Skateboarding legend Tommy Guerrero has been in the skate game since the '70s and is still ripping to this day.
He knows the ins and outs of skateboarding culture, from vert and skateparks to the streets and the hills of San Francisco.
He also said skateboarding is about adaptation and surrounding yourself with passionate people since skating is about fun and bringing that joy to the community.
Guerrero explained that back in the golden age of skating, it was always frowned upon, and even teachers thought that skaters would never go far.
"Skateboarding is being seen as positive," he said. "When I grew up, it was not positive. We got a lot of grief for it. We got tickets from cops, we got harassed, we got arrested, we got kicked out of everywhere, literally."
He continued, "So, it's changed. The perspective changed greatly, and the city's making skateparks, you know, building parks all over the city, which is great."
The 58-year-old said that skating is now becoming more sustained, unlike the '70s, '80s, and '90s, since it's now in the Olympics and more corporate than ever.
Guerrero is still positive that there will be more skaters and people interested in learning how to skate - not for glory and fame but for the love of it. Still, he knows in his heart that there will be others who are culture vultures.
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"But there's also going to be people getting into it just for the fame and the fortune and the accolades and so forth," he mentioned. "Because you have it now in the Olympics, so that's now a goal, that's an aspiration now."
"Where that was with us," Guerrero explained, "there was never any aspiration, you know. You weren't going to amount to anything, and the teachers told you that. Everybody told you, 'You're not going to amount to anything riding a skateboard.'"
Despite the changes and the growing commercial side of skateboarding, Guerrero remains optimistic about the future.
He believes that, at its core, skateboarding will always be about self-expression, creativity, and the pure joy of riding.
For Guerrero, the essence of skateboarding isn’t something that can be bought or sold—it’s something that lives in those who truly embrace it.
And as long as there are skaters out there pushing themselves, having fun, and passing the culture down to the next generation, the future of skateboarding is in good hands.