Skateboarding in middle age can help fight depression, a new study has revealed.

Skateboarding

Skateboarding

The sport also helps adults bond with their kids and find “spiritual meaning” as failure is thought of as part of the learning process.

The findings - which were based on interviews with 30 middle-aged skateboarders and other observations - implied that the sport was about emotional health as well as “about physical health”.

Dr. Paul O’Connor, a scientist at the University of Exeter, said: “For those I spoke to, skateboarding was more than about looking after physical health.”

“On at least two occasions when I asked informants to try to explain what skateboarding meant to them, I was confronted with grown men fighting back tears, literally lost for words in grasping to communicate the importance and gravitas of their pastime.”

He added: “Middle-aged skateboarders appear to acknowledge the health benefits of being active and obtaining exercise through skateboarding; however, their main focus appears to be pleasure.”