You probably heard it before, most likely you’ll hear it again. Skateboarding can teach you lessons that you can apply to life. To me it makes sense. You’re investing your time to do something that brings joy and at times frustration but at the end you release whatever it is you release when you land a trick or feel the air as you skate through the streets.
I don’t think you catch it right away and I don’t think is conscious but if you pay attention, you’ll notice things that you can apply to life that only riding a skateboard can teach you. I guess similar to team sports, you learn things from the practice, but unlike team sports, there’s no one that can bail you out or motivate you, but yourself. I started skateboarding in my teens and now in my mid-thirties I get to look back and really understand how skateboarding shaped my life and how without knowing it had an effect on the decisions I made in the last 20 years. So here are the 5 life lessons from skateboarding:
If you want something, you have to work for it
This one is very clear and easy to understand. From the moment you step on a skateboard you embark on a life journey, a journey full of challenges that you have to figure out one by one. At first you have to learn to push, keep balance, turn, feel comfortable on top of the board. Then you move on to learning how to pop your tail, your first ollie, soon after you’re learning 180s and then kickflips come into the mix. Again for every single one of those things you had to work for it. Whatever you wanted to accomplish on the board, that was your challenge, and you’ll work on it, because you want it. Let’s apply this to life, if you want something, work for it, is that simple.
Never quit, keep trying
Similar to the first one, if you want it, you have to work for it and how do you go about it? Well you keep trying, over and over and over again. You try until you can’t no more, then you try some more. I’ll tell you this, I have missed more tricks than I have landed, so for every trick I do for sure I had to mess up a couple of times (or a few hundred) before landing it. Now the more you try, the more comfortable you feel with certain tricks and confidence will be there, so you’ll rarely miss some tricks. But even the best skateboarders in the world can mess up on a kickflip, only difference is, they keep trying. I can’t say I’ve always tried, I’ve quit, I still do from time to time, but the older I get the more I want to keep trying and the less I feel like quitting. In life I’ve come to find out by personal experience that you can never quit, you always have to keep trying. I’ve gone through many ups and downs in life, it is important to keep trying, no matter how bad things are, if you keep trying there’s no other way than for things to get better.
Know when to quit
I know, I know, I just said never quit and keep trying and now I’m saying the opposite. Well, that’s life, is about balance. With skateboarding sometimes knowing when to quit is easy, other times is hard. It’s easy if you physically can’t keep trying, therefore you are forced to quit. Now this part is on you, you kind of define how far you want to push it until you call it quits. We all operate on different levels of pain so again is on you. I’ve seen people roll their ankles pretty bad and get back up and try again, I’ve also seen others injure their knees badly, but keep trying from the adrenaline rush. I know I’ve hurt myself and kept pushing at the moment to only regret it later, when the pain kicked in. So if physical pain is the stopper, then your body is telling you when to quit. Now other times is just a gut feeling, maybe you landed bad and didn’t hurt yourself but could see how you could if you keep going, or maybe a friend got hit right before you and it took your confidence seeing them get hurt, or maybe it just doesn’t feel right. No matter the reason, sometimes is ok to quit, there’s always tomorrow to keep trying or just move on to the next goal all together. There are moments in life when you have to know when to call it quits, again, don’t beat yourself up if you’re ready to quit. This can apply to jobs, relationships, life decisions and much more.
Be open to making new friends
This is one important to me and it became very apparent in my life. I’ve had the chance to travel the world and live in different places, different cities, countries, with different cultures growing up. And because of this, it was hard to make long lasting connections. Making friends is hard, now this coming from a guy in his mid 30s, the older you get the smaller the circle and the harder it is to bring someone in. With skateboarding you have the perfect excuse to connect with someone, because they’ve gone through some of the things you had to work so hard to get to and will understand your language, skateboarding. I’ve made friends everywhere I went with my skateboard, is like you’re unlocking a cheat code to a place, because once you meet a skateboarder, they’ll give you all the hints and tips of their place. They’ll know all the spots, know where to eat, where to drink, where to party, where to skate and where to keep skating some more. Because it takes work to skateboard, you feel safe around this person, they were willing to put in the time to skate, they’re just as a crazy as you, they ride a skateboard. More importantly when skateboarding we rarely see our differences, I say rarely because some people are just bitter no matter what, but when you skate, you put aside race, gender, age, sexual preference, style, and more, and you focus on the skating. I don’t know about you, but I enjoy skating with anyone and everyone. And this last part is what I’ve applied most to my life. Being open to meeting people that are not like me but perhaps share similar values, where there’s mutual respect and just good times.
Life is about having fun
The most important lesson that I often ignore, specially if I don’t skate and/or draw and paint. Life is not easy, it never is, and for some it is harder than for others, and I’m grateful to be one of the lucky ones that gets to have the time to skateboard. But life ultimately, is about having fun. When you have fun, you are your truest self, you are making the most of the little time we all have in this planet. Imagine if all you had to do was enjoy life, wouldn’t that be great. I like to skateboard because I feel free on the board, in my happy place, at peace. I feel joy, and at times anger, but there’s this indescribable feeling when you skate that makes you want to do it more and more. This joy can happen in so many ways, when you push, when you land a trick, bomb a hill, skate with your friends, skate alone, learn something new, relearn something you haven’t done in a while, film a trick, film someone, win a competition, get sponsored, and more. The list goes on and on. I’m telling you, it is an endless fountain of joy. I’ve applied this to my life, specially when things are tough, I try to take a step back and have some fun, as this brings in more positivity and can only help you unwind and be prepared to handle life as it comes to you.
And there it is, 5 life lessons that I’ve learned from skateboarding. I have a lot more and I’m sure I’ll be sharing some more in the future, but I figured I start somewhere. I don’t think skateboarding saved my life, but it definitely shaped it. I have learned so much from skateboarding and I’m grateful some of those traits have rubbed off on me. What has skateboarding taught you?
