Is Skateboarding Better Than Other Sports?

So a while back ESPN put out an article that placed skateboarding at number 37 on their list of the hardest sports, just below swimming and right above sprinting.

Being a skateboarder myself, I felt like they were a little off, but it got me thinking about skateboarding compared to other more traditional sports, and which one was better all around.

In this article, we’re going to go over 10 reasons why skateboarding is better than pretty much any normal sport or recreational activity out there.

1. You Can Skate Alone

So the first reason why skateboarding is better than normal sports is that it’s something you can do by yourself.

Most traditional sports require a full team of people to play, and there’s very few recreational activities out there that you can do without anyone else.

Skateboarding on the other hand is something you can do pretty much anywhere, and even though it’s definitely more fun with other people, you can also have a lot of fun skating by yourself.

Even people who live in the middle of nowhere can still find ways to skate, but someone who lived in the middle of nowhere wanted to play a team sport, then they’d basically be out of luck.

This is something we saw firsthand over the past few months when people couldn’t go outside to skate. They still managed to skate their backyards, and skate inside of their garages, and sometimes even skate inside of their house.

2. Skateboarding Doesn’t Have Rules

The second reason why skateboarding is the best is that there are no rules on how to do it.

Skateboarding has a ton of different styles, and there’s no one there to tell you how you can or can’t skate. Unless you’re in a contest, there’s no referee’s, or judges, or even rule books that you need to follow.

Some people might choose to skate transition and bowls, and other people might choose to skate stair sets and handrails.

Also, if at any point you want to start skating something different, you don’t have to ask for anyone’s permission.

Of course there are rules in some contests, but even then, it’s still pretty loose as to what you can and can’t do.

Since skateboarding is all about creativity, it’s almost a natural goal to not follow rules and to find new ways to do things.

Compared to other sports, skateboarding just has a lot less boundaries, and that’s what attracts a lot of people to it in the first place.

3. Skateboarding Community

The third reason why skateboarding is the best is because skateboarders have a community pretty much where ever they go.

It doesn’t matter what city or country you’re in, if you’re a skateboarder, you can show up to a local skatepark and instantly have friends no matter where you are.

This is something that’s inherent to skateboarding, and it’s honestly one of the best parts about being a skateboarder.

The weird thing is, compared to most popular sports, the skateboarding community is pretty small, but no matter where you go you can still find skateboarders.

Every time I travel I always bring my board, and no matter where I go I always meet local skaters who are super welcoming and willing to show me around their city.

I’ve even had skaters I literally just met let me stay at their house, which is something I don’t think would ever happen with any traditional sport.

4. You can skate forever

The 4th reason why skating is the best is that you can skate for as long as you want.

If I had to guess, I’d say most people quit playing normal sports after they graduate high school, but people who skate will continue skating for as long as they can.

There’s plenty of stories of people in their 50’s and 60’s who still skate, but I’d be willing to bet there’s very few people in the same age group playing sports like football.

Of course, older skaters aren’t going to be jumping down massive gaps or onto handrails, but Tony Hawk was still doing 900’s when he was almost 50, which definitely says a lot about skating compared to other sports.

Skateboarders have also started becoming more health conscious, so I think in the future the amount of older people who still skate is only going to get bigger.

There are rare cases where people get hurt and they really can’t skate anymore, but most skaters continue to cruise around and skate to some degree for as long as they can.

5. You compete against yourself

Reason number 5 is that in skateboarding, you’re competing against yourself.

With normal sports, there’s almost always an opponent that you’re trying to beat, and there’s always some championship that you can win, but in skateboarding, it really just comes down to trying to beat your own personal standard.

Now there are competitions in skateboarding where you go against other skaters, but even then, most skateboarders aren’t so much trying to beat the other skaters as much as they’re just trying to skate to the best of their ability.

When a skater wins a contest, everyone who lost is still really happy for them, especially if they know they skated the best they could.

All of that aside, in the grand scheme of things, contests are a really small part of skateboarding.

Most of skateboarding revolves around filming videos, which again, is something skateboarders really just do to compete against themselves. They’re not trying to film a video part that’s better than anyone else’s, they just want to get tricks they’re happy with based off of their own skill level.

6. Low Barrier To Entry

Number 6 is skateboardings low barrier to entry.

You can start skateboarding pretty much anywhere, you don’t need anyone else to do it, and it’s really not that expensive, so the barrier to entry for skateboarding is a lot lower than most recreational activities.

For pretty much every normal sport, you can only do it in certain places, you need an entire team to do it, or it costs a lot of money.

Since skateboarding is easier to get started with, it’s much more accessible to people, especially to those who don’t have the means to do traditional sports.

In my eyes, this is a pretty big reason why skateboarding is better than sports, because those are usually the people who need some form of creative outlet the most.

Skateboarding is something that pretty much anyone can have access to, which to me, is a prime example of why it’s so great.

7. Skateboarding Culture

The 7th reason why skateboarding is the best is its culture.

I’m willing to be completely biased here and say there’s no activity or sport or whatever with better culture than skateboarding.

Skateboarding culture constantly influences art, music, and fashion, and there aren’t many things out there that you can even compare to it. Also, skateboarders can be some of the most welcoming, friendly people, so I really don’t think there’s any normal sports out there that even comes close.

This isn’t to say that skateboarding culture is perfect, but relatively speaking it’s about as good as it gets.

Skateboarders are always willing to help each other out, and come together as a community, and even though skating can come its own weird politics, overall I think it’s way better than any other alternative.

8. Skateboarding Teaches Lessons

Reason number 8 is skateboarding teaches you life lessons.

I realize that traditional sports also teach you lessons, but the things you learn from skateboarding are completely different.

Now I don’t want to sound too cheesy here, but skateboarding really does teach you a lot of life lessons without you even realizing it.

Just as an example, it takes a lot of determination to keep trying the same trick for hours after slamming multiple times, but it’s something skateboarders do on a regular basis.

Also, I feel like compared to the average person, skateboarders have a lot more weird street scenarios like dealing with homeless people or cops, and I don’t know exactly what that teaches you, but I’m sure it counts for something.

9. Better For Your Body

The 9th reason why skateboarding is the best is that it’s not as hard on your body as normal contact sports.

Now skateboarding can be pretty tough on your body, there’s no denying that. However, compared to a contact sport like football or rugby, the injuries that come with skateboarding are a lot more manageable.

There are ways you can fall to where it doesn’t even hurt at all, but as far as I know there’s no special way for you to get tackled by half a dozen 200 pound men.

Also, the entire goal of skateboarding is to not fall, vs other sports where the entire goal is to tackle the other person.

So even though you can definitely get hurt skateboarding, I think it’s a lot more forgiving on your body than other sports.

10. Diversity In Skateboarding

Reason number 10 is the diversity within skateboarding.

This one kind of plays off of what I said about the community and the culture in skateboarding.

Skateboarding is something that attracts people from all aspects of life, and it doesn’t seem like any sport is as big of a melting pot as skateboarding.

I’ve met skateboarders with every kind of background you can imagine, and it’s crazy to think about how so many different people can be brought together by skating.

Skateboarding exposes you to a ton of new cultures and ideas, and I don’t think that’s something you get as much with most other sports.