Chris Nieratko Follows Up On OIAM..Good Read

[Pete]

sons frontside flip down the double set was 

[doomstation55]

I get it that rodriguez has a family to feed (well actually i dont im only 21 and impotent) but doesnt ricky oyola have a family too? That mothafuckas drivin trucks to pay the bills. Im not sayin that every skater needs to stay as core as possible and drive trucks, but dont act like a bitch on a clearly shitty reality skate tv show to young guys tryin to make it.  Delivering an empty pizza box is not the same as skating a demo w 5 people there, and btw how good is that for a company if theres only 5 people there anyway? I get it, you gotta put in work but you got to do it with SKATING. Westgate is clearly a level headed dude that worked hard, but he also shreds which is why he made it. Idk end rant

[ahl33]

"Skateboarding is all about marketing."

[meathead genius]

First off you guys need to check yourselves on Steve R. The dude has been nothing but the absolute best ambassador to east coast skateboarding that he can possibly be. Regardless of what your opinion is about him and this whole OIAM mess, The dude is busting is ass for the progression of the skate scene he is apart of. Beyond that he personally helped me with job advice before ever even meeting me " just because I was a skateboarder" thats a stand up dude right there.

You also want to know something..think about what he said. " these kids just didnt want do whatever they had to do" and he went on to talk about guys like westgate and peterson skating demos in front of 5 people and coming through because being a pro skateboard is JOB. By all means if your can love your "job" than you're one of the lucky ones.

Lurker Lou- that dudes my homie for life. He's wild and thats why we love him. He got paid to act the way he did, honestly I think he kept it mellow. Anyone who knows Lou knows that he can throw absolute craze! If he wanted to, he could have broken these kids.

Klein- I dont know, personally I do think he kinda blew it on this one but at the same time every experience I have ever had with the dude has been nothing but positive.  He came to Boston and fuckin killed it, his part in the city video was awesome, I did an interview with him for Slap when it was still in print and he was great to work with, and he made a really cool documentary called " god went surfing with the devil"....I guess not everything you do can be great all the time, but in the end there's nothing wrong with that.

Sorry for rambling, I was a part of OIAM at the start and had a really positive experience with it so it kinda just bums me out to see where its gone.

cool

Totally bro!

[hankmasterflex]

Fuck this. Steve Rodriguez is still one of the best dudes in skateboarding. This season blowing up on the launch pad doesn't change my opinion of him, or his company. If he was given full creative control, you can best believe it'd be different and everyone would have loved it. Alex Klien fucked this up, not him or Lurker Lou.

yes. and i don't care what these idiots have to say. i'm not denying this series didn't suck, but the only person to point the finger to is alex klein.

you can sit here from behind your computer and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk... but in the end you can't hate on the dudes whose faces were on camera. they had to answer to a director. and that director was alex klein, he was the one paying them. the ventriloquist.
....who clearly didn't know what the fuck was going on. which translates to the dudes trying to run/judge it.

in the end, it all trickled down. steve rodriguez, lurker lou, and rodney torres followed the dude's directions. i'm sure they thought it was dumb, but went through with it. if the little children didn't want to do the challenges, well fuck, the choice is theirs. but yes, send them home... it's not fair to get your all expense paid trip to new york and not have to meet some sort of requirements, albeit they might be dumb/stupid/retarded/not like last season/unrelated to skateboarding. but that's part of life, that's part of skating, that's part of taking a shit after you ate 14 hot wings. it may seem like a breeze while it's happening but in the end you always have a price to pay.




and one more thing, if this was done 15 years ago, with sponsors and flights lining up for kids, i'm sure there would have been 100% more heart. that's what alex klein, steve rodriguez, etc are familiar with. kids these days just want to do what they want, whose to say that's a bad thing or not, but it's just different.

[bandini]

you can sit here from behind your computer and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk... but in the end you can't hate on the dudes whose faces were on camera.

You can try as hard as you want, dude, but you're talking nothing but bullshit.

You gotta answer for what you do - bottom line. Pulling this "the director MADE me" line just makes someone look like even more of a hopeless tool.

Those kids were under TONS of pressure to play along with the game, yet they found the stones to stand up for what they believe and throw the middle finger to this piece of shit show. Why was it so hard for Steve to do?

Oh yeah, he had to feed his family. Gimme a break.

[oyolar]

Agree with bandini. You are an idiot if you believe any of that. If these kids are so spoiled, why does Colin have NOTHING but positive things to say about them, including letting several of them come crash at his place after the contest ended and being excited every time he has a chance to film them when, overall, he has a bunch of negative things to say about the show? Because it was an idiotic situation that the people involved (except for the contestants) willingly entered into and followed along with. It suddenly makes it ok for Steve, Rodney, and Lou to call a bunch of kids ungrateful pricks because they got paid to do so? Bullshit.

[ice nine]

i still love all the dudes on 5boro, gonna take a lot to sour me on that company.

it was funny how steve gave them shit for basically not sucking it up and just doing what they're told to. so he and the other judges do just that, and now everyone hates them/the show. sounds like he got it completely backwards.

[Box of Frogs]

"But if that's going to happen it can't be made for skateboarders. I see skaters as participants in it and skating being the subject but I don't see skaters being the audience. Skateboarders just want to see skating." S. Rodriguez

This was the dumbest thing anyone said in this. Its true, skaters just want to see skating but if a show about skating isnt made for skaters there is no point in doing it. There is no point in making another reality show for the general public, there is enough created "drama" avaliable already.

He is talking about selling out skating like its a good idea. Sorry Steve, you ruined your credibility.

the real winner is the guy that drank all the time. he not only got to skate/sleep/eat for free he also was able to party.

the fact he took a drink break during the pizza delivery race gives him the win alone.

Fucking A

[DerpyHooves]

As lame as this year's OIAM is, the skaters really shouldn't complain. If you're given an all-expense paid trip to New York, just make the best out of the trip. Even when you're hoping to go skate on the trip, just be thankful that you're chosen and have fun with it. And those guys are fools to think OIAM would work out this way.

[Galletly]

It's weird though, the dorky challenges could have been funny - it's easy to imagine someone like Tiltmode or those Weekendtage guys dicking about with a pizza delivery skit and making it entertaining. They'd understand how dumb it was and present it in a completely different way. Didn't Carnie do a barrel jumping thing in a Big Brother video that was pretty good? I know everyone's kinda over Jackass but their best stuff was often the silliest, they just knew how to make it work.

This year, the presentation and tone was way off. A weird half-scripted, half-serious mess where everyone stood around looking uncomfortable. If you're gonna make it silly, you need to go all-out or the contestants (as demonstrated) won't buy it and the whole thing will have a really weird atmosphere. Same goes for serious. Back peddling by saying stuff like 'it was deliberately lame' or 'sometimes you have to do stuff you don't wanna do' is just making it worse. Who wants to watch that? When I need to clean the bathroom I don't film it and expect people to be entertained by the footage.

Alternatively, create a relaxed environment and let stuff happen naturally. That seemed to work last year. Things like the high-sticker contest felt more like a game between friends than a fight for 'immunity'. They played for ice-cream, they had fun and the skating was good.

[sluggers]

Totally back these kids for revolting and going all Lord of the Flies!

Steve, Rodney, and Rohan look like total douche bags throughout the whole thing and especially the last episode.

Lurker Lou is, well, Lurker Lou, and it at least looked like he cared about the kids enough to show up and actually watch them skate and interact live and not just go over footage later in the day.

[Nosferatu]

Sometimes I wonder just how mad all of the negative posters are. Standing up in their seats? Yelling at the screen? Having to take breaks from their paragraphs of text because their hands are shaking too much? Yeah the show was pretty embarrassing this year. Is it really to be taken personally though? Has anyone who is now boycotting steve rodriguez ever actually bought anything from 5boro?

[victor333]

Sometimes I wonder just how mad all of the negative posters are. Standing up in their seats? Yelling at the screen? Having to take breaks from their paragraphs of text because their hands are shaking too much? Yeah the show was pretty embarrassing this year. Is it really to be taken personally though? Has anyone who is now boycotting steve rodriguez ever actually bought anything from 5boro?

No, not never

[Wall of Nausea]

Sometimes I wonder just how mad all of the negative posters are. Standing up in their seats? Yelling at the screen? Having to take breaks from their paragraphs of text because their hands are shaking too much? Yeah the show was pretty embarrassing this year. Is it really to be taken personally though? Has anyone who is now boycotting steve rodriguez ever actually bought anything from 5boro?

Nope. Other companies with better marketability than 5Boro got me first, duh.

[sluggers]

I buy decks from companies that don't decide who to sponsor based on their fake pizza delivery skills, highest ollie contest, and ccs and crayon collage board designs.

Duh.

[Max Power]

It's weird though, the dorky challenges could have been funny - it's easy to imagine someone like Tiltmode or those Weekendtage guys dicking about with a pizza delivery skit and making it entertaining. They'd understand how dumb it was and present it in a completely different way. Didn't Carnie do a barrel jumping thing in a Big Brother video that was pretty good? I know everyone's kinda over Jackass but their best stuff was often the silliest, they just knew how to make it work.

This year, the presentation and tone was way off. A weird half-scripted, half-serious mess where everyone stood around looking uncomfortable. If you're gonna make it silly, you need to go all-out or the contestants (as demonstrated) won't buy it and the whole thing will have a really weird atmosphere. Same goes for serious. Back peddling by saying stuff like 'it was deliberately lame' or 'sometimes you have to do stuff you don't wanna do' is just making it worse. Who wants to watch that? When I need to clean the bathroom I don't film it and expect people to be entertained by the footage.

Alternatively, create a relaxed environment and let stuff happen naturally. That seemed to work last year. Things like the high-sticker contest felt more like a game between friends than a fight for 'immunity'. They played for ice-cream, they had fun and the skating was good.

This.  The cartoon drawing, fastest board setup, pizza delivery just didn't go with the whole east coast core vibe.  I disagree with Steve and some on here that you can't make a show for skaters and a broader audience.  Challenges should have been less wack (best trick contests, games of skate). You could even do barrel jumping and high ollie just make it so the winner gets immunity not loser gets eliminated.  Eliminations, if you are going to have them, should have been based on overall performance.  The reality tv drama aspect is really in the interactions/personalities not the challenges (it was there in the one-uping the trick thing and my man getting drunk and skating the double).  And the bottom line was there wasn't enough skating to make up for the all the crap.  More skating, less gimicks, and let the kids be kids and you would have a show that would work on fuel but that skaters would sit through for the skating. 

And isn't 5Boro built on the idea that integrity > commercial appeal.  I'm really surprised by what Steve is saying, its seems to go against everything I've ever heard him say and the brand he built.  Sure you have to be down to sacrifice if you want to be a career skater but there should be limits to what you'll do.  Its like he was looking for a Lutzka in a million.  But instead of monster checks the ultimate kook gets free boards.  Which they probably get flowed already.  The whole thing was off especially coming from Steve and Billy.  And then to just put all the blame on the kids having a backbone, and maintain this skateboarding is marketing/cashing in crap.  Shits alternate universe.     

[Ronald Wilson Reagan]

Sometimes I wonder just how mad all of the negative posters are. Standing up in their seats? Yelling at the screen? Having to take breaks from their paragraphs of text because their hands are shaking too much? Yeah the show was pretty embarrassing this year. Is it really to be taken personally though? Has anyone who is now boycotting steve rodriguez ever actually bought anything from 5boro?

"Personal? This is strictly business."
I wouldn't try to fight those dudes if I saw them, but why would I ever support their company? If I go into a shop there are 30 brands of skateboard companies, why am I choosing the one that's run by a sell out that looks like he was watching when the lost ark was open.

Fuck this. Steve Rodriguez is still one of the best dudes in skateboarding. This season blowing up on the launch pad doesn't change my opinion of him, or his company. If he was given full creative control, you can best believe it'd be different and everyone would have loved it. Alex Klien fucked this up, not him or Lurker Lou.

yes. and i don't care what these idiots have to say. i'm not denying this series didn't suck, but the only person to point the finger to is alex klein.

you can sit here from behind your computer and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk... but in the end you can't hate on the dudes whose faces were on camera. they had to answer to a director. and that director was alex klein, he was the one paying them. the ventriloquist.
....who clearly didn't know what the fuck was going on. which translates to the dudes trying to run/judge it.

in the end, it all trickled down. steve rodriguez, lurker lou, and rodney torres followed the dude's directions. i'm sure they thought it was dumb, but went through with it. if the little children didn't want to do the challenges, well fuck, the choice is theirs. but yes, send them home... it's not fair to get your all expense paid trip to new york and not have to meet some sort of requirements, albeit they might be dumb/stupid/retarded/not like last season/unrelated to skateboarding. but that's part of life, that's part of skating, that's part of taking a shit after you ate 14 hot wings. it may seem like a breeze while it's happening but in the end you always have a price to pay.




and one more thing, if this was done 15 years ago, with sponsors and flights lining up for kids, i'm sure there would have been 100% more heart. that's what alex klein, steve rodriguez, etc are familiar with. kids these days just want to do what they want, whose to say that's a bad thing or not, but it's just different.

What is that thing called that the ventriloquist controls called again?
They decided to listen to the directions, they get the response they deserve.

Is it possible they ruined their reputations for the rest of their careers? I know OIAM is the first thing I'll associate with Lurker Lou from now on.

[oyolar]

To respond to Max Power, you're right in that there wasn't enough skating footy to override the kookiness. And what makes that even more annoying is that they had the footage for it. Like Colin said--they left out two days of skating and I bet his edit is going to be filled with a bunch of stuff we would never get to see otherwise. Overall, they really just fucked up.

And I think it was in this thread, but I might never have bought a 5Boro board before, but now that I'm making a conscious effort to support smaller companies, I probably would have bought one soon enough. But not anymore.

[Zurg]

I don't understand why slap didn't pull the plug sooner, fuck, if you see the first 3 episodes are bombing harder than j casanova's album sales then pull the rug out before you dig a deeper hole.
I think the mag would have taken a lot less heat doing that then dragging out 13 weeks of getting shitted on.

Still gotta say fuck this faggot hip kid tho

making skateboarding look whack is an inexcusable crime against the wood.
how did you not see this coming slap when he dresses like this?

at least he can fall back on his career as male pornstar, James Dean.

Ianrussell, really looking forward to the jenkem thing. i felt like this espn one was pretty much all quotes from the last episode, didnt really give any new insight to what happened. im really confused because mandible made it sound like the judges werent down for the whole contest at the end, but they make no mention of it in the espn interview. you'd think that lou, rodney, billy and steve would be jumping at the chance to clear their names from this garbage. will they not get paid if they speak out against the show? i wanna hear more about lou trying to fight klein.

[cringe.]

Alex Klein? more like Alex Deklein!      amirite?!

[floop]

what i find amazing (and pathetic) from the production standpoint is that they completely gave up and willingly failed so miserably.   i don't mean failed to make a good OIAM (that's obvious) but failed to achieve what they were setting out to do (create a cheesy reality show), which they probably easily could have done if they used their brains and tried to salvage it.   i can't believe they ended it the way they did.  it was basically admitting defeat as a show (except trying to blame the kids which is beyond pathetic).

i like how Lurker Lou talks about next year's OIAM..     i'm sorry but if this was a reality show tv pilot, which they essentially treated it as, no one involved with the show should be talking about "next season" after this.  they should be talking about finding another job

if a producer / director turned this season in to an actual television company and said "here it is, here's our show" i don't think they'd be getting their contract renewed

this is fail on the same level as say, a theatre production putting on a play and all of the actors walking off stage in the third act, just leaving the audience sitting there

[tkp]

Done In A Million	Small | Large

[chitownchaz]

i think steve actually does believe the things he said on the show/post interviews. 5boro is in a niche where it's cool to be core and caring about the dudes who are in the city. it's just easier to run a company that caters to a region and is exempt of competition in the large scale of skating.

i think maybe a bit of his true colors shined in this one. talking about "cashing in" and basically putting innocent kids dicks in the dirt in front of the damn near entire skateboarding audience.

[oyolar]

this is fail on the same level as say, a theatre production putting on a play and all of the actors walking off stage in the third act, just leaving the audience sitting there

How avant-garde.

[Big Skatefase]

OIAM this year seemed like a parody of reality tv/skateboarding, except it was real.

[BURRRPRINT]

Done In A Million

 

[woodsman]

At least they didn't make the kids play "wet bread" but it did have a fraternity kind of feel to it. Like "hey man, we all had to do this stupid humiliating shit to be down". Not what skateboarding is about. Having to do shitty demos and stuff is different than a bunch of older dudes making you do stupid humiliating tasks. I guess non of the pledges made it into their gay Frat.

[woodsman]

Can't wait for this shit when next years OIAM starts.

Kevin Bacon - Fraternity Paddle	Small | Large

[AdrianLopez]

i mean what alex klein is sayin in there makes some sense from a money making point of view but obviously it just didnt work out. i think steve rodriguez's comments were way gayer

What Steve said was absolute bullshit, he has made sure that I will never buy another board from his company.

THIS