“My parents say you shouldn't be doing this. People think I'm 57, I should be done. But no one can take skateboarding away from me. I enjoy it too much.”
Sean Goff has gained a number of bruises and broken bones during his career but none as bad as his most recent shoulder injury which he thought would end his pro skating career.
“To be honest as I've got older it's harder to come back. You don't bounce like you used to when you're a kid. It's a lot tougher.”
He’s been warned by doctors that one more fall could make him permanently disabled. On one occasion, a minor graze became a severely infected wound.
“A small graze turned into this massive infected wound. I went to bed, my legs weeping and when I got up, I was stuck to the sheets. It's even hard to sit down now. When I was a child, it would have been gone in three days.”
Sean Goff, a 57-year-old British skateboarding legend, spent his youth competing in Master competitions such as the Laureus Sports Awards in Monaco. Sean had planned to retire from the sport after dislocating his shoulder, believing he wouldn't be able to return.
“I thought I was done. I can't be doing this. I'm too old. But then I started trying to work on more tricks again so I kind of got sucked back in.”
"I've been called irresponsible. But skateboarding is about having fun and as we get older, we're taught to grow up. You should be able to do that your whole life.”
Sean is the star of a new documentary, Still Stoked, which premiered at the International Cheltenham Film Festival earlier this week. The film follows him pushing his ageing body beyond its limits to compete in one last skate competition in Sweden.
“Skateboarding is what I have to do. It's my life. I can't imagine not skateboarding. It gives me freedom. It gives me frustration when I can't do a trick. It gives me joy, that‘s unexplainable. It's my release, if I'm angry, if I'm sad I skate and do something positive.”
Sean is no stranger to the spotlight having competed in Australia, North America and Europe. He even received a standing ovation from Sean Connery and featured on Blue Peter in 1997 but he has never done anything like this documentary.
“It’s like a fly on the wall. As a skateboarder when you film stuff, it's just you and your mates showing off for YouTube. So this is a completely different ballgame.”
Sean plans to practise and perform till his body gives out, he said: “My body will be the thing to stop me, nothing else."
“You're basically going to die skateboarding because you fall off and hurt yourself so badly. It really is a war in your mind. Either you're physically not going to be able to get up or you can give up.”
Skateboarding is a sport played by over 50,000 adults in the UK and now is in the Olympics. Sean wants to encourage people to not give up on their dreams just because of their age.
“You're supposed to have a job, mortgage and family, we are told that that should be your life. But I want this film to influence people to think maybe I should have carried on doing this. Maybe I should get my board out and try again, it's not about the tricks you can do.”
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