The complete guide to falling

Why I started skating:

I have always liked the concept of skating around. When I was very young, me and my brother got a tiny skateboard and a kick scooter which we used to ride around. Even before that, we used to roller skate on a friend’s backyard everyday. Then I got a fake version of heelys with pop open wheels and I used to take it everywhere. This made me fall in love with the feeling of rolling around over the years. Skating around is probably one of the most exhilarating feelings I have felt. Out of all the skate options, I love the wheeled shoe the most, mostly because of nostalgia, but also because it was very convinient, and was basically a supercharged shoe. But they don’t make these anymore and my next favourite one is the skateboard. ( Read the tier list at the end for my reasons, from this point on, I am mainly focusing on skateboarding. Although I might write more about other forms later. )

Origins of skate-surfing:

To understand skateboarding, we need to understand surfing and it’s fascinating place in society. Going back in history, humans were mostly land dwellers with a lot of settlements in and around water. Navigating waterways has been a deep rooted part of human knowledge sharing with research showing that the homo crossed almost 40 mile distance in waterways ~100,000 years ago in the lower paleolithic era. The mode of movement over these waterways were crude boats built with floating wood tied together and animal skin as sails. [1]. These could be considered the earliest surfers, but the earliest recorded description of “surfing” was in 1777 [2] by William Anderson, who was a companion to James Cook on the HMS Resolution ship to Tahiti ( although there seems to have been some misattributions of this to James Cook ). It is thought that surfing has been much more prevalant in Polynesian islands much earlier than that.

But the sport became massively widespread when surfers from Hawaii rose to fame around the globe, but mainly in California and Australia around the early 1910s. Hawaii become a state in 1959 and with this there was even more of a boom in surfing in the Western coast. Here is where the long history links to skateboarding where California surfers attached wheels to surf on land on days with no waves [3] and skateboarding was born!
Over the years popularity has been every increasing and skateboarding has traveled all over as people started finding uses like navigating around city blocks. Freedom of expression in artforms is as old as humankind itself and both skateboarding and surfing have both planted themselves as symbols for expressing individualism.

There is never a wrong way to skate ( Looking at you people who have to insist on naming every trick and “doing it wrong” ) and millions of ways to fall, but that is part of what makes skateboarding so liberating, you never know what’s going to happen, but no matter what it is going to be a ride.

How to get started:

With the rich history in our heart, here are a few things that vary between board to board.Every Skateboard has 3 important parts,

  • The board ( also called the deck )
  • The wheels
  • The trucks

There are different styles for each of these. Although there is no one fits all solution, depending on what you want to do you can fine tune this.

  • The deck comes in different sizes from 7.5 to 9 inches. The wider the board, more leg space and more balanced your board will be. The deck also has different shapes, with the more curved boards better for tricks.
  • The wheels vary a lot in their hardness levels and sizes. The general idea is that the harder the wheel, the bumpier your ride gets but easier to do tricks. Usually, rubber wheels are the softest and give you the smoothest ride if you just want to cruise around. The size of wheels also provide different levels of control over the board. Smaller wheels are better for tricks, and larger wheels are better for cruising around.
  • The truck heights can vary, and generally higher trucks give you more steering and control, while lower trucks give better lift when doing tricks.

That seems like a lot of options and I know it adds a lot of pressure to choose the right one the first time. But if you have never touched a skateboard before, none of this matters, just pick up any board to get started and you will have the best time. The most important thing to getting started is not being afraid to fall and going in with an open mind. Although this is a given, always wear a helmet and protective gear even if you’re skating in your backyard.

I remember my first time on a board, was on a random person’s board and I got on, dragged my leg a couple of feet and the next thing I remember, I was flat on my back with bruises in my hand, but I was smiling end to end knowing I was hooked forever to this.

My Favourite Skates:

  1. The PennyBoard - I never knew I would fall in love with these. These were popularized by this company, but in essence they are very small a foot and a half long boards with a sharp nose and flat back, huge rubber wheels and low trucks, making the entire ride insanely smooth and enjayable. You literally are cruising on road with these. I have the landyachtz dinghy, which I almost did’nt get because it was too small and I took one ride on it and fell in love. ( There is now a different version of these, that are apparently much smoother, although I haven’t tried them. )
  2. The Wheeled shoes - These are shoes with attached wheels, which usually can be put in. You have to run and lift your heels to ride. Mostly popularized by heelys and pogo wheels.
  3. The Classic - These are the classic boards with the curved shape, perfect for doing tricks, jumping up curbs and in general looking cool. I have seen all sorts of assortment of wheels and boards, but usually these have hard wheels and medium truck heights.
  4. Roller Skates - The quad wheeled skate shoes, these have been around for atleast a century and are very balanced, but these are extremely slippery compared to the roller blades, which isn’t very apparent until you get on one. I love using these although I don’t have a pair now as they are a pain to put on and off for casual commute.
  5. Roller Blades - These have wheels in a straight line, usually 3 or 4 and have different wheel sizes from small to large.
  6. Waveboard - These are two wheeled boards with a stick in the middle attaching both sides. You have to carve with your shoulders to move in these and they are usually pretty exhausting, but a lot of fun. ( These were popularized by the brand ripstick )
  7. Split wheels - These are two separate plates with two wheels each, and they don’t connect to each other. Your legs are free to move on their own and these are usually similar to the waveboard, but look insane when riding.

I know for a fact that I will forever be skating and the thing that amazes me is the community built around skating, that comes together no matter skill, age, where, when and just enjoy the act of rolling. Here’s to more falling, getting back up and learning this wonderful sport.

[1] Warshaw, Matt. The history of surfing.] Chronicle Books, 2010. [2] https://www.surfresearch.com.au/1777_Anderson_Tahiti_CanoeSurfing.html#email [3] https://www.skatedeluxe.com/blog/en/wiki/skateboarding/history-of-skateboarding/

PS: There are a few mentions about products that I use and I am not sponsored by any of these products and I am not to be held responsible for any event that occurs due to this blog. These are just my views and should be taken as is. If there are any concerns regarding any of the content, please reach out to me over my email.