Getting Ripped Ripping (on the benefits of sobriety and skateboarding)

[<<>>Participant 435]

2.5 years ago at 41 I was smoking half a pack a day and drinking most every night I weighed 220 lbs and was in a dead-end relationship. I thought long and hard about my situation I knew the first thing I needed to do was quit drinking so I quit drinking. I knew that without drinking I would need something to take the edge off because I was suffering from PTSD ever since childhood and drank till blackout to self-medicate. I had played in and fronted some bands for years and I missed that adrenaline rush and escape. I knew I was gonna put on weight being sober so I decided probably like 6 months ahead of my quit date that I was going to get back into skating. Now I had not stepped on a board in at least 20 years but I had always thumbed through skate mags or watched skaters in the various cities I had visited touring the west so I was not a complete greenhorn when I arrived at the skateshop. I looked around at the assortment of decks varying in size mostly, these days the street shape is pretty standard there is always a few pool shapes and old school shapes lying around any decent skateshop. I told the guy behind the counter I had been out of the loop for a few decades and did not know the standard size these days and that I wanted a stock set up he informed me that the standard width these days was between 8 and 8.5 inches so I took him at his word and purchased a deck that was exactly that 8.25 inches. I had always skated independent trucks so I got a set of those I had heard good things about spitfire formula four wheels we talked about size and shape a bit and before you knew it I had gotten those and some shoes and wam bam I had a new set up and was ready to go. That was getting on two years ago, skating well, performing intricate tricks, takes a lot of mental dedication it can not be done drunk so no drinking, it takes a lot of strength so I built muscle where there was fat I weigh 185 now, it takes a lot of stamina and lung capacity so I have not smoked for 7.5 months and never will again. Imagine how being a sober nonsmoker daily ripped skater affected my confidence so…no dead-end relationship. I left that life shaved my head and joined MGTOW after 6 months of serious contemplation. I have a new place in a new city all lined up and no one but one friend knows me there and he just moved there and best of all there is a skatepark.

[Nathan R. JessepParticipant 1102]

That’s an awesome story. Welcome to MGTOW.

[Anonymous 42]

Vostoast, your story is similar to mine, I quit smoking in 1992.
Then skied every changeling mountain in the NE and a few out West, Colorado I-80 and Utah Wasatch! I was hitting it up every weekend and midweeks when storms laid out freshes knee to waste deep! I did it year after year to the point I recognize every tree in the thousands of acres of glads between the resorts I frequented. Every tree, every rock, every cliff, every stump. I even did pond skimming and snowmobile open water hydroplaning.

Rip it the f~~~ up dude! I’m doing layup 180s’ above the rim of the supper pipe! We rip up the terrain parks too!

F~~~ drinking!

F~~~ smoking!

F~~~ partying!

My life took off like a shot! Yours will too!

Is your avatar a picture of your finger? After a neoprene skate board wheel did a lock skid on it? I used to skateboard when I was a kid.

[Anonymous 54]

I quit all that stuff too. Way to go! Life is better when your healthy and active!

(I still play. I cant look at your avitar!)

[TuneoutParticipant]

Good on ya brother,taking care of #1 is the way to go and

a move to a new place is a good idea too,fresh start.

Lifes a bitch,but you don't have to marry one!

[KimmurielParticipant 480]

I have a welcome deck with oj cruiser wheels. No tricks but its a close imitation of surfing.

Congrats on the new spot.

"You meet a few exceedingly forsaken, Sit around the cooler refusing domestication" Aesop Rock

[<<>>Participant 435]

Kimmuriel wrote:

I have a welcome deck with oj cruiser wheels. No tricks but its a close imitation of surfing.

Congrats on the new spot.

Thanks, welcomes are sweet I have a few different setups one is a small cruiser with soft wheels. I am lucky that my work is flexible because tricks equal injuries and downtime. I’ll Fly to one more city to grab my stuff from storage and then I will make my new home and become a proper ghost it’s very exciting.

[RobbySpectator 71]

I’ve always thought skateboarding was really cool, this story inspires me to start practicing again. I remember when I was like 6 a guy on my block was practicing an ollie and I could not wrap my mind around how that was possible. Wonder what I would have thought seeing Rodney Mullen back then haha.

[KimmurielParticipant 480]

How is the schematics coming OP?

"You meet a few exceedingly forsaken, Sit around the cooler refusing domestication" Aesop Rock

[<<>>Participant 435]

Kimmuriel wrote:

How is the schematics coming OP?

schematics? not sure I follow

still sober still skating in Portland for a wedding then heading to new spot.

[KimmurielParticipant 480]

<<>> wrote:

Kimmuriel wrote:

How is the schematics coming OP?

schematics? not sure I follow

still sober still skating in Portland for a wedding then heading to new spot.

That’s what I meant. You said you had a plan to skate and go ghost. I’m glad to hear that it’s a working plan.

"You meet a few exceedingly forsaken, Sit around the cooler refusing domestication" Aesop Rock

[<<>>Participant 435]

Kimmuriel wrote:

That’s what I meant. You said you had a plan to skate and go ghost. I’m glad to hear that it’s a working plan.

Ah yes, I see , Going ghost is almost there this wedding will be the last I speak to anyone but a small few for the next 6 months. When the lease is up I will come out of my cave but this winter is all about self-knowledge. I am going to do some dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) and try to get on track. I only have the one friend in town and you guys for the next 6 months looking forward to avoiding contact with people as much as possible only going out at night shopping at night and so on and so forth. Thanks for asking.

[KimmurielParticipant 480]

Cool. Happy concrete carving

"You meet a few exceedingly forsaken, Sit around the cooler refusing domestication" Aesop Rock

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