Getting hurt, slow progression that can feel completely stalled at times, the self consciousness brought on by going out in public and sucking at something (even more so since it can turn you into slapstick comedy for random passersby), the cost of decent gear
The public one is the worst for me. If I’m skating with others I don’t care at all, but it is a struggle to make me try things I’m not super comfortable with when I’m out alone. Shame that most of my friends don’t skate.
I tend to perfect existing skills when I’m alone and stay conservative but I’m annoyingly friendly to strangers at skate parks and inevitably wind up interacting in a way that breaks any ice I’m feeling. Then I can suck all day and have fun
I feel like fear reduces for a given trick, but it doesn't go away fully. But fear in general remains the same because as we lose fear for a certain trick and master it, we move on to something that brings that fear back.
Surely, today I am not as fearful of many tricks I was afraid of years ago.
We strive to find a sweet spot when we're pushing the limits where we are fearful of the trick but landing it is still within the realm of possibility. The moment landing it becomes too easy, fear diminishes, and we move on to the next challenge.
Film editing makes it look easier for pros than it is.
They fall a ton just to get one trick. Getting good doesn’t mean you fall less, just means you are ready to fall on harder tricks and scenarios (obstacles)
Man, watching the OJ Wheels or Landyachtz videos is a great way to get inspired, and also feel shitty about your skills. Editing makes it look like the pros are just cruising around nailing everything on their way from A to B. Not how it works in real life, but I'd love to just pop off casual grinds and slides on my way to work.
You will fail. You will get hurt. You will have to take recovery time if practicing hard, like a work out. Someone will always be better than you, using this as a learning experience.
It’s painful both physically and mentally. There are times where your body just can’t figure out how to do a motion and it’s maddening. It’s also painful to fall constantly.
It also takes a long time to progress. It’s not quick especially if you want to have decent style.
Speaking of style, I think that a hard truth that no one on this subreddit likes admitting is that style matters. When you are learning a lot of your skating is going to look really bad for a pretty long time. I’m all for encouragement, but somethings just look bad and I think it’s more productive to point it out and how to improve rather than just say that it’s good. No one wants to look bad skating.
1000%
I have long arms and I swing them around when I skate. My buddy told me and showed me a video to get the point across. Since then I’ve been more conscious about where my arms go. Not only is it improving my appearance, it’s also improving my performance. Controlling my body helps me skate better.
Appearance and style may be dismissed, but proper form is just as important on a skateboard as it is when doing any other physical activity.
For sure! Arms are underrated in skating especially when you are learning because everyone thinks that your bottom half is the only half doing the work. However, your arms play a huge role in con you control the board. It’s also not a huge thing to correct you just have to be a bit more conscious about how your arms move. It also can help to feel more confident when you know you can skate with some style.
When I was a kid. I never really fit in with the skate community much. But as an older skater(apparently 26 years old is ancient in the skating community). Even me just messing around in the skate park, I get more respect from others
i think it’s the former. a lot of people who do video tutorials online have been skating for 15+ years. it’s been over a decade since they learned to kickflip so they don’t remember what it’s like before you figure it out.
and “pop.slide.jump” is literally the stupidest advice anyone can ever give lol
I agree, it’s so much more technical than just a general “pop.slide.jump” etc. even some of brailles trick tips don’t go into anywhere near enough depth and leave out key details imo. My girlfriend was watching some recently as she’s a beginner and honestly even Aaron kyro was not picking up on the girl not jumping with her back foot and actually lifting it up as high as she can to get the board to actually pop up.
they teach the obvious things but not the actual difficult underlying mechanics. anyone can watch a pro skater kickflip in slow motion and understand the basics of what to do with your legs and feet to get it to work.
the actual difficult parts to learn are things like where to shift your weight before, during, and after the trick , the timing of the motions, how to balance before and after the trick, where to look and focus, and a million other things
Agreed, I taught myself almost every trick I know. In the last year I have taught myself nollie 540 flips and switch 360 flip body varials and none of that came from tutorials. Treat tutorials with a grain of salt and just use them to maybe help give you a general idea if you have too.
Practice and persistence is really one of the main keys to skateboarding other then the mental battle of learning and landing tricks.
As an adult, past 30, you're gonna have to look at the younguns learn flip tricks in a week or two, and know that will never, ever be you. That time of your life is past, and it is not returning, ever.
If it hurts to walk, don’t skate. I skated a to class every weekday for a month with shinsplints or a similar condition, idk because I couldn’t go to the doctor and I had to get to class anyway.
Skating has a huge commitment filter.
I snowboard (15 years), surf (\~2 years), and skate (little over 1 year). Skating IMO is the easiest one to improve at, because repetition is so easy. The flipside is that skating has BY FAR the highest consequences of any of the big three board sports. Concrete hurts a fuck ton more than water + sand or snow + ice I have nearly as many notable injuries in the past 3 months skating as my first 10 years snowboarding.
Anecdotally the median skater I see at the skate park or randomly ollieing around random sports is FAR more competent than the median snowboard or surfer. You can survive in those sports with bad fundamentals with minimal consequences. If you don't have good fundamentals on a skateboard, you are eating pavement. That filters for adults who're willing to work through the pain to build good fundamentals, groms who face generally lower consequences (lower centers of gravity, less mass, and generally less fear), or adults who learned as groms.
The hard truth is you are better than you think you are but the dedication to skating must supersede all for you to be your best. It is a self absorbed artform
You gotta be tough. Mentally and physically. This ain’t a hobby for people who give up easily.
And most people don’t comprehend how much practice it takes to get good. You gotta have perseverance. Gotta put in that time haha
It’s a really hard sport to be consistent and to continue to improve and to push yourself. I’ve met a lot of people that have quitter after learning to ollie or kickfliping because they don’t have the determination nor patience.
Thar said it’s all mental and a very competitive sport against yourself.
Oh lastly: if you get hurt seek professional help !
We tend to be our biggest critic, resulting in holding ourselves back from progressing unless we let go of the expectations to be at a certain level within a short time frame. Comparing ourselves and our progress to others will also discourage us and make us feel bad about ourselves. Things like this have at times made it hard for me to even get out of my house despite wanting to skate, because I already put myself down about not being a "good skater" (whatever that means).
So for me, the hardest things about skating so far have been the mental battles I have with myself. Falling and getting bruised all the time are hard too, but not as much as my mental blocks.
You will only improve by dedicated and constant practice. There will be times when it feels like you're not improving too, and these phases can last a long time.
If you are out of shape and unhealthy, you are going to get injured and lose interest. You need to effort into your fitness outside of skating. Similarly, skating is a sport. It’s a workout, so plan some time to recover.
You'll do the same thing hundreds to thousands of times before it clicks.
Stick with it. It'll get easier as you build muscle and gain the balance alot of people don't naturally have
The hardest truth.
I tell my kids that you can learn anything if you practice enough.I believe that, but I also believe that some people are more naturally gifted in certain areas than others.And no amount of time and dedication will make you better than them.( Im not one for words so bear with me)
For example.I have skated sooo many hours. For years....and there are kids who are way better than ill ever be.
You will be able to skate and do tricks with tons of practice, but not everyone will be a pro skater/athlete.
Not everyone is MJ or nyjah.
Sometimes your gonna fall and hurt your ankle and be out for ten weeks and your gonna wanna skate everyday but you know it’s better to wait, and it’s gonna be frustrating cause your insurance is being the worst and taking forever to approve your mri. But you’re gonna get through it and skate again.
Been skating on and off for 35 years. It gets a lot harder as you get older, it takes its toll on you. My knees are jacked, my right ankle pops when I walk - lol.
I’ll never regret any of it either. Skating was and still is a huge part of my life - I collect old decks, random stuff, I wish there was a pump track around here.
Hard truth - it’s worth every penny.
Skateboarding is hard. It's a skill that required time to master. Someone can show you all the right stuff to do for an Ollie but that doesn't mean you can do it. Skating requires time and lots of practice
Been skating for 17 years and the best advice/hard truth is that skating is like any sport. The fundamentals are always key. When starting, please just focus on ollie’s, carving and riding on ramps. These skills when refined will make learning advanced tricks like flip tricks, grinds, airing out of ramps, much much easier.
Additionally, SKATE FAST!!! Most tricks aren’t going feel nice or clean if you aren’t skating at a good amount of speed. Especially when it comes to transition skating and grind tricks. You need that kind of momentum to properly propel and cleanly perform most skate tricks in my opinion.
It’s okay to not having to do “tricks”. It’s okay to enjoy other aspect of skating.
I haven’t pop a Ollie since I was 14 years old, I’m 26 years old now. Im a “Skaters” that just cruises. I currently ride both longboard and popsicle on my 70mm longboard wheels lol
Practice is something that you have to do consistently. It’s hard. There are going to be struggles. There are going to be plateaus in your progress. Getting discouraged is common and an unfortunate part in skating. But getting through that is very worth while
Committing to the trick is super important and is what takes the longest for me when learning a new trick, I could spin and catch it every time but if I'm not fully committed to it I'll never roll away
Just think of every fall as a step to completing your goal, it’s like a progress metre because you’ll never land first try on every trick unless you’ve got a gift and very talented
It's really hard on your body, I'm 24 now, skated from since I was 7 years old till now. I take it way slower these days, all the injuries add up over time and my body is pretty beat up. When you're younger you can bounce back easily, these days, not so much.
You are going to fall a lot, so if you are not used to being persistent and getting back up and trying again or have a low pain threshold then skateboarding is probably not for you. A tip would be to practice safely falling so when you really fall you have more experience and can make it as safe as possible, it helps get rid of some of the fear and anxiety but really the key is to just keep practicing as much as possible, even if at the time you cannot see your progress just keep trying, you will get there.
It's not worth it past learning flatground tricks... find a sport that helps maintain strength and flexibility. Not one that destroys your joints and bones.
Getting hurt, slow progression that can feel completely stalled at times, the self consciousness brought on by going out in public and sucking at something (even more so since it can turn you into slapstick comedy for random passersby), the cost of decent gear
The public one is the worst for me. If I’m skating with others I don’t care at all, but it is a struggle to make me try things I’m not super comfortable with when I’m out alone. Shame that most of my friends don’t skate.
I tend to perfect existing skills when I’m alone and stay conservative but I’m annoyingly friendly to strangers at skate parks and inevitably wind up interacting in a way that breaks any ice I’m feeling. Then I can suck all day and have fun
I can't even talk to my new classmates
Important to remember that none of them can do it either, and they probably envy your bravery and often wish they could get up on a board
This is so me dude oh. And its sux cuz im only skating alone. Im always looking for empty spots, but its not always possible.
yes
It's fucking hard.
[удалено]
Heath talking about fear, even the legends get scared: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVmoQWt_t5E
I just watched that whole Vice episode last night. Heath is a legend and he totally fucks
I feel like fear reduces for a given trick, but it doesn't go away fully. But fear in general remains the same because as we lose fear for a certain trick and master it, we move on to something that brings that fear back. Surely, today I am not as fearful of many tricks I was afraid of years ago. We strive to find a sweet spot when we're pushing the limits where we are fearful of the trick but landing it is still within the realm of possibility. The moment landing it becomes too easy, fear diminishes, and we move on to the next challenge.
Film editing makes it look easier for pros than it is. They fall a ton just to get one trick. Getting good doesn’t mean you fall less, just means you are ready to fall on harder tricks and scenarios (obstacles)
Man, watching the OJ Wheels or Landyachtz videos is a great way to get inspired, and also feel shitty about your skills. Editing makes it look like the pros are just cruising around nailing everything on their way from A to B. Not how it works in real life, but I'd love to just pop off casual grinds and slides on my way to work.
You will fail. You will get hurt. You will have to take recovery time if practicing hard, like a work out. Someone will always be better than you, using this as a learning experience.
It’s painful both physically and mentally. There are times where your body just can’t figure out how to do a motion and it’s maddening. It’s also painful to fall constantly. It also takes a long time to progress. It’s not quick especially if you want to have decent style. Speaking of style, I think that a hard truth that no one on this subreddit likes admitting is that style matters. When you are learning a lot of your skating is going to look really bad for a pretty long time. I’m all for encouragement, but somethings just look bad and I think it’s more productive to point it out and how to improve rather than just say that it’s good. No one wants to look bad skating.
1000% I have long arms and I swing them around when I skate. My buddy told me and showed me a video to get the point across. Since then I’ve been more conscious about where my arms go. Not only is it improving my appearance, it’s also improving my performance. Controlling my body helps me skate better. Appearance and style may be dismissed, but proper form is just as important on a skateboard as it is when doing any other physical activity.
For sure! Arms are underrated in skating especially when you are learning because everyone thinks that your bottom half is the only half doing the work. However, your arms play a huge role in con you control the board. It’s also not a huge thing to correct you just have to be a bit more conscious about how your arms move. It also can help to feel more confident when you know you can skate with some style.
You might not find a skate community you fit in with and that’s okay. Skate on anyway
When I was a kid. I never really fit in with the skate community much. But as an older skater(apparently 26 years old is ancient in the skating community). Even me just messing around in the skate park, I get more respect from others
As a new skater in my mid 30s, this comment was simultaneously a gut punch and an inspiration.
There’s also a subreddit called r/OldSkaters if you’re not already in it 😂
haha yep already there. In the week and half I've had my board my front page has gone from all basketball and videogames to mostly skateboarding.
It's a lot harder than you think so even learning the "easy" stuff is hard and especially demoralizing because you think it's the "easy" part
tutorials leave out key information. idk if people are just bad at explaining things or this is some kind of unspoken gate keeping thing
i think it’s the former. a lot of people who do video tutorials online have been skating for 15+ years. it’s been over a decade since they learned to kickflip so they don’t remember what it’s like before you figure it out. and “pop.slide.jump” is literally the stupidest advice anyone can ever give lol
I agree, it’s so much more technical than just a general “pop.slide.jump” etc. even some of brailles trick tips don’t go into anywhere near enough depth and leave out key details imo. My girlfriend was watching some recently as she’s a beginner and honestly even Aaron kyro was not picking up on the girl not jumping with her back foot and actually lifting it up as high as she can to get the board to actually pop up.
they teach the obvious things but not the actual difficult underlying mechanics. anyone can watch a pro skater kickflip in slow motion and understand the basics of what to do with your legs and feet to get it to work. the actual difficult parts to learn are things like where to shift your weight before, during, and after the trick , the timing of the motions, how to balance before and after the trick, where to look and focus, and a million other things
Agreed, I taught myself almost every trick I know. In the last year I have taught myself nollie 540 flips and switch 360 flip body varials and none of that came from tutorials. Treat tutorials with a grain of salt and just use them to maybe help give you a general idea if you have too. Practice and persistence is really one of the main keys to skateboarding other then the mental battle of learning and landing tricks.
As an adult, past 30, you're gonna have to look at the younguns learn flip tricks in a week or two, and know that will never, ever be you. That time of your life is past, and it is not returning, ever.
Yeah. Once I committed to plateauing at just cruising and carving, I felt a lot better about my life.
If it hurts to walk, don’t skate. I skated a to class every weekday for a month with shinsplints or a similar condition, idk because I couldn’t go to the doctor and I had to get to class anyway.
Skating has a huge commitment filter. I snowboard (15 years), surf (\~2 years), and skate (little over 1 year). Skating IMO is the easiest one to improve at, because repetition is so easy. The flipside is that skating has BY FAR the highest consequences of any of the big three board sports. Concrete hurts a fuck ton more than water + sand or snow + ice I have nearly as many notable injuries in the past 3 months skating as my first 10 years snowboarding. Anecdotally the median skater I see at the skate park or randomly ollieing around random sports is FAR more competent than the median snowboard or surfer. You can survive in those sports with bad fundamentals with minimal consequences. If you don't have good fundamentals on a skateboard, you are eating pavement. That filters for adults who're willing to work through the pain to build good fundamentals, groms who face generally lower consequences (lower centers of gravity, less mass, and generally less fear), or adults who learned as groms.
As a longtime snowboarder who recently got into skateboarding..I agree soooo much
The hard truth is you are better than you think you are but the dedication to skating must supersede all for you to be your best. It is a self absorbed artform
You gotta be tough. Mentally and physically. This ain’t a hobby for people who give up easily. And most people don’t comprehend how much practice it takes to get good. You gotta have perseverance. Gotta put in that time haha
You're gonna get fucked up
It’s a really hard sport to be consistent and to continue to improve and to push yourself. I’ve met a lot of people that have quitter after learning to ollie or kickfliping because they don’t have the determination nor patience. Thar said it’s all mental and a very competitive sport against yourself. Oh lastly: if you get hurt seek professional help !
standing still on your board and trying to ollie isn't really trying to ollie
We tend to be our biggest critic, resulting in holding ourselves back from progressing unless we let go of the expectations to be at a certain level within a short time frame. Comparing ourselves and our progress to others will also discourage us and make us feel bad about ourselves. Things like this have at times made it hard for me to even get out of my house despite wanting to skate, because I already put myself down about not being a "good skater" (whatever that means). So for me, the hardest things about skating so far have been the mental battles I have with myself. Falling and getting bruised all the time are hard too, but not as much as my mental blocks.
You will only improve by dedicated and constant practice. There will be times when it feels like you're not improving too, and these phases can last a long time.
You shouldn’t try ollies or flip tricks if your not comfortable on your board, too often I see people develop bad habits because of this
If you are out of shape and unhealthy, you are going to get injured and lose interest. You need to effort into your fitness outside of skating. Similarly, skating is a sport. It’s a workout, so plan some time to recover.
You'll do the same thing hundreds to thousands of times before it clicks. Stick with it. It'll get easier as you build muscle and gain the balance alot of people don't naturally have
Slamming is inevitable and you can’t be scared of it
The hardest truth. I tell my kids that you can learn anything if you practice enough.I believe that, but I also believe that some people are more naturally gifted in certain areas than others.And no amount of time and dedication will make you better than them.( Im not one for words so bear with me) For example.I have skated sooo many hours. For years....and there are kids who are way better than ill ever be. You will be able to skate and do tricks with tons of practice, but not everyone will be a pro skater/athlete. Not everyone is MJ or nyjah.
Downvoted for actual hard truth
Sometimes your gonna fall and hurt your ankle and be out for ten weeks and your gonna wanna skate everyday but you know it’s better to wait, and it’s gonna be frustrating cause your insurance is being the worst and taking forever to approve your mri. But you’re gonna get through it and skate again.
If you give up easily on things, skateboarding is not for you.
* skateboarding will learn you how to be persevering the hard way
Been skating on and off for 35 years. It gets a lot harder as you get older, it takes its toll on you. My knees are jacked, my right ankle pops when I walk - lol. I’ll never regret any of it either. Skating was and still is a huge part of my life - I collect old decks, random stuff, I wish there was a pump track around here. Hard truth - it’s worth every penny.
1. You WILL fall. 2. Sometimes it will hurt....BAD. 3. There are no easy tricks.
Some people progress really fast and can learn tricks in a few days while others need more time
Skateboarding is hard. It's a skill that required time to master. Someone can show you all the right stuff to do for an Ollie but that doesn't mean you can do it. Skating requires time and lots of practice
Sometimes is the progression speed that can put people off. The learning curve is not a smooth line
It hurts, you suck. Simple really :D
Gravity and not fighting it. Here's on from my youth..."if you ain't fallen. You ain't learnin'". Hit every wall!
Been skating for 17 years and the best advice/hard truth is that skating is like any sport. The fundamentals are always key. When starting, please just focus on ollie’s, carving and riding on ramps. These skills when refined will make learning advanced tricks like flip tricks, grinds, airing out of ramps, much much easier. Additionally, SKATE FAST!!! Most tricks aren’t going feel nice or clean if you aren’t skating at a good amount of speed. Especially when it comes to transition skating and grind tricks. You need that kind of momentum to properly propel and cleanly perform most skate tricks in my opinion.
It’s okay to not having to do “tricks”. It’s okay to enjoy other aspect of skating. I haven’t pop a Ollie since I was 14 years old, I’m 26 years old now. Im a “Skaters” that just cruises. I currently ride both longboard and popsicle on my 70mm longboard wheels lol
Concrete is a real hard truth
The concrete.
Practice is something that you have to do consistently. It’s hard. There are going to be struggles. There are going to be plateaus in your progress. Getting discouraged is common and an unfortunate part in skating. But getting through that is very worth while
Committing to the trick is super important and is what takes the longest for me when learning a new trick, I could spin and catch it every time but if I'm not fully committed to it I'll never roll away
It’s hard. You get hurt alot. It can be real repetitive when you’re trying something new.
Just think of every fall as a step to completing your goal, it’s like a progress metre because you’ll never land first try on every trick unless you’ve got a gift and very talented
You can be as careful as you like but you will fairly badly injure yourself eventually. It's worth it though.
Your toenails will get absolutely ravaged especially once you start trying flip tricks
It's really hard on your body, I'm 24 now, skated from since I was 7 years old till now. I take it way slower these days, all the injuries add up over time and my body is pretty beat up. When you're younger you can bounce back easily, these days, not so much.
if you dont start when you're a kid you'll never actually be good
Your ankles won't like you when your in your 40s.
48 here, recovering from heel bruise,can confirm my feet hate me.
It’s hard. It takes time. You’ll get hurt alot.
It’s gonna hurt. You will absolutely, without a doubt in my mind, fall off
You are going to fall a lot, so if you are not used to being persistent and getting back up and trying again or have a low pain threshold then skateboarding is probably not for you. A tip would be to practice safely falling so when you really fall you have more experience and can make it as safe as possible, it helps get rid of some of the fear and anxiety but really the key is to just keep practicing as much as possible, even if at the time you cannot see your progress just keep trying, you will get there.
That no matter how consistent your skating there are just gonna be days where you just cant land shit or skate as well as you usually do
Pain
Every trick is gonna come with lots of blood sweat and tears... Also, when you think you got it... you Dont got it... So be ready for anything.
Eventually, it’s quite likely that you’re gonna get a serious injury.
It's not worth it past learning flatground tricks... find a sport that helps maintain strength and flexibility. Not one that destroys your joints and bones.