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Damn, skating must become an expensive hobby when you get a new deck and shoes once every 6 weeks. I don't know how you guys are going through decks that fast unless you're all jumping down stairs and gaps like you're 18.
See "Sale Gear Thread" for tips on how to maintain a supposed expensive hobby at an affordable rate hahah!
To be honest, scoring some gear at record low $ was a foresight investment: stack of boards and a stack of shoes to skate through bought at 50-70% of made it less expensive. Also easier to swap earlier than probably necessary. I do my best to ride all parts to dust though
Personally, I have a large bag of flip tricks and i tend to do a handful of them every skate session I have (warm up and cool down). Each session I push myself to land all of these to feel satisfied:
-kickflip
-fakie flip
-varial flip
-tre flip
-backside bigspin
-backside flip
-fakie tre flip
-half cab flip
-switch heel
-caballerial
If I'm feeling a flat ground week or a tech ledge week trying flip in or flip outs, then the boards and shoes can get toast pretty fast, even now at 28 and skating less often then 10 years ago.
I'm sure there are others that have to do certain tricks each session to keep them or feel happy and all that wear adds up quickly.
I am like that too, but my bag is shallow. However, I skate everyday and need to do several kickflips (over manhole, over tiny curb, down large curb, up regular curb), three halfway decent heelflips, and one decent fakie heel (alongside a plethora of less board consuming pop shoves and 180s).
Heelflips are the bane of my existence and take the most time of the session. I often primo and that‘s where my boards get chipped quickly. They become asymetrical and after 4-6 weeks I usually have to get rid of them. I pass some of them on to my nephew and godson so they get another lease of life, but they would not be of much use to anybody who skates seriously. Dudes even ask me why I keep riding them as long as I do because they look so battered.
Also skating in the winter with wet/frozen ground my board tends to feel heavy/waterlogged quickly.
I tend to skate better on a fresh board (not a fresh shape) so I try to pick up multiple identical boards at a time when they are on sale, provided they are suitable to my taste.
As for shoes I found out shoe goo does not extend the life of a shoe drastically so I stopped using it. I just skate them until there are holes, then move on. I skate Busenitzes and they are regularly on sale in some strange colorways so I pick those up.