DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Ever get good at skateboarding?

I got OK. Average. Nothing special.

From the cover of LIFE Magazine in 1965. (when they first came out)

I can't believe we used to let women ride skateboards.

Funny, my mom sent me a box of my old things and there were quite a few pictures of me on a half pipe back around 1990. We built a 7' high ramp that was 24' wide. It had a tombstone and metal coping. Before we built that, I was one of 15 guys in our high school that skated and I was maybe the 14th best. After having that ramp in the backyard, I got good fast. It makes a big difference being able to skate something like that every day. Airs, liptricks and boardslides, I did it all.

I think about it a lot now, since I'm an "old man" at 46 and my body is falling apart. We were in Medina, but if we were in Cali or Fla, I'd have been sponsored (which isn't to say I would have been pro or anything). I did get to enter one contest in Brunswick and I finished 2nd. There were ~100 people there. Funny, I broke my finger earlier in the day and bailed on the two tricks I needed my hand for, cost me the win. Shoot, it was a $50 gift certificate for first, not even a trophy. Again, I'm not thinking I was the next Tony Hawk.

I was okay at street skating but I specialized at half pipes. I rode a few of the bigger pipes, like something you'd see at the X-Games, but I lived so far away from them that I never had enough time on it to get used to the height (15' with 1' if vert). Scary as hell dropping in on that, but I did it.

There is a huge bowl downtown and I rode it ~2 years ago. Dropped in and did a bunch of kickturns. I was wearing pads and a helmet, I swear everyone was looking at me like I was a poser, but at 44, I wasn't going to get a concussion. It felt good and I planned on doing it more, but there's no way my body could rebound like it did when I was 16-18.

My worst pipe injury was sliding down the ramp and getting my elbow caught on a nail. Ripped it up, bad. I didn't notice until I got up to the top with everyone, bleeding all over my shoes and the ramp. It's a nice scar (not my best though).

Men's and women's skateboarding will make their Olympic debut in Tokyo next summer.

What's next? Checkers?

Go Fish.

Where I grew up we were too busy playing real sports.

I’d be the first person to say skateboarding isn’t a sport.

Of course it's not a sport.

It's human physical competition.

The International Olympic Committee decides what is an Olympic competition.

Bringing in skateboarding as an Olympic event is part of a 2 tier trend to bringing sport to young people and reflecting the trend of urbanization of sport.

Skateboarding isn't a "sport" just like this isn't a "sport".



But it is incredible human physical achievement.

I love watching the boundaries of human physicality being advanced.

Hey, what schlemiel came up with pole vaulting?





"Hey baby, my name's rockyhill. Whatcha doin' later?"

Good? I don't know if I was good. But, I had a Veracruz board with custom trucks and wheels. I rode it all the time. I knew a couple people with a pool and we tried our best to go all Californian before their parents filled it, but it often resulted in us biting it big time. I can still ride ok and do a few tricks. Nothing special tho.

Nyjah Huston, Brighton Zeuner and Tom Schaar will lead the first U.S. Olympic skateboard team.

.



Nyjah Huston



Brighton Zeuner



Tom Schaar



Like playing cards, huh?

You must have grown up in this little pocket of coolness that the rest of the world just didn't understand.

I'm glad you recognize.

From my understanding, (I don't really), but, that lady weighlifters grip is spread way to wide so her hands are by the weights, putting way too much undo pressure on her elbows and shoulders, I think.

It might be the only way to lift it, but it can't be the best.

Skateboarding, weighlifting, lots of things can be sports.

Ok. But no.

We were too busy working, fishing and playing school sports to waste time skateboarding. I know some city slickers just can't grasp that concept but it's actually a real thing.

I never skateboarded, but I did go skating with a bunch of people from work when I was 17 or 18. I could do the NASCAR ...... I went really fast in the oval. Then they decided to slow it down, and had a "lady's choice" dance. Again, I could go straight forward, and into the curves, while facing forward. Dancing on roller skates was bound to be a disaster.

This girl I worked with, Paula, dragged me out. I told her it was a bad idea, but she said it would be fine. We did OK for about 1 1/2 turns on the floor, until we ran over these 2 little kids who I never saw, who I think probably danced on skates better than we did.

I'm scared.

In the small town I grew up in, I had jobs around the house, a paying job when I was old enough, played sports every season of every year from ages 5 to 18... and still found time to ride a skateboard and become a single digit handicap golfer.. Your town was weak.

Since you stuck this earworm in my head, I thought I'd share.

AARGH! No! NO!! NO!!! It took me 40 years to get that wretched song out of my head, and now, just like that ...

Where I grew up, if everyone who could actually play a sport didn't participate, we wouldn't have had enough people to field a team.

There weren't many places fit to ride a skateboard either. But then again, I would have spent that time riding my motorcycle instead anyway. We just had cooler things to do than you did.

Motorcycling isn't a sport, it barely counts as a physical activity since all you do it sit there.

We had skateboarders, motorcyclists, BMX bikers, break dancers, snowmobilers... we valued diversity.

You've never ridden Motocross have you?

No, you haven't. I can tell that by your description.

We also rode snowmobiles. Break dancing hadn't been invented yet. lol

I notice you don't have hunting or fishing on your list either. We had far more options of places to hunt and fish than we did to skateboard.

Maybe if we lived in an area that had more options of places to skateboard we may have taken it up. But we didn't.

So fishing is a sport but skateboarding isn't?

im confused.

I wonder if they’ll require helmets in the Olympics.



I wonder if DawgTalkers will require helmets soon.

No, I wasn't from a rich family that could afford such things. If I wanted to go somewhere I had to peddle or walk.


How old were you in 1972?


We walked in the woods all the time, we just didn't carry a gun, but basically the same thing as hunting only when it's warmer and not at 5:00 in the morning. Fishing is an excuse to sit by the water or on a boat and drink.

Not if you fish the way I do. You slap some fins on your feet and kick your way around the lake for 5 or 6 hours.

with beer.

Only for absolute morons. There isn't a seat belt, you slip out of that thing, your waders fill with water and they don't find you for days.

Close to golfing. Only you hit balls in the water and drink beer. Yeah, I wasn't at the river drinking beer as a teenager. I was fishing.

It appears you think skateboarding made you cool with your special little shoes and and all of your left coast language.

No, golfing is a skill to be improved upon.


Fishing is a skill to getting some bait on a hook and getting it into the water.. whatever happens after that is chance.


Actually I was never all that good at it, I could transport myself on it but never even tried tricks... and we didn't have special shoes, though the Chuck Taylors I was wearing would be considered quite rad today.

For some. For others it's a necessary evil to do business. For still others it's a way to escape their wife.



Once again, you know very little about fishing. Tell that to someone who fly fishes.



Then obviously you weren't a real skateboarder.

I don't know anybody who plays golf and considers it a necessary evil... no matter how much they cuss and throw things while they are doing it, they come back voluntarily... it's pretty sadistic really.


I know everything about fishing... but I gave up fly fishing because I could never get the honey to stick to the hook.


I never claimed to be.

Competitive Skateboarding requires:

Physically being fit
Athleticism
Concentration
Agility
Endurance
Superior balance
Ability to put fears behind you

Competitive Fishing requires:

A rod
Bait

The only thing on your list you really need on your to ride a skateboard is balance. And it really doesn't have to be superior balance.

Unless of course you're talking about edurance skateboarding or being someone doing major tricks on a board. Anyone who feels they have to overcome fear to ride a skateboard was a snowflake to begin with.

I see you really haven't followed the thread. Fishing was just one of many activities mentioned that was being pursued rather than skateboarding when I was young.

But thanks for playing!

I thought the word "Competitive" at the beginning of his post cleared that up.

I'll never forget when it got popular in Cleveland back in the late '80s. I was ten years old and remember some of the older kids in my school doing tricks on their "Vision" brand skateboards. I'd tag along with my older sisters and their boyfriends to the "Ski Haus" shop in Chagrin Falls to look at the new and, I guess "legitimate" skateboards they were selling. - Wide, long, ball bearing wheels, neon colors, etc. as opposed to the 5" wide, short, plastic thing I found in my garage that we considered a skateboard prior to that point in time.

My father refused to allow me to get a skateboard. He bought me a Huffy Bike that had pegs and that I could supposedly do tricks on, but he banned skateboards. I remember wanting one so bad. I guess he was right because during either the summer of '88 or '89, my sister was on a skateboard at her friends house, fell off, and needed knee surgery. She never told my dad how it happened, and I think my mom covered for her. But yeah, good times. To be honest, I've never known anybody that was good with skateboards, except for my sisters boyfriends back in the late 80's.

Since I'm the only one that skateboarded and performed tricks, I can explain what a person needs to have. :-)

I did tricks.

My best was a face first pike with a 1 1/2 twist.