Is Skateboarding the Fountain of Youth?

Fountain of Youth – For me, it’s Skateboarding

So, I am 46, and after thirty years off, I skateboard again. I started skateboarding in the summer of 1987 when I was 12.

I skated through that summer and loved every moment of it. There was something therapeutic about the rhythm of the wheels on the cracks of the sidewalk. I was free. Just me, my Sony Walkman, and the rhythm of the street.

The small town I lived in at the time had a roller rink, but no skate park. Tricks like the ollie seemed completely out of reach, as I had only seen one in a picture in the one and only Thrasher magazine that one kid in school got from his aunt in California.

But for me, it wasn’t about tricks. It was my transportation… and not just point a to point b, it was transporting me to a rhythmic paradise on a wave of endless summer fun.

Things changed over the winter for me, and I got a ten-speed bike in the spring for my birthday. My skateboard season had ended for a while.

I picked it back up when I was 43, mostly so I could skateboard with my daughter, the legendary shred beast Esther.

It all came back… I skate as much as possible now, with my daughter and teaching other kids how to skateboard.

Every time I step on a board, I am 12 again. Life is good, skateboarding might just be the fountain of youth.

I mostly just cruise and carve, but over the last few months I have been pushing harder, going faster, dropping in higher, learning basic tricks on coping, and curbs.

You’re never too old to be 12 again. Especially when you’re starting to believe that skateboarding is the fountain of youth.