How to Learn to Skateboard in 30 Days, Even If You’re Old and Broken
I wish my skateboarding journey began as an introductionto Lupe Fiasco’s “Kick, Push”, but I was not 6 years old when I got my first skateboard. Hell, I wasn’t either 16 or 26 years old either. I was actually in my thirties when I started skateboarding … about a month ago. So how did it go?
I talked about my adventure at Lifehacker’s Fitness Challenge, from how I felt when I hit the board at my age to how I progressed 30 days later . But it can be difficult to visualize someone’s progress with text, especially when you are dealing with abstractions like “comfort on the board,” which is why we made a video to help. Now you can see me breaking my ass … but maybe you also feel inspired that I was able to learn to cruise, ollie and shuw inu in a month.
I fell? Yeah, ton. It was painful? Absolutely. But – and I know how implausible that sounds – after a few falls, I got used to it. He learned to fall a little “better” so that it hurt less, and even with the rougher falls, it was over before I realized. After I fell several times, the expectation of a fall was over and I could focus more on doing simple tasks like what I wanted to do in the video above: just slide onto the ramp and turn around.
Watch the video to hear me talk about my goals and the lessons I learned, and to see how “well” I got in a month (or to see me hit my hip a few times). Want to see me learn a single trick? Here’s a quick tweet of my attempts to figure out how. And if you want to start skateboarding on your own, do what I did: buy a board, make some skateboarding friends, and go for it. You will never feel “ready”, but that shouldn’t stop you from getting started.