Does skating actually get "better/more fun" as you get older?

[stephop]

It's still fun when I actually do it unless it's spot chasing. I don't sit around and try a trick for an hour straight anymore nor do I have the time to. My body feeling old sucks though the next day. There is just fewer people to session with. I've been skating with the same person occasionally for 20+ years. It's obviously more fun back in the day when you can string together a bunch of tricks in a row but I don't miss getting broke off trying shit. To not skate for over a month and be able to ollie up a curb and still do super long manuals will never get old. That's pretty much all I don't want to lose when I'm like 50.

[N.L.]

I always thought I'd surf (my second love) more by this age but its been the reverse. Now I'm 41 I love skateboarding more than ever. I never stopped but had some dark periods in my 20s as I was still in the mode of putting pressure on myself. I had a kid when I was 30 and just decided to chill the fuck out and do what I want with skateboarding, since then its been gravy. Injuries are challenging for sure but I feel like I'm still progressing. I just skate differently. I'm not going to waste hours trying to land one flip trick or take risks on gaps and rails. I mostly skate parks, weird tight transitions and low impact street stuff but I feel like I spent my youth doing the more high risk shit so now its time to refine my style and 'perfect' some of the classics. Did a 360 flip into a hill bomb the other day. Fucking stoked.

My golden rule is, if a spot or trick isn't happening that particular day, I just move on to the next thing. Fuck pressuring myself. Too much of that in real life.

[Burton Ernie]

People who suck cause there old will get mad if you want to skate flatground.

this is the greatest quote

[Daniel Gesmer]

Back when I was younger the "lifestyle" aspect of skateboarding was a lot more fun. I would skate downtown all night with my homie and we would just see and get into crazy shit. Back then we didn't have a skatepark and I wasn't very good at the "sport" of skateboarding, but it really gave me some great life experiences.

Now that I'm older (I'm only about to be 28) my friend I used to skate downtown with all night has kids, legal and financial problems so he doesn't skate much anymore. There are other dudes who are all about skating street but they take skateboarding more seriously than I do and there's not really anyone else that's on that vibe of just aimlessly wandering around the city without an agenda.

On the positive side the actual act of just riding a skateboard probably has never felt better. We have a skatepark now and I go there a lot, as a result I've never felt more "connected" to my board and am now actually decent at doing tricks. I'm pretty unhappy with how my "adult" life has so far turned out so skating now has so much more impact to me as a therapeutic device.

Lately though, I've been wrestling with smoking weed and skateboarding. I've been trying to smoke less weed in order to be less apathetic about completing responsibilities which could lead to some sort of financial success. However, it's just way harder now to enjoy skateboarding without being high. I have knee pain which I can't really ignore when sober, and also when sober and skating I have worries about responsibilities in the back of my head like "shouldn't be skating, should be doing this work shit I don't really want to do."

[asakusa75]

I put all the skating stuff on hold for around ten years in my 30s while I did had some attempts at being a grown up.
Now myself and a bunch of old mates, some who skated the whole time, have reunited and are having more fun than ever.
You just have to be realistic, thats all. And be totally conscious of the fact that stepping out of your safety zone usually ends up in tragedy.
I am a 41 year old skate rat and this is my story.

[Mongoloid]

I don't know if it gets "better", but you certainly gain a larger appreciation for intricacies of the act. It's a cliche, but there is definitely a profound genuine joy in the "little things".

It most definitely as fun as it always was, as skating is bar none the greatest physical art form in existence.

[muntcuscle]

im 21 and feel like even i get judged by a lot of people for being "too old" for it...

id rather have a hobby like skating in my life than be one of the millions of boring ass dudes who have no hobby besides drinking. hopefully i can keep getting better as i get older (grew up surfing picked up skating at like 11 or 12 but never took it seriously, was just a summer thing when the oceans flat and crowded). my hats off to all you 35+ guys still going strong.

[Mongoloid]

im 21 and feel like even i get judged by a lot of people for being "too old" for it...

id rather have a hobby like skating in my life than be one of the millions of boring ass dudes who have no hobby besides drinking. hopefully i can keep getting better as i get older (grew up surfing picked up skating at like 11 or 12 but never took it seriously, was just a summer thing when the oceans flat and crowded). my hats off to all you 35+ guys still going strong.

I've never in my life given a second thought to other people's perceptions of anything I do.. however, I definitely feel this way lately too. 

The thing is if you carry yourself in a respectable manner, and speak eloquently, or even halfway intelligent you've already conquered a large portion of the ignorant mindset of those who may judge you based off of activities you choose to partake in.

There is a innate freedom in the act of skating. The majority of people living the average life allow themselves to become mired in a monotonous societal norm. There is nothing worse than become what, or being what anyone else thinks you should be. The fact that by skating you shed yourself of at least some of the burden of normalcy should instill a sense of empowerment.

Plus skate fashion is considered rather quite trendy at the moment. So at the very least you may get some girl's looking in your direction. Something that wasn't exactly always the case.

[Andrefosho]

For me skateboarding is better than ever. There are more spots and parks than ever. I'm financially stable and can afford proper gear whenever I need it. Obviously friends whom I started skating with have focused on other life commitments, some rather spend cash on drinking, so I don't have a steady crew to skate with, but in the city there are spots where someone is usually skating, so I just tag along with whoever is there and have made some new acquaintances.

[Theme For A Jackal]

I'm 27 and I'm in a period where it's not so fun. Previous injuries and wear and tear are finally starting to catch up with me and I'm realizing there's a lot of stuff I'll just never be able to do again which sucks. I also had to move back home and there's no spots or people to skate with so that's a bummer. I know it'll come back around again eventually so I'm not worried but I know it'll never be the same so I guess I'm in sort of a mourning period for the young skater in me that died and now I have to start over in a way. Started skating tranny a few years ago so trying to get better at that is keeping me stoked.

[Bonefish]

It's hard for me to go skate by myself anymore. Tricks seem to come easier when a couple of friends are around.

[Andrefosho]

^ I can relate.
I avoid skating solo, because then I can get obsessed with one trick, and then it's a buzzkiller.

[Willie]

A lot of the time I'm bummed that I can't do X or Y anymore but if I land something that I haven't been able to do for a while then I'm ecstatic and extremely grateful, more so than when I had stuff on lock.


I don't think it gets any better after 30 but you still have some high notes here and there if you're lucky.

[Noble Experiment]

To not skate for over a month and be able to ollie up a curb and still do super long manuals will never get old. That's pretty much all I don't want to lose when I'm like 50.

One of my favorite things to do on a skateboard; finding some weird pad,(whether its super long or it's curved and you gotta do a u-turn back around or its zigzagged or it's downhill or uphill) and just seeing if you can manual the whole thing and make it til the end.

[4LOM]

Comparing fun now to memories of having fun then isn't the same as comparing fun now to having fun then
So making the first comparison won't tell you the truth of the second.

But kid me thought his fun was so great that memories of his fun would sustain me through the costs of his fun - whatever grades, grumbly knees, usual garbage

[twinskates]

My skating was better when I was 15. Also better feelings - but this is just me..

[Esquivel]

I'm in my late 20s, so I'm still young but I'm slowly getting up there in age. For a good couple of years I was only skating once every couple of weeks at most, and lost so many tricks. Everytime I'd get on a board I'd feel uncomfortable and have jello legs and it'd take me forever to warm up. It was really starting to get more frustrating than fun for me because of this.  Recently though I've been trying to skate every day or every 1 to 3 days. These past few weeks or so I've been skating a lot and I got a huge chunk of my tricks back and am just feeling more comfortable on my board again in general. I haven't had this much fun skating in a while. It just feels so good.
I'd say skating does get more fun as you get older, because when you're older you just stop giving as much of a shit about all the things in skating that shouldn't even matter in the first place; like having to be on top of the latest trends or being better than your friends and treating it like it's a competition, etc.
Only thing that can make it frustrating or unfun is losing tricks and degressing with time, so my advice is just to do it as much as you can when you can. Youd be surprised how much you get back when you start skating on a frequent basis again. It's all still there, you just need time to get comfortable to it again.

this is what i say to my old skater friends who are looking to get back in the game. its not going to be much fun until you commit to skate frequently. then it will be more fun than it was when we were kids.

[robasheep]

I'm close to 41.  Skating now is almost exclusively on transition.  In my formative years I really liked the technical aspect of skateboarding.  I rarely flip my board these days(I broke my ankle several years ago)...I just don't have the same reaction time any more.  I used to be bummed that I could no longer do tricks that I once had on lock.  I eventually came to terms with those limitations...and soon discovered that there was a shit ton of tricks that I had never done on transition(that didn't involve having to flip my board)...allowing me access to my dopamine-fix.  TBH, I often find tricks really easy to learn...I'm not sure if it's muscle memory or just "knowing" the science of skateboarding...? 

[Big Sweatpants]

No, because it was never fun to start with.

[GAY]

I go out skating and it's very hard for me to just relax with my current level of skill, which is just a notch above terrible. As soon as I step on my board, I start stressing about the tricks I'm no longer able to do, or the fact that my ollie is so gimped, and the joy is immediately sucked out of the experience. I wish I could just be OK with cruising around, hopping up and down curbs, but it seems like I'm unable to separate the urge I had as a youth to excel and "get tricks" with the reality of being nearly 42 years old, overweight, and simply not able to do what I used to do.

[robasheep]

I go out skating and it's very hard for me to just relax with my current level of skill, which is just a notch above terrible. As soon as I step on my board, I start stressing about the tricks I'm no longer able to do, or the fact that my ollie is so gimped, and the joy is immediately sucked out of the experience. I wish I could just be OK with cruising around, hopping up and down curbs, but it seems like I'm unable to separate the urge I had as a youth to excel and "get tricks" with the reality of being nearly 42 years old, overweight, and simply not able to do what I used to do.

Ride more tranny!






No seriously!  A friend built the best ramp.  Sessions are like the band getting back together...

[Pat Eisenhauer]

I never post on here but as a 42 year old who is just okay at best I would say the answer is yes.

Of course it can be frustrating sometimes knowing how much you have lost and are no longer able to do but after a certain age you also stop caring about "how good you are" compared to others around you.  Your little victories feel just as good. Hell, just the fact that you can still skate feels like a victory.

I like hanging out with guys that are a little bit younger than me and slightly better than me, because that pushes me into trying stuff, but nothing too crazy.

As a lot of others have said, the secret is transition.  Carve the big stuff and work on lip tricks on the little stuff.

[skate_bored]

I'm almost 30 and this year I was trying to make it a point to skate every weekend. So far I've probably skated 20 times. It's so crazy how quickly life passes by. A small obligation on a Friday night can mean I'm too lazy to skate Saturday, or a rainy day off means I don't skate for 2 weeks. I could go find an empty parking lot and skate alone during the week but by 7pm when I get home I am worn out from work and ready to unwind. I think if we had a nice park nearby I'd go at least 3 times a week, right now I'm limited to the local DIY spot on weekend mornings before it gets super crowded.

On the other side of the coin, I have been skating better this year than the last few. The more I skate, the more comfortable I feel. It's actually shocking what a difference it makes to skate once a week vs once a month. I know I'll be sore until Wednesday but it's a good sore. I liked these threads, I'll definitely be skating this weekend.

[givecigstosurfgroms]

Gay I think that tricks hang around as long as they want to and when they go it's only to make room for some other little trick.    Also a 'trick' can be anything.   If you feel uninspired smoke some weed and try again.  New approaches are the biggest catalysts.  And for me personally i used to skate bowls on the side but have quit that compleatly. That shit is way too gnar.

[Ronald Wilson Reagan]

To whoever said you either had a lame young era and a cool older era or vice versa, again I disagree. Skating then was the best, skating now is the second best, everything else sucks and can go to hell.

Also, ive totally skated with that guy Bob. He's a shredder for sure and I'm pretty sure has been at it since the 70's. He lives in SF and has a sick VW bus.

[donnie most]

NO IT DOESN'T! After 27 years just as fun as always. Me on the other hand, I am less fun. I'm only interesting because I used to be interesting, I'm only good at skating because I used to be good. See you out there tomorrow.

[Abyss1]

as I got older it actually had more fun skating by myself...on some zen mullen type shit

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

I had more fun when I was younger, but appreciate it more now.....you can't beat that time when you first get hooked....

Tricks and stuff.....if you stick around long enough and stay in shape...you can go from a bad skater to a mediocre old skater....

i dont try too hard because I don't want to get bummed or hurt....I do try to skate a bunch though because I know it doesn't last forever and I never want to feel like I didn't skate enough....

[itspizzapie]

I'm 32, been skating for 16 years. My body is older now, i'm heavier, i get sore faster, my knees are getting rusty, i need 30 minutes of warming up before i can properly pop an ollie.
But then, landing a trick feels exactly as it did when i was 16. In that sense, skating is like an open door to my younger years, and it really feels awesome.

[sharkin]

skating for 14 years now..
I skate alone most 90% of the time

I like my skating now more than ever. I don't get upset when I can't do a trick, I just move on to something else. There's no pressure to do anything other than what I put on myself. I definitely wear out faster and have to take more care of myself before and after sessions with stretching, yoga, ice, whatever, but I think it's totally worth it.