your shit will disintegrate like soggy bread.
On tranny accept the ass grazes, running out is bad for older you and your knees
Toes on the nose for back tails
The special meter is real
The slide on your butt backwards slam is the best one, didn’t fully incorporate this until in my mid 20s
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proper body mechanics and mobility are the key to preventing almost all injuries. also just being fit in general. your boy was pushing 200 lbs plus for over a decade on the skateboard. All those sessions over time have definitely worn out the joints. Paying the price now but still would not change a thing.
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You will almost certainly, at some point in your life, (~early/mid 20's for sure) be tempted to start spending less and less time skating and more and more time socializing/schmoozing/boozing which eventually leads to a big decline in your skateboarding. It might even disappear from your life before you realize it is gone.
It's good to be social if you can do that, but beware, because for antisocial ppl like many skaters are... the alcohol that always goes along with the social situations creates a crutch that you cannot sling your mind away from. It will take your body and your balance and worst of all, your natural confidence and inspiration for skating.
In short, don't waste your 20s spending too much time in bars, parties and clubs and trying to meet people and impress people. You will find your people and your significant other if that is what you seek.
You will only have a body able to skateboard for so long though.
Get out. Move. Ride the landscape. Free your mind.
I don't know who you are but I like everything you just said. Amen and awomen.
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Maybe this one sounds a bit harsh and as if I'm throwing some people under the bus but I wish I had chosen my skate friends more wisely.
In my early teens I was decent at skating, nowhere near a sponsorship level but decent enough to impress some friends a bit. Basically never being the worse skater at the spot or park, like pretty average honestly but still it was the best I had ever been at something and I was improving.
I eventually had two groups of skate friends though, one who were more passionate about skating and the other who would just kinda hang out at the same shitty spot most days but never really showed any interest in progressing. I sorta just ended up with the latter half more often since we all lived around the same area and meeting up was more convenient or a lot of days I'd even just skate alone when they didn't feel like it, but now I feel as if that path essentially plateaued my own improvement.
The other group went on to be really good and they deserve it for all the effort they put in together throughout the years, however I just sometimes really regret not allowing myself to have a more supportive or inspiring group of people to skate with like they got to experience and probably heavily benefited from.
Nowadays I should just be glad to be skating again at age 28 after a long hiatus and a torn ACL, I should just have fun rather than worry about skills which most days I do just enjoy skating for what it is, but I still sometimes wish I had taken advantage and surrounded myself with an environment that would have helped me learn to do a bit more with my board rather than still being stuck at the same level today.
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Get out. Move. Ride the landscape. Free your mind.
A.K.A HECKRIDE!!
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Shoulders are key to every fucking trick. I wish someone would have told 14 year old me
Yep, this. upper body is everything. Just putting your feet how they should be for a back heel is not gonna make you land a back heel if your body weight is centered all over the place.
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Maybe this one sounds a bit harsh and as if I'm throwing some people under the bus but I wish I had chosen my skate friends more wisely.
In my early teens I was decent at skating, nowhere near a sponsorship level but decent enough to impress some friends a bit. Basically never being the worse skater at the spot or park, like pretty average honestly but still it was the best I had ever been at something and I was improving.
I eventually had two groups of skate friends though, one who were more passionate about skating and the other who would just kinda hang out at the same shitty spot most days but never really showed any interest in progressing. I sorta just ended up with the latter half more often since we all lived around the same area and meeting up was more convenient or a lot of days I'd even just skate alone when they didn't feel like it, but now I feel as if that path essentially plateaued my own improvement.
The other group went on to be really good and they deserve it for all the effort they put in together throughout the years, however I just sometimes really regret not allowing myself to have a more supportive or inspiring group of people to skate with like they got to experience and probably heavily benefited from.
Nowadays I should just be glad to be skating again at age 28 after a long hiatus and a torn ACL, I should just have fun rather than worry about skills which most days I do just enjoy skating for what it is, but I still sometimes wish I had taken advantage and surrounded myself with an environment that would have helped me learn to do a bit more with my board rather than still being stuck at the same level today.
I feel you here. For sure, except I was fiercely loyal to a crew of dudes I grew up skating with who all became pretty heavy into legit crime, dope, and crack by the time we were 22 and eventually weren't welcome anywhere that anyone skated. I fucked around and came close, but that wasnt really my scene. they were my friends though but since I wasn't on that level, eventually i only rarely went to skate with them and really never with the legit crews of dudes focused on skating who often invited me to skate. I skated alone too much and eventually not much at all. Not even for the sake of progression, although it would have been inevitable, but for the fun/positivity and lack of sketch/shade always going down whenever we rolled somewhere. Whatever
I'm skating again
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How to fall/slam properly. Tuck that shit in, take the hit.
I gotta learn how to fall backwards better. Forwards or side to side I’m alright but I’m def risking (more) injury the way I fall back. I see these dudes like Tyshawn just like casually sit down backwards and put their arms up and I can’t comprehend it.
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Taking stretching more serious.
this but for me it's all about the hamstrings. just do it my dudes. loosen your lower back and hammies before you skate. makes every session like 20% better for me to show up loosened up already.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTWzOMA5caQ
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Taking stretching more serious.
this but for me it's all about the hamstrings. just do it my dudes. loosen your lower back and hammies before you skate. makes every session like 20% better for me to show up loosened up already.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTWzOMA5caQ
That's a good short video, going to apply some of this to my routine. Thanks!
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When I was a teenager I wish someone would have told me to loosen my trucks up and learn the fundamentals of turning and carving, instead of flinging hideous flip tricks around
In my 20s I wish someone could have taught me the value of regular training to keep your key muscles strong and prevent injuries
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I never really did a ‘‘good“ trick more than once!
Landed several flip to grind/Slide tricks,but a always saw it
more like a Personal challenge.
After I did it I was fine.
Never felt the need to do Kickflip bs tailslides (for example)
all the time.
that’s the reason why I never got good at better tricks!
Wish I never had that attitude!
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I really wish I knew about grip gum sooner. I just started using it this year.
It's dusty where I live, and grip cleaner definitely helps after a session. My board goes from light grey to black again. It's not going to completely erase really thick dust, but it still makes a difference.
Going to try and buy one of those huge Rip Stik sand belt cleaners bc I saw that they do the same thing, you get a bigger stick, and it's less money.
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There are literally tons of things I could go on about with this topic. I enjoy making these posts more than all others because hopefully it can help someone with their skating, and in a miniscule way I can give back to skating through that.
Let's go over a few big ones:
1. Learn tricks properly.
2. Learn tricks in the proper sequence.
3. Learn tricks that fit your physique, or how a trick should be dealt with given your physique.
4. Skate with better people than yourself.
1. When it comes to learning tricks properly, I'm referring to not cheating them just so that you can have a new trick in your bag. A great example of this is manuals, lot's of people use the board instead of their slow twitch muscles to create the equilibrium point. This ends up taking you away from what you are trying to use manuals too develop skills wise, which is developing those slow twitch muscles to enhance your other areas of skating. If I have not skated for a few months, and all my muscles have deteriorated(which has happened for numerous reasons, injury, work, life, etc.), I will purposefully just do manual tricks for a week long period before even attempting anything else to build those muscles back up. I will hold regular manual, nose manual, one foot manual on both feet, one foot nose manual for both feet, and hangten tail and nose manuals. I will generally find a city block, and just go back and forth for hours just doing flatground manuals, until I have enough strength to consistently do all 8 of those manuals across a city block. Then and only then will I proceed to trying "Actual" tricks, regardless if it takes me one to two weeks to get back to this point again.
2. This part is fairly coupled to the first part because if you don't learn tricks properly, odds are you are trying to learn tricks out of sequence. usually what ends up happening is say ok, I just learned how to kickflip(improperly), so then I immediately go try 360 flips. Either one of 2 things happens, one you try to use your improper technique on a trick variation since it's based off your improper trick, and you cannot learn that trick, or you learn the next trick with compounded bad habits. eventually what happens is as your trick tree branches out and out and out(think of like a skill tree in an RPG), and at some level you get to a point where you cannot learn more tricks on that branch since your foundation is so shaky, and it becomes a house of cards. Then you gotta go back and actually study all those tricks in that branch like you are trying to get a damn PHD in skateboarding physics because the only way to progress is to resolve your understanding of the basics to that branch you missed.
3. I think skaters tend to skate, or at least pick tricks in their younger years based off their favorite pros, and a lot of the time those pros bodies do not fit the body of the imitator. If you want to pick someone to imitate in your early years, then pick someone whos physique match's your own to watch film on.
4. The easiest way to become a great skateboarder is to hangout and skate with great skateboarders who are far better than you. This is true of any skill you want to master in your life, hanging around with people who are better than you will always make you better. Humble yourself and not be a cool guy, and you can figure out some wildly astounding things about skateboarding that you would prolly never think of on your own unless you are on of these guys.
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There are literally tons of things I could go on about with this topic.
...and so I will go on about them
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I will hold regular manual, nose manual, one foot manual on both feet, one foot nose manual for both feet, and hangten tail and nose manuals. I will generally find a city block, and just go back and forth for hours just doing flatground manuals, until I have enough strength to consistently do all 8 of those manuals across a city block.
hahahahahahahahahaha
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Rub brick. If I'd known how to properly prep a ledge/curb when I was a teenager, I definitely would've had more spots in my zone, probably would've learned more tricks, and possibly have avoided my early-adult semi-hiatus. All of which means I would've had more fun.
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How to take it easy on myself and enjoy the moment. Instead of constantly being worried about if the trick I was doing was good enough, I would have just focused on what felt good. And, switch flip back tails....didn’t learn them until my mid thirties and had I tried 15 years earlier I would have loved to see what I could have done with that one.
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I will hold regular manual, nose manual, one foot manual on both feet, one foot nose manual for both feet, and hangten tail and nose manuals. I will generally find a city block, and just go back and forth for hours just doing flatground manuals, until I have enough strength to consistently do all 8 of those manuals across a city block.
hahahahahahahahahaha
Laugh all you want, but it fucking works.
See when I was young and really taking skating seriously, and was on the path to being a pro was during a time period where LaDainian Tomlinson played in the national football league. See when I was young I recognized early on that pro skaters do not train like professional athletes, and at the time I could not fathom how I could compete at a level with the best skaters in the world. so it's like what did I do? I broke the problem of becoming a top level skateboarder into a million little problems that were more solvable in a notebook, and wrote out the hierarchical relationship between each of these steps, very similar to how you program a computer in an object oriented programming language(If you are not a heavy programmer reading this you prolly have only used OOP, but their are things like functional languages where you don't think of problems in this fashion).
Why did I bring up LT? because LT would never ever release his training regimen to the public or other pros, and he just fucking steamrolled every single football player in his path, and literally every single person in the media and around him attributed it to his secretive regimen. Like once you get to the level where you are playing with the best in the world, what is it that makes you literally better than any singular person out their if that is the goal you are trying to optimize? Traditionally speaking it's your 'IQ' or some X factor related to training, preparation, mental fortitude, and intelligence. Like you got to think when you playin with the big boys, and comparing yourself because you have finally achieved this level, that like say you and the other world class athletes went out to go skate a contest, well on any single day any singular person can take it. I mean like I think Daewon or Rodney or && smoke fucking Nyjah in terms of abilities on a skateboard, but Nyjah would smoke them in a contest on any given sunday. there is a reason for that. Like Tom Brady, Lebron, etc. it's that "IQ"/preparation that puts them over the top. Nyjah has both, most people do not have both.
Now at some point I was able to get access to his (LTs) regimen through means. I studied it quite intensely, then I started studying Barry Zaristsky the guy who trained Rodney in his freestyle contests in the 80s who I came across on that tony hawk skatepark tour when they came through during my youth, and then I started doing intense research on 80s vert contests. There is a logical train of thought why I went from each one of these too another. I'm not going to explain why, you guys use your brains and figure it out.
Now laughing about the above^^^ I do not understand what is funny about engaging and making sure your slow twitch muscles are solid. If you skate big shit and don't do this you are an absolute fucking moron. Those slow twitch muscles are responsible for structural integrity and stability. you have a much higher chance of getting hurt if you have not skated in a long time and go immediately into fast twitch motions like ollie tricks or tricks involving ollies like street grinds. Literally you are a moron if you do that and have not skated in a while. also those slow twitch muscles allow your muscle memory to come back better for the fast twitch muscles, and people don't realize like every single fucking time you try a trick you are affecting the negative feedback loop involved with your brain and that specific trick. so, say you been off for a few days and u rush into ollie tricks right off the bat, well guess the fuck what if your muscles aren't at the point you need them to be, then your kinematic chain starts compensating for that, and your body starts taking that compensation into account for the future when you attempt your trick. Think of it like this, if your slow twitch muscles aren't at a certain level, then essentially you will be attempting a new trick every single time even though you are attempting a kickflip in all circumstances. Like essentially having built up slow twitch muscles allows you to essentially have scientific control when studying how to make your tricks better than they currently are, since they present a baseline of initial conditions for your body to solve the problem or "shape" with.
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Just having fun.
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I will hold regular manual, nose manual, one foot manual on both feet, one foot nose manual for both feet, and hangten tail and nose manuals. I will generally find a city block, and just go back and forth for hours just doing flatground manuals, until I have enough strength to consistently do all 8 of those manuals across a city block.
hahahahahahahahahaha
a fucking essay as usual
listen if you're circling a city block doing one foot nosemanuals you're gonna get laughed at a little bit
good on you for almost becoming a pro cheetah
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training like a pro athlete fucking sucks and isn’t fun.
why you’d want to put that attitude towards something as freeing and expressive as skating is beyond me.
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training like a pro athlete fucking sucks and isn’t fun.
why you’d want to put that attitude towards something as freeing and expressive as skating is beyond me.
I think it can be healthy or unhealthy. If you are trying to be the alpha males of all alpha males, than yes I do think it is most assuredly unhealthy, look at Nyjah. There is a reason they call Michael Jordan a psycopath lol, go watch the last dance if you have not, it's fucking excellent even if you are not into basketball.
I think that level of thinking though can make you the absolute most excellent skateboarder you can possibly be, but to do it healthily you need to internalize it as making yourself the best that you can possibly be instead of comparing yourself to others. It's a big reason why I stopped giving a fuck at a certain point about being a pro skater. Like at some point I could have become psycopathic and it prolly would have devolved into dominating the industry, or I could just enjoy myself and have fun. I chose the latter, I accomplished my goal of where I wanted my abilities, and had fun ever since.
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(https://i.imgur.com/obcI7Ba_d.webp?maxwidth=760&fidelity=grand)
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its not about landind a trick one time. its about doing that trick over and over and over again, skating with a tunnel vision for yourself instead of being worried about other peoples skill at the park. do your tricks, learn the basics to everything and do them over and over again. not to become the best but because its so fun to land the tricks. stop putting your feelings into it, meaning being the best at the park doesnt mean shit theres always one guy who is better. youve tried a trick 569 times but there is a guy who has already tried that trick 666009 times so he will land it first try while he cant do some things you do because youve tried it 666009 times.
as soon as people put their feeling into it they get stuck skill wise.
its pretty corny.
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its not about landind a trick one time. its about doing that trick over and over and over again, skating with a tunnel vision for yourself instead of being worried about other peoples skill at the park. do your tricks, learn the basics to everything and do them over and over again. not to become the best but because its so fun to land the tricks. stop putting your feelings into it, meaning being the best at the park doesnt mean shit theres always one guy who is better. youve tried a trick 569 times but there is a guy who has already tried that trick 666009 times so he will land it first try while he cant do some things you do because youve tried it 666009 times.
as soon as people put their feeling into it they get stuck skill wise.
its pretty corny.
Yep, repetition will get you far. Currently experiencing this with back tail curb sessions. It doesn't sound fun but is so fun when you see yourself get better.
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3 chip technology
Flip tricks
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Glad we have Greg "Cheetah Sheets" Popovich kicking around now, I had really been wishing for more stupefying blocks of pompous, unreadable text around here.
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i feel like i could only get to that tunnel vision when i smoked weed before skating and think its why its so common in skating. it made me more carelessly. i could try a trick for hours without freaking out asking myself if i was physically to dumb to do it. i had the same energy when i was a kid until i hit puberty and other things like girls became important and i let feelings direct myself. every since a girl left me and said im just a boy on a skateboard i had zero ego skating and it actually helped me put everything that wasnt i do this for my own fun to the side. skating is more mentally than people think. other people will drain your energy if you let them thats why people in there 20s mostly suck at learning how to do it. they go to a park and are to embaressed to even start with something basic over and over again. i dont think its impossible to become good at skating starting in your 20s.
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this thread looks like a goddamn goodreads review section
but I would say skating transition backside, all fs all day for me
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this thread looks like a goddamn goodreads review section
but I would say skating transition backside, all fs all day for me
this is baffling to me
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this whole forum is based on somebody taking his time out to answer a question correctly and than a stupid motherfucker saying something funny ignorant about the comment just so somebody else will high five him for that.
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with that being said. cky enthusiast you seem like the worst dude with a very low attention span, i mean you never have watched a skate video in its entirley, why dont you just shut the fuck up if you never have to say anything relevant?
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training like a pro athlete fucking sucks
Dude just said to practice a few manuals, don't be such a bitch about it. Either way everyone here will need some type of extra exercise with time(to the ones that don't already need them), unless the plan is to stop skating at 40 or become one of those older dudes that are all stiff and shit.
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learning tricks stratetgic and trying them over and over again will make you land more tricks which means youll have a lot more fun while skating itself. nobody on here acts like you need to be an athlete.
after having your session you can go to your friends or inbetween whatever but why is it seen so egoistic to act like that?
in my opinion its not the people that skate for themselves that have a big ego, its the ones who go to a park and think they need to have an opinion on everybody skating there and have a session where you HAVE to interact with everyone around you. judgemental idiots who get frustrated really quick and never turned of their ego.
there are different types of those lames.
first will be the poor i dont have a job core skaters who think you cant wear anything non skating related and get mad really quick if you are better than them and on the other side the pretentious fashion skaters that only can do wallies and fs no complys. if you do one trick that isnt dylan rieder than you skating is non valid.
this isnt your space only because you and your lazy ass friends sit around at that park all day.
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with that being said. cky enthusiast you seem like the worst dude with a very low attention span, i mean you never have watched a skate video in its entirley, why dont you just shut the fuck up if you never have to say anything relevant?
Lol
Did you ever watch the Flip video CKY?
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learning tricks stratetgic and trying them over and over again will make you land more tricks which means youll have a lot more fun while skating itself. nobody on here acts like you need to be an athlete.
after having your session you can go to your friends or inbetween whatever but why is it seen so egoistic to act like that?
in my opinion its not the people that skate for themselves that have a big ego, its the ones who go to a park and think they need to have an opinion on everybody skating there and have a session where you HAVE to interact with everyone around you. judgemental idiots who get frustrated really quick and never turned of their ego.
there are different types of those lames.
first will be the poor i dont have a job core skaters who think you cant wear anything non skating related and get mad really quick if you are better than them and on the other side the pretentious fashion skaters that only can do wallies and fs no complys. if you do one trick that isnt dylan rieder than you skating is non valid.
this isnt your space only because you and your lazy ass friends sit around at that park all day.
Skateboarding is just like basketball. It is the ultimate urban alpha male sport/art that their possibly is other than basketball. The difference though is that the alphas of all alphas happen between 27-32 years old. Half of the alphas that exist in skateboarding are like 12-15 years old. On top of that, skateboarders don't travel and do demos, and it's not like you have resident and non resident pros like you have at countryclubs anymore(if you are wondering yes this is how it went down, look up cherry hill at some point and learn some history, I believe Victor Perez was the residential pro, and Shogo the non residential pro). The modern day 13 year old alpha of say the middle of nowhere wyoming, he does not get to see pros or really anyone that is better than him. These alphas, they never see anyone better, and they get this serious big fish small pond attitude. it's been something historic in skating, but has gotten worse the more viral and unrelated at the personal level a lot of these companies have gotten with the consumer. What really fucking cracks me up is you have all these "cool guy" brands that have managed to stay relevant because no one wants to tour and change the market. Like if && wanted to ride around the US and hit up every single skatepark, and just do this for like a 2 year long period, I bet money Powell would have a better relationship at the personal level than any singular fucking hype thing Dill could come up with because it is fucking organic, and skateboarders have always thought organically, it's why Instagram took over our community, it was the first way people could naturally organically market themselves en masse. Before that you had to pay google or do something that seemed like you were desperate to get people to buy your products, and skateboarders are better at sniffing that out than any consumer on the planet.
Random Tangent, but it really stems from alphas not meeting better alphas, which is why this topic was on my list in terms of getting better. What happens generally is when someone arrives at their territory and steals their thunder they start acting out. This literally happens to me every single motherfucking time I show up at a random new park not in cali.
I end up destroying the park, and all these little alphas compared to Coach Popp have no hope. They start lashing out and have literally tons of weirdness that has ensued. Their whole existence they have had every single person at the park look at them the entire time they skate, and they feed off that energy for positive feedback like instagram girls at 16 years old.
Then I come along and within 30 seconds absolutely no one gives a single fuck about them anymore, which is even more embarrassing to them because I'm not the most masculine dressed guy(I got muscle though), so it's like the first time you ever got dunked on in your whole life was by the guy that you absolutely can't fucking stand cuz you have that toxic alpha cool guy attitude.
Skateboarding has turned into the jock sport of all jock sports if you all haven't figured out, and deluxe and all the SF brands have made it worse with all the cool guying from the 90s and early 000s that then spread to Supreme and shit.
Also if you never skate with anyone better in your whole life I feel bad for you. I don't get to see many people better than me anymore, so let me tell you when I see it, it makes me genuinely happy. I recognized a long time ago even if I am the GOAT eventually someone will come along better than me and push the sport to become the new GOAT, and now as an ambassador of this thing because I am of that caliber, I feel it is my duty to push the thing on for that guy.
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training like a pro athlete fucking sucks
to clarify: i don’t mean strength training or conditioning is bad (i do both regularly) i think singularly focusing on being “the best you can be” or whatever takes away a lot of the joy in skating. your skating, trick selection etc will be a reflection of who you are regardless- you’re gonna do and learn the tricks you like to watch.
i used to train religiously when i was racing bicycles (like 12-15 hours a week on the bike doing over under drills, sprint work etc) and all it did was make me hate cycling and give me a fucked up endocrine system. i don’t think it’s worth it just to be the best at benihana fly outs in iowa or whatever
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with that being said. cky enthusiast you seem like the worst dude with a very low attention span, i mean you never have watched a skate video in its entirley, why dont you just shut the fuck up if you never have to say anything relevant?
is it hard to see the keyboard through the tears
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with that being said. cky enthusiast you seem like the worst dude with a very low attention span, i mean you never have watched a skate video in its entirley, why dont you just shut the fuck up if you never have to say anything relevant?
Lol
Did you ever watch the Flip video CKY?
yeah. it was fine. didn’t speak to me except for penny’s part(s) which i had already seen (since i don’t usually watch them in their entirley or whatever he said)- id rather go skate than watch TV idk why that blows so many people’s fuses here
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training like a pro athlete fucking sucks
to clarify: i don’t mean strength training or conditioning is bad (i do both regularly) i think singularly focusing on being “the best you can be” or whatever takes away a lot of the joy in skating. your skating, trick selection etc will be a reflection of who you are regardless- you’re gonna do and learn the tricks you like to watch.
i used to train religiously when i was racing bicycles (like 12-15 hours a week on the bike doing over under drills, sprint work etc) and all it did was make me hate cycling and give me a fucked up endocrine system. i don’t think it’s worth it just to be the best at benihana fly outs in iowa or whatever
It's all about the mentality homie. You can make yourself go crazy with it, or you can do it healthily. usually when you go crazy it's because you're trying to progress quickly since you are comparing yourself to others on the come up, or have to skate contests, if you are in the sponsored track. If you are in the non-sponsored track, what makes you go crazy usually is trying to progress quickly enough to get into that track. Now if you just try to make yourself the best you can possibly be, but slow cook it like a world class chef, that shit gives you the ability to be the best of the best while not becoming a psycopath in the process.
I am world class now at other things outside of skateboarding, and the only times I ever feel unhealthy are when I am trying to meet deadlines. Like that is naturally unhealthily, and you stress yourself out. If you think about it to a skater that wants to be successful, like at the sponsored level, they have a window, a deadline, on their skating career mortality. Like if kids don't get the hook up and the money early enough it really does become financially unfeasible if you have other options in your life that you can acquire more money with. Like I will be real with you guys, I genuinely think barring some crazy thing I could have made brass tax 130-150 k from skating for a 5-10 year window. Well doing what I do now I have a much higher ceiling for money and career earnings, and it was stupid personally for me to pursue a career in it given my other options. For a lot of kids that's good money, but for me I would have needed TJ money to say hey fuck this other thing. You gotta think i'm trying to give you guys insight into how the best of the best think about skating because this is a skateboard forum, and I figure you all will be interested in my dialogue so long as I speak strictly of the topics at hand.
I took the other path, and got to destress and have fun with skating, so do not think I don't agree with you at a fundamental level because I do, but I don't think that thinking is naturally unhealthy, it is how you look at the problem.
Like for instance you can stress about getting a kickflip on a 10 stair, or you can solve it in incremental steps to not stress yourself out. first you can have a 2 hour session doing all your tricks with a device to sense speed, going the exact speed you would need to clear those stairs with the most stability. Just feel out that velocity going into and out of the trick, and know it exactly for when you need to kick out. Then go to a 4 stair and keep that same speed and do the same thing. Then take it to the 10 stair, and since you know the exact speed and the exact feel of the flick free falling you know fucking exactly when to kick out. Now you don't need to do all of these things, you truly don't, but how long of a career do you want to have? you see all these guys want to have bravado and just skate big shit all the time, and alpha it up, when if they thought their shit out would have longer careers. That's why i'm bringing all this shit up, it's about maximizing someone's time on a board.
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I figure you all will be interested in my dialogue
This shows a shocking lack of self awareness.
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Don’t ever do a nose picker with a coper.
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training like a pro athlete fucking sucks
to clarify: i don’t mean strength training or conditioning is bad (i do both regularly) i think singularly focusing on being “the best you can be” or whatever takes away a lot of the joy in skating. your skating, trick selection etc will be a reflection of who you are regardless- you’re gonna do and learn the tricks you like to watch.
i used to train religiously when i was racing bicycles (like 12-15 hours a week on the bike doing over under drills, sprint work etc) and all it did was make me hate cycling and give me a fucked up endocrine system. i don’t think it’s worth it just to be the best at benihana fly outs in iowa or whatever
You know what really takes the joy out of skateboarding? Not being able to land tricks because your legs are all fucked up. I get what you're saying, but it's not really the case here, at least in my opinion.
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training like a pro athlete fucking sucks
to clarify: i don’t mean strength training or conditioning is bad (i do both regularly) i think singularly focusing on being “the best you can be” or whatever takes away a lot of the joy in skating. your skating, trick selection etc will be a reflection of who you are regardless- you’re gonna do and learn the tricks you like to watch.
i used to train religiously when i was racing bicycles (like 12-15 hours a week on the bike doing over under drills, sprint work etc) and all it did was make me hate cycling and give me a fucked up endocrine system. i don’t think it’s worth it just to be the best at benihana fly outs in iowa or whatever
This guy fucking gets it^^^. Lebron spends millions of dollars a year on his body because it's what enables him to be a pro until his 40s at the highest levels of competition, or Brady for that matter. Skaters currently do not do this, don't have the funds too, and we don't have athletic trainers that have studied that stuff specifically within skateboarding except for maybe a handful of guys in our history. You can talk about skaters taking stuff from other sports like jocks, but who is the real jock? the guy with the novel approach that has solved the problem, or the cool guy who doesn't have a pro career because he blew out his ACL trying to compete in the modern skateboarding environment?
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training like a pro athlete fucking sucks
to clarify: i don’t mean strength training or conditioning is bad (i do both regularly)
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training like a pro athlete fucking sucks
to clarify: i don’t mean strength training or conditioning is bad (i do both regularly) i think singularly focusing on being “the best you can be” or whatever takes away a lot of the joy in skating. your skating, trick selection etc will be a reflection of who you are regardless- you’re gonna do and learn the tricks you like to watch.
i used to train religiously when i was racing bicycles (like 12-15 hours a week on the bike doing over under drills, sprint work etc) and all it did was make me hate cycling and give me a fucked up endocrine system. i don’t think it’s worth it just to be the best at benihana fly outs in iowa or whatever
This guy fucking gets it^^^. Lebron spends millions of dollars a year on his body because it's what enables him to be a pro until his 40s at the highest levels of competition, or Brady for that matter. Skaters currently do not do this, don't have the funds too, and we don't have athletic trainers that have studied that stuff specifically within skateboarding except for maybe a handful of guys in our history. You can talk about skaters taking stuff from other sports like jocks, but who is the real jock? the guy with the novel approach that has solved the problem, or the cool guy who doesn't have a pro career because he blew out his ACL trying to compete in the modern skateboarding environment?
I appreciate the quote in bold.
I mean, sure, if you’re getting paid to skate why not although I’m not sure training makes a huge difference in blunt force trauma injuries.
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Everyone goes through a bad day. Happens to the best of us.
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don’t limit your progression because your friends are getting jealous. they should be hyping you up not talking shit.
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One thing I really regret is not going to skateparks or street spots and meeting any other skaters when I was younger. I pretty much only skated alone in my driveway for my first three years because I had super strict parents and I feel like it really limited my progression. I eventually ended up quitting for a while because I got sick of skating alone and didn't start again until I made some friends that skated.
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More due to the era I started in (2005) but you don't have to find the biggest shit or the gnarliest spot. I spent years, to no avail, to get good at staircounting and hucking.
Also don't feel self conscious about people watching you. I grew up across from halfway homes and they'd heckle me so often I could never skate in front of the house.
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I don’t know if this is fully correct buts it’s helped me. When you are popping a trick you are really only jumping off tour popping foot, the flicking foot/leg just drags/flicks/gets out of the way. On ollies this has been muscle memory for me forever but on a lot of flip tricks I used to kinda do a two footed jump and my tricks would be rocket or go behind me. This really helped me get nice catchy kickflips because I got so much more flick and friction with my front foot as opposed to just kind of tapping the nose on the way up.