TET Skateboards: Not Skateboarding for Seven Months - YouTube Channel Update Video

TET with Monkey Pizza Lifeline Skateboard.

It's been a long time since I posted any video to my Extraordinary Tourist YouTube Channel. Approximately seven to eight months. This is because a year or to back I pivoted the channel into documenting my skateboarding progress, relearning my former skills, and then stopped skating due to pain occurring in both my feet.

In the channel update video below I go into it in more detail but the short version is, I started to get pain in the top of both my feet, probably due to ongoing impact stress of skateboarding rather than any specific injury, coupled with very sharp, momentary pain between my toes of my back, 'pop', foot.

I decided it was probably best to rest both my feet by not skateboarding for a while. While the pain was ongoing it didn't affect my ability to walk, only skateboarding seemed to aggravate it.

I didn't expect to be not skating for this long. While my front foot has healed completely, my back, 'pop', foot is only around 50% better. I can go for days without feeling any pain but then I'll do something to aggravate it, reminding me it's still there.

Despite that, I have decided to start skating again but in a limited fashion. Just skating a little and not doing anything with a lot of impact for too long (so no more prolonged sessions attempting to learn kickflips and heelflips).

However, filming my skateboard journey was already only marginally interesting judging by the small number of views my videos receive. At this stage, I don't think filming my skating, now that I'm even more limited in what I can do, is worth continuing. Contrary to what people say about why they make videos, such as I'm doing this for fun, my own interest, or as a personal record, if you're making videos public, you also want an audience. I don't want to put all this effort into videos that only a handful of people watch (and even less interact with).

I'm thinking about pivoting the channel back to focusing on my art but I'm not sure exactly what aspect since I don't actually produce that much artwork these days. I've considered getting back into painting, since that was quite successful for me early on in the channel, and financially, selling original artworks, but I'm not all in on that idea yet.

Also in the video I talk about closing some of my online stores. Specifically my Threadless store (which is completely shut down), and my Board Pusher, etourist Skateboards store (which will close in February of 2022, when my annual shop subscription expires).

While Threadless allowed me to have a branded store website that sold skateboards along side clothing and other gifts, you're excluded from their marketplace until you start showing a track record of sales. So far none of my designs have seemed to resonate with people so I'm calling it a day.

The same goes for my Board Pusher store. While I have sold a handful of skateboards over the years, that store costs money to keep open. The point of it is to share my art and to make money, neither of which is really happening enough to justify paying the annual fee. I love Board Pusher skateboards. I'll continue to buy them for myself, I just don't need a store to do that.

Regardless, all of my art from those stores will still be available in my Red Bubble store, which I am continuing with but will probably move away from skateboard themed designs... not a lot of skateboarders buy from Red Bubble.

Anyway, there's a little more detail in the video below on all these topics. I'm not promising any kind of regular video posting to my YouTube channel just yet, but for the very few people who watch, I thought it was time for an update.