Can you be a "lifer" and not skate?

[frig deuce]

I injured my knees a year and a half ago and couldn't skate for a year. Before my injury I was a skate rat skating everyday (even during the winter) but this year university started and thats my priority, as well with projects im working on on the side. I skate flat in front of my house a few times a week but now its -20C and theres a good foot of snow everywhere. I'll prolly be picking it back up when the snow melts, I have to admit I miss it at times and I'd be hyped to film an other part or at least get a few clips per season.

[raul]

I don't know, I wouldn't say your buddy's a lifer, but probably more than a fan. I think once you get that mindset of a staring at common places as things to skate when you're on your own with no skaters around, you become more than a fan. I suppose a supporter? I don't know, some gray area in between.

I'm only 21, been kicking around for 9 years since this past fall. I already feel like an old soul in skateboarding; I've been through numerous groups of dudes who either quit, have other interests that prevent them from doing it all the time, or moved away/I moved away. In the past year & a half I've skated so much less than I would like to and it wears me mentally & physically. I constantly think about it, I have no other interests like I do with skateboarding & I always try to keep up with what's going on if I can't do it.

I live in MA so the winters are brutal; I used to go out when I was 15/16 with all my friends but not now-a-days. And I'm not down with indoor parks, especially paying for them. Too many people & anxiety sets in. And something about paying to skateboard a facility has always irked me. I hate skating alone too; I consider it some mild social-anxiety thing where I hate to be the only one doing it + I don't want to get injured with no one around like MJ said in his Epicly Later'd. But sometimes I just do it because I fucking need to. I would hope I'm a lifer, but I'd feel like a douche doing so.

I've read the bulk of all these stories, and I don't think injury alone should be a pass from being a lifer. Excuses are like assholes, but I would hope that every time someone with an excuse (myself included at times) would rather be skating when writing here--I always am.. Life happens, but if you still have a passion & longing for the old days that I think we've all at least experienced, then I wouldn't stutter on calling you a lifer.

[CigaretteBeer]

For some reason, no matter how little I skate I constantly use objects as pretend skateboards. Cell phones, lighters, hot sauce packets, remote controls, I wonder what normal people think I'm doing flipping and sliding objects around.

[raul]

For some reason, no matter how little I skate I constantly use objects as pretend skateboards. Cell phones, lighters, hot sauce packets, remote controls, I wonder what normal people think I'm doing flipping and sliding objects around.

In English History this past week I was using my pen to do kickflip bactails on the binding wire of my notebook for a good amount of time before I realized I'm not a freshman in high school anymore with my friends and that I must look so weird. I think I was really into it.

[Ronald Wilson Reagan]

For some reason, no matter how little I skate I constantly use objects as pretend skateboards. Cell phones, lighters, hot sauce packets, remote controls, I wonder what normal people think I'm doing flipping and sliding objects around.

Weren't you talking about opiate addiction? Maybe you are a lifer trapped inside the body of a pill popper.

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

we're not talking tech decks here....

[CigaretteBeer]

Expand Quote

For some reason, no matter how little I skate I constantly use objects as pretend skateboards. Cell phones, lighters, hot sauce packets, remote controls, I wonder what normal people think I'm doing flipping and sliding objects around.

[close]

Weren't you talking about opiate addiction? Maybe you are a lifer trapped inside the body of a pill popper.

Most of the time I'm functional enough to skate. I can't skate if I've been drinking a lot though.

[layzieyez]

I would consider the friend of the thread starter a fan not a lifer.

As far as me, I am 38, started skateboarding in 1985, I  skate about 4 or 5 times a week (sometimes more). I have 3 kids, all 3 of them like to skate, my 5 year old is really getting into it and likes to go to skate parks with me. When my family goes on day trips, we always find out if there is something nearby to skate, my wife is really supportive of my skating. When we first started dating I told her that skateboarding was my first love and to never ask me to quit, she is down for skating and would never think of doing such a dumb thing. I am going to build a mini ramp in my garage soon.
I do feel out of step with other people my age, I don't relate to the couch potato mentality of most people my age. I know I am not the best skater now a days, but as long as I can skate and have fun I am stoked.



Here is my youngest, she jumped from the first board to the fourth.

I like it.  I'm glad you have an understanding wife, vegan.  It makes all of the difference in the world.  My wife was initially attracted to me in college because I was a cute "skater boi".  I'm just glad the appeal never wore off.

Also, I have to agree with the inability relate to most of my peers.  Whenever I end up with other families (people my age with children), I end up having more fun playing with their kids than I do with the "grown ups".  I'll try to talk to the other "adults" and usually they're all talking about American Idol or some equally inane crap on TV or dishing about celebrities.  So fucking boring.

[layzieyez]

Oh, and I wanted to add this:

[Sleazy]

that video is fucking awesome. got me so hyped on our soon to be new baby to see your kids playing with you like that. we sound very similar in the dad category. i think the whole american idol, celebrity gossip thing happens because a lot of guys shelf their manhood when they get married and have kids and let their wives dominate everything. when you get together with other parents, it's the wifes firends. that kind of thing. one of my wifes friends recently got this new boy friend from NJ who is really outspoken and has crazy ideas about politics, history, ect... i completely disagree with him on just about everything but he's well read and it makes for some of the best dinner conversation with her friends in a long time. well my wifes friend hates it and will start shushing the guy at dinner and all kinds of obnoxious shit like that. the last time we all got together when we got there she had strategically placed him on the other side of the table from me and i could tell that she had told him to keep the conversation to a minimum and the poor schmuck went for it. i told my wife that i was out of the dinner with friends circle now. none of these girls can keep a good man and then as soon as they fuck it up they expect you turn on a guy that you've chilled with for a year and not mind when they talk shit about them like they are some evil guy when you know the guy real well and know that's not the case.

we haven't really spent a lot of time with other parents yet because i'm not motivated too but i could easily imagine ending up prefering playing with the kids. kids are so easy and fun to play with and parents are so fucking boring most of the time with the guys being completely emasculated. it's amazing how many dads are lame and don't get it. at day care when i pick up grace i always take time to talk to all the other baby's and if they are all playing i'll sit on the floor and check out their toys or join in on their game for a bit but i never see other dads in there much less getting into the games. i show up at the little partys they throw everyonce in a while and i'm always the only dad there. it was kind of funny, one time we walked into a daycare party and all the other mom's who have kids the same age as my wife were there. these women are all carrying pregnacy weight on them still kind and all kind of subtly mean mugged my wife on her way in and then when i walked in behind her they see that no only is she not carrying extra weight but her husband is also there and actually plays with the kids and takes photos and all that and i'm sure it burns them a little. i know those caty bitches hate her on some weird female competitive level because she's thin and has a supportive, involved husband eventhough none of those bitches would have been interested in me if they met me when she met me and one of the reasons probably would have been because i skate and don't dress like i just came from j crew. they don't get that it's their superficial precanned approach to life that's leading them to the same shitty result as everyone else. things like thinking that a guy has to be a boring douche to be a good provider or thinking that it's ok to completely let yourself go after you get pregnant and somehow expect that the husband will still be just as excited about them.

[H8R part 4]

i get where you're coming from.  my friends with GFs/wives are pretty much led around my their nuts, the woman says jump, they say how high.  they have no identity of their own anymore and everything they do pretty much revolves around satisfying the woman and its mostly because the bitchin they get afterwards isn't worth the trouble, plus the bitching doesn't end until she says its over. 
i think a lot of men settle for shitty women because they're finally getting laid and don't want to fuck it up.  women always complain how theres no good men out there but in reality, its really that no man wants to put up with their incessant bullshit.
good women are truly few and far between.  just be glad you lucked out, most aren't as lucky.

[Sleazy]

i really think it just boils down to showing that there is a better way and then leading by example. i'm pretty sure that if i was apathetic about the course of my relationship and didn't fight my battles early on for how things should and shouldn't be that things probably would have turned out not so good, assuming we'd even still be together.

[Inanimate Object]

I am genuinely stoked on the stories from all you older dudes about still skating and finding good women and having fun with your kids and stuff.
I don't know if I'm a "lifer", but I've been skating for going on twelve years now. I've been injured since September but I still make it out to skate a couple times a week. If it hurts, I just skate switch or cruise around or something. 

In terms of finding time to skate, I'm doing grad research in environmental biotech, which means I'm frequently pulling comically long days with a tough study and research schedule. But I've found that I have plenty of time for skating and all my other interests if I use my free time for those things as opposed to using a long day at school as an excuse to sit around and do fuck all. I think maybe that's the case with some of the other adults that you Dads are having trouble relating to - they think that by going to work, and being a parent, that's enough to be a complete person.  Maybe it is, but it also means you're a fucking boring person.

[brooklyn brawler]

People who say they "grew out of it" are generally saying they don't have it in them anymore, and need to use age as a reason.

You have the urge to ride around or you don't. You see people talk about "skateboarders these days", yet they don't even have a single deck in their house.



There's also a difference between being forced out of it (injury, obligations, etc.) and completely forgetting your board existed. Being forced out fucking sucks.

[sergioflorez]

Being forced out fucking sucks.

big time

[Mackattack]

For some reason, no matter how little I skate I constantly use objects as pretend skateboards. Cell phones, lighters, hot sauce packets, remote controls, I wonder what normal people think I'm doing flipping and sliding objects around.

Ive done this for years with pens and stuff in school and i just realized half way through my college career that people can see me doing this and probably think im a creep/autistic.

[brooklyn brawler]

But when you see someone else doing it, make eye contact, you're like "Yeeeahhh... We're both regular."

[odp]

i just skate when my body and brain start digging for it. It's certainly not daily or even weekly like it was for years, but fuck, it just gets in me and i've got to do it. I definitely stopped for a while due to excessive partying mostly, which furthered injuries that were never able to heal because i'd tombstone or hack it on the pool, and even then i was thinking "shit, man, that rock would be the dopest fucking 50-50 up and down. or fuckin shit, look at that virgin barrier."  sometimes stop to skate it, often just put it away in the back of my head for another day.

Now that i'm living healthier i stop and skate when i see something that i can make into the shred. Long ass sessions, because i'm always on the solo run, aren't too common, but i just go out and do what i want to do and feels natural.

I can't lie and say that it didn't bum me out that i wasn't skating and was still dreaming about it, but it's what life brought about.

i just want to have fun riding. that's what's up.

so to answer the question, i don't know. i'm not gonna judge someone who isn't riding anymore because i used to worry bout people thinking i was a kook for just stopping into the park to say yo for a few minutes or whatever, but now i could care less. i know how good the fucking carve feels, that's what matters

[vegan*shawn]

Gipper - I am lucky my wife is super cool and very understanding.

Sleazy - A lot of times when I take my kids to the park I am the only dad there, a lot of the moms look at me strangely, I guess they think I am a "weekend" dad.

[pugmaster]

i work a lot i go to school, i have a family, i have a dog, i have a girlfriend, i have other interests , the people i used to skate with are a bummer to be around now, i still skate every chance i get but its not like it was when i was 16 skating every day and always learning new stuff.

I go to school, ignore the family I have, obcess over my dog, have a pretend girlfriend, but other than that you and I are pretty similar.

[Ronald Wilson Reagan]

Expand Quote

i work a lot i go to school, i have a family, i have a dog, i have a girlfriend, i have other interests , the people i used to skate with are a bummer to be around now, i still skate every chance i get but its not like it was when i was 16 skating every day and always learning new stuff.

[close]

I go to school, ignore the family I have, obcess over my dog, have a pretend girlfriend, but other than that you and I are pretty similar.

It's always weird when somebody that you only befriended because of skating quits skating. Suddenly its really awkward and you have nothing to talk about. This happens to me a lot when I go back home and hang out with old friends. At one point all of them skated, now only a few do. Hanging with the ones who don't anymore can be odd. It's like hanging out with a girl who you used to fuck based only on physical attraction after the sex is over. You try to find depth that goes further, but often it isn't there.

And whoever is talking about the grad school thing- I'm with you. I just went out skating during the day today, but stayed in last night and will tonight just to finish a project and start planning for another one. Most of my friends reserve one night on the weekend to go out, I just reserve saturday during the day. Haven't been drunk since winter break, but haven't missed a week of skating either!

[The Ghost of Lenny Kirk]

who really cares, people put too much stock in definitions like "lifer", just let it go and just be, it doesn't matter. people draw way too many imaginary lines in skateboarding.

[sectachrome]

I just skate when I want to skate.  I might skate everyday for a week or I might not skate for months.  It doesnt help that this winter has been brutal and I moved away from my crew and have no friends now.  And thats not making excuses, I dont hold myself to some monthly skateboarding quota.  I still love skateboarding and buy the mags and shit, and I will always be involved in it somehow.  I started 10 years ago and its had a huge positive impact on my life.  I dont really care if people dont think Im a "lifer" or Im just a "fan" or that I cant do half of the tricks I used to be able to do.  I dont know how you can claim to love skateboarding and not ever just roll around at least though.

[GnarlesManson]

i re-learned nollie heels i think im a lifer again!!!!

[ASSHOLES and ELBOW GREASE]

who really cares, people put too much stock in definitions like "lifer", just let it go and just be, it doesn't matter. people draw way too many imaginary lines in skateboarding.

You know what weird is that skateboarding came from surfing and surfing is an ANCIENT Hawaiian tradition, so I don't think there is anything wrong with saying that you can have a spiritual connection with skateboarding.

[Inanimate Object]

Just because different colored people did it a long time ago doesn't mean it's magic.

[ASSHOLES and ELBOW GREASE]

Just because different colored people did it a long time ago doesn't mean it's magic.

Yes it does, why do so many skaters talk about, I look at stairs and benches differently, I pick up remote controls, and do tricks with them. There is a mystical connection.  Skaters choose different paths in life to enable them to skateboard more. There is definitely a connection to the soul.

[odp]

^^^^^^
skateboarding, if it sticks, and soul are certainly connected. free movement is what it's all about.

[Garth Marenghi]

I've been plagued with injuries for the last five years and I fear the day when I'm just not able to skate anymore. I don't want to be around skateboarding if I can't do it myself.

[Narcissus]

I used to skate daily even in temps below 0 with long johns and a top combo of something like: skin tight thermal/tee shirt/waffle/sweater/hoody/shell. Where you can't even put your arms down and you're too weighed down to jump and the ground is caked in rock salt. I'm not into that anymore, but even on the coldest days, I use my cruiser in my daily commute and for trips to the grocery store or wine shop. So I got wheels on the ground every single day (except snow/rain, natch), even if it's not doing tricks so much.

Yesterday was high 20's. Got about 2 hours in.

I'm 25 and I got my first real set up in 94 or 95, so I've been singularly obsessed and focused on skating for 15+ years. Shit is the best.

I miss being a student and being able to catch sessions in the middle of the day, though. That lifestyle was most agreeable. Gotta figure out a new way to make money, cuz as much as I like lurking here, sitting in front of a computer all day eats a bag of dicks. I would love to open an indoor park that doesn't suck and is located an hour or less from the city, but I'd probably have to start selling heroin to make ends meet.

Also, I wish my apt was on the ground floor so I could skate in there. But my downstairs neighbors are cool and I don't want them to go insane because I'm trying to tailslide my couch.