When Progression is Not Making You Happy – Ride As You Are

When Progression is Not Making You Happy – Ride As You Are

Media and peer related pressure to rip and shred harder at every opportunity can sometimes start to eat away at your reasons for doing board sports in the first place, because they make us happy.

In all forms of board sports we spend a lot of time talking about progression and constantly striving to improve our level, learn new tricks and stepping out of our comfort zone to push ourselves further. Of course we do this for a sense of personal achievement but there is no getting away from the media and peer related pressure to rip and shred harder at every opportunity.

For many of us girls this can be amplified by a need to prove ourselves even more and the increased personal pressure we put on ourselves to prove our worth as part of our riding community.

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So we thought it was time someone mentioned that you do not have to be constantly pushing yourself if it starts to take away from the initial reasons you take up these sports in the first place, being happy and having fun.

You see, we all get annoyed at ourselves if we try and try a trick and just can’t get it right, or have a session where we feel the eyes and pressure of those trying to motivate us to improve bearing down on us as we ride and prepare excuses in our head for not trying that trick.

When Progression is Not Making You Happy - Ride As You Are

Photo: @moonawhyte

News flash, there are very few riders out there who progress when they are feeling angry, annoyed or pressured. If your session hasn’t filled you with joy and you don’t leave the water with a smile it is up to you to change either how you are riding or how you feel about your riding in order to achieve this.

When Progression is Not Making You Happy - Ride As You Are

Photo: @sofi.chevalier

You don’t have the be the best on the spot, you are allowed to ride up and down without trying a trick for your entire session, you can just keep jumping off those little wave kickers without sending your kite to the moon.

If it makes you happy and allows you to enjoy your session then that is what is really counts. This applies to everyone regardless of age, level, sex and talent because it can be easy to forget why we do these sports in the first place, because they make us happy.

When Progression is Not Making You Happy - Ride As You Are

Photo: @cliobelo

So now go out there and ride how ever you want and don’t forget the most important thing, SMILE!

When Progression is Not Making You Happy - Ride As You Are

Photo: @steffi_pdm



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