Skip to main content

The Skater You Don't Aspire To Be

Skateboarding is like surfing, it just becomes a part of your life. Once you take that deep dive into becoming the best skater you can be, always progressing, you'll always consider yourself to be a skater.

For many of you skateboarding is not about becoming a pro skater, even though you're probably good enough to turn pro. For you it's just a fun activity, that's challenging, creative, and often a great way to pass the time with your mates.

That's pretty much what it has always been for me.

I'm 47 years old and I still skateboard for fun but you don't want to aspire to be like me... and there are lots of skaters like me.

I started skating at 18 years old. Late in the game but 1987-88 was when skateboarding experienced a massive resurgence.

I used to skate virtually everyday, only skipping days if it rained, and even then I might find somewhere with cover to skate. I built ramps, including a 24' x 16' x 5' mini ramp in my backyard where all my friends would come to skate regularly. I even helped establish a skatepark in my local community.

My skating got good enough to impress beginners, and I was skilled enough to be considered an okay skater among my peers.

TET, Frontside Ollie, home mini ramp 1990-91.

Grrr Dog
Retro Skateboard
Somewhere around 1993 life somehow got in the way of skateboarding. By that point I no longer had a backyard ramp and the skatepark, I'd helped set up had closed down to make way for a highway. Most of my skateboard friends were doing their own thing, and I was busy, in my second year of college, working on an Arts Diploma in Graphic Design.

I never actually quit skateboarding. I was just away from skating for so long that, by the time I got back, I couldn't even remember the terminology for buying a good set of wheels.

I remember getting back into skateboarding but I can't recall the exact year. I want to say 1997-98? I didn't have a skateboard so I went out and bought a really cheap deck, because I wasn't sure if I was going to get back into skating proper. I thought it best to not spend too much.

However, I knew I needed to buy proper skateboard wheels and bearings. Cheap skateboards always have shit wheels and bearings. Being able to roll well is kind of important.

Going to a skate shop to buy wheels I barely recognized any of the specific wheels. All the larger ramp skating wheels had given way to smaller street skating wheels with names I'd never heard of. I played it safe and bought a set of 96a Powell-logos because I knew the brand.

To cut a long story short, I got back on this new board and discovered I'd unlearned almost every skateboard trick I knew. Not only that but also my confidence at landing even some of the most basic of tricks was almost gone.

Ever since I've been trying to get my confidence back. It hasn't been easy because, shortly there after, I moved interstate to a town that didn't have a lot of places to skate, and a series of homes that didn't have skateable driveways. In nearly 20 years I haven't really progressed that much further than when I decided to get back into skating.

Currently I'm in a home with a fantastic, skateable driveway, and this year I've been really trying to step up my skills. Really trying to get back to the level I was at all those years ago.

At age 47 you might aspire to still being able to skate, but don't be like me, and those like me, who let life get in the way. Try to make skateboarding at least a regular weekend activity, no matter what. It shouldn't be hard if you love it.

You'll have a much better time at my age if you're not remembering how good you used to be, and getting frustrated with feeling like a beginner at your local skatepark.

I'm happy being able to skate at this age but I just know I'd be having a lot more fun if I had kept up with my skating all those years ago.


Comments

Buy Gifts and Apparel featuring art by TET.

Popular posts from this blog

Movie Review: Superman (2025) *No Spoilers*

T he one thing I like about James Gunn as a comic book movie director is that he leans into the comic book nature of the world and the characters.  He's not trying to do a realistic take on any of the characters. He's simply bringing the comics to life. It's still his take on the characters, but he doesn't shy away from their comic book origins. James Gunn's  Superman  is very much a comic book movie in every sense. Nothing is off the table because it's too 'comic-booky' and might look silly in a live action film.  To me that's incredibly liberating. It lets James actually tell a proper Superman story that isn't hamstrung by reality, or tip toeing into the fantastical just enough to allow Superman to exist in the real world. Superman begins in the middle of a battle. Metropolis is under attack by a super powered being known as 'Hammer of Boravia', however everything is not as it seems, and Superman (David Corenswet) must work with other s...

James Gunn's Social Media Monkeys Joke Was a Highlight of His Superman Movie For Me

B efore James Gunn's Superman Movie was released there was a whole rumor going around that the movie would feature monkeys on computers trolling Superman's social media, sparking much outrage. #supersh*t. I didn't know this was even a thing until just prior to writing this article. I did a search to see if anyone had posted a clip of the monkeys scene from the movie and got pages of discourse featuring videos and articles prior to the film. Most of it from Gunn detractors (let's say) seeing it as some kind of childish swipe at them... well not them specifically but, you know, those other people who have every right to hate on anything sight unseen. Anyway, I'm not going to give even one such example a link or air because it's kind of sad watching someone devote so much commentary to a throw away gag that is absolutely a nod to James Gunn's Superman trolls.  The whole reason this post exists, is to say I loved the joke, because fourteen years ago, and I...

Movie Review: A Complete Unknown (2024) *No Spoilers*

Y ou would think the Bob Dylan story would be 'wind-swept and interesting,' to quote Billy Connelly, however, despite  A Complete Unknown  being quite an engaging film, it feels like it missed the years that really shaped him as a song writer/performer. The film starts in 1961, with a then unknown, 19-year-old Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) arriving in New York City with his guitar.  From there he forges relationships with musical icons on his meteoric rise, culminating in a groundbreaking performance that reverberates around the world. The problem being, according to this film, Dylan arrived in New York, for the most part, fully formed as a folk singer/song writer. In virtually no time he makes a very important connection that puts him on the trajectory of doing the work and becoming a name, before making his world changing performance. While there is some drama behind the scenes with his various relationships, none of it is particularly unique to any number of up and com...

I'm Confused About Why People Prefer to Say Discombobulated?

D iscombobulated. Is a word that I think someone rediscovered about three or four years ago (maybe more because the pandemic years have thrown out my sense of time) and now I hear it a lot. It's not a new word by any means, but when I started hearing multiple celebrities using it in everyday sentences, I actively had to look up what it meant. Define it with as many synonyms as you like but essentially it's just another word meaning 'confused'. Seinfeld Quotes: Quotes.net The words are pretty much interchangeable. He was discombobulated by too many choices. He was confused by too many choices.  My confusion is the length of the word. It's unnecessarily long with too many syllables. There are many other words that mean confused, and therefore also mean discombobulated. Most of them are shorter and easier to say. So why not just say 'confused'? Perhaps discombobulated sounds more intelligent, maybe?  Hawaii Five-0 Quotes: Quotes.net I've noticed it gets us...

I'm Joining the Illuminati Brotherhood By Personal Invitation of Hiltom Rothschild... Wait, What?

How special am I to have finally come of age (53 years young) and am now eligible to participate in building the world alongside other members of the Illuminati Brotherhood... Yes I've received the call by way of an email, which I'm sure is real because I had to translate it from the Dutch language and it was personally written by Hiltom Rothschild, one of the non-existent members of the Rothschild family (or perhaps deep undercover because Google has never heard of them?). A Transcript of the email below: To: etourist From: Illuminati Brotherhood  Subject: Illuminati Broederschap (Illuminati Brotherhood) I am Hiltom Rothschild, a member of the Rothschild family, one of the 13 families of the Illuminati brotherhood. I'm here to let you know that you've come of age and are eligible to participate in building the 🌎 world. It is a calling and a privilege to honor him with pride and gratitude as not everyone will ever be chosen by the LIGHT, many are called but few are ch...

Australian Federal Election 2025 - World's Most Boring Government Re-elected by Landside - We're Even More Fine!

Anthony Albanese Victory by ChatGPT and TET. W hen I started writing about the 2025 Federal election the polls were suggesting the world's most boring government was crusing to a defeat . As it turns out, boring is good, and Australia wants more of it, handing the current government a landslide win with a majority vote. Anthony Albanese became the first PM since John Howard to win a consecutive term, and the first Labor PM since Bob Hawke to do so. Some of that comes down to the leadership revolving door both major parties had through the mid 2000s. Although Anthony is my preferred PM over Dutton the irony is Dutton sounds more like a leader with a fairly commanding voice and an ability to speak well, without sounding like he's waffling and dodging questions, even if he is. Anthony, on the other hand, does have the ability (and speech writer) to say a lot of inspiring things but it gets lost in the delivery. He doesn't seem to know when to emphasise a point for effect. In h...

Unitree's R1 Humanoid Robot Brings the Cost of Advanced Robotics Hardware Down to Less Than USD$6000 (Robot Uprising Update)

Unitree's R1 Humanoid Robot. The first humaniod robot prices under USD$6000. C hinese robotics developer, Unitree, has launched the  Unitree R1 Robot , an advanced humanoid machine, for under USD$6000. Standing at 5'5", this very agile robot walks with a very natural 'human' gait, and can easily perform cartwheels or get up from a fall. It is controlled by AI and is capable of conversation but also comes with a remote control (so you can turn it off if it starts asking about someone named 'Sarah Connor'). Rather than me describe it, watch AI Revolution's video (below) to see it in action and hear their take on why this robot is a big deal. China’s New AI Robot Is So Good and Cheap It’s Scary: Unitree R1  -  AI Revolution You'll notice that the robot doesn't have proper, human like hands, but apparently this is an option you can purchase as an extra (dexterous hands are listed as 'optional' on educational versions of the robot on Unitree...