Skateboarding in middle age: gender, aging, and identity in youth cultures

Population aging is likely to have major implications for society, including changing participation in leisure activities. Such changes can already be seen in the increased participation of middle aged and senior aged individuals in various lifestyle sports and youth cultures, including skateboarding. Despite the increase of middle-aged participants, and increased attention in mainstream and niche media, aging in skateboarding have not attracted much scholarly attention. In times of so-called ‘active’ aging politics, where health and wellbeing are turned into a personal responsibility, skateboarding offers a lens through which to study and theorize older people in leisure and beyond.

The study explores how men, women and non-binary participants between 40-65 navigate a sense of belonging and involvement in lifestyle sports typically associated with youth, masculinity and risk. Through analysis of ethnographic observations, media and interviews, the project studies the role that skateboarding plays in the biographies and identities of senior skateboarders and their embodied experiences of gender and aging. The aim is to explore and further understand the practices and meanings associated with ‘being a skater’ as an embodied aged and gendered identity beyond youth. The study seeks to inform debates on gender equality, gendered aging and inclusion in youth cultures, and makes contributions to the sociology of sport, critical studies of age and aging, and gender studies.