MattThomMakesMeWarmInside
Silver Member
The Passion:
Just wanted to speculate and get some ideas thrown around. How many people here can say they're passionate about riding their scooter...or anything for that matter? I feel like a lot of people forget why they started riding to begin with. Here's what riding means to me:
The raw fun
The ability to share with those willing to join
The flexibility to do it whenever
The ability to sesh wherever
The creativity it allows, every landscape is your playing grounds, use it how you like
The ability to push it as far as you want. There are no rules, you set the limitations
It's awesome exercise
It's a way of expression. You have your own riding style. It's a thing you do and it's about you.
It keeps me out of trouble, it satisfies my anxious energy
Everything feels instantly better when riding
A lot of people in my town complain about how boring it is because there's nothing provided for them to do. They're not being handed entertainment so they mindlessly submit to video games, TV, sitting around, weed, and all around not being interested in anything/not having any hobbies or qualities that define them. It's impossible to try to convince someone to ride because riding costs money and '"hey, I don't have the time" yet other material possessions, shitty food, unneeded clothes, and drugs have plenty of room for money to be spent on while sitting around takes precedence in how free time is spent. I love the time argument since riding takes literally zero commitment. It's not getting into a schedule or coordinating with other people or making sure the circumstances are right, the time required for it is completely disposable because again, there are no rules or requirements. The scooter industry had just started taking off when I stopped riding. Cycling through pro parts began to get annoying and I picked up bmx to see how I liked it. After that got too expensive to fix, I stopped riding that too and I haven't ridden in years because my parents weren't very supporting. This was also added with the fact that there was no one to ride with/ the people to ride with weren't usually the people I find myself wanting to associate with, which really took away the joy from riding. Hobbies are significantly more fun when you can share them with someone you can connect with. As a pattern in my town, the smarter the kid got, the more distracted he got. Level 1 and 2 classes at school always had the biggest pool of riders, but by reaching level 3 (academic: where all my friends were) it plummeted drastically and by honors (3.5) it was literally impossible and unheard of. Why was it that the kids who "weren't as developed" understood that fun was important?
4 years later (from scooter riding) I realize I NEED to ride. Neither having no friends to ride with or having little money to work with is any longer a factor in not riding, I'll inconvenience myself however I have to so that I can have that blanket of security that riding always was for me. I'll tell everyone that I could never convince to go fuck themselves, I'll just ride alone anyway because I need something to thrust myself into that physically and mentally makes me feel good, something that allows me to express myself, something that brings me thrill and keeps me feeling awesome. Riding is that for me and even if when eventually working 40 hours a week and having a serious girlfriend ties things up, I will always be happy and content to find time to ride right out front of wherever I live.
Quitting:
Finally, there is the pressure that we (scooter riders) face by others, and to those who have any bit of logic or common sense just understand that you need to say fuck you to anyone who tries to put that pressure on you. Nothing infuriates me more than people talking shit on other people's hobbies. These people getting shit talked are putting themselves out there and yet the people that never put themselves out there and do nothing never get insulted. The purpose of a hobby is to have fun, not to be cool or fit in or carry some sort of status. The basis for doing it is supposed to be FUN. Riding a skateboard is supposed to be done for the love of the sport, not because "it's cool to do." Any time another rider insults another rider, they've insulted the sport, the community, and themselves by looking like an idiot. I don't care if I'm an adult riding a scooter, what the fuck do you do? Oh, you don't have any interests? Oh, you're not changing the world for the better? Fuck you. Oh you do have interests? What make them better than mine? Isn't all personal preference? Fuck you.
People forget what it is to have fun. People forget that the purpose of life is to enjoy it. So many people get caught working a job just so they can go to work the next day and the free time that they are working towards transitions from "free time" to "time off work". You go to work so you can have a basis of comfort with the necessities you need to spend money on (house, food, health, etc.) and with that basis of comfort supporting you and keeping you steady, you find time to comfortably have fun. Most people forget this though.
I don't know how much it factors into riders quitting today, but at 14, 15, 16 it can be hard to fathom who you really are, what you want, who your friends really are, that people your age WILL change, that you having fun is more important than people's irrelevant opinions, and so on. I feel like a lot of riders fade away from the sport, or subconsciously/consciously think they don't want to be too old and still riding a scooter and LITERALLY FORGET that it was actually an aspect that once defined them. I think to how much these people in my town bitch about doing nothing, then think about how happy they all were when they were still young innocent kids not yet caught up by worldly distractions and as a result made their own fun and used their brain.
An awesome quote on this very subject
"The creative adult is the child who survives."
Just wanted to speculate and get some ideas thrown around. How many people here can say they're passionate about riding their scooter...or anything for that matter? I feel like a lot of people forget why they started riding to begin with. Here's what riding means to me:
The raw fun
The ability to share with those willing to join
The flexibility to do it whenever
The ability to sesh wherever
The creativity it allows, every landscape is your playing grounds, use it how you like
The ability to push it as far as you want. There are no rules, you set the limitations
It's awesome exercise
It's a way of expression. You have your own riding style. It's a thing you do and it's about you.
It keeps me out of trouble, it satisfies my anxious energy
Everything feels instantly better when riding
A lot of people in my town complain about how boring it is because there's nothing provided for them to do. They're not being handed entertainment so they mindlessly submit to video games, TV, sitting around, weed, and all around not being interested in anything/not having any hobbies or qualities that define them. It's impossible to try to convince someone to ride because riding costs money and '"hey, I don't have the time" yet other material possessions, shitty food, unneeded clothes, and drugs have plenty of room for money to be spent on while sitting around takes precedence in how free time is spent. I love the time argument since riding takes literally zero commitment. It's not getting into a schedule or coordinating with other people or making sure the circumstances are right, the time required for it is completely disposable because again, there are no rules or requirements. The scooter industry had just started taking off when I stopped riding. Cycling through pro parts began to get annoying and I picked up bmx to see how I liked it. After that got too expensive to fix, I stopped riding that too and I haven't ridden in years because my parents weren't very supporting. This was also added with the fact that there was no one to ride with/ the people to ride with weren't usually the people I find myself wanting to associate with, which really took away the joy from riding. Hobbies are significantly more fun when you can share them with someone you can connect with. As a pattern in my town, the smarter the kid got, the more distracted he got. Level 1 and 2 classes at school always had the biggest pool of riders, but by reaching level 3 (academic: where all my friends were) it plummeted drastically and by honors (3.5) it was literally impossible and unheard of. Why was it that the kids who "weren't as developed" understood that fun was important?
4 years later (from scooter riding) I realize I NEED to ride. Neither having no friends to ride with or having little money to work with is any longer a factor in not riding, I'll inconvenience myself however I have to so that I can have that blanket of security that riding always was for me. I'll tell everyone that I could never convince to go fuck themselves, I'll just ride alone anyway because I need something to thrust myself into that physically and mentally makes me feel good, something that allows me to express myself, something that brings me thrill and keeps me feeling awesome. Riding is that for me and even if when eventually working 40 hours a week and having a serious girlfriend ties things up, I will always be happy and content to find time to ride right out front of wherever I live.
Quitting:
Finally, there is the pressure that we (scooter riders) face by others, and to those who have any bit of logic or common sense just understand that you need to say fuck you to anyone who tries to put that pressure on you. Nothing infuriates me more than people talking shit on other people's hobbies. These people getting shit talked are putting themselves out there and yet the people that never put themselves out there and do nothing never get insulted. The purpose of a hobby is to have fun, not to be cool or fit in or carry some sort of status. The basis for doing it is supposed to be FUN. Riding a skateboard is supposed to be done for the love of the sport, not because "it's cool to do." Any time another rider insults another rider, they've insulted the sport, the community, and themselves by looking like an idiot. I don't care if I'm an adult riding a scooter, what the fuck do you do? Oh, you don't have any interests? Oh, you're not changing the world for the better? Fuck you. Oh you do have interests? What make them better than mine? Isn't all personal preference? Fuck you.
People forget what it is to have fun. People forget that the purpose of life is to enjoy it. So many people get caught working a job just so they can go to work the next day and the free time that they are working towards transitions from "free time" to "time off work". You go to work so you can have a basis of comfort with the necessities you need to spend money on (house, food, health, etc.) and with that basis of comfort supporting you and keeping you steady, you find time to comfortably have fun. Most people forget this though.
I don't know how much it factors into riders quitting today, but at 14, 15, 16 it can be hard to fathom who you really are, what you want, who your friends really are, that people your age WILL change, that you having fun is more important than people's irrelevant opinions, and so on. I feel like a lot of riders fade away from the sport, or subconsciously/consciously think they don't want to be too old and still riding a scooter and LITERALLY FORGET that it was actually an aspect that once defined them. I think to how much these people in my town bitch about doing nothing, then think about how happy they all were when they were still young innocent kids not yet caught up by worldly distractions and as a result made their own fun and used their brain.
An awesome quote on this very subject
"The creative adult is the child who survives."
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