40-year-old mom is learning how to skateboard to spend more time with kids: 'It is liberating'

There are certain things we've always wanted to do as kids but never really got around it. It could be learning a language, going on a dream vacation, trying new food, or learning a skill. As we age, most of us usually drop the idea of learning anything new. However, we frequently overlook the fact that age is not necessarily a hindrance, and it is never truly too late to begin anew. Consider the inspiring story of a mother in her forties who resolved to learn skateboarding.

Canadian woman Orbee Roy's popular TikTok account shows a mom learning to skateboard with her family, frequently documenting her skateboarding progress and advising new skaters.

She began her classes with a local instructor five years ago, and her journey was typical of a first-time skater, which involved lots of falling. She's also attempting to land a perfect Ollie.

"Honestly, I just didn't want to be the mom standing there watching everyone else have fun. So I was like, 'I'm gonna do it too.' I took a couple of lessons. And I just fell in love with it right away," she explained to Mashable. "I tried to drop in, and I fell immediately on my bum, and it hurt. And I was like, 'This is awesome!' It was liberating." Her husband built a skating ramp for her at her parent's house, and she is now a real-life skater. She can drop into 7-foot bowls and perform a spinning trick known as a "shuvit" on her first try. She's even won ice skating competitions. She's now looking for advice from the TikTok skating community. 

"Hey, Skater friends!" she wrote in text overlay on the TikTok clip that garnered over 200k views and 13.2k likes. "Can you help me (a 40-something-year-old mom) land Ollies? I started skating when I was 43, so I could spend more time with my kids. I only skate transition because I keep getting stuck on Ollies, but this summer, my goal is to Ollie. I'm not one to give up, but this is hard for me," she shared while filming herself attempting an ollie on her board.

The skateboarding community flooded Roy's comment section with tips and tricks for landing an ollie. "I learned in the grass. Was easy traction for myself," shared @Darsupial. "The classic advice of 'go fast and commit' always helps," advised @skywolf945.

@0okaykay's suggestion on how to land an Ollie went viral, with over two million views with which Roy made a stitch. He took a video of himself using his hand and fingers to demonstrate proper foot placement for an Ollie. He then slowly performs an Ollie himself. "OK!! Thank you. The legs jump at different times?" Roy commented. "Yeah! Like, front foot goes up, and then you bring your back foot up right when it starts to come off the ground," he answered. Roy told Mashable that her main goal in sharing her skating journey is to get every able and interested adult on a skateboard, which she refers to as "adult play."

She also founded Aunty Skates and organized skating events in the Toronto area. Roy's inspiring story hits so many important points in terms of representation, especially for older women and mothers who may have become lost in the responsibilities of keeping a home and raising children. "If I'm out there, as an Indian woman in my 40s skateboarding, that representation matters. Seeing that matters... I'm giving them permission to do it," she explained.