[Rockingham]

Skateboarding is broadly aligned with surfing in its skill set of balance and coordination, and both are essentially individual and not team activities. Skateboarding — and especially its individualistic culture — thus provides an outlet for large pool of kids who do not do well in team sports.

[lee martell]

You’re right about that attraction skateboarding has to teens who prefer more solitary sports, or sporting events they can control. My Karate Sensai is about 20 years younger than I am (58), and he says skateboarding was a great comfort to him after his parents divorce when he was about 11 y/o. He wanted to think about the changes, but at the same time, he didn’t necessarily wish to be separated from everybody all the time.