Skateboarders don't sort themselves into skill levels, okay. If you're new to skateboarding,
or even if you've been skateboarding for a while and you really never took the time
to kind of figure this out, talented skateboarders don't consider themselves as being in a league of
their own, above all the newcomers, and they're not going to talk down to you just because they
can do tricks that you can't do yet. If you're riding a skateboard, you're part of the entire
skateboarding community as a whole and it doesn't really matter where you are in that progression.
The entire skateboarding community actually agrees on a core value that we all share,
and it's that progression is a good and exciting thing, regardless of how far you've already come
and how far you have left to go. So, even if you had somebody who's really good at skateboarding,
let's just say they're pro, and they're watching you try to land your first kickflip of your entire
life. I can almost guarantee you that they're going to be on your side. They're going to be
rooting for you to land it, they're even going to be willing to offer you suggestions on how
you can do it faster, and it's definitely going to put a gigantic smile on their face when you
finally do land it for your first time. None of us works completely alone, we all remember
how hard it was and how long it took to land our tricks in the past, and watching other
people achieve their goals helps remind us that we're going to be able to achieve ours as well.
So, the bottom line is: don't feel like you need to put yourself down around other skateboarders,
don't avoid asking for someone else's help just because you think that whatever you're working
on isn't worth their time, and most importantly don't feel like you can't be friends with someone
just because you're at a different skill level than them in skateboarding. Alright, so now,
that we got that out of the way let's talk about unexpected truth number two. And for this one,
if you watch a lot of fail compilation videos, this one probably won't come as a surprise to you,
but if not, I want you to know that skateboarding is all about falling down. Now, if you're someone
who's just getting into skateboarding, you might have already fallen down a few times, and it's
possible you've even gotten hurt kind of bad from it, so much so that you've made it your personal
goal never to let that happen again at all costs, no matter what. Well, I've got good news and I've
got bad news for you. Now, the bad news is that if you want to progress in skateboarding at all,
you're going to have to fall down a whole lot more times, and I mean a whole lot more.
But fortunately, the good news is that falling is actually a skill that you can improve upon
the more you do it. So, eventually, you're going to get so good at falling down that you're not
even going to be afraid of it anymore, because it's just not going to be that big of a deal.
Skateboarders welcome the idea that they're going to fall, and they confront learning
new tricks with the understanding that in order to do so they're going to have to pay for it by
failing at it a whole bunch of times first. So, as you progress, just know that the falls are
going to come and they might sting a little bit at first, but just take a second and breathe,
and you're going to come out on the other side. And then remind yourself that every time you fall,
you're one fall closer to being a professional at falling down which, in skateboarding,
is everything. And with that, let's move on to unexpected truth number three,
which is that you don't have to risk serious injury to be a skateboarder. If you've been
watching skateboarding videos online or maybe on tv, you might be getting the wrong idea of
what all you have to risk in order to do it. There are skaters out there that risk way more
than they need to just because they're not using their head or they're not giving the skateboard as
much respect as it deserves. There's no question that skateboarding can cause some really serious
injuries, so you can break a bone...you can get a concussion...worse stuff can happen to you.
But if you go into the sport with a respect for what can happen to you if you're reckless, you can
still have all of the fun without having to put yourself under that kind of risk. So, to get you
started, here are a few of my tips on how to not get seriously injured while you're skateboarding.
So, first, I'd say until you know exactly what you're doing,
avoid skating any handrails that are any higher than about right there,
because if something goes wrong when you're on a handrail, generally you're going to
fall straddling it, and you want to be able to still land on your feet rather than on a much
more painful area of your body. Second, skate transition. If you're an old geezer like me,
skating on something that's going to slowly cradle you down to the bottom of the ramp when you fall
is going to be way more forgiving than pretty much every street spot I've ever seen. And third ,and
this is the most important one, if you're doing something where you're the least bit afraid of
falling down, just wear a helmet and some pads. After a helmet, I'd say for street skating the
most important pad you'd want would be wrist guards and then if you're skating on transition,
the most important one after a helmet would be knee pads. Okay, so now for the fourth unexpected
truth: you're not too old and you're not too out of shape to get into or to get back into
skateboarding. Now, I've definitely heard my fair share of excuses from people as to why they will
never be able to learn how to skateboard. A lot of people think that skateboards are just toys
for kids and in order to skateboard, you can't be a day over 16. I've also heard that you already
have to be really athletic in order to learn how to do all the acrobatic maneuvers that people see
skateboarders do on TV or whatever, but the truth of the matter is it doesn't matter how old you
are and it doesn't matter how fit you are. So, get out of your own head, stop making excuses,
and go skate. Alright, so finally number five on the list is that you're capable of doing a
whole bunch of tricks that right now you might not think that you're ever going to be able to do. So,
if you think back to the first time you stepped on a skateboard and you remember how impossibly
difficult it seemed to stay balanced your first time, you may have had the thought enter your
mind, "Oh, maybe this sport isn't for me. I just don't have the balance necessary to be
a skateboarder." But, just remember all you needed in order to get from there to being able to do it
was to look at things from a bit of a different lens. Most people have a very similar reaction to
trying to ride a skateboard for the first time, but after a few sessions of focused practice,
you really will be at a loss for why it seemed so impossibly hard only a few days ago. Now,
if you're already a skateboarder, what this means for you is that you need to avoid putting your
abilities inside of a box that you don't allow yourself to step outside of often enough. Just
like someone learning how to ride a skateboard for their first time, a huge part of learning
how to do every trick is going to be, first, believing that it's probably going to be possible
and then deciding that you're going to do whatever it takes to at least give it an honest try.
So, every time you get an idea in your head for a new trick, or maybe you see someone else do a
trick that your mind instantly tells you that you're not going to be able to do,
override that thought and remind yourself of all the times in your past that you've learned tricks
that you didn't think were going to be possible at first. Once you change
your perspective from finding reasons why you're not able to do something to
finding a way to inch closer and closer to being able to do it, the gap between what seems
completely unreasonable and just barely possible is going to start to close, and almost every time
it's going to start to close way faster than you'd expect at the beginning. Alright guys, it was good
hanging out with you again, I'll see you in the next video, and remember, Never Stop Improving!