Skateboarding is an extremely difficult sport to pick up and for the average person takes years upon years to get good at the sport. The common amount of years for a person to get respectable good is around 10 years of non stop blood, sweat and if you start at a young age even tears. It is a very judgemental sport to get into, most times at the skatepark people aren’t judging others, but there’s always that few handful of negative people. Most will reflect to their beginner years of skateboarding since everyone who picked up a board had to start somewhere.

    My journey started in 2nd grade when my parents bought me a cheap Toys R Us Hot Wheels skateboard for christmas, this is where most people get their start in the sport. Like a typical little kid I learned how to push around and ride the board, but of course after a few weeks of using it I gave up. I resumed the sport in 5th grade and bought another cheap board, but this one from Target, I was on a mission this time. I was determined to get good at the art after stumbling upon some Youtube videos, my first goal was to learn how to ollie. I tried in grass for days upon days and never landed one on concrete, I was demotivated that I was not getting better, a common problem for beginners. I blamed my problem on the board and in 2016, I bought my first high quality skateboard, but the same problem had arised, I couldn't get the skateboard off the ground on concrete no matter how many days and hours I spent outside. I even got so desperate I bought Skater Trainers which stops your wheels from rolling so you don’t fall. These helped me eventually stomp the ollies, but a new problem had begun, I couldn’t do the rolling. I once again became discouraged and gave up. I stepped foot on the skateboard a few times in 2017 until during late summer I was over my friends house. Torin is a talented skateboarder and one day skating with him it snapped, I could ollie high and while rolling thanks to his instructions. This fueled my passion for skateboarding to erupt again, I began spending time skating everyday doing ollies and just pushing around, but then winter came just like that. My confidence had shot through the rough and in 2018 I began skateboarding a lot more, with more time came more tricks like fs 180’s, pop shuv-its, plus I went to the skatepark for the first time. Just like that I was going to the skatepark every other week for the most part and progressing. Then just like it was winter again, but soon it was spring. I was quickly back on the board, but I had hit another stopping point when I couldn’t learn any new tricks which was demotivating. I began working on my transition skills which is ramps and bowls, I learned how to drop into the steep quarter pipes which hooked me again. The summer of 2019 I didn’t learn many new flatground tricks, but more transition tricks. Now we end up in 2020, I am as good as I’ve ever been and have been learning more tricks than I ever thought I could.

    To sum it up skateboarding is a very hard sport to pick up, but as long as you stick with it you’ll get way better than what you ever imagined you could have, just like my scenario. If I could go back to when I started I would’ve reminded myself of that fact way more, it's just like any other sport. You must practice if you want to get better.