For people who usually only have a skate wear hoodie as their only defence between their skin and the concrete, it’s easy to see why skateboarders have a reputation for not treating their bodies well - not to mention an association with junk food, energy drinks and partying which was born from the 90s skate scene.
However, as skating legends have aged and started taking a bit better care of themselves, their new lifestyles have seeped into wider skating culture, according to a report by Vice. Now, skating stars such as Andrew Reynolds and Guy Mariano have not only embraced the likes of veganism and sobriety, but they’ve marketed them into healthy skate-based brands.
This adoption of a healthy lifestyle has made it more acceptable within skate culture to invest in self-care, even so far as looking after your general health and fitness. In former days, skaters often had no athletic outputs other than skating, and wouldn’t even stretch before tackling these body-testing tricks.
Talking of how the culture has changed, pro skater Walker Ryan said that these legends were the first 30 year olds to be still jumping down staircases on a board, so the change was needed: “They made having a healthy lifestyle acceptable and cool and made it less embarrassing for me to stretch in front of my peers instead of by myself behind the side of a building,” he said.
And while healthy food brands are growing aimed at the skating community, there is undoubtedly still a subset of the culture that is still ‘hardcore’ in the treatment of their bodies while skating. The difference is what makes up a interesting and diverse scene.
