skate break

[marty mcfly]

my last skatesession was about one year ago.
Im just not feeling it right now ...since my son was born and i have a new job its hard for me to motivate myself to go skate.

Never had such a long break in 22 years of skateboarding...kind of scary!
Even my dad said to me: I never thought you stop skating!
I’ve told him that it’s just a break but in my head I wasn’t really sure about it.

Am I over it??

You guys had similar situations?

[Paco Supreme]

I wouldn’t sweat it man, I hadn’t skated in 4 months until recently.

I was super down on just everything and skating didn’t seem like the thing that would brighten my day.

It’ll swing back around again, even if it’s 20 minutes skating in a driveway.

[marty mcfly]

I wouldn’t sweat it man, I hadn’t skated in 4 months until recently.

I was super down on just everything and skating didn’t seem like the thing that would brighten my day.

It’ll swing back around again, even if it’s 20 minutes skating in a driveway.

Thanks...I hope so,dude!!!

[beatifk]

I didn’t skate all through college (I sometimes had a board but never really went) and even a few years after that super casually and more often than not I used my skateboard for transportation rather than actual skating.

I got back into when I moved to a tiny village where there was nothing to do so I found a curb, waxed it up and got better at skating than I’d been for years over the course of a few months of skating every day.

I’m kinda on a break now but only because it’s been too hot this summer and my office moved to a place I need to drive everywhere so it’s not as easy to have a quick skate during lunchtime. But I’m ready to get back to it in autumn I think.

Things like a great video or just general boredom of other stuff can trigger a re-interest in skating. If you’re not feeling it now you probably will sometime in the future. Maybe when your son is old enough to roll around with you.

[marty mcfly]

I didn’t skate all through college (I sometimes had a board but never really went) and even a few years after that super casually and more often than not I used my skateboard for transportation rather than actual skating.

I got back into when I moved to a tiny village where there was nothing to do so I found a curb, waxed it up and got better at skating than I’d been for years over the course of a few months of skating every day.

I’m kinda on a break now but only because it’s been too hot this summer and my office moved to a place I need to drive everywhere so it’s not as easy to have a quick skate during lunchtime. But I’m ready to get back to it in autumn I think.

Things like a great video or just general boredom of other stuff can trigger a re-interest in skating. If you’re not feeling it now you probably will sometime in the future. Maybe when your son is old enough to roll around with you.

That would be so cool...but is still hope i jump back on my board a little earlier than that.
I haven’t completely lost interest in skateboarding...still following skate media and visit slap on daily base (the Sabotage DC vid was soo good)...just can’t bring myself to skate. probably lost about ten flip tricks already...but that doesn’t matter...I’m just scared I never feel the need to roll around again.

[Hinna]

quit at 19 or 20 pretty much completely minus going from a to b a few times. then started again at 27 or 28. had kickflips tres and hardflips not counting super basics like shuvs in high school. and 50d a lil roundbar downgap which felt good. but between other things in life and not having a single sk8r around me after graduation i was over it. after college ive been skating consistently winter and all for the past x years. started over completely and built on the old basics. feels good man

[TheBoognish]

Same here, almost 23 years in the game and this is my first real break, besides a few months due to me destroying my ankle 6 years ago.

Haven’t skated since mid-May due a recurring back injury. It’s gotten to the point where everytime I’d skate, I’d hurt my back. Even flatground was too much. I’m only 32 but it feels like my back is 97.
 
Somehow doing BJJ doesn’t make it flare up too bad so I’ve been focusing on that for now to stay active and flexible, also so I don’t get bummed on not skating. I can get smashed by a 235 lbs mountain of muscles and that’s fine, but a nollie bs 180 on flat fucks my back up for months. Skating’s weird like that sometimes.

I have a fairly physical job (I fix industrial machinery) and 10 minutes of skating can end up costing me a few weeks of work, so I have to be smart about this. If I show up to work all crooked and hurt, they have to send me home.

So i’m staying active and re-enforcing my core and back muscles, once I feel confident enough in my back, I’ll be back on my board. There’s still two set-ups next to the door ready to go, I haven’t quit just yet.

[Easy Slider]

Bro I stopped skating in 2001 (about the same time Dre dropped 2001), thought I was done.

Then during lockdown in 2020 I came back and have been immensely enjoying myself ever since. I relearned a lot of stuff, some is probably gone for good but I also learn new stuff. Today I rolled away from my first front board ever. 

I‘d say it makes no sense to force yourself and you can always come back. Just know that there is not much out there feeling more satisfying than rolling away from a trick or line you have been battling with for a while.

[shredder sequel]

I’ve been taking a bit of a break since April. Skating intermittently, but nothing like i was before that (almost every day). I skate a lot with my daughter and as she gets older skating is increasingly a site of conflict. Skating together is a bit of a bummer. Skating by myself and with others is a bit of a bummer, too.

So I’ve been fly fishing instead.

[Gray Imp Sausage Metal]

I took a break for 5 or so years: work was super busy and I was in party mode. I was living overseas at the time so it wasn't so apparent to my friends/ family, but my parents were super surprised to hear I wan't rolling. I still (barely) kept up with media etc. and actually still bought proddy, but it would never get used, was always on the back burner. Even I couldn't believe I didn't skate much anymore... I tried to get back into it a few times but something always got in the way.

When my wife got pregnant with our first son it was a huge shock to me: I wasn't sure if I'd be a good dad or not and wasn't really ready to be thrown into the whole dad life scene nor did I really want to give up my “freedom”.
What I did know though is that I wanted to be able to pass something down to him, or even more than that I wanted to have a common hobby with him... but what could that be? With my dad it’s motorcycles, we rode together all the time when I was a kid and that’s what I remember most about my times with him.
I suck at sports, being a party animal was no longer an option nor something I could pass on to him. And that's when it hit me (hard) ... the only thing I could teach/ pass onto him would be skating and that is what brought me back.
It wasn't easy and I still suck to this day, but my fav thing in the whole world is being able to roll with him and see his stoke. I never pushed him or tried to “teach” him anything, fun is the main purpose of our sessions, but in the last few weeks he's learnt how to drop in on miniramps and has also worked out how to do little Ollies while rolling. He also watches me skate and tries to work out all my tricks in his head.

Anyway, that's not the main thing you were asking about but as a fellow dad, I can say that rolling with your kid(s) is a great feeling.
What I can also say (and most who took a break will echo this) is that the longer you stay away, the harder it is to get back to any sort of decent skill level. That may not even be your goal, but as someone who took 5+ years off, it's frustrating to not be even able to try stuff you previously took as a given. I used to be semi-decent at miniramp/ transition and now rock to fakies do my head in... if I came back earlier I don’t think I would have lost as many tricks.

[IUTSM]

hey man, don't sweat it. the board and the streets will always be there. your body will change, but the skateboarding will always be there. there was a period in my late 20s where I wasn't skating much, mostly because I was getting too fucked up or trying to get fucked up and go skate and the sesh with a 40 and a blunt turned into a lot more than that and so it went the way of partying, but I always had a board. Then around 29, in 2014, my body started getting really wonky and I was living in the mountains, so skating couldn't really happen. I still got hyped on it and had a board but it was a shitty, shitty shop deck that made any attempt feel awful so, combined with the broken body and new found sobriety, I straight up stopped skating. I said I wasn't going to go skate just because I felt I had to go skate, like a chore. I stopped having a board in my car. Stopped referring to myself or thinking of myself as a skateboarder. I was bored and on the internet a lot for my new thing in grad school, so I made my first SLAP account since 2011 and start kinda thinking of skating again but still couldn't skate. Then in September 2020 I was out for a bike ride and snagged a big fat cruiser board that some tweaked out cat left in the bushes. Shit was like 10" with a 15wb, old ass venture 5.1 and soft wheels. I threw it in my whip for a cross country trip back home and decided to go skate the old spots. I had a lot of fun and just started trying to do some shit- I wasn't thinking about wheel base or softies and was totally getting smoked, but damn did it feel good. I drove back home a month later, stopped in the local shop, bought a standard 8.6 popsicle and some new 56mm Bones wheels, slapped em on some old Indy 149s and it's been a wrap since. Skating a few days a week, messing around with new shit, learning and having hecka fun times, learning more shit in a faster period than at any other time since I started playing with skateboards in 1996.

I got long here because a break was kind of the best thing I could have done to start enjoying skateboarding again. I am slower, less ballsy, and skate alone all the time, but it's the shit. take a break 

[Loki700]

I skated from 11-15, then dropped it until I was 18, picked it up for around 3 months, dropped it until I was 25, skated for like 6 months until I broke my foot, dropped it again, picked it back up a few months ago at 31.

Even if it takes a while, it’ll come back around.  A big part of me having dropped it in the past was that I had no one to consistently skate with, and it sounds like you either didn’t have that problem or it’s never been a hang up for you, so I’m confident you’ll come back to it a lot sooner than I did.

[Frank and Fred]

Don't force it or feel bad about not skateboarding. I don't know how old you are but I know a lot of people who have entered a skateboarding funk in their mid-20s to mid-30s. The passion will come back to you if its meant to. 25 to early 30s were horrible for me. I still tried to skate but was largely un-inspired. I moved countries, got married, had a kid, suffered some depression. I am sure all those things contributed. Just trying to be an adult can suck early on. Something clicked in my early 30s and my approach changed. No shits left to give.  No pressure to be good, skate a certain way, be part of a scene or skate certain spots. I'm in my mid 40s now and was just telling another old dude I am more obsessed with skateboarding than I was 20 years ago. And its not just slappies and slash grinds (well it mostly is haha...)

[EXTRA SPICY]

Only during injuries. Not skating makes me cranky and I get depressed.

[Andmoreagain]

I've been having a forced skate break due to some ankle injuries. It's been frustrating. I can go to the park and skate, but if I run out wrong or bail and land flat footed it can really hurt my ankles. It's been like this since June and I'm getting really fed up with it. I was not a very good skater to begin with but now I've been robbed of a few of my favorite reliable tricks

[live, laugh, love]

I'd say just try to get out there. The spark will come back once you're on your board again. And don't be upset if your skill level isn't where it used to be. You'll either get your old tricks back, or focus on learning new shit. But just have fun with it.

I was renting a house on a farm for a long time. It had a gravel driveway that was almost a half mile long. No spots in the area really. Even flat ground spots were a good drive down the road. So living there took me out of skating regularly. Moving back to civilization definitely got me back into skating a bunch.

Good luck with getting back on your board!

[50mm]

I started skating more in 2016 here and there, same in 2017 and a ton in 2019. Last year I skated every single day of January 2020. Even if I had to run down the street on my lunch break and skate for 15 minutes, I made myself. I moved March 1 last year and have skated like 3 times real quick since then. Where I moved sucked, I moved again a few months ago now I live in the middle of wilderness so I literally don't even have a spot to skate flat. There is a skatepark down the hill from me and I have been itching to get a deck. I have one now but its soggy.

[GBLange]

egg / football shape got me stoked to be back skating..just like the 90s...