It’s awesome to watch a child learn on their own in any activity, but skateboarding is kind of it’s own story. There are so many kids that skate now a days and they all seem to get really good really fast. I think the main reason for that is how skateboards stopped evolving about 20 years ago now and so from that point on all the evolution of skateboarding was more focused on the tricks, the style and the skill level. So to a person who is out skateboarding for the first few times they learn to try what they see, and what they see is insane…
I’ve been super proud lately of my son Kaelen who is barely 4 years old, but of course has been playing around with skateboards since he could roll around on the floor. What’s cool about Kaelen is he has this ambition to learn moves and tricks and talks about them all the time, but no one has ever forced skateboarding on him nor do we instruct him at all, just a little guidance now and then to keep him on the safe side. But growing up with a Dad that is so active in the skateboard community Kaelen goes to a lot of events and sees a lot of different levels of skateboarding, plus he participates in the competitions as well. He has a couple different ramps to skate on at home and once again spends lots of time watching the bigger guys shred. So the point is, in anything you do while growing up you are learning by watching, acknowledging, and then attempting, and Kaelen is classic for this, as was I when I was a kid. Since we built the newest Protest Ramp indoors he has had lots of time to play on it and it actually amazes me the stuff he tries. They see what we do, and try to replicate it, but a lot of the time they end up doing something else that none of us would ever dare try. That’s skateboarding for ya, and each generation makes it their own…