Biggest skate regret

[I-am-12]

Haven't seen a thread about this yet, seen it on some other hobby forums I frequent.

What's your biggest regret in skating?

Mine is either wasting my teen / college years trying to stationary kickflip instead of skating the park fast and getting the basics down OR never forcing my college friends who have "always wanted to skate" and were obsessed with skating to actually buy a board and skate the parking lot behind our house.

I'm much better now but have no one to skate with and still have no clips...

[frontsideNECKTIE]

I had some tween family issues when I was about 15, and I ended up moving to the countryside outside a small rural town.

I was never great at skating, but moving there stifled any solid progress for the next few years. The only skatepark that was close was a courtyard next to the police station, had a few rails, a box, and a 6' QP with a channel. None of those obstacles seemed like fun at the time, so I learned to simply "skate" through the rough streets and hitting sidewalk bumps. Once i had 180s, shuvs, and kickflips, I didn't really care about learning flip tricks, so I never got good at flat either.

Once I graduated, I moved back to the city and spent hours and hours at this old Grindline park - big bowls, metal coping, super gnar and flowy - which spoke to me much more than some dinky "skatepark" in the middle of the mountains.

Finally started getting good around 21-22, and I still probably skate better now than I ever did before - but I still regret not considering how moving away would affect my skating

[formula420]

Quit skating from freshman year of highschool to sophomore year of college. I try not to think of the butterfly effect from that, but i do believe i would be a happier and more fullfilled person if i kept skating.

[SatanicPanic]

I was thinking about this today. One time when I was like twelve my uncle took me to this very jenky very ramp with my parents. There was a five foot section and my uncle was telling me to drop in. I’d never skated a ramp before and was too chicken. Wish I’d have gone for it. Might’ve got wrecked but fuck it, would have been cool.

[GardenSkater77]

Being born w/o natural ability.

[Hick Roward]

Trying and trying tricks I did not land, skateboarding is much more fun when you land.

Focus on what you can do and do well.

[fredferland]

Wish i didn't stop skating from 12 to 21. I broke my leg at 12 while skiing and missed a whole summer of skating, and lost track of my friends who were skating and were starting to really progress as they were older. The next summer I skated a bit in front of my house and was getting back into it but was too scared to reconnect with my friends and go to skateparks and see them, as I thought that they would think I'd suck.

I wish i kept skating as i got pretty good at skiing during that time and wish i had put the same amount of time and effort into skating instead. Played tennis instead in the summer lol, and got decent which is cool but i'd much rather be able to 3flips and crooked grinds. I was never good st learning new tricks, and progressing at skating is so much harder in your twenties, especially the past few years while working more in the summer. But from 21-25 i skated plenty in the summer at least and had fun so

[Coldpizza]

Blowing my Achilles tendon  :'(

[ziggy]

all the times I didn’t skate before I was 30

[Hick Roward]

Not approaching the cutest girl I've ever seen after bailing and flailing in traffic in midtown Manhattan, she laughed, I would have been her puppy dog for life.

[BigScorpion420]

Thinking it was cool to bunt "harder" tricks at the park instead of working on basics. Looked like a dummy and wasted alot of time.

[j....soy.....]

taking more photos of my friends and other skaters just hanging out.  putting in more time alone to learn basics too....

I tell kids pretty regularly.....'back tail, three flip, pivot fakie....front 5-0.....then something switch or nollie and you're good'.

[French manicure]

Blowing my Achilles tendon  :'(

Pretty much this. Just being hurt a few times when friends went on skate/road trips..

[CarcassToss]

Skating such fucking tiny boards for so many years. Even in the 7.4 days I preferred an 8.

Quitting here and there for a few years at a time only to come back and re-learn everything.

[matt_2993]

Thinking it was cool to bunt "harder" tricks at the park instead of working on basics. Looked like a dummy and wasted alot of time.

Ohhh ya. Trying to leverage a flip trick into a grind/slide you can't do normal just to get it once (if lucky ever)

[MC3]

I'm not even kidding, learning to ollie better


I feel like I rushed into trying other stuff and realized that my fundamental 'pop' was shitty for like 6 years. Trying to go back and relearn better ollies and then relearn every trick I've ever done has been annoying.

That and not skating faster from the jump

[JM]

Biggest regret was not filming more. I only have video evidence of skating from first six years of skating, but there was so much after that was would have awesome to see now.  Just did not care and consider there would be a day I wouldn’t be able to skate.

But, happy to have what little I did have… but still regret not filming more of it.

[The Big Dawg]

I broke the shit out of my arm trying to film a trick, had to get surgery, was out for like 6 months when I was probably at my peak skill-wise. The only reason I ended up at that spot is because I took a wrong freeway exit and instead of doubling back to go to the original spot, I decided to just go here because it was closer. I regret not taking the right exit.

[Frank and Fred]

Not correcting my mongo sooner.

Not skating more vert when I had regular access to it.

Putting too much pressure on myself to be "good." I became a lot better after I just found my flow.

Not riding looser trucks, smaller wheels and wider boards sooner. I lost some crucial years trying to make 8.25" decks on tight 139s and 58mm wheels work.

Not getting more involved with concrete DIY projects.

Turning down an invite to skate a backyard pool.

Not filming more shit when I was younger. i really didn't give a shit until I was a very old kook with phone stand/ iPhone fisheye... lame... or maybe it was better that way...

[Mean salto]

Buying so much product and shoes I never even used.

Skating in shoes 1 or 2 sizes too small for about 9 years. Buying a new pair of vulc emerica, lakai, DVS, es every week because they'd stretch and not hurt my toes as much but they also lasted like one weekend.

Skating while injured, too much drink and other

The whole serious skater filming videos shit with generators and lights and getting tickets etc when I wasn't even that good.

Should have travelled much more when I had the chance

Spent way too much time with people I didn't even like just because they skated

[Gray Imp Sausage Metal]

Quitting for 5 or so years in my early 30s just cuz I was busy with work and partying …

[Paul Cicero]

Being too cool to skate transition.
So envious of anyone who can mix up park and street.

[TheLurper]

1. Ever thinking that people who are good at skateboarding are cool.

2. Not asking for copies of my footage a day or two after it was filmed. The majority of my footage has been lost to the sands of time.

3. Going to a big stair set because a photographer suggested that I could do a pop shove it down the stairs. I knew I couldn't do a shove it down something even two stairs smaller than the stairs we went to, but I fucked up my back because I was a bit star struck/overly excited with the invite.

4. Not learning basic park/transition skills at a younger age.

[9inchdeck]

Not skating rails much early on. I did the normal boardslides and 5050s but never really pushed it beyond that. I didn’t have access to a good flatbar though and no parks in my area had a round rail at the time.

[djoekr]

Not starting earlier. I didn't think of myself as an athletic guy when I was younger so I stuck to riding around on cruisers. It took until I was 25 to actually start learning tricks. I'm still glad that I discovered it eventually, but yeah, I could've been much better if I started at a younger age.

[in love w/ fs shuvs]

None, I wish I could savor every minute of it all over again although I remember every sesh to this day

[dumb skate trick]

I should have gone to the doctor one of the many times I rolled my ankle. Left ankle doesn’t really work anymore and kind of just hangs around.

[Democratic Republic Of Mongo]

No Skreregrets

[Crust]

2. Not asking for copies of my footage a day or two after it was filmed. The majority of my footage has been lost to the sands of time.

Well said @TheLurper +1 with you on that. Such a shame when clips not backed up on a hard drive get lost forever

[itspizzapie]

my biggest regret is probably not learning more tricks, but i always liked doing 3-4 easy tricks lines better than spending hours trying one trick i couldn't get.

Appart from that, i went trough 20 years of skating without a serious injury and that surpasses any regret i could have