when did you come to the realization you were hooked?

[cuna123456]

i realized i was hooked on longboarding when just one longboard wasnt enough. i now have 6 boards and 2 more in the mail/waiting to be shipped lol. it has become my life.

Very good call. I probably realised I was hooked when I bought my Comishin. I could only use it practically as a speedboard. So I had thrown myself passed the comuter stage. Oh it was a beautiful day all those 3 weeks ago....

[sk8norcal]

being sidewalk cruising since @'87
but nothing beyond that....
until i starting to longboard in '99
and reading NCDSA.

thanks NCDSA!!

[claude regnier]

For me it was when I seen it on TV. A few weeks later at a friends birthday party I spotted thing hanging in the rafters and asked what it was.

My buddy said that's a skateboard that's what we we're watching on TV.

By the way the way this should ave said this was somewhere back in the early to mid 70's. Someday I will meet Darlene and ask her how old she was that day (It washer b-day party in November).

[Teh_Zak723]

Like Toro said, my injuries help me realize my addiction. Every time I fall, I think that I should be like "Ah, damn, that hurts!" but instead, I just get right up and say "Ah, damn, I should have that trick dialed by now!"

[elementalzoo]

When I started breaking the law just to skate stuff.

[Slobs]

When i fell 3 weekends in a row on the same arm and wouldn't wear anything but t shirts so i could show off my wounds.

[mot]

when I was first learning when i was a wee one and i was carving down the sidewalk and hooked up on the curb, causing me to faceplant, and i got up and walked back up the hill to try it again with out jacking myself up.

[Foxen]

I think I became hooked when I face planted on Mt. Tabor my FIRST DAY ever longboarding and busted a tooth in half. Though I had skated a bit in Middle School, it took that fateful day to bring me back into the sport. Bought my first board (Vanguard) a few months later. A few months after that bought a second board (Humu) and then finally this past March I sold the Vanny to buy a speedboard (Voodoo). It has taken me about a year to get to this point, and I have no intention of stopping any time soon.

[TwinTown Skater]

The funny thing about addiction is that 'once an addict always an addict'. I'll spare you the gory details on hitting the bottom and recovering, but I'll share the relapse.

Just about exactly 2 years ago, I took my eldest daughter to the U for new student orientation going into her freshman year. We stayed overnight 2 nights in the dorm, parents on one wing, kids on the other. While touring the campus I noted a number of college aged men longboarding. A long dormant itch sprang to life, waiting to be scratched.

A week or two went by and late nite, google helped me find a couple of dealers, called the 'fish, and SlalomSkateboarder. Another day or two, and I'd hooked up with a local abuser via email. He called my bluff by writing: "Too old to skate? I'm 53 and still skate regularly."

I asked 'Pops' for directions to a good local shop, walked in, blew the shop guy away: "Shopping for your kid?" "No, me." Dropped the cash and haven't looked back.

Junk in my veins and loving every minute.

The Pusher Steppenwolf

You know the dealer, the dealer is a man
With the love grass in his hand
Oh but the pusher is a monster
Good God, he's not a natural man
The dealer for a nickel
Lord, will sell you lots of sweet dreams
Ah, but the pusher ruin your body
Lord, he'll leave your, he'll leave your mind to scream

[Slidejedi42]

I realized I was hook when I would sneek out in the early morning just to have a skate sesh

[DELETED]

When I would show up at my friend's job so I could get his keys and ride the longboard he had in his trunk

[dave_p]

probably in 1977, my mom wouldnt let me have a skateboard. my friends next door had california freeformers. i would ride them every chance i got. a single kick and the doublekick models. i thought those loose bearings in the wide translucent red wheels were the coolest thing i had ever seen.

bought my first real board much later, a powell mcgill mini (with boneite!) gullwing pro3's with the composite baseplate and bones 3's and some NMB or GMN bearings, not sure which. i still have that deck (and all my old 80's decks) i wish i still had the gullwings and the bones 3's

31 years after first stepping on a board i am still skating at least 2-3 times a week. mostly bowls and the occasional longboard jaunt to the liquor store.

[skatefart1]

As many of you know, the summer of 1975 is when I started skating. I look back on that time with a lot of fond memories...but there is no doubt that from the minute I got my clay wheeled board, I was hooked.

Yes, you read that correctly...clay wheels IN 75!

Brutal.

Despite this, I kept skateboarding...and I think the moment for me was just bombing down the hill outside my house.

I recall spray painting the deck gold...and going to the hardware store to find "grip tape" (which, if I recall was anti slip tape for the bath!)

I rolled a little bit out of skating back in 81 - hello music, women and well, I won't get into details...

then in 85, I got firmly hooked...until 90...then in 95, longboards took over and I've been in a fog of skateboarding ever since and loving it.

Hve to say, it sounds like I wrote your message. I also started in 75, though not with Clay wheels. I bugged my parents and they got me a wood deck with crappy urethane wheels. My friend had gone to Cape Hatteras and picked up a Bahne brochure. It folded out to show a 24" deck with clear cadillac wheels and I was hooked by skateporn.

6 months later, for christmas, I got a wayne brown kicktail with x-caliber trucks and roller sports loose-balls. It was sweet. I rode it in my basement and loved until spring.

I searched the midwestern magazine racks and bought SURFER magazines and saw ads for 5 Summer stories and saw Jack's of HB ads...and just died inside wishing I could come to Cali.

That summer I got better at everything....kickturns, walk-the-dogs-, slalom, high-jumping, freestyle..and was hooked.

For the next 2 years I was the main skater in my podunk Michigan town and I spread the stoke to a few others. A team cropped up in a neighboring city and I joined. Did mall demos. Won contests. Had a great time.

Went to college a few years later and used my 44" (1977) deck for transport around campus. This was 1980-84.

Rode off and on for years, and had dreams of myself on a longboard, blue, 50+ inches, cruising hills...and in 1995-98, those wishes came true with the longboard revival. Then the slalom stoke happened and I got to ride and race with Hester, Chaput and a lot of my teen idols. F'in great.

Now, at 47, I'm mainly a sidewalk cruiser, hill carver, slalom pumper..but it is INSIDE ME...and will never go away. All thanks to that summer in 75, and wayne brown and a little beach town in Michigan where skating was the best thing I could do to spend my day.

[msk]

I grew up surrounded by hardcore waterskiers, and even before I was in school, I'd spend all week looking forward to the weekend when we'd head out to the lake. When I was 6, I saw some of the older kids on skateboards. I wasn't aware of skating's surfing connection, so to me, those were sidewalk water skis. I had to have one. On my 7th birthday, my dad took me to the toy store near my grandmother's house, and bought me my first board: a Nash Shark, with non-adjustable stamped steel trucks and steel wheels. First ride, and I was hooked! No more waiting for the weekend, now I could "ski" anytime I wanted. That was 40 years and 2 months ago...

[mediocrityman]

I think I got hooked during a skate session with the Earthwing Crew. It was the night before the Central Park Race and Sergio Yuppie, Cliff Coleman and all of the Earthwing crew were there. It was awesome.
I may get this feeling again this friday, seeing as it's the day before the Central Park Race again. Not sure if any famous faces will be there, but I know it'll be epic.