HOW OLD IS TOO OLD TO SKATE?

Clearly, there is a time in life for everything. Pre-teenage adolescence is for smoking and making small paper fires. Teenage years are about taking your liver out for that first pint, trying to impress girls and skateboarding (not mutually exclusive). But should 18 year olds abandon their skateboards as abruptly as their innocence? Maybe 25 is more appropriate age. Just how old is too old to skateboard?

On November 4th this year, his 39th birthday, Mark Short competed in the World Slide Skating Championships in California. Skating against the strongest in the field, Mark finished fourth overall in Slide Fest 06, a competition organised by Gravity Skateboards. And he's not finished, "It was a learning experience, I think that's the point, next year will be better." Pushing 40 and Mark's enthusiasm for skating seems more powerful than ever, talking of his new training regime and focus.

From sprains to fractures, concussion to shattered spleens, skateboarding can leave you with badly damaged ankles, legs, feet and worse. Some of what Mark does is very dangerous, but says he has never hurt himself sliding, "apart from bruises and a skin rash. Niggly kinds of injuries, not like Evel Knievel. Not twisting or snapping anything, you're low to the ground most of the time with sliding".

But let's face it; the dangers of skateboarding can go well beyond cuts and bruises. "Downhill is a lot more dangerous, I broke my foot racing downhill. But short boarding, that's just nasty, short boarders are young and foolish". By riding a bigger skateboard Mark is safer, and looks cooler because the board is in better proportion to his adult body.

"The short boarders just leap off enormous things, do extraordinary things on a piece of wood, much more technically advanced than sliding, they're ballsy, and just plain crazy. I'm too old for all that stuff, it's hard enough to ollie (jump) let alone kick flip down 20 stairs. Flying off ramps and doing stupid things, off stairs and long rails, I mean what if something goes wrong?"

Mark fends off any idea of being 'too old to skate' by proudly revealing that he didn't even start until the age of 31, when most people would consider packing it in. He is sure he'll never willingly stop. "I want to carry on until I'm 60 at least".

He endorses the health benefits of slide skating as exercise. "Your arms really work hard to move your body, there's a lot of anaerobic work, and then you've got the walk. You spend the majority of your time walking back up the hill you've just slid down." And, reassuringly, this is where Mark really gets excited, reminiscing about good times walking back up the hill. "It's kind of nice to settle down as you walk back up. Often you're on your own, and you sort of meditate if you like". Maybe there is a bit of 39 year old creeping in.

Mark is not alone, Rick Hurst is a web developer from Bristol who started skateboarding at the age of 30, and started a blog about getting back into skating after years of neglect. After 2 years of posts at 'Too old to skate', documenting skate jams, injuries and exploring 'the fear', Rick has closed the blog explaining that "I want to distance myself from the idea that I was too old to skate at 30".

"I'm currently 32 and I can honestly say that I feel like a fraud for having a site with the name too old to skate. When I first put the site together and thought of the name, I hadn't met any of the hoards of skateboarders my own age (and beyond) that I now skate with on a regular basis, some of whom are at least ten years older than me and skating better and more frequently than me. It seems the world is full of genuinely old gits on skateboards, most of whom don't feel the need to write websites about it."

Mark skates with MAMOS, Middle Aged Men on Skateboards & Rick Hurst skates with MOTHS, Mostly over the Hill Skaters. You're never too old to skate, join the thirty and forty somethings reclaiming the streets (and maybe their youth) with their skateboards. You don't need to go dropping onto a ramp from a helicopter like Tony Hawk (who's 38 by the way); skateboarding can be defined as a mode of transport rather than a lifestyle or attitude. Can you still stand? Well then you can still skate, grandad.

Rick Hurst now runs a skate website with some other old gits on skateboards. www.dfrskatezine.com

Mark skates with FalTown skateboards www.faltownskateboards.com