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what a fuckin child. I can't believe hie is celebrated by skater children and adults alike for his irresponsible and childish lifestyle.
donating to this go fund me is just another way that he'll land on his feet and not learn any lesson from his mistake.
This is one of the craziest things about skateboarding. We celebrate and encourage the shit out of people who are completely blowing it at (creating a superficial and stale suburban) life, but after we get our entertainment out of them we say, "Well you should have been more responsible."
What an amazing catch-22. If the skaters were more "responsible" (read: neo-liberal business minded weasels) we'd collectively hate them (see Nyjah, Sheckler, P-Rod, Jagger Eaton, Dyrdek, etc.), but when they are "irresponsible" we love them until they need any help. Something about this seems really fucked up.
What are you talking about? I see constant praise for skateboarders that set themselves up for life outside of skateboarding. It's been eight years since Heath Kirchart retired, and people still marvel at the fact that he invested and set himself up to retire on his terms. And I challenge you to find a Mark Suciu interview where he isn't asked about higher education. I think there's a pretty big gap between being a functioning adult and being among the stratosphere of the pros you listed.
First, in relation to Mark Suciu's education and his image in skateboarding, the first interview that popped up on Google states, "
Mark Suciu is not your typical pro. Despite having a board on Habitat and a signature shoe on adidas, Mark is continuing his education. In the summer of 2015, he moved to New York to focus on completing his undergrad degree; he’s currently in his final year" (
http://theberrics.com/mark-suciu-inspired-by/). The interview starts off framing Mark as unique because he is going to college. I'm going to guess that Suciu is is basically in the same spot Rattray was in 10 years ago. He is celebrated for being an outlier in a subculture that promotes not thinking about the future. It reminds me of the episode of the Boondocks where Thugnificant congratulates Huey for reading.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvjCGgG26CISecond, you'll always be able to find a few dudes who developed good exit plans (Heath) or just got insanely lucky post-fucking around (or had mommy and daddy's money to support them post-career so they look "responsible"), but I think it is hard to argue that being responsible is a solid selling point for most pros/ams. Think of the brands that most of us grew up wishing we could be on Baker, Anti-Hero, enjoi, etc. a significant part of what made those brands and the skaters awesome was the fact that they didn't give a fuck. There are dudes from those companies that sobered up and reduced the craziness, but the partying, hijinks, and irresponsibility is what made them so marketable in the first place.
I agree Dyrdek, Eaton, Sheckler, Lutzka, etc. are extremes, but I don't think being Mr. Responsible is going to help the decks fly off the shelves. Finally, if you want we could actually solve this shit scientifically (rather than relying on anecdotal evidence). One way might be to look at which skaters are most celebrated and hated on Slap in the past month (#of positive comments vs # negative comments) and then measure how "future oriented" or "present oriented" each skater was based on their recent interviews (and maybe video parts). We would need to think up a way to measure "thinking about the future" and "living in a never ending present," but I would bet that the skaters who overtly think about the future get shit on far more often than those who fuck around in the present.
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