I wanted to write this post for two reasons - one, to encourage new skaters like Kim to go ahead and ask for help! Especially at skateboard shops - I know it can be scary, but those people are some of the best ones to talk to. I remember when I was a new skater, and I was terrified of the guys working at my two local skate shops. I felt dumb, and I just KNEW I was going to say something stupid. But I went ahead and asked my questions - and found out I had put my trucks onto by deck wrong. Yeah, I felt like an idiot, but I got help from the creepy old guy behind the counter. help I needed. Being a new skater can be scary, not wanting to look stupid, but also not wanting to be a poser... but you need to buck up and talk! Go for it!
I also wanted to encourage you veteran skaters and skate shop owners out there - you gotta be welcoming to new skaters! Unless you like the idea of building your own skateboards out of 2x4s and roller skate wheels, the skateboard industry NEEDS new skaters to keep companies alive who pour wheels, forge trucks, and make decks. Besides, no one was born knowing how to skate - we've all been there, and it's time to give back.
That was my little soap box speech. If you want to preach one of your own, leave a comment below!
Comments
I concur. Indeed, skateboarding requires this collaboration between the old and new more than most activities. When you play football, basketball, baseball, you have a coach to tell you how to do this or that. Skateboarders, by and large, are left to their own devices. This is likely what most of us find so appealing – we figured all this out on our own. We rely on each other to learn new tricks and push the sport forward. No coach tells me to bend my knees – through trial and error we learn and create new tricks – things thought impossible before.
So, don’t be a dick. A poser is not someone who puts his trucks on backwards. It is someone decked in skate clothes, holding an unscathed board, smoking weed in the corner of the skatepark that has never tried to ollie, never smashed his shins, never taken the painful steps of learning. Sucking does not a poser make – not trying but fronting like you are a skater is a poser. There are already too many posers in the world – it is up to those who know how to skate to make efforts to reduce the pose and increase the shred. The first step is being nice to the little snot nosed kid who wants to learn rather than just take the benefits of being a skater without the punishment that it entails. Oh how I long for the days when skateboarding wasn’t cool.
I agree with you both. And nicely put T-rad, I’ve always had a problem with the poser “decked in skate clothes, holding an unscathed board, smoking weed in the corner of the skatepark that has never tried to ollie, never smashed his shins, never taken the painful steps of learning” haha nice.
Skating is an individual sport, but newcomers should not feel excluded or be discouraged from learning. But make sure they know the price to pay.