The Older Skaters Are Trying to Tell You Something and You're Not Listening

• Posted by Dez Fontaine Fri at 3:00 PM Filed in Sports #personal growth  #Authenticity  #skateboarding  #street culture  #generation gap  23 views
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  I watched this kid the other day at the park, couldn't have been more than fourteen, absolutely demolishing this rail that's been eating people alive for years. Clean lines, zero hesitation, the kind of natural flow that makes you remember why you started skating in the first place. Kid was glowing with it. But here's the thing that stuck with me - after he landed it, he pulled his phone out immediately. Not to call someone. Not to actually celebrate. Just to document it. To make it real by turning it into content.

  And I'm not trying to be that gatekeeping old head, but I started thinking about how different the whole energy is now compared to when I was coming up. Back then, a trick was just a thing you did. It lived in your body and in the crew's memory. That was enough. You didn't need the internet to validate that it happened. You knew it happened because you felt it, because your boys saw it, because you were already thinking about what comes next.

  The older skaters I know, the ones who've been at it for like twenty plus years, they all say the same thing when you hang with them long enough. They're watching the skill level skyrocket, which is sick, but they're also watching something else disappear. That thing where you skate because it's genuinely the only place where you feel like yourself. Not a version of yourself that photographs well. Not a self that translates to followers. Just you and the board and what you're actually capable of.

  I think what they're trying to tell people is that the thing you're chasing matters way less than the reason you started chasing it. Like, the tricks are dope, for real. The progression is insane compared to even ten years ago. Kids are doing things we thought were impossible. But somewhere between the sponsorship dreams and the algorithm and the pressure to be perpetually progressing, some cats are forgetting to just be a skateboarder. Not a skateboard influencer. Not content. Just someone who rides.

  The older heads aren't being salty about your success or your followers or your clips. They're actually just trying to protect something that's harder to see now but still alive if you look for it. It's the part of skateboarding that can't be monetized or quantified or turned into engagement metrics. It's the part that's just yours. The part that doesn't need witnesses to matter.

  I'm not saying don't document your progress or don't try to build something off your skills. Money's real, opportunities are real, none of that's fake. But maybe check in with yourself about why you're actually out there. Is it because you genuinely can't not be? Or is it because you're afraid of being invisible? Those are two completely different things, and they lead to completely different lives.

  So here's my question for you: when nobody's watching and your phone's dead, would you still want to be there?