THE TRICK THAT TOOK THREE YEARS AND WHAT IT TAUGHT ME ABOUT FAILURE

Posted by Dez Fontaine Tue at 7:00 AM Filed in Personal #personal growth #skateboarding #discipline #failure #self-discovery 27 views

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I landed my first kickflip when I was twenty-four years old. Not sixteen. Not eighteen. Twenty-four. And yeah, I know how that sounds in skateboarding world where kids are pulling that off at like twelve in parking lots while their parents wait in the car. But here's what nobody talks about with skateboarding - it's not actually about the trick itself. The trick is just what you're looking at while you're learning something way more twisted about yourself.
I started skating when I was seventeen because I wanted to look cool. Real talk. My cousin had a board and girls thought it was hot and I wanted that energy. I could cruise, pop a few things, do some beginner stuff. Nothing special but enough to feel like part of something. Then I got obsessed with kickflips. Not because they're the most important trick or the hardest or anything like that. Just because they looked clean. They looked like magic. A board spinning under your feet and you're still standing on it after. That's nuts.
The first year I thought I was just bad at the timing. My board was spinning but I couldn't lock my feet back into it. Second year I convinced myself I just needed a better board, better grip tape, lighter shoes, more expensive everything. Third year I stopped lying to myself. I was scared. Sounds stupid but I was genuinely afraid of eating concrete at full speed. Not falling on grass or carpet. Actual hard ground. And every time I set up for that trick, my body knew. My brain would sabotage the flip before it even happened.
That's when things changed. I stopped going to spots where people were watching. I found this empty parking lot behind a closed factory and I just went out there alone. No audience. No pressure. Just me and the concrete and the stupid board. And I had to sit with why I was actually doing this. Not for looks. Not for anybody else. Just to know I could do something hard that scared me.
When I finally locked that kickflip, I was alone in that parking lot at dusk and I screamed like an idiot. Fell like ten times after trying to celebrate too early. But that moment wasn't about the trick landing. It was about the three years of showing up even when I was terrible. It was about deciding that I wanted to know what I was capable of more than I wanted to look cool doing it.
Skateboarding culture gets sold as this rebellious thing, right? But the real rebellion isn't kickflips or attitude or refusing to wear helmets. It's committing to something stupid and hard when nobody's forcing you to. It's choosing the uncomfortable truth about what you're actually capable of instead of the comfortable lie about what you look like trying.
That parking lot taught me that failure doesn't make you worse at something. It's the only actual way to get better. And that's not just skateboarding philosophy. That's life philosophy that happens to have wheels.
What's something you've been avoiding because you're scared of looking bad while you're learning it?

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THE TRICK THAT TOOK THREE YEARS AND WHAT IT TAUGHT ME ABOUT FAILURE