I’m going to have to take some of this advice.
Skated today for about an hour and had a solid, clear thought about 50 minutes in: “what the fuck am I doing here?”
I’m 42 about to turn 43 next month, and I just feel like I should be out on the golf course instead of at the skatepark sucking.
I don’t feel embarrassed, it’s more of a “why am I here doing my stupid slow and low tricks” existential crisis kind of question.
Everything hurts and I feel like I can’t take risks like I used to because getting hurt is the absolute worst now.
Also, I gained 25 pounds in the last six months… which really makes skating harder and nothing I can do is making the weight go away (healthy eating, more active throughout day with at least one walk of 15 minutes, and 2-5 hours of skating a week on two separate days)
I don’t know, I think if I quit skating for a few months to do something else, it’ll be really difficult to get back into it again.
Too scared to quit, if that makes sense. But too much in pain to really skate like is necessary to get the most out of it.
I don’t know… maybe trying a different park would be good. There’s a new one opening soon about 30 minutes away with some low looking stuff. There’s a 3’ quarter I could try to build up confidence to roll into (or really just do the damn thing without thinking… not thinking about it usually led to better skating)
Or go skate the mostly transition park/pump track and just get some killer aerobic exercise and fly outs.
yeah, i’ve had this feeling when i go out.
i haven’t had a ‘good’ session, in….in about 8 years. not one that springs to mind. meaning i haven’t skated well, for me, in about 8 years.
i’m mid 40’s. had a relative peak in ability in early mid 30s. got injured back then, took time away for bikes and soccer and got injured doing both, and have been just declining.
declining to the point where i’m not even sure what i’m attempting.
if i could skate any type of way, i guess it’d be Lavar in trilogy, just endless flatground flip tricks, that was always the dream. i always sucked at ledges, ramps make no sense to me. i skate too slow, always have, now it’s way way too slow. i formerly could jump pretty high, and that has disappeared.
being older and out of shape, skating slow trying to hang on to a handful of flip tricks and really nothing else, just seems weird as hell.
i’ve allowed myself to get really ‘confused’ (consumeristic) with gear, and that has been my interface with skating for quite a bit. even as i write all of this shit out, i’m thinking about the last time i was skating well, 8 ish years ago, and what the board was (8.25 14 wb Chico, and like a fucknut i skated with 139s/144s/159s. probably consistently best with the 144s, but best session was with 159s….had a nice graphic too, kinda white and pink background and cool drawing/painting of someone, one of the rare times i loved one surprised me with a board, as an adult).
lots of good suggestions in the thread: skating in the street, skating different setups, skating for distance, skating hills, no ollie’s, building stuff, biking around looking for spots, SWITCH TIC TAC (if i could figure out how to switch speed check back to switch i think that would be really really really sick).
there are roads, surfaces, sidewalks, brick plazas, in different states that i can remember. just great vibrations under the wheels. none of my crappy bag of tricks were needed to enjoy those times of just rolling.
i understand that comparison is the thief of joy. and i uncle rico it to a wild degree: i wasn’t ever ‘good’ at skating. but in the area i grew up, when i got back into skating, i was a little older (16/17) and more athletic than the others, and had that reputation, or identity a little bit. i knew i wasn’t good, like that, i saw videos, but….i wanted to believe a little bit. and i really let myself get caught up to a very small extent, in that i didn’t want to show people my limitations skating, and so i didn’t progress.
now as an old man, whose life is off-kilter, im comparing my old self, to something that never was, and mourning the difference. i can see it being silly, vain, gross, and inaccurate, but if i could just land this goddamn hardflip, or tre-athalon one more time, it’d all be better. (currently none of the tre’s. zero. not about to do all of em in a row).
Topic: Losing interest in skateboarding/feeling left out (Read 3514 times)