Dealing with spot nostalgia.

[in love w/ fs shuvs]

Hi all. I just hit that awkward age where you realize that a lot of the familiar faces that used to frequent ur local stopped showing up. I'm also partly to blame since I put skating on the backburner for a bit for work and school. Don't get me wrong, seeing the younger kids fall in love with skating is a beautiful thing. It just trips me up how it all changed up all of a sudden, i miss my squad . The nostalgia is high-key soul crushing and sometimes it gets to me. Any of you guys felt anything similar? Is it time to just move on to different spots/skating with different people?

[SneakySecrets]

Yep, I had a very tight-knit little skate crew in high school, probably similar to a lot of people here.  After high school, life took everyone in different directions and I’ve never had anything like that since.  I’ve had skate acquaintances and skate buds, but it’s nothing like it was.

For me, I feel lucky just to have had those several great years.  Lots of people don’t get to experience something like that. 

[Chavo]

I had changed crews at least 3 times before I turned 16. Most joined gangs. The rest learned that dressing nicely and not skateboarding made them more popular with the ladies. The worst was not seeing another skater for days at a spot that previously had 20+ at any given time. By the time I was 19, the locals averaged 14-15, so I eventually went solo.

[somethingmustbreaknow]

i met up with my old skate buddy who now works at the largest bank of my country on monday and we went to the old skatepark in our old small town hometown where we started skating some 20 years ago. he stopped after couple of years, i stuck to it til this day. however, we had some super nice summers there. the nostalgia hit us, he did some ollies, i skated the park a little. asphalt's gotten super fucking rough. we cracked some beers open talked about past, present, and future stuffs. that was good, and fun. can recommend.

[rocklobster]

Yep, I had a very tight-knit little skate crew in high school, probably similar to a lot of people here.  After high school, life took everyone in different directions and I’ve never had anything like that since.  I’ve had skate acquaintances and skate buds, but it’s nothing like it was.

For me, I feel lucky just to have had those several great years.  Lots of people don’t get to experience something like that.

Guess I'm fortunate to still be in regular contact with my crew from 15 years back. We've all moved on into our next phase of life but we still come back to skateboarding. 1.5 years ago I picked it up again and skating regularly, "A" would drop in and out but he would consistently rip, he never needed any time to get warm on his board. "J" came back a year ago and has been super consistent with it since then, he's joined me for 80% of the sessions and its great to see him progress from when we were teenagers.

Still make an effort to befriend the regular at the spot, they are younger than my crew so they joke about us being older. Until they realize I've been skating non-stop for 3 hours while they were done 90 minutes in. All good natured fun, love those guys too.

[IUTSM]

Next month I'm visiting my hometown where I grew up skating. There's one 1 dude I still talk to regularly. He only skates when I visit and force him to pull out a board. Dude's got an ancient 7.5 with royals in his trunk. I think I'm gonna kick him down a newer, wider used set up on this trip. Homie's probably gained like 50-75lbs since we were skating together regularly, so I figure a comfier set up might inspire him to ride more! It's rough skating with him because he's smoking a pack and a half a day hacking up nasty shit and wheezing and always wants to smoke numerous bowls before/during the session, which ends up lasting 45 mins tops at some old prefab park. I gotta teach him the way of the slappy and increase his modern skate life. another old skate buddy, dude's 10 years past me, recently wrote me a letter and said he's skating again for the first time in 6 years. This kid was always the OG ripper, so I hope we get to go push around somewhere too. Other than that, everyone I used to skate with has died in the past few years.

rest in peace to the old homies and moving forward with love and light into the future generations!!!!

[Sila]

Nostalgia can hit us in funny ways. For me personally it can be a great source of warmth and inspiration, but sometimes it can be downright painful when I realize those effortless times can't be recreated. There's so many circumstances that are out of our control that can contribute to things going "right" where we get to experience the magic of having great crews/friends and spots. Like someone here already mentioned, it's best just to be extremely grateful that these moments were part of our lives.

 I feel it though, I walk past my teenage spots semi-regularly and hear the laughter, the clicking of the tails, I can clearly visualize the long meandering flatground sessions. There's one spot I go to just to sit and take it all in and reconnect. My close friend took his life at 20, and it's the spot where I met him. But as long you can roll around, the magic will be there.

[in love w/ fs shuvs]

Nostalgia can hit us in funny ways. For me personally it can be a great source of warmth and inspiration, but sometimes it can be downright painful when I realize those effortless times can't be recreated. There's so many circumstances that are out of our control that can contribute to things going "right" where we get to experience the magic of having great crews/friends and spots. Like someone here already mentioned, it's best just to be extremely grateful that these moments were part of our lives.

 I feel it though, I walk past my teenage spots semi-regularly and hear the laughter, the clicking of the tails, I can clearly visualize the long meandering flatground sessions. There's one spot I go to just to sit and take it all in and reconnect. My close friend took his life at 20, and it's the spot where I met him. But as long you can roll around, the magic will be there.

You are so strong.

[rocklobster]

Nostalgia can hit us in funny ways. For me personally it can be a great source of warmth and inspiration, but sometimes it can be downright painful when I realize those effortless times can't be recreated. There's so many circumstances that are out of our control that can contribute to things going "right" where we get to experience the magic of having great crews/friends and spots. Like someone here already mentioned, it's best just to be extremely grateful that these moments were part of our lives.

"I wish there was a way to know you've in the good days, before you actually left them"

Skated this morning with an old friend who is going to be a dad come September. Getting as many session as we can in before his life is diapers and 2 hours of sleep a night. Passed him some shoes and a board, was hoping he would skate them today but he's the kind of guy to skate his deck till its a toothpick.

Making friends can be difficult as you get older, but at least you and this group of (now) strangers have skateboarding in common.

I recently tried to reconnect with an old skate friend, we lost contact when he got into a motorcycle accident and both his legs were destroyed. One of the most technically gifted skaters and friends I ever knew, taught me so much of the fundamentals I still practice today and try to impart on kids when they as me for advice on XYZ trick. Got his number from a park local, triple confirmed it was was him and sent him a long ass text; apologizing why I didn't keep in contact all these years and thanked him for making a positive impact on my life. He said I got the wrong number, and was referring to another dude, despite me checking with another 2 people on his identity. It stung a little but I guess he's moved on with his life and doesn't want to be reminded of that past.

TLDR: make an effort to keep up with your friends and skate crew

[fs1/2cab]

Well for me it is different.
I like to think back, how my body and bones didn't hurt 10 years ago. But I was also always the worst skater in every "crew" I was in.

So now I am 30, my ankles and my back is a bit fucked but I am the last one who skates regularly. Some found drugs, booze, girls, motorcycles, modeling and some died.

But nothing really changed for me, except, have to wear ankle braces and do a lot of stretching and I am skating way better as 10 years ago.

[rocklobster]

But nothing really changed for me, except, have to wear ankle braces and do a lot of stretching and I am skating way better as 10 years ago.

Same, I got to be a lot more conscious about by overall health and vitality, but I'm skating harder and better than I did in my teens or 20s. Flip tricks are harder to come by, my legs aren't as springy and falls hurt more and need a longer recovery time. But I'm more thoughtful about my skating instead of hucking myself constantly at a ledge and failing. My switch game is gradually developing (got switch shoves, 50-50, noseslide) and I'm doing tricks I could do in my "prime".

The good old days are us making the best of today.