Skateboarding Saves Me Twice

[xGAMBLERx]

I must be gay. Thank you for letting me know.

[D.o.S.]

90's nostalgia really hitting a fever pitch eh?

[xGAMBLERx]

90's nostalgia really hitting a fever pitch eh?

80's

[Circuithead]

So that's what the Tensors looked like. Snapped bushing cup. It's the back truck so I guess it got tired of slamming into boxes when I miss my ollies.




Hoping I don't put the indies through this too. I got a set of 159s stage 11 and set up the new deck yesterday. We're off to the races again.

[coldbrightsunlight]

oh damn! never seen that happen to any trucks!!! New one for me. I'm hoping to get out to the park tomorrow if it's nice or at least hang out in a carpark somewhere annoying people. First time skating in nearly ten years I think

[Circuithead]

Never seen that either.

It's kind of a bummer because I was looking for an excuse to get an 8.5 with indies and hand this one down to my sister's youngest kid but with a fucked up back truck I don't think so. May or may not get just one truck and give it to him regardless.

10 years is a decent period. Do you still have a board from 10 years ago? Pulling that out will feel pretty sweet I bet.


Pic of the new setup. Pretty sweet Poltergeist type graphic amirite. Shawn Hale likes his UFOs and so do I.

[coldbrightsunlight]

I lost my old board (meaning my dad chucked it out of his garage while I was moved away at some point)

But my friend found an old spare so I've got that. It's still a decade old and not amazing lol. If I get back into this in a big way I think I'll at least get some new bearings for it. But this will do to try it out for a few weeks/months.

That board looks great!!! Nothing like a new setup


The 00s nostalgia is big with me right now.

[Circuithead]

I lost my old board (meaning my dad chucked it out of his garage while I was moved away at some point)

Hahahaha same for me. He threw it out probably 15 years ago. He said he tried it once and nearly died so he chucked it thinking I'd never get back into skating again.

Have fun getting back into the grind man!

[coldbrightsunlight]

I went out today to the local park, had a great time! Felt sketchy at first but I got some balance back and landed a few decent tricks. Definitely keeping this up!

[Circuithead]

Hell yeah man. What tricks did you land?

Going from an 8.1 to an 8.5 for me might've been a bit much. I struggled for an hour and a half at the park yesterday, couldn't get on top of anything, even knocked myself in the fucking balls picking up my board. I also completely did not consider that everything was brand new and I just went for my usual gimmick of trying to ollie as high as possible right away and destroyed my bushings in the front.

I got new indy medium aftermarket bushings today and swapped them out. I bought both conical and cylindrical so I'll try both and see what I like most. Think I'll just cruise around for a while to set the bushings and get used to the new setup. I was so excited coming in and fucked up coming out. Like relearning everything almost.

[coldbrightsunlight]

cruising sounds smart!

Just managed a few 180s and pop shove its first on flat then on the couple of small features at the park, practiced heelflips for a while and nearly got it lol. Mostly just spent the time riding around particularly getting the feel for balance on ramps again! Not quite there yet but felt a lot better by the end of it.

My ollies suuuuuuck now omg. No height at all

[Circuithead]

My ollies suuuuuuck now omg. No height at all

All the height of an ollie comes from the back foot. Focus on jumping off of your back foot. I got that tip from a VLskate video and it really opened me up. It'll come back fast man it's the only thing I haven't lost and I was never really a "good" skater.

I got to ride the ramp on my own today for 30 minutes and I know how to pump now. I don't look good doing it but god damn, I can build speed (and fear) out of thin air. Seeing your wheels an inch away from the coping for the first time on a 7 foot ramp is mind blowing, I almost blacked out and fell right there.

Keep skating man I can't be the only guy posting here

[coldbrightsunlight]

Well you might be the only guy but yeah more people should join in

I have definitely lost my confidence on the ramps, damn. The ones at my park are only 5-6ft but the transition is at the top is REALLY steep and it scares the hell out of me for now. I totally get what you mean, I feel OK then I get near the coping and the terror creeps in

I spent a while just dropping in and practicing going up and down but I couldn't manage to do any stalls or grinds yet, used to be ok at that so I'm sure it'll come back.


Definitely going to spend a while just practicing ollies to get the height back. I am very sore today so I think half an hour popping ollies might do me some good

[Glenouille]

You are not alone. I restarted when I was 39. I told people at work I bought a board and that I was going to try skateboarding again. At the time, I was working in a brand-new business park outside of town, there were nice surfaces everywhere, it looked perfect.

A few days later, I turned up with my board and come 6 PM I decided to give it a go after something like 20 years off the board. I went behind the office to another building that had not yet been let. I turned around... And that's when I saw them. Dozens of people standing at the windows in the office: friends, colleagues and plenty of random joes I didn’t even know. All were watching me, some even filming on their phones. I only understood afterwards that the word had gotten out through the day, and that the message got progressively distorted and amplified… What was just an old timer trying to ride again had been transformed into something closer to Tony hawk and the whole Bones Brigade are doing a one-off demo tonight…

I had a simple albeit cool (well, I remembered it as such) repertoire of tricks back in the days, so I thought let’s just roll and try some stuff. In an ideal world, I had imagined restarting away from prying eyes, but fate had decided otherwise. After 5 pushes, I realized I had no stamina and my balance was beyond precarious. I was old and rusty and maybe this was all a very bad idea.
Let's blame the tools first: the new set up was playing against me, the bushings had not been broken in, the grip was overly efficient and felt like I was glued to the board, and the new shoes seemed fat and more suited to a trip on the moon. Truth is, my mind was telling my legs to do stuff and there was clearly some lag or communication breakdown here – my movements looked like some stoned puppeteer had control of my body and was trying to get me to skateboard: it grossly looked like it.
And there was the crowd… I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I’m a musician, you are too, so you know what goes - shit happens, some gigs are terrible for various reasons and the show must go on. So, I thought fuck it, let's do this and I went for it. I gave them everything I had. I gave them no-pop ollies, botched bonelesses, rocket flips, no-complies that definitely wouldn’t comply, dozens of fucked-up landings, I sacrificed 3 bruised ribs and a sprained wrist, and I immortalized the performance with giant bloody marks on the floor as the fresh grip tape had ended up sanding my thumb to the bone - every time I was putting my hands on the ground to prevent a bail, I was adding more blood onto the light-coloured paving stones. Did people like it? I am not sure, I think they appreciated the standards. Not the standards of skateboarding, that was pitiful, but I guess they respected the level of dedication (or stupidity in equal measure)! It was a dry summer, the red swirls remained visible on the ground for days like primitive cave paintings acting as a persistent reminder of these painful new beginnings. I was quite glad the day it rained tbh!

I had to stop skateboarding for a little while after that. But I kept at it. That was 5 years ago. I still skate every week, every day if I can. I can do most of the tricks I could do in an earlier life and I enjoy learning new ones very much, even if the learning process is painful and slow, requiring a lot of stretching before and after! I can't skate all day like I used to either, 3 hours seem to be the maximum, beyond that I start to get tired and that's generally when I hurt myself.



Injuries happen regularly on gaps and rails (don't go imagining video worthy spots - more like 5 steps max) and I have turned up to many client meetings with bandages, casts, black eyes, bruises, scratches from the previous day or the WE. The worst one was when I didn’t land a back heel and got the board flying in my face instead. The edge of the tail cut my forehead from one eyebrow to the other, earning me 8 stitches just above the nose and a(nother) return trip to A&E. The bruised swollen and bloody monobrow was a great conversation starter!

[coldbrightsunlight]

What a story! love your dedication Yes I'm already being reminded that regular skating means being constantly injured in some way or another after 2 days

Definitely in the "stoned puppet" club for now. My mind gets it but my body does nawwttt. But I'm noticing huge improvements.

I am unbelievably stiff today after two days skating though

How did I used to have the stamina to do this all day?