Aight, we all got one.
I'll start:
When I was 18 (a decade ago now 😬) I remember telling a buddy of mine I could skate any hill and that I loved speed, rather than technical stuff. I remember telling everyone that I loved speed because I couldn't do standies yet. I knew damn well my buddy that I told I'd skate any hill to would never show up to a hill that I skated...
Until he did.
He was hiking with his chick and I was doing pushup slides down a 9% grade hill and flew into thorn bushes at like 6 miles per hour. I was wearing a neon orange tee, plaid shorts and boat shoes. I then proceeded to walk up the hill with him pretending nothing happened, covered in blood, while mall grabbing. He skated street since we were kids. I didn't even know what mall grabbing was.
He was a good friend for not telling me I was a kook lmao.
everyday is a new cringy beginners skate memory :D keep sliding
I highsided at a warmup slide hill at my first gel lab and ate shit off a pushup slide. I feel like pushup slides are either super steezy or a sign someone is a massive kook.
Went out to a downhill spot during college with friends and borrowed a buddy's buttboard, not thinking it would be anything compared to standup skating. Man was I wrong - I was talking smack all day, and when we finally got out and I went down this hill, I ate it HARD. Couldn't figure out how to get enough lean to turn the buttboard, ended up going down into a ditch and just getting caked in dirt, grass and mud, losing a shoe in the process. Never lived that down.
Almost killed my friend bc I didn't know know you needed a skate tool to tighten the axle nuts fully.
Friend took me down hilling the 2nd time I ever stood on a board. He let me use his board, because mine was sus, and at 20 mph (not an insane hill, nor were we DH/FR skaters at the time), but my wheels fell off and bro managed to run it off into the grass without injury.
Cringiest skate memory was probably going to my local to show my new at the time, girlfriend what downhill was like, wobbled off a pothole and got absolutely smoked right infront of her and a line of traffic
Mine was a slow burn, I was getting into downhill and could comfortable bomb hills with my friends in a pack and thought I was the shit and on my way to being sponsored by Landyachtz. My friends always gave me a lot more space and never bump drafted me. I thought, haha I'm to fast for them, until they started passing me and at the bottom they said I was blowing it. Not sure what that meant back then I asked why, and my homie told it to me straight. "You aren't looking behind you at all and have no spatial awareness where anyone is or if there's a car behind you when skating." That really sunk deep and I didn't take it well. Here I thought I was the shit and had it al figured out then I learn you have to check behind you by turning around and seeing what's behind you, not just in front of you to properly skate hills. It was super important to hear and made my skating progress alot and also made me reliaze I suck at skating so it was humbling too.
I was (still am) a weird dude, ya know? Instead of actually fostering friendships and building a collaborative scene, I was The Longboard Snob on my college campus.
Cringe moments include:
-Throwing my board down and pumping uphill past a guy struggling to push up the hill
-Memorizing the Sector9 and Arbor catalog so I could rattle off the exact component list of whatever board someone else rode (in a condescending manner)
-Cybering on Silverfish's Flashchat
-Speaking of Silverfish, SO SO many poorly photoshopped longboard memes
Everything circled around longboarding being MY thing, and thinking that I was better than everyone else because I had Silverfish and knew of brands other than Sector9 and Arbor.
Maybe not beginner cringe but rather dealing with skating in the same area for too long. One day when your young and new, people give you looks of adoration and approval. As time passes, those looks become more like don't look at me you're old and creepy. I think that's a type of cringe that only gets realer and truer for men as time passes as they slowly turn into kooks.
Must have been 2008, years before i owned my own longboard. A homie and me both had learned to handslide in the wet. Push up toeside and stinkbug obviously. And then it was dry and we couldn't get it to work. Nobody was there to break the wheels in or tell us how to do it.
We had a pocket knife, a lighter and some plastic bottles in reach, so we made slippy sleeves for the wheels out of PET bottles. It worked so great that we would continue this for several sessions before we finally decided to learn it on regular wheels. The sleeves would last a hand full of runs and it probably took less than 30 sec to throw on an new "set".
@Philipp Murx Yooooo thats sick tho
I skated ( pendy'ed) Grapevine a few years back (when I was way new to openroad fr)ago .Chase Hiller was running cleanup on a comet cruiser due to his arm being in a cast. It had rained so all day we only skated the party corner . when it dried , the skaters were all like ," we can go the full run, now!" I was like ," you mean there's more ?"
I pushed in last to not get in anyone's way. I proceeded to skate the run w u haul behind me & chase butt boarded the comet cruiser down behind me, laughing his *ss off the whole time. He was skating better than me on his butt sitting down , for every damn turn till the bottom. I think someone else who was good was driving uhaul. They were polite & didn't rip on me to my face ,lol. That was pretty cringe .
@Jefe W pff you pushed in last, makes it not cringy haha
@Eric Sparrow i still throw my board down & pump uphill, passing (hard) those struggling to push themselves up a hill.
doin my part to preserve that ostentaious ," if only you knew the push-uphill secret" vibe for the groms ....
