For as long as most can remember, it’s been a common misconception that those who skateboard are almost always associated with drugs, alcohol, tattoos, vandalism, and crime. So how did people begin thinking this way?
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| Skateboarding is often associated with vandalism |
Skateboarding has been around since about the late 1940’s. The first skateboards were created by children, which they did by attaching roller skate wheels to a board. Skateboarding was first invented in California as a way for surfers to ride and have fun when the waves were flat. Soon enough, skaters began experimenting with riding down steep hills, ditches, and pools. Skateboarding quickly became associated with crime when teens trespassed into people’s property, drained their pools, and had fun with their friends for a little while, until the police came. Already, skateboarders were assumed as trespassers and criminals.
The skateboarding troupe grew during the 1980’s, when drug use spiked. Listening to punk rock, vandalizing property with graffiti, and skateboarding were all promoted as a part of the culture. Thrasher, a skateboarding magazine founded in 1981, was a symbol of the skate-punk culture.
However, the skate community was never homogenous. While many of the skaters stuck true to the stereotypes, there have always been people breaking them. Over the years, the vandalizing, drug-using, and criminal skateboarding typecast has faded out. People are setting new records every day in the skateboarding world.
In our current year, many people still choose to view skateboarding as an accessory of rebellious teens.
Sometimes, I feel uncomfortable when I'm crusing down the blocks near my house, or when my brother and I make the whole neighborhood echo when we land tricks. There are always those older neighbors, mowing their lawns, staring at us with disapproving faces. At a young age, I was taught by just street signs that skateboarding was bad. In films and movies, skateboarding was almost always done by the gangster and thug characters. Even when walking to the grocery store, I saw signs with the all-familiar stick figure, this time riding a skateboard. The image had a big red circle with a cross through it. This sent a clear message - no skateboarding.
When skateboarding was first coined, it was dominated by men. There were no rules that stated it, but for many years, no girl had stepped foot into the world of skateboarding. In this day and age, this is no longer true. Jordyn Barratt, Arianna Carmona, Natalie Westling, and Poppy Starr are all female skateboarders breaking the boundaries of skateboarding today. Sky Brown, one of my biggest idols, an 8 year old girl, became the youngest female skateboarder to compete (against adults!) in the Vans US Open Pro Series.
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| Sky Brown |
As a girl who enjoys skateboarding in 2017, I have never felt weird, or been put down about it
because I'm a girl. Our society has evolved so much in this way, and I'm proud to say it.
Today, skateboarding is a sport still categorized into a crime by some. Nonetheless, it has evolved into a sport that many continue to enjoy. Whether it’s drifting along an empty road with ease, or showing off the coolest tricks, skateboarding is an art that we can all enjoy.
Hobbies - How They Affect Your Life
Hobbies, you might not have one, but I bet you have looked into a few. Whether it is sports, art, DIY, Technology, or gaming hobbies are the thing you are passionate about and do in your free time. If you are lucky, or if you have the right hobby, it could be your profession. One of my hobbies is Soccer, I have loved Soccer since the first time I played it in first grade. I have gone through many stages of learning in Soccer from at school recesses to rec and now club Soccer. All of these stages are beneficial in multiple ways, not just making me better at soccer or a better teammate. Lessons you can learn from things you are passionate about are the best lessons. This is because you learn the most when you are having fun with what you are doing. Many studies by top neurology websites such as Psychology Today have done research on the help of fun while learning. It bypasses a certain part of the brain called the amygdala which decides if the thing they are doing is effective. In a stress-free and fun environment students are able to learn a lot better. This same logic can also be applied to doing what you love. If you are doing your favorite thing in the world you are unlikely to be stressed and likely to have fun, therefore you learn better while doing your hobby. If people spent as much time on their hobbies as other more important things in their life they would likely get very good at it and learn a ton from what they are doing, for instance, if I loved DIY tech I would, in the process, learn a ton about all the tech that I am working with while still having a ton of fun. This has happened to me in my real life, I was looking into building a PC, and while I was doing research on parts I learned a ton about how PCs actually work and about electronics in general. The best part about that was that I still had a ton of fun doing it. Hobbies can also be beneficial to your life in other ways than just learning about your craft. They are a good way of dealing with stress, as mentioned earlier if you are doing something you love you are unlikely to be stressed out about it. Hobbies can also help your patience because you are usually spending a lot of time focusing on one project that you want to get done. Some hobbies such as team sports can help with teamwork (obviously) and communication, both of which are very useful skills that you can use in the rest of your life. In general, hobbies are a great thing that everyone should have, there are no drawbacks (besides cost) and they can equip you with very important skills for the rest of your life. 
