What's your start-stop history?

[Minoru Suzuki]

Started around 12-13.
Stopped around 21-22.

Brief moments of skating here and there.

Started back up regularly around 28.
I was doing my best skating during this time.

Stopped skating as regularly around 31-32.

Didn't get out much at all last year.

34 now.

Kicking myself for letting it slip away again for the past couple of years when starting back up around 28 was legit life-changing.

I've got a new deck, new set of trucks, and I've got the itch to get back out there as soon the snow melts.

Anybody else with a similar story? Whats your start-stop history?

[TheDraught]

Started at 10 on a penny (not Tom Penny) board, was obsessed by it from the beginning.

Learned about real skateboards and tricks when was about 13, then full on skate rat until 25 or so. Peaked around 18/19.

Had another peak around 28/29 when me and some buddies had our own indoor park in a warehouse for about 2 years.

Then the decline set in, now struggling to land stuff that were once go to tricks but still love it. Never quit for a few years or even months.

[LeDave]

Started about 3 weeks ago at age 34.

[JM]

Got single kick when I was nine. Learned Ollie’s up curb into grass, but sometimes the wheel would slam. Plastic wheels are no good, and it cracked in half on one wheel. Out in the country, no skate shop, no CCS yet… so no new skateboard.

13 in 8th grade finally bought a complete from a surf/skate shop (1996). Learned again to Ollie, but no one skated near me, so stopped again.

16 in eleventh grade (1998) finally met skaters, and I had a car so it was on. All day everyday as much as possible.

1998-2004 skated a lot, except in winter when snowboarding, and then a year of surfing in 2004.

Moved to LA in 2005, skated every weekend on adventures taking bus and train around and just exploring.

Moved to Las Vegas in 2007, skated Anthem a lot and other parks around, 2-3 times a week. Mostly nights during the week, and day on weekends when it wasn’t 50,000  degrees out.

Moved to salt lake in 2009, snowboarded in the winter, skated some in the warm months, but not super into it.

2013 moved to San Diego and strictly surfed for a year. 2-3 times a week anytime there was surf.

2014 moved to Austin for school, and didn’t skate much at all: new baby, married, and grad school do not mix well. Not much time to skate.

2017 graduated, went skating every once in a while just to get some exercise. Nothing serious.

2019, had a chance to work on designing skate parks, and figured I better get back into skating if I was going to know what I was talking about.

Been skating 1-2 a week ever since. (So 4-5 years something like that.)

I was definitely and on/off skater, but I think maybe it’s contributed to my balance, and ability to still be skating today. I never got super buck and so never really got super hurt or burned out.

The balance is probably good… I never got really good, but that’s okay, I’m good enough to be comfortable and not look ridiculous.

[roba]

no breaks since i started in 2011, other than:

- 2012 i did something weird with my knee and couldn’t walk properly for about a month or two

- 2016 i cracked my skull and spent 11 days in the hospital, i think i skated on my third day out or something. the doctor told me not to skate anymore but the injury happened when walking down the stairs at my own house so i was like nah

i never stopped skating on my own accord and had no real injuries from skating either. if i don’t skate for like a week i can feel that something’s missing. if i feel burnt out i whip out the cruiser and go ollie up some curbs. recently i’ve been feeling kinda disconnected from the whole skateboarding industry and media due to the amount stuff coming out and the fact that it’s either pretentious free skate mag shit or „ironic” skating but my love for the feeling of skateboarding itself is still there.

[MintySandwhich]

Now that I’m going into my 30’s, it seems like my start stops are getting a larger interval. Haven’t skated in a month due to work/life events and it bums me out. If I could skate every Saturday, I would. However work, school, and life events seem to take over unfortunately.

[MetalAnkleMan]

Started: 11 years old
Stopped: 16 years old

Started again: 28 but broke my ankle 6 months into skating again

Spent 6 months recovering

Started again at 29 and now 31.

Im hungrier now more than ever, breaking my ankle fueled a fire in me cause I was so set on quitting skating forever (cost me $12k in medical bills) but one day I realized thats taking the easier way out and Im going to skate forever instead.

Another driving force is realizing I missed pretty much my entire 20's skating and I feel like Im making up for lost time now.

[addie pray]

since 6 never stopped, just wax + wane. over 30 now.

[JM]

Started: 11 years old
Stopped: 16 years old

Started again: 28 but broke my ankle 6 months into skating again

Spent 6 months recovering

Started again at 29 and now 31.

Im hungrier now more than ever, breaking my ankle fueled a fire in me cause I was so set on quitting skating forever (cost me $12k in medical bills) but one day I realized thats taking the easier way out and Im going to skate forever instead.

Another driving force is realizing I missed pretty much my entire 20's skating and I feel like Im making up for lost time now.

There’s a lot of good skate years left. Get on it. 

[ElonMuskaBeats]

Started in the mid 80’s. Haven’t stopped and won’t until I absolutely have to.

[Ourladyoftheflowers]

Started around 11. Stopped around 15. Had a couple times in my twenties where someone would let me borrow a board for a day. Actually started skating again at 31. Now 35 and no plan on any more breaks aside from injuries. Missed it constantly for the time I was off the board and getting back on felt crucial. Will continue till I physically can’t anymore.

[fakiefs180]

started when I was 12

never stopped, only injuries and ongoing health problems hold me back and I have to take breaks

I will be 33 in a few days

[ChipSuey]

Started somewhere around 87-88, kept going pretty much all through the 90's, tapered off in the early 00's, pretty much dropped off entirely and started skating again actively two years ago.  I'm 47 now.

First year back was horrible- plantar fasciitis, eating shit trying to manual, giving up on flip tricks entirely...


Now it's not so bad because I've accepted that 3 ollies makes me tired now, and I'm perfectly happy just cruising around doing gross slappies.  I'm pushing 50 so any day that I don't wake up in pain is pretty good.

Honestly I feel like because I pretty much sucked (and still do), at least I'm not too depressed about "losing" tricks, I never had many to begin with.  Be nice to be able to do heelflips again, but I'm just happy to roll around now.

[pizzafliptofakie]

I’m coming up on 20 years of skating, and in that time I never stopped skating outside of being injured. I probably skated least often in college, but I still made time when I could. Even if it was a random parking lot sesh a couple times a month.



Right now I’m four months into an injury, which I think is the longest I’ve gone with absolutely zero skating.

[fakie nollie]

Start: 8
Stop: 18 after tearing shit in my knee. Started surfing/ diving

Start: 20
Stop: 23 after a ton of shit going on in my life and surfing more than skating

Start: 26 but this was the first time I settled with my bag of tricks and didn’t try to learn more
Stop: 28 work, life, losing skate friend connections

Start: 31. Met pals on here during COVID that motivated to try again. Have been going on/off since between injuries or being bored with skating because I pretty much won’t try old/new things if I think there’s a chance I’ll eat shit

[TheBoognish]

Started at 10 in late ‘99 when the first THPS came out. Never took a break until the pandemic hit. The only time I wasn’t skating was because I was hurt.

Badly injured my ankle in ‘16 and it totally changed the way I could skate. Took me 9 months before I could skate again. That was pretty much the begining of the end. Started skating a bit less after that.

I pretty much stopped about two years ago due to my back being fucked at the time, all my friends stopping, losing interest and getting really into BJJ and fly fishing.

Might cruise around or have a flatground/manny pad session here and there but they’re getting more and more rare. Haven’t tried anything new in years, I only skate shit I know I can land something on now.

I’m 35 now.

[ejazzle]

Now that I’m going into my 30’s, it seems like my start stops are getting a larger interval. Haven’t skated in a month due to work/life events and it bums me out. If I could skate every Saturday, I would. However work, school, and life events seem to take over unfortunately.

Gotta get on those night time sessions just out front in the street or on the sidewalk. Even just go out cruising for 20 minutes and ollie a few manhole covers. It helps me big time to stay in it.

[SatanicPanic]

Started at six on a banana board. Some years I didn’t skate much or very hard (especially when I was doing music) but wouldn’t say I ever quit. Last 5-6 years I’ve been skating 3-4 times a week. I’m 46 now.

[Can he read]

started at 12 skated till I was about 21 then stopped until 35. Brief spells of trying to get back into it here and there but thought it was too late for me. Then the pandemic hit and I started watching a lot of skate stuff on YouTube and realized I still had a lot of good years left. I appreciate it so much more now.

[beautifulcannolis]

I started in sixth grade around '06.

Stopped freshman year cause getting high and fucked up was more important.

Started again in about 2011 around junior year, filmed and edited the homies around 2013ish when I was in community college.

from there its wanned and waxed like others have said.

My issue was that life always seems to put me relatively far from a skatepark. Growing up there wasn't one i could walk to and parents weren't about to drive us.

By like my early 20s was probs my peak cause that's when we had cars to go to parks and actually skate lots of terrain a day and not just some shit street spot downtown.

Feel like if I had immediate access to a park growing up id be way better. Pretty tough learning shit on nothing but crusty street spots. Finally living close to one so I do want to really get into the habit of going

That said I've always had a board set up to get me from point a to b. might not be the best at popping tricks, but ill be damned if someone says I can't ride the fuck out of a board

[truthislie]

Got my first board at around 6, found out about real skating at 12, full skate rat life until 17. Then lymphomia took me out of skating (and life) for 1,5 years. After that a lot of partying to make up for the time but I slowly started again at 19. Never stopped since then, skating loads through my 20ies. I´m 40 now altough right now sessions are pretty rare (my last one was maybe 6 weeks ago) due to grown up responsibilities.

[Kumiko]

I got a k-mart board when I was about 5 years old due to my obsession with the x-games and THPS. I occasionally toyed around on it for a few years, but never really skated it.

Then when I was 12 my friend gave me their Mongoose board and I started skating all the time and eventually got a legit complete. From there I skated daily until about 14-15 when I got too busy and involved with band.

Picked it back up again at 19 and skated consistently until I was about 23.

Then was working and going out too much so it fell away.

At 25 I started making more efforts and have since been very off-and-on with it the past few years. I'd like to at least get into skating weekly.

[lurkluke]

Probably skated from 1990-1992, then again from 1995-2000, then a little bit in 2003-2005. Then a big big break until 2023.

[Hyliannightmare]

5 to 16
Stopped until 29 now 34 and still getting after it as often as possible.  Which is fairly often since I live in Florida

[Pat Eisenhauer]

10-19
38-50 (now)

[SatanicPanic]

How do you guys quit for so long? I think I’m too addicted 

[FUBAR]

Quitting was probably one of the biggest regrets I have in my life. But I’m back now for life, so fuck regerts.

[easymoneysniper]

started at maybe 10? stopped at like 11ish or 12ish cuz sports started to get more serious.

started back up at 19 during covid, was on and off not taking it seriously til last summer at 22, and have been trying pretty hard ever since. 23 now. still suck, still pushing.

[Orangepulp1000]

Started at around 11 stopped at about 16 to smoke bongs full time. Skated here and there up until about 28 then started back up fully. Fucked My back at work and that kept me off from 31-33 Started back up at 33 once my back was somewhat better after yrs of physio, epidurals etc. started back just skating curbs for about a yr but now managing to skate ledges etc without too much pain after.

[Gab]

Got a toy board at 9 after seeing Tony Hawk do the 900 on the x games.

Got a blank board at 10 and skated every chance I got until 18 when I got ankle surgery.

Fully recovered from surgery at 19 and came back better, was stoked, my best years of skating skills wise but weird as I only skated alone, crew stopped skating or moved.

21 Still skating, but not everyday, drugs, alcohol, and playing music took precedent. Moved to the country and started losing tricks. Moved back to the city and blew my knee out at 22.

From 22-27 I always kept a board around but just started cruising, my knee never got better but I would have sessions every now and then but I lost most my tricks. Dislocated my knee a couple times in this period and every time it just felt worse and worse. Stopped drinking/drugs and then became a parent at this time.

Started back up again at 29 after skating home from work one night and seeing a great red curb, landed my first Slappy crook first try and was instantly sparked again, started having little sessions again.

At 30 I started skating everyday and really focusing on slappies and started getting old tricks back. In this time I’ve dislocated my knee another 3 times and I’m going through it right now. The whole last year I was kind of in denial, but this last time I finally got an X-ray and have an mri scheduled but insurance is being dumb. I could go have a session rn but I have to start listening to my body…