Dumb things you thought about skateboarding when you were a kid

[mooraga]

prod was just 3 years older than me so i had time to catch up, IN 3 YEARS I'LL TOTALLY BE SKATING LIKE PROD 

[$$LESH]

one of my first boards was that old catalyst company. my dad looked at it and thought it said condoms. then we had the awkward birds and bees talk.

[manysnakes]

i used to think you had to be able to do every flat ground trick in every stance in order to be pro

I assumed that companies reviewed a skater's footage and determined whether or not their feet were on the board at the right time and stuff like this. As if they were judging figure skating or something.

[Sizzle]

I used to wonder why I couldn’t find Van Wastell’s first name because I thought it was like Van Gogh and assumed everybody just knew that he was on a one name basis or something

[Atiba Applebum]

In my neck of the woods we called varial flips "shuv-it flips".
But then, decades later I heard an interview with Gino where he called it a shuv-it flip and now I feel completely vindicated.

I can remember full conversations with the boys about how a "heelflip 360 flip" is completely impossible.
We would later see Mike Hayes part in Time Code and damn near wore a hole in the tape rewinding and rewatching the "Lazerflip"

Gino also pronounces Nike like “Mike”, so don’t feel tooo vindicated

[IpathCats]

I remember thinking that rodney could primo/casper slide on like raw sidewalks, which was totally not true but def led to some pretty hilarious sessions of me eating shit over and over trying to replicate those stunts. I guess this same mentality extends to not understanding the need for rub brick/clear coat to grind on concrete.  Just thought you needed wax and to skate it a bunch, which might work with enough wax/time if you weighed more than the 70-80 pounds i weighed at the time.


A friend of mine told me the OG's at his local told him and his buddies the right way to setup your wheels/bearings was to tighten them to the point of only spinning a few rotations.

Clearly the OG's were fucking with him and his crew.

Good thread btw OP.

[Crailslideyoface]

That Benihanas were cool.

[GrayCellGreen]

I used to think the Piss Drunx crew were role models worth emulating. Also used to think that pro skateboarders made a lot of money.

[Ernest Borgnine]

I didn't understand why they always talked about skating at financial institutions in the magazines. 

[IpathCats]

I thought vert/transition skating was like objectively easy, just because it looked so easy for vert pros.

I thought that if you had basic skateboard skills you could easily do airs and basic grinds on a vert ramp.

[DanCorteseFromMTVSports]

I thought most things in videos/magazines were a one to two try process. Like the trick would be conceptualized then landed within a matter of minutes

[WPG]

Expand Quote

i thought THPS combos are possible and that you can just wallride up high stuff if you cannot ollie it. just like in the thps games.
a homie thought that DC SHOE CO USA was one word and therefore should be pronounced as [di:si:sho:ku:za].
we were pretty dumb, obviously.

[close]

I thought you could just step on a skate board and do everything in the game.  It was crushing as a 7 year old to find out that you actually had to work for things and they wouldnt just come to you instantly.

This but I had skated a bit knew it was hard and assumed it must be the SHOES. My mom took me to a skateshop and I was so bummed when I got home and my skills hadn't improved at all in my new Vans

[bob george]

It was taught to me that you were literally not allowed to use wax at all - i think the older guys were just taking the "just go faster" idea way too canonically.

My brother use to do boardslides fs and bs where he would turn past being perpendicular on the rail and making his wheels touch the rail. He called them hurricanes, so i thought that was a hurricane for a fair while.

Definitely was on that 'must have riser pads for shock absorption purposes/avoiding stress fractures' idea.

The whole ABEC conversation mattering...
 

[Youoverthere]

Thinking that because I can tre flip and krook grind, then the NAC should be easy.

[IpathCats]

It was taught to me that you were literally not allowed to use wax at all - i think the older guys were just taking the "just go faster" idea way too canonically.

My brother use to do boardslides fs and bs where he would turn past being perpendicular on the rail and making his wheels touch the rail. He called them hurricanes, so i thought that was a hurricane for a fair while.

Definitely was on that 'must have riser pads for shock absorption purposes/avoiding stress fractures' idea.

The whole ABEC conversation mattering...

"What ABEC are your bearings man?" - the toughest skateboarder in your new middle school

[Steely Daniel]

My brother use to do boardslides fs and bs where he would turn past being perpendicular on the rail and making his wheels touch the rail. He called them hurricanes, so i thought that was a hurricane for a fair while.

There was a strange older local here who skated in super baggy flood pants in the late 90's early 2000's who would do boardslides like that but would rotate them back and forth hitting back wheels front wheels etc. He called them Chris B slides, which was his same but also sounded like crispy slides lol...

We also said the DCSHOECOUSA as one word but we knew they were called DC shoes we just thought it sounded funny.

[Lee Ralphs Dear Old Mum]

That I looked as good as Hosoi when I tried to do shirtless methods out of my launch ramp. (Shirt tucked into pants like a waist cape)

[crob legs]

Expand Quote

My brother use to do boardslides fs and bs where he would turn past being perpendicular on the rail and making his wheels touch the rail. He called them hurricanes, so i thought that was a hurricane for a fair while.

[close]

There was a strange older local here who skated in super baggy flood pants in the late 90's early 2000's who would do boardslides like that but would rotate them back and forth hitting back wheels front wheels etc. He called them Chris B slides, which was his same but also sounded like crispy slides lol...

We also said the DCSHOECOUSA as one word but we knew they were called DC shoes we just thought it sounded funny.

we thought DC shoes stood for danny and colin

[Mongo Lloyd]

I didn’t realize there was a difference between nose and tail of a deck, and would use either end interchangeably.

[SatanicPanic]

My neighbor friend had trouble learning to ollie, so I thought if his foot could slide up the board faster, he could pop easier. I proceeded to slice off the middle section of his grip tape to make it slick for his foot to slide up. Needless to say it didn't work and his board looked stupid. My bad Matt.

Poor Matt

[Roy Machine]

I had a subscription of a german skate mag when I was younger. They had a reader's letter section where letters from equally dumb kids got printed. Sometimes someone asked stuff like "what is the longest Manual?" "What are the most trick combos" etc. and the editors always answered them with some bullshit reply. Of course I believed every single word.

I remember telling all my friends about it: "Wow Dude, the longest manual is 666 km's long and was all around lake titikaka, that is so rad."

[JamesFardy]

For much too long i thought if your name was in a magazine or ad you were CRUSHING it financially. That probably speaks to my worldview/education more than skateboarding.

[fistful0dynamite]

I thought I could early grab the mega ramp gap as a 12 year old, meanwhile the biggest thing I had dropped in on was maybe seven feet max.

[big_kev_215]

Not super far from the truth but I assumed Tosh Townend was Australian all the way up till last year.  Turns out he was born/raised in California as far as I can tell.  It happens to the best of us. 

[PatrickSkateman]

Varial kickflips…

[Pipe Dreamer]

The best skater in my neighbourhood was dyslexic (unknown to us at the time) he could Ollie but pronounced it Oily so when we met other skaters in the town centre we were the butt of their jokes for saying Oily lol.

[Cool Ceith]

I thought that flipping the two nose bolts would help my ollies. We called them "suicide bolts"

[Sifter]

Fandangle was real 

[Candied cigarettes]

Skateboarding would make me cooler.

[skate_or_dingus]

 I thought that Richie Jackson & Patrick Melcher were cool.