It has taken time to wrap my head around the idea of being a skateboarder at the age of 53. There is still a lot of resistance in society or perhaps stigma about being a skateboarder. I might argue, even more so, being a skateboarder in your 50’s. The stigma is certainly not the act of skateboarding. That is now a globally-accepted Olympic sport. After all, Andy Macdonald made history at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games by competing as the oldest skateboarder in Olympic history at 51 years old. Hat’s off to you Andy! On the other hand a person’s roles in life do change and certain things fall to the side as pressures of career and family life take precedent. There-in is the beauty and art of skateboarding. That it can be done at any age like the 80 year old I met just yesterday who said she had just begun.
Yes, the body takes a lot longer to warmup and is quick to tire out. Still at this age I have grown to appreciate the simpler maneuvers like a kick-turn in transition, a slappy, manuals and the perfect timing of a kickflip or shove-it shifty. These are my basics, regular and switch footed with variations added throughout a typical warm up. I don’t try and do many grinds during a warm up. Instead, I take time to do a few stretches which helps to further limber up the tendons and loosen the joints.
Once the body is loose I work in a few additional stretches to open up the hips for frontside and backside 180’s. There are a tremendous amount of variables and possibilities in skateboarding. Not everybody will be able to do every single trick. It’s best, I find to focus on your strong points and overtime work on strengthening weaknesses. In the mid to late 90’s, it seemed like everybody was doing flip-pity tricks. Flippin-in, flippin-out and most everybody’s boards were just flipping out of control.
In hindsight, yes there were a lot of innovations but it seemed like a lot of skateboarders where skipping the basics. While you might get lucky and land that trey flip (or 360 flip) after seeing it on a video, without having a 360 shove, a virial flip or even the kickflip down it’ll do you no good in terms of flow and consistency.
Join me for an 7PM Sk8 Session at the downtown skatepark in Panama City, Florida. The downtown skatepark is a well lit skate friendly meetup spot for an evening skate session. I like to bring plenty of water. It’s a good to show up early and do an overall hardware and gear check too. After a good evening session you’re all set for a good night. See you at the skatepark!
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- Hardware/gear check, stretches & an evening sk8 session.
Let’s Go!