ROAD TO SWITCH - WEEK ONE
I started skateboarding in 2017 after discovering Tyler the Creator and Odd Future.
Me holding my first skateboard with my little brother at the Toys R’ Us on 88th St. in 2017. (RIP)
I was pretty inconsistent until around covid time, where I reached solid progression skating street doing mostly gaps and stair sets. I learned kickflips, heels, and varial flips, but I’d say my coolest trick was an ollie down a 5-stair at the homies plaza spot.
Covid gave me a solid year of progression, but by the end of it my skateboard was collecting dust. I got out of high school, pursued wrestling, and learned a loooooooot about myself.
Fast forward to now It’s been a crazy year, and it’s driven me to get better at skateboarding than I ever was. I always wanted to kickflip the seven stair by the big fountain at FIU. I got accepted there last month, and I still never got that clip.
I still got a long way to go, but getting back into it years later puts me at a weird spot. I’m not a total beginner, but tricks aren’t as consistent. And while to relearn them isn’t discouraging by any means, it’s certainly not as engaging as the first time around. It starts to feel like a chore-until i started skating switch.
Now I’m relearning all the tricks I used to have, but it feels like I’m starting fresh.
It’s scratching the itch for me every time I go skate. I feel the challenge of progression, and every trick feels like a brand-new victory. Skating switch solved everything.
So I committed myself to a 6 month switch challenge.
I always saw those one year skate progression videos on YouTube, and thought to myself like damn I wish I did one of those and felt like I missed my shot. With this little challenge I figure it’s not too late, and being in a unique position as an intermediate-beginner I think it’ll be cool to document what happens when you start over from scratch.
I’ll update the blog as I progress.
Here’s my progress for week one of the challenge:
