«Too Injury» and Other Skateboarding Myths

It’s too traumatic

I am a fan of skateboarding and consider this sport one of the most interesting and spectacular. But let’s face it: skateboarding is really not the safest activity, because while skating there is a risk of injury, landing unsuccessfully after a jump. Falls can’t be avoided, but you can prepare yourself for them.

There are two main factors that minimize the chance of serious injury during exercise.

First — regular physical activity, including exercises to strengthen the legs. Classes on balancing equipment or a balance board help a lot — they not only “pump up” the legs, but also develop coordination and a sense of balance.

Right before training, you should definitely do a good warm-up to prepare the body for jumping. After training, it is important to allow the muscles to recover.

Don’t forget about the protective gear that all beginners need. The standard kit includes a helmet, knee pads, elbow pads and gloves, because most of the injuries, as a rule, occur on the elbows and hands. Over time, when you learn to group, it will become clear which parts of the body require protection more.

The second important factor is internal attitude and full involvement in the processwithout being distracted by other thoughts. Skateboarding is about concentration, lack of fear and control over the situation. If, while standing on the board, you constantly think that you will fall, you will fall for sure, so you can’t get hung up on such thoughts. The best thing to do is focus on how to complete the trick and hold on. To do this, you need to stop being afraid and start trying.

By the way, this feature of skateboarding makes it similar to the approach in business: the more an entrepreneur is afraid of possible miscalculations and reflects on possible failures, the slower he moves and misses opportunities, simply being afraid to take risks.

Skateboarding is all about jumps and tricks

Skateboarding is much more than just a sport. It’s a whole philosophy. This is a culture of freedom, in which you decide how and where you want to practice. Skateboarding teaches courage, the ability to take risks, but at the same time instills patience, because before the trick starts to work out, you have to do it dozens of times over and over again. And through the path to success, in which there are failures, falls and abrasions, in the end it turns out to find your own style of riding and better understand your strengths.

Skateboarders are not like everyone else. They often had to deal in childhood with censure from adults, accusations of wasting time. They have to fight stereotypes.

Skateboarders are people with a rebellious spirit, ready to continue doing what they love despite the criticism of society. Where the majority sees difficulties, the skateboarder sees opportunities and is able to think through several solutions at once. Therefore, do not be surprised that from yesterday’s teenager on the board tomorrow a person can grow up who will give you a job.

Skateboarding is a hobby for young people

You can often hear that skateboarding is an activity for schoolchildren and students, but you can start riding at absolutely any age. At 35 years old, I feel great, back on the board after a long break, and continue to practice regularly, learning new tricks and improving my skills. It would not be too late to start at 40 and later.

Here is another interesting argument in favor of skating as an adult: according to a study conducted at the University of Exeter among skateboarders of different age groups, people aged 40 to 60 noted that skateboarding is important for them not only because of maintaining physical activity , but also because it is part of their identity, provides an emotional outlet and helps fight depressive moods.

This is also a great opportunity for socialization with like-minded people, because in skateboarding there is no concept of age — in the community, no one cares how old you are, what build you are, what you wear and what you work with. This is an amazing community of all kinds of people who are passionate about their work and achieving their own goals.

Skateboarding is not for women

The notion that girls should not skateboard is another popular misconception that is probably associated with the traumatic nature of the activity. However, it can be said that women have been skating since the beginning of skateboarding as a phenomenon.

All skateboarders are familiar with the name of the American Patti McGee, who in the 1960s, as a teenager, began to experiment on a skateboard — in fact, before it took shape as a separate sport. In 1964, at the age of 18, Patty became the first national skateboard champion for women in Santa Monica.

Many years later, Patty McGee remains a symbol of skate culture and an inspiration to many girls around the world. Such athletes as Ksenia Maricheva, Katya Shengelia, Alexandra Petrova have already proved their right to the title of the best skateboarders in Russia. Every year there are only more girls participating in major Russian international competitions.

Skateboarding is expensive and difficult 

Compared to many sports, skateboarding is one of the most accessible. The minimum you need to get started is the right board and basic protection. You can enroll in a school, study individually with a trainer, or start learning basic movements from videos on the Internet.

By the way, another absolute plus of skateboarding is that there is no need to go to a specially equipped place — in any case, the first training can be done even in a city park. For those who have been on the board for more than a day, large cities are equipped with entire skate parks with a built landscape, ramps, railings.

I train with Egor Kaldikov, winner of the 2021 Russian Cup. This guy is a real genius and is considered the best skateboarder in Russia, few people understand skateboarding the way he does.

Egor Kaldikov, winner of the Russian Skateboarding Cup 2021:

“Skateboarding is the ultimate hobby in terms of head-body interaction. Yes, skateboarding is not safe, but not more than other sports, and even less. In the ranking of the most traumatic sports, skateboarding is in 13th place, behind volleyball and running.

Any average skateboarder has perfect balance, which allows you to maintain stability. In addition, skateboarding teaches you to fall and get up many times more than other sports. From this you get an instinct how to properly group during a fall.

About protective equipment here everyone decides for himself. Personally, I and the other 90% of skateboarders ride without any kind of protection and started without it. This is about freedom. And balance is important.

If you look deeper, all skateboarders are slender and embossed, ligaments and muscles are in good shape and are well attached to the body, their endurance is at the maximum level, because the load is not normalized. It is impossible to predict what movement will be next and how long a bunch of tricks will last. 

There is no concept of age in skateboarding. He accepts absolutely all people. I ride with people twice my age and decades younger. It’s rooted in our culture. Skateboarding is about freedom and a way to think outside the box.