Was Covid good for skating?

[Welpok]

Personally, my mental health and skateboarding suffered a lot because of it. But somehow made it through. Hopefully things keep improving (skateboarding wise).

[GrayCellGreen]

The pandemic was bittersweet for me in regard to skateboarding. It was sad to see the smaller Ma and Pa skate shops/companies go under. Personally, it did motivate me to get back on the board after a year hiatus. Been skating consistently since then and its been great for my mental and physical health.

[GAY]

It definitely made me suddenly better than probably lots of good anti-vax skaters.

[Tommy G]

I see it as a wave for skateboarding. There was a surge of people trying out skateboarding and product was flying off the shelves for both local and online skate shops. As we went back to normal though, many of those people quit except for a few that stuck with it. For those that stuck with it, that’s great! I like seeing people discover or rediscover something they love to do. Looking at it now though, the skate scene at my park has dwindled again just like it did about 10 years ago and I don’t know who is really gonna stick with it especially now that most of us are grown up with responsibilities and kids.

In my personal case, skateboarding was kind of on the back burner since my job and responsibilities basically doubled during the pandemic. I did occasionally skate street and even took a couple of trips. It hasn’t been until near the end of the pandemic that I’ve skated a lot more now that my life and my mental health have stabilized.

[Francis Xavier]

Fuck yeah, because some of these fools needed to move on and get jobs.

[FatGuy92]

Good in the sense that my local shop had a spike in business and that I had the privilege of working from home so I could skate more during the day. Seems like Mason Silva, Mark Suciu, and others took advantage of the lockdown to film more clips too. Maybe bad in the sense that a lot of shops over ordered and are having trouble selling product now that things stabilized a bit.

[rocklobster]

I see it as a wave for skateboarding. There was a surge of people trying out skateboarding and product was flying off the shelves for both local and online skate shops. As we went back to normal though, many of those people quit except for a few that stuck with it. For those that stuck with it, that’s great! I like seeing people discover or rediscover something they love to do. Looking at it now though, the skate scene at my park has dwindled again just like it did about 10 years ago and I don’t know who is really gonna stick with it especially now that most of us are grown up with responsibilities and kids.

Great for the shops, except they now they have to deal with the glut of inventory.

I was getting a lot of weird looks at the start of the pandemic for not physically greeting other skaters with a hand slap + fist bump combo, then shit started getting bad and everyone understood my paranoia.

[Skatebeard]

 It was great for me personally, started back up skating again in September 2019 and lockdown came along at just the right time for me to fully dedicate myself to getting back into it.

It also introduced wprking from home which has continued at my company so I'm able to skate during lunchbreaks etc.

Ironically I just tested positive for covid and feel crap, so no skating for a little bit and it's just today finally dried up outside.

[mooraga]

After years thinking about it, building relationships and contacts, finally got the money and time to start a board brand in 2020. There was a natural team, we were all friends, motivated, some well known in the national scene, we had the chance to start something local and turning it into a national movement, it was the perfect storm.

We started working on it in january, plans were good, invested in new cameras, mics, lights, ronin, lenses, 360 cameras and more shit, things were moving. We had decided to start filming with the new toys before buying the boards, we wanted to launch all at the same time having a lot of media ready before we got the product.
I was the main filmer, editor and investor in the project.

Things got boring quickly by april, being chased by the cops wasnt funny when you were the only ones outside, riders were getting arrested, sanctions for everyone and risking my "real job" wasn't an option.
We had a may 2020 skate trip to barcelona that died in the process: "The best skatetrip we never had".

Lockdown was way too long and stupid in my country, managed to skate alone in lunchbreaks close to work, which was amazing cause learned a lot of tricks, but filming sessions in the streets with all the team and gear was impossible, for real we could get in deep trouble.

By the time we should have been selling boards we had no footy, a lot of factories weren't producing, prices had started to rise and shipping went up like 600%... it was too risky, so finally it was too late, it had slipped through our hands and I had to cancel everything. Bummer.

On the flip side, meanwhile everything was in lockdown I still managed to met an amazing girl, started a life together, got married and we just had a newborn recently <3  .
Life its good and I love it, but it definitely took a way different route than what i had planned.

[switchfakie]

mostly no,

socially, yes, met a lot of new friends (unfortunately were absolute beginners)

progression, no, my new friends held me back on my actual sesh's because i spent most of my time kicking it with them

long term, no, literally all of them stopped skating. i enjoyed their company for the time being, but they were -as corny as it sounds- posers

[mj23]

When I got Covid it was bad for my skating, because I was too sick to skate. So I say its bad.