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“You don’t quit skating cause you get old, you get old because you quit skating.” — Skateboarder Jay Adams, 1961-2014 I am nearing 40 and recently took up ska

“You don’t quit skating cause you get old, you get old because you quit skating.” — Skateboarder Jay Adams, 1961-2014 I am nearing 40 and recently took up skateboarding. Naturally before I did so I searched for, “Am I too old to start skateboarding?”, fully expecting the result to be “yes!” and wondering whether or not I would let that stop me. I came across this profile of Neal Unger, a (now) 60+ year-old man who took up skateboarding in his late 50s: https://www.absolute-snow.co.uk/articles/youre-never-too-old-to-skate https://www.absolute-snow.co.uk/articles/youre-never-too-old... YouTube is full of videos of skaters in their 60s, 70s, and 80s, and it encouraged me to give it a shot. It's been interesting to experience the reaction from friends, family, and strangers when I told them I skate, or when I skate in groups of younger people (they are almost always younger, unless they're the folks running the skate shop/park). My conclusion is the same as Pamela Druckerman's in her piece here: grown-ups don't exist. Your body will age, you will be more conscious of your mortality, society will judge you or ignore you, and that transition can be really tough. But you can flip the “age out of wunderkind” feeling she mentions — you can use the “don't care what you think” attitude that often accompanies getting older to question the status quo and do the things you want to do anyway. As you age you can become remarkable not just for the things you have done but for the things you decide to continue doing — or the things you decide to start doing. Suppressing your ambition and confining yourself to a subset of the activities that were once available to you because you feel older or because “old people don't X” feels like a sad way to live.

drblast 8y ago
I'm almost 40 and I've been snowboarding and skateboarding off and on for most of my life. Recently it's been all snowboarding which I love and will never stop doing. A few years ago I started skateboarding again to keep in shape for snowboarding in the summer. I'm writing this from bed as I'm recovering from an ACL replacement due to a fall I took skateboarding at that time. I agree with the "do what you want to" sentiment but sports like skateboarding are a matter of when you'll get injured, not if. And those injuries have an impact on other things you might want to do. So be careful.
- modernerd 8y ago
  Noted, thanks, and I'll take care. (My sister took up skateboarding and broke her arm the next week, so I'm aware of the risks. The fun is still worth it for me at the moment.) Not using your body into old age also carries risks, of course, but I accept there are safer ways of staying active than skateboarding. (Am also a skier and snowboarder, so doing it for much the same reasons as you. Hope you heal up ok!)
  - williamstein 8y ago
    I've been skateboarding vert ramps most of my life (our ramp is pictured at the top of my site https://vertramp.org/ https://vertramp.org/). To avoid getting seriously hurt, (1) religiously wear pads (even wrists guards) and a helmet if you skate bowls or ramps, and (2) don't push yourself too hard beyond your current level. Pushing hard can result in learning more quickly, but it's also a good way to end up hurt, which has serious consequences at our age (I'm 44). I skate all the time with other vert skaters around my age; there's a ton of us (since vert was huge in the 1980s), and it is a very welcoming community. It seems like each year I do deal with one nontrivial injury - for 2017 it was that my knees just started to ache a LOT from my knee pads getting yanked when knee sliding on birch, which was the surface of our ramp before we put skatelite on it. In any case, you have to watch out both for traumatic injuries (where pads help) and more subtle injuries from longterm stress to your body. Skateboarding in your 40s is definitely very doable, especially if you optimize for having fun and getting exercise more than trying to be Bucky Lasek, who is older than both of us and a top pro. Skateboarding is dangerous, but at least on a ramp or bowl, there aren't cars that can kill you in an instant, and (unlike surfing or snowboarding) where you are riding is mostly predictable and under control.
    - modernerd 8y ago
      Thanks for the advice! I'm not skating vert yet (mostly street and cruising) but I'm very much tempted by it as there are a couple of good parks nearby. I'll be sure to pad up and stay within my limits. And, yes, no illusions about becoming Bucky Lasek (45) or Tony Hawk (49); I started way too late to go pro and have other things I'm good at. It's about fun, fitness, friends, and cutting down journey times on foot for me.
jmadsen 8y ago
Started bouldering at age 48. Stronger than I've ever been in my life, and in better shape generally since my mid-20's
Snowe 8y ago
I took up mountain biking more seriously two years ago when I was 44. I wondered about the same question you did last year and found similar answers. You're never too old.
- pb060 8y ago
  I'm 44 now and I enjoy cycling in the nature more and more, I wish I had started earlier in my life. I am a kind of late developer, something that made me awkward in the past but makes me happy now. Despite of what the article says, I don't think I'm approaching the peak in earnings (that's because I don't think I get as much as I could, not because I'm particularly greedy). It's true that your mindset changes when you get 40. You get a bit less concerned about the present yet you live more in it, quite a pleasant status. Though I find there's some truth in the article, the author is generalizing a very private experience, something that I find a bit irritating. It bases on how other people see her (madame instead of mademoiselle), while it's clear that it all depends on you. I don't like the mild sense of ending that pervades the article.
- bigwheeler 8y ago
  I have a friend that started at 44 and started dirt jumping at 48. He did his first no footers at 50! Now that I’m well into my 40s, it gives me hope that I can still progress.
icebraining 8y ago
Only somewhat related: a video of Edmund Bacon, creator of LOVE park, at 92 years old, protesting the ban on skating in the park by skating himself: https://vimeo.com/57981966 https://vimeo.com/57981966
- modernerd 8y ago
  Those closing words are so uplifting. Thank you for sharing this.
- steanne 8y ago
  yeah, the replacement is not only not good for skaters, it's not good for anybody. http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_top/love-park-was-supposed-to-be-the-peoples-park-how-did-it-end-up-as-a-granite-sahara-20180426.html http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_top/love-park-was-suppo...
joncrane 8y ago
Funny you mention this. I skated in HS and college and while I have always owned a skateboard, I tend to go longer and longer between sessions as a 40-something. For me it's the decline in my explosiveness, some weight gain, and now chronic injuries that hold me back. I mean, if I throw myself off of 10 stairs today, I expect to be hospitalized. I have priorities in my life that don't allow me to sacrifice my physical wellbeing with the insouciance that I used to. So I wonder if starting in your 40s is better because you never knew what your body was capable of in your teens and early 20s, so that depression doesn't kick in.
yosito 8y ago
I started longboarding to work in my late 20s. My coworkers laughed at me and called me a hippy. I guess it was because I broke the status quo in their minds. Their expectation was that I should start maturing and settle into the same 9-5 box they were in. The older I get, the more I run into people thinking I'm a wacky hippy for the lifestyle choices I make. There's so much social pressure to conform but, ironically, conformity is a much lonelier option in my experience than being willing to stand out as weird. The phrase "your vibes attract your tribe" is really true, but it sometimes takes time. Over time I've found people my age (and of all ages) that accept my weirdness. I think the main reason people have trouble finding friends over 30 is because they spend more effort trying to fit into the boxes society wants to put them in than they do looking for the society that accepts them as they are.
- modernerd 8y ago
  Love the observation that lifestyle choices once construed by friends as evidence of a mid-life crisis are eventually accepted as just part of who you are — that has largely been my experience too. It also helps to see others normalising skating as a commuting form — I'd guess 1/3 of Casey Neistat's videos feature skateboards, longboards, and their electric variants. (He is 37.) I was tempted by longboarding, but bought the skateboard because they're easier to trick, carry, and stash. I can see myself buying a longboard eventually too, though…
  - yosito 8y ago
    Longboards are great for long distance commutes. Much more efficient and comfortable over long distances than traditional skateboards. And if you can find a place for downhill boarding, its an exhilarating hobby!
josch 8y ago
How did you start? The usual, climbing on it and falling off?

drblast 8y ago

I'm almost 40 and I've been snowboarding and skateboarding off and on for most of my life. Recently it's been all snowboarding which I love and will never stop doing. A few years ago I started skateboarding again to keep in shape for snowboarding in the summer. I'm writing this from bed as I'm recovering from an ACL replacement due to a fall I took skateboarding at that time. I agree with the "do what you want to" sentiment but sports like skateboarding are a matter of when you'll get injured, not if. And those injuries have an impact on other things you might want to do. So be careful.

modernerd 8y ago
Noted, thanks, and I'll take care. (My sister took up skateboarding and broke her arm the next week, so I'm aware of the risks. The fun is still worth it for me at the moment.) Not using your body into old age also carries risks, of course, but I accept there are safer ways of staying active than skateboarding. (Am also a skier and snowboarder, so doing it for much the same reasons as you. Hope you heal up ok!)
- williamstein 8y ago
  I've been skateboarding vert ramps most of my life (our ramp is pictured at the top of my site https://vertramp.org/ https://vertramp.org/). To avoid getting seriously hurt, (1) religiously wear pads (even wrists guards) and a helmet if you skate bowls or ramps, and (2) don't push yourself too hard beyond your current level. Pushing hard can result in learning more quickly, but it's also a good way to end up hurt, which has serious consequences at our age (I'm 44). I skate all the time with other vert skaters around my age; there's a ton of us (since vert was huge in the 1980s), and it is a very welcoming community. It seems like each year I do deal with one nontrivial injury - for 2017 it was that my knees just started to ache a LOT from my knee pads getting yanked when knee sliding on birch, which was the surface of our ramp before we put skatelite on it. In any case, you have to watch out both for traumatic injuries (where pads help) and more subtle injuries from longterm stress to your body. Skateboarding in your 40s is definitely very doable, especially if you optimize for having fun and getting exercise more than trying to be Bucky Lasek, who is older than both of us and a top pro. Skateboarding is dangerous, but at least on a ramp or bowl, there aren't cars that can kill you in an instant, and (unlike surfing or snowboarding) where you are riding is mostly predictable and under control.
  - modernerd 8y ago
    Thanks for the advice! I'm not skating vert yet (mostly street and cruising) but I'm very much tempted by it as there are a couple of good parks nearby. I'll be sure to pad up and stay within my limits. And, yes, no illusions about becoming Bucky Lasek (45) or Tony Hawk (49); I started way too late to go pro and have other things I'm good at. It's about fun, fitness, friends, and cutting down journey times on foot for me.

jmadsen 8y ago

Started bouldering at age 48. Stronger than I've ever been in my life, and in better shape generally since my mid-20's

Snowe 8y ago

I took up mountain biking more seriously two years ago when I was 44. I wondered about the same question you did last year and found similar answers. You're never too old.

pb060 8y ago
I'm 44 now and I enjoy cycling in the nature more and more, I wish I had started earlier in my life. I am a kind of late developer, something that made me awkward in the past but makes me happy now. Despite of what the article says, I don't think I'm approaching the peak in earnings (that's because I don't think I get as much as I could, not because I'm particularly greedy). It's true that your mindset changes when you get 40. You get a bit less concerned about the present yet you live more in it, quite a pleasant status. Though I find there's some truth in the article, the author is generalizing a very private experience, something that I find a bit irritating. It bases on how other people see her (madame instead of mademoiselle), while it's clear that it all depends on you. I don't like the mild sense of ending that pervades the article.
bigwheeler 8y ago
I have a friend that started at 44 and started dirt jumping at 48. He did his first no footers at 50! Now that I’m well into my 40s, it gives me hope that I can still progress.

icebraining 8y ago

Only somewhat related: a video of Edmund Bacon, creator of LOVE park, at 92 years old, protesting the ban on skating in the park by skating himself: https://vimeo.com/57981966 https://vimeo.com/57981966

modernerd 8y ago
Those closing words are so uplifting. Thank you for sharing this.
steanne 8y ago
yeah, the replacement is not only not good for skaters, it's not good for anybody. http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_top/love-park-was-supposed-to-be-the-peoples-park-how-did-it-end-up-as-a-granite-sahara-20180426.html http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_top/love-park-was-suppo...

joncrane 8y ago

Funny you mention this. I skated in HS and college and while I have always owned a skateboard, I tend to go longer and longer between sessions as a 40-something. For me it's the decline in my explosiveness, some weight gain, and now chronic injuries that hold me back. I mean, if I throw myself off of 10 stairs today, I expect to be hospitalized. I have priorities in my life that don't allow me to sacrifice my physical wellbeing with the insouciance that I used to. So I wonder if starting in your 40s is better because you never knew what your body was capable of in your teens and early 20s, so that depression doesn't kick in.

yosito 8y ago

I started longboarding to work in my late 20s. My coworkers laughed at me and called me a hippy. I guess it was because I broke the status quo in their minds. Their expectation was that I should start maturing and settle into the same 9-5 box they were in. The older I get, the more I run into people thinking I'm a wacky hippy for the lifestyle choices I make. There's so much social pressure to conform but, ironically, conformity is a much lonelier option in my experience than being willing to stand out as weird. The phrase "your vibes attract your tribe" is really true, but it sometimes takes time. Over time I've found people my age (and of all ages) that accept my weirdness. I think the main reason people have trouble finding friends over 30 is because they spend more effort trying to fit into the boxes society wants to put them in than they do looking for the society that accepts them as they are.

modernerd 8y ago
Love the observation that lifestyle choices once construed by friends as evidence of a mid-life crisis are eventually accepted as just part of who you are — that has largely been my experience too. It also helps to see others normalising skating as a commuting form — I'd guess 1/3 of Casey Neistat's videos feature skateboards, longboards, and their electric variants. (He is 37.) I was tempted by longboarding, but bought the skateboard because they're easier to trick, carry, and stash. I can see myself buying a longboard eventually too, though…
- yosito 8y ago
  Longboards are great for long distance commutes. Much more efficient and comfortable over long distances than traditional skateboards. And if you can find a place for downhill boarding, its an exhilarating hobby!

josch 8y ago

How did you start? The usual, climbing on it and falling off?