I was watching episode 6
of the Beauty and the Beast tour on Epicly Later'd and it reminded me that it's hard sometimes to grow older in skateboarding. Not so much for pro skaters, as we've seen recently with many of the greats, like Eric Koston, Mike Carroll, Marc Johnson, Andrew Reynolds, Erik Ellington—you name 'em. No. When I say it's hard to grow older in skateboarding, I'm talking about people like myself, who must hang onto skaters from our past or find new kids who started skating five years or longer after we ourselves started skating. These kind of tactics can lead to odd interactions with other skaters wherein you must exhalt the skateboarding of a teenage boy who's fifty times better than you or you keep mentioning people who have moved onto other things besides skating. Like, "Dude, you know who's the best? Sergie Trudenowski," or "For real? You've never heard of Jerry Fisher?"
There's nothing wrong with being a fan of skaters from the younger generation, but hanging onto the skaters of your generation who are still killing it into their late 20s, early 30s is the most understandable, although it lays the conditions for some awkward meetings with dudes you've mimicked for much of your formative years. As you can see in the episode 6 of last year's Beauty and the Beast Tour, it creates some odd attempts at conversation starters and meetings where one person gets the feeling that they've known the other for their whole lives, like they're a buddy or something. I've been there. But, you gotta give props to the grown ass man fan.
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Josh Brooks
Josh is a skater and a scientist. He's written for Thrasher, lurks in Long Beach, has a mean tré bomb and isn't afraid to call your favorite pro to get perspective on the latest news.
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Noah Johnson
Noah lives, writes and skateboards everyday in Brooklyn, New York. His favorite things are clean grip, extra crispy bacon and sweatshirt weather.
