Christchurch academic Nick Maitland has been skateboarding since the mid-1980s and still loves it, but says skateparks can be a confronting place for people in their 40s.
To challenge the idea that middle-aged people should gracefully resign from the board sports they love, he interviewed 12 men and women who haven't.
In a free public talk next month, Maitland will explore how people experience skating, surfing and snowboarding in their 40s.
Photo: RODNAE Productions
Dr Nick Maitland- a lecturer in the University of Canterbury's Faculty of Health. Photo: University of Canterbury
As well as skating for close to 40 years, Maitland (a University of Canterbury health lecturer) has been snowboarding for around 30 years now.
As he's gotten older, though, his connection to these sports and the communities around them has changed.
"Sometimes going to the skatepark feels confronting. There's all these 12-year-olds on scooters and here I am, this middle-aged man wondering what people might think about me… 'That guy needs to grow up' or 'Should we call the police, are those kids safe?"
Maitland says he still gets on his skateboard because he loves it.
Curious about what motivates other board-sport enthusiasts of a certain age, he interviewed 12 dedicated surfers, skaters and/or snowboarders between 40 and 53.
Many spoke of their strong childhood connections with these sports and their lack of comfort with traditional school sports, he says.
Since activities like skateboarding weren't of interest to their parents, they felt like they could be themselves doing them.
"They just felt this freedom and this sense of self-expression and identity."
In middle age, solo sports often get squeezed out of people's lives by financial and workplace stress, Maitland says, and there's also social stigma.
Trying out a skate bowl near the venue of his daughter's gymnastics competition venue recently, he got "slammed".
Returning to the event, fellow parents thought Maitland had been mugged. When he told them he'd actually fallen off his skateboard, he says their concern was replaced with confusion.
"I love skating, I'll always do it, but there are those down moments when external expectation starts becoming a little heavier."
In his conversations with 40+ skateboarders and surfers, he found that continued participation provided them with a sense of well-being.
"These activities became safe havens and recharging places where they could remove themselves from structured serious life and just for a moment have some reprieve before they rejoin normal life again afterwards."
He hopes other middle-aged New Zealanders will be inspired to either revisit a boardsport they loved when they were younger or try one for the first time.
"People these days aren't as active as they need to be… but why can't [exercise] be fun?
"We might say do more walking, go to the gym, go to the pool. Why not grab a surfboard, why not a skateboard?"
Details: Middle-age board-om: Skating, surfing & snowboarding in your 40s presented by Dr Nick Maitland
When: 7pm to 8pm, Wednesday 10 May 2023
Where: The University of Canterbury, C1 lecture theatre in C-Block, C1 Central Lecture Theatres, Ilam, Christchurch (A video recording will be available later on the University of Canterbury's YouTube channel)
