Aren’t You Too Old For That?

[Egg Shen]

Nope, I was smoking a pipe.

Can’t believe you never broke one doing that. Hopefully just a beater cob.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Can’t believe you never broke one doing that. Hopefully just a beater cob.

Didn't get into cobs until the mid 2000s. All I had then were Grabows and a Big Ben. Won't touch a cob now.

 

[pantsBoots]

They lost me after the black album.

They lost me with the black album. Thought "hey, it's a one-off" and then they came out with the (aptly named) Load album.

 

[eljimmy]

You and Chasing Embers enjoy these books I especially liked Disposable View attachment 139571

Oh yes! I was lucky enough to get the Hardcover edition of Disposable. Have multiple copies of these books. Jim Phillips was one of my favorite artists.

 

[eljimmy]

Is Disposable the one with Per?

Lance Mountain is on the cover of Disposable. Great book for sure.

 

[eljimmy]

Yes. It covers pretty much every brand/skater & artist from the late 70’s to mid to late 90s. Many examples of deck art (actual deck photos) and maybe 3-5 pages on each artist/team/skater.

I like how it docu the evolution of skateboard design - both graphics and shapes, and goings-on in the industry over the years.

PS I saw an old man skateboarding in my neighborhood last night. He had 2 little kids and they were on tricycles. He could have been walking - it was nice to see someone else not caught up in appearances.

Here's the hardcover edition. Had it signed by Christian Hosoi.

 

[Chasing Embers]

I've got a World Industries shirt signed by Rodney Mullen and Mike Vallely. I'll have to get it out of storage some time.

 

[bpipes]

What do you still do that make people scratch their head and say ‘Aren’t you too old for that???’

My wife and I (53 & 57 respectively) still ride longboards and I downhill occasionally. Here is a video of a man I once knew, Victor Earhart doing his thing that many thought he shouldn’t be doing:

RIP, Victor…

So, what’s the thing you do that you’re “too old” to be doing?

Wow...thanks for that, you and the old man in the video are a inspiration to me. I still want to ride a longboard!
@topic and me, I still enjoy video games, it's been about 40 years since I started... Cartoons too, sometimes... I came back to comics too, after realizing tablets work very well to read them, even smartphones actually.

 

[hauntedmyst]

I just turned 50 and I have a 5 year old daughter. I admit that sometimes I feel too old for this, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

My daughter is turning 24 next month. It just gets better and better!

Except for right around 12 or 13 when they hit puberty and turn into Linda Blair from the Exorcist. My daughter rode that wave for 4 years. I wanted to put a shock collar on her but my wife wouldn't let me, so that made things harder. (FYI, it you ever wanted to see what heroin withdrawal looks like, take away a teen girls phone.)

 

[FurCoat]

Except for right around 12 or 13 when they hit puberty and turn into Linda Blair from the Exorcist. My daughter rode that wave for 4 years. I wanted to put a shock collar on her but my wife wouldn't let me, so that made things harder. (FYI, it you ever wanted to see what heroin withdrawal looks like, take away a teen girls phone.)

Oh I know. I took away my step daughters phone. She literally cried and had the shakes. My sons didn't have that problem. No video game units and no phones until they turned 16. I'll do the same with my daughter.

 

[TheIronMonkey]

My buddy, Ernest, doing a successful backside aerial in a wooden halfpipe in Red Hook, Brooklyn, c.1982:



I would love to tell you this was a One Footed Smith, but, it was just me screwing up a frontside grind. Ernest had a better photo of me making the grind that he was going to enter in a Nikon photo contest, but he lost it (as I recall, he was shooting slide film). Gotta love the Puma Baskets.



This is a really weak, low, frontside aerial off the transition (and nowhere near the vert) in the half pipe at the plexi park in Staten Island, c.1980, but, I always thought it was a neat pic. I did land it and continue my run, for what that's worth.

 

[Old_Newby]

I still light a bag of dog poop on fire and ring the door bell and run... ?

At 56 I guess I have lost a lot. At 45 I was in best shape of my life doing P90X and playing full court basketball, soccer, etc. Now just can’t run, 30 lbs overweight, low-T, Afib, etc. Bad genetics caught up with me at 52. I will improve in near future but currently it’s golf, pets, hiking in forest, bicycle, light free weights, and occasional yoga. But few and far between. The dirt bikes, water skiing, skateboarding, scuba, or anything risky or hard on the body is long over. I would rather watch the hummingbirds with a pipe but good to you who can do it..

 

[LotusEater]

My buddy, Ernest, doing a successful backside aerial in a wooden halfpipe in Red Hook, Brooklyn, c.1982:

View attachment 140035

I would love to tell you this was a One Footed Smith, but, it was just me screwing up a frontside grind. Ernest had a better photo of me making the grind that he was going to enter in a Nikon photo contest, but he lost it (as I recall, he was shooting slide film). Gotta love the Puma Baskets.

View attachment 140036

This is a really weak, low, frontside aerial off the transition (and nowhere near the vert) in the half pipe at the plexi park in Staten Island, c.1980, but, I always thought it was a neat pic. I did land it and continue my run, for what that's worth.

View attachment 140038

Those are awesome photos

Here is me at 40 in the deep end of my favorite bowl.

These days (a few months shy of 50) I’m lucky if I skate a parking block or do some slappys on the curb in front of my house maybe 2-3 times in a year

 

[TheIronMonkey]

Those are awesome photos

Here is me at 40 in the deep end of my favorite bowl.
View attachment 140133
These days (a few months shy of 50) I’m lucky if I skate a parking block or do some slappys on the curb in front of my house maybe 2-3 times in a year

Wow, that's truly awesome. I never got to practice vert enough to get really good. The weekend I was supposed to visit the Cherry Hill Park in New Jersey with my friends, Ernest and Rick (around 1980 or 1981?) I had to attend a christening for my godfather's kid—Cherry Hill was considered one of the greatest parks ever by many pros and it closed shortly after I was supposed to go, paved over for a roller rink. Rick was sponsored by Sims. Here's a pic of him doing a Rock and Roll with his 8 wheeled Sims Lonnie Toft board:



A frontside aerial in the plexi halfpipe:



These are pics I took of my friend, Dennis, on a wooden quarterpipe we built under the highway in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. He had a Dog Town Bob Biniak:



Dennis doing a handplant, photo from behind the ramp:



I missed skating so much and ended up living vicariously through the Tony Hawk video games. I was a moderator at the Planet Tony Hawk Forums for several years back in the 2000s. Several years ago, I was going to put together a red popsicle stick Powell Peralta Skull and Sword board, with magnesium Indy trucks, Ricta Core wheels and Bones Ceramic Bearings, then thought better of it, envisioning a broken leg, or worse yet, a broken arm that would prevent from being able to make art/a living.

I still play table tennis regularly with a group that has been getting together weekly since about 1984. I missed a little over a year, six or seven years ago, when I tore my left calf muscle going for a wide shot in a doubles game (I heard it pop as my left foot slammed down onto the floor), and two years during the pandemic. The days of playing until 2:00 AM seem to be well behind us; we seem to start to peter out come 10:00 PM now. Getting older can suck.

 

[sablebrush52]

We all get just one lap around the track.

Somebody thinks you look “foolish” doing something you enjoy? Screw them.

You can get arrested for doing that in a number of states.

 

[LotusEater]

@TheIronMonkey
I love seeing old skate photos like the ones you posted and I agree that getting older can suck. They say that youth is wasted on the young but I sure had a lot of fun wasting my youth lol.
It’s so weird how I’ve slowly moved from an active participant to an engaged spectator in so many areas of my life?
I’m not complaining I’m still making great memories they are just a a little more tame than some of the ones already on file.

 

[Searock Fan]

I won't contribute to this thread because it's too sad....

 

[litup]

Feels like this is mostly a skateboarding thread at this point, but I sometimes hear I'm too old to be playing video games and collecting baseball cards.

Alternatively, I'm often told that I'm too young to smoke a pipe by people that think only grandfathers should get to do that.

 

[leonardbill1]

Still temping fate at 64 ...

 

[North of the Border Piper]

That was a heck of a cool video! Thanks.