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Comment by agentultra | Hacker News Reader

I recently picked skating back up at 38 and been doing it for a year. I had skated when I was younger but I never got any good. I just wanted to encourage my kids to get on their bikes and show them that with a little practice you can learn anything.

If all I can do is ride around, do a few ollies, space walks and some basic grinds I'll be happy.

Skating doesn't have to be about the big tricks. Do it because you enjoy it and play within your limits.

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I started street skateboarding at 36, am now 40. Last session was this Saturday, it was awesome heelfliping on flat and ollieing stairs.

Over these four years I've had 5 ankle sprains (balanced over each foot), every single time it was me not warming up (like, at all) and pushing it beyond the fatigue limit ("one more try" just one too much). I have a warmup routine, I now diligently follow, no excuses (it's 5min).

Still, it's something I always wanted to do and never had the guts to try, for completely baseless fears of looking stupid or being incompetent, especially as I grew older. A fantastic, supportive local crew made a ton of difference erasing that mindset. Then I learned about Neal Unger[1], and just saw that IG post[2] from Gou Miyagi about that 80yo learning to skate the other day...

I'm so glad I made the jump and will do anything to continue as long as I can. Eric Koston[0] has this said: "it's like my hand, I wouldn't get rid of my hand", and this is exactly how I feel about it.

https://youtu.be/p8uUL5GdStE

https://www.nealunger.com/

https://www.instagram.com/p/CO3-1CkFE1J/

Nice! Yeah, warmups are huge! I've been learning a lot about how to strengthen and maintain knee and ankle tendons and muscles.

I find skating has definitely helped me rebuild those priopreceptive muscles and memory which helps me strengthen my core.

I also find that if I'm like even a bit tired I'll scale back my session and won't try to push hard. Need to get good sleep too.

If I may ask, I thought it'd be fun to try skating, but to be honest, whenever I get on and try it I always worry that I will fall and really hurt myself (May I just need to buy pads).

Do you have the same worry, or you just find that you fall, it's ok, and just get back up?

That's the same with anything. How many endeavors have you thought "I'd love to do that but what if I got hurt in the process?" Relationships, startups, new jobs, everything contains a risk.

If it seems interesting, just do it. You'll thank yourself after you get over that fear. (Also buy a helmet and learn how to fall[1], you'll need it. Pads may be overkill but couldn't hurt.)

[1] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Hundbrub8iQ

learning how to fall is huge. of course falling down onto asphalt/concrete always carries some risk but once you get comfortable falling safely, it's pretty unlikely you'll do any serious damage to yourself if you're not straying too far outside your limits as you learn.

I accept that I'm going to fall. I have fallen. It's not that bad. I learned a lot about how to fall while minimizing injury from martial arts and there are other skaters who've picked up on that intuitively and have videos about falling and how to do it to prevent injury.

Wear protective gear. I wear a helmet. I know older skaters who wear pads. It's fine.

And skating within your limits means enjoying what you're physically capable of and the risk you are comfortable with. Myself, I don't plan on jumping huge sets of stairs or grinding stair rails. But I like to skate at the park and want to grind ledges and have fun on the boxes.

Hope that helps.

That helps a lot! Thank you very much for the thoughtful response.

I cannot recommend enough you give half pipe a try. Not talking about mega pipes, just the small ones with little to no vert. Lots of fun and fairly safe since when you fall you _usually_ end up sliding down the curve. No need to do jumps or crazy stuff, just do tricks on the coping and enjoy the ride.

It's a learned skill to fall, and to accept falling.

Try some ukemi (aikido falls) training.

The psychology of falling is fascinating. There are some well done videos about the "unbendable arm" on YouTube but if you have a dojo nearby there's nothing like a couple sessions.

Another thing is to bend your knees, like, always. A natural but incorrect safety reflex is to extend the legs and lock the knees, which makes you a stick ready to flip over. So, do held squats and get comfortable with the lower center of gravity, which makes you that much more stable and that much safer to fall on your butt.

The next step is to transition that fall into a roll, this reduces the jerk and shock to your bones and makes you less likely to break something.

Exactly! See mae ukemi and ushiro ukemi

Unless you are bombing hills, from just cruising around the worst you will do is sprain your wrist catching yourself awkwardly falling, or skimming some skin off against the pavement. I've never had a head injury because the instinct is to catch yourself with your arms. Seems bad, but I think you get beat up a lot worse falling while learning to bike.

falling is part of skateboarding as are the cuts and bruises that come with it. with that said, if you learn how to fall correctly (something surprisingly few people know how to do) bad injuries will be extremely rare. slamming is honestly one of those things that is easy to build up in your mind and then when it finally happens it's not bad at all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxRHTr_PkOU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-W7pl1uYcM

as a general rule, speed is your friend.

>go fast

>lean forward

>stay on top of the rail

and most importantly:

>commit

I think this is one of the reason's it's great to let your kids get into it. Teaches them confidence through punishing trial and error. For you, either option is totally viable, but at the beginning on flat ground your probably better off with just learning to fall and get back up.

Where do you typically skate? I skated as a teenager, and want to do it again, but just finding the right place is hard. Skateparks exist but everyone there is much younger than me.

Park, around my neighbourhood, skate park.

Don't worry about being too old. Everyone at the park is there to skate and not to judge. Do it because you enjoy it.

Thank you (and the other poster) for responding. I just visited two skateparks and ordered a deck!

When I was young my friends and I always befriended some cool older dude(s). Time to flip the script. But definitely don't buy them beer. I think the 90s was the last decade that was semi-acceptable. Kids these days probably aren't even interested. Don't buy them vape either :)

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