Skateboarding comes with a ton of benefits.

It’s something fun that you can do with your friends, it’s a nice way for you to stay in shape, it can help you find a good community of people, and it’s something that you can push yourself to progress at.

With that said, there are definitely some drawbacks to skateboarding, and if you’ve been skating for any decent amount of time, you’ve most likely experienced a few of them.

In this post, we’re going to go over a few things that every skater hates.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love skateboarding, these are just a few annoying things that skateboards deal with that I feel like most skaters can relate to.

If you have any suggestions of your own, feel free to share them!

People invading skateparks

So the first downside to skateboarding is dealing with people invading skateparks.

Now I get that most skateparks are public facilities, but I still don’t feel like that makes it okay for people to use it as a place for their photoshoots, or yoga classes, or whatever other activity they’re doing.

Luckily I haven’t personally seen anything too crazy, other than kids on hoverboards or ripsticks, but I’ve heard stories ranging from film crews to RC car races.

Skateparks are called skateparks for a reason, and since skateboarding is illegal in a lot of cities, they’re really the only place skaters can go.

Not only is it kind of kooky to try to use a skatepark as an edgy backdrop, but it gets in the way of everyone else and stops people from using the skatepark for its intended purpose, which is pretty annoying to all of the skaters there.

Getting injured skateboarding

The next and probably the most obvious downside to skateboarding is getting hurt, which is something that happens on a pretty regular basis.

When it comes down to it, even the absolute best skateboarders in the world still slam on a regular basis, so falling is a part of skateboarding that you can’t really avoid regardless of how good you are.

Of course, there are certain ways you can fall that make it hurt a little less, but getting hurt skateboarding is almost inevitable, and it’s something that skateboarders kind of just learn to deal with.

Now, most falls aren’t that bad, and most skateboarders don’t care too much about getting hurt, as long as they can still skate afterward. The only time it starts to become a problem is when you actually get injured to the point when you can’t skate, which is when it can get kind of frustrating.

All skaters really care about is skating, and anything that prevents that is kind of a hassle to deal with.

This can kind of be a mental trip since skateboarding is what got you injured in the first place, but it’s still the only thing you want to do.

It’s really frustrating to go through and it’s definitely one of the worst parts about skateboarding, especially since there’s not a whole lot you can do about it.

It’d be nice if there was a way to progress at skateboarding without worrying about getting broken off, but unfortunately, it’s kind of just a part of skating.

People stealing skateboarding culture

Another thing skaters hate is people stealing skateboarding culture.

Skateboarders are constantly setting trends when it comes to fashion, art, and sometimes even music, and it seems like mainstream culture is just sitting on standby waiting to snatch it up.

I realize this sounds like a real hipster complaint to have, and it’s something that a lot of subcultures deal with, but it’s still annoying to see big companies keep trying to steal skateboarding culture.

The thing is, it’s not just massive companies either. A lot of individual people see skateboarding as this cool edgy thing, so they’re always trying to dress like skateboarders or pretend to skate, without taking the time to learn how to do it.

It’s gotten to the point now where it’s basically become a meme, and unfortunately, there’s not a lot that anyone can do about it.

Finding skate spots

Another one of the worst parts about skateboard is finding places to skate.

If you happen to live in a city like Los Angeles or New York City, this might not be something you deal with very often. For 90% of skateboarders though, it’s a pretty common problem.

Finding good spots is a constant battle, and even after you find them, it can be just as hard trying to skate them without getting kicked out.

Even though new spots are popping up all the time, it seems like just as many are getting destroyed, so it’s a continuous struggle of trying to find good spots to skate that you don’t get kicked out of right away.

There are some rare scenarios where you get an amazing spot like Macba where skaters can just go skate whenever without worrying about getting kicked out, but that’s definitely not the norm. Most skate spots either aren’t that good, they have a ton of security, or they eventually get shut down and destroyed.

The problem is even worse if you live in a smaller city or town because then you tend to have even fewer skate spots and a lot of times you don’t even have a local skatepark to fall back on.

At least if you’re in a decent-sized city, there are likely a few parks for you to skate. For skaters in smaller towns, they really only have a handful of street spots, and that’s pretty much it.

The point is, trying to find places to skate can be a huge hassle, and since spots are constantly being skate-stopped, or even destroyed, it’s a continuous problem that skaters have to deal with.

Skateboarding is hard

The next downside to skateboarding is how hard it is to do.

Now I will admit, that the fact that skateboarding is so difficult to do is part of what makes it so satisfying when you finally land a trick. If you could just do whatever trick you wanted every single try then it probably wouldn’t be as fun, so some level of difficulty is part of what makes it so rewarding.

With that said, I think most skaters would agree that it’d be nice if tricks were just a little bit easier to land.

It seems like there are certain times when you can land a trick every single try, and then there are other times when you can’t even get close at all, and it can kind of be a mental battle to go back and forth between the two.

There’s something about knowing that you can do a trick, but not being able to land it that’s just really frustrating, and it’s something that every skateboarder goes through at some point. Then there are also scenarios where things like bad weather or security are what’s stopping you from landing the trick, which can make things even worse.

There are a ton of sayings out there about how good things don’t come easy, but sometimes, it would just be nice if tricks came just a little bit easier and weren’t always such a battle.

Skating takes a long time

Next up we have the amount of time it takes to go skate.

Between getting a crew together, driving to the spot to go skate, warming up on the spot for 20 minutes before getting kicked out, and then having to drive to another spot before repeating the cycle, sometimes it can feel like you spend more time sitting in a car than actually skating.

This might be another one of those complaints that skaters in big cities cant relate to, but for skaters who have to drive 20-30 minutes to every single spot, it’s a really common issue.

It’s so much nicer when spots are close together. That way you can easily cruise from one spot to the next, and you’re not constantly riding in a car.

Finding multiple skate spots close together is really only the case in big cities, or maybe on college campuses, but other than that, it’s really not that common.

When you think about most sports like football or soccer, they basically just show up to the field, do whatever they have to do for a few hours, and then they’re done. They’re not constantly loading and unloading cars, or driving from one spot to the next. They pretty much just show up and that’s all they have to worry about.

With skateboarding, you’re constantly driving around, and it’s pretty rare that spots are actually close enough for you to skate from one spot to the next. It’s even worse when you immediately get kicked out, or for some reason the spot is a bust, because then you basically just wasted a ton of time sitting in a car for no reason.

Don’t get me wrong, sometimes the whole exploration aspect of skateboarding is nice. At the same time though, it’d be really cool if you could just cruise around from spot to spot without having to drive so much.

Skateboarding can be expensive

So another thing that skaters hate is that sometimes it can be a little expensive to do.

Things like trucks, wheels, and bearings should all last you for a while, but it can be easy to go through other things like decks and shoes relatively quickly, which can really start to add up over time.

Decks are usually around $50, and shoes tend to cost around $70, so if you’re constantly going through them, then it can definitely get expensive pretty fast.

The worst part is that as you get better, you tend to go through gear even faster, so you basically end up spending more and more money as you improve.

Ideally, if you’re going through boards and shoes a lot, you’ll hopefully be good enough to have some companies send you some free products. However, that’s not always the case, and most skaters have to pay for all of their gear out of their own pocket.

There are definitely sports out there that are way more expensive, so relatively speaking, skateboarding isn’t too bad, but at the same time, it would be nice if gear was just a little bit cheaper.