anybody else impressed, or puzzled by how insanely unrelatable skaters in general have been getting at flatground ever since the first BATB's ? i mean, that obviously happened, but i'm trying to think of how the influence worked - maybe BATB became such a popular format early on that foreseeing a market there, the berrics started to shed more light & exposure on this particular type of skaters and consequently, the industry followed through (remember josiah gatlyn ?). and then maybe that impacted the average kid's skating once they took notice, and they developed accordingly ? much in the vein of how rowley once said he didn't know skate videos were edited as grom, therefore would make it a point to get all his tricks on absolute lock due to assuming pro skaters never once missed their trick.
obviously not saying everyone doing good in BATB has a similar style. but there's definitely been a significant shift ever since the first editions where you had the likes of paul shier playing, and people were regularly (and realistically) missing tricks, whereas now a large part of the competitors are flatground machines who are programmed not to ever fuck up (and whenever they do feels like a glitch, like it's wrong & not supposed to happen). i'd like to say the phenomenon probably culminated with pros vs. joes, but really i wouldn't know as i didn't watch BATB that year.
for what it's worth, some dudes have been getting their BATB shine for already skating that way, whilst others (mostly the old-timers) look like they've been working on catching up with said dudes - usually successfully. funnily enough, although part of this latter generation of older dudes, PJ looks like he's been working on never missing tricks since day one anyway, before it was any popular to begin with - to me anyway, it looks like it's been part of his skating's ethic for the longest time.
now it's almost become a staple that if you're pro, it's not acceptable to miss (let alone, not being able to form) certain tricks. i remember liking it when, in early editions of BATB, i'd occasionally see a pro not even getting close to some trick ; when it was obvious they had certain weaknesses, yet nobody gave a shit, it was all just skating, the dude was honoring his status getting sick street footage on the side anyway and had nothing to prove to the masses. nowadays i barely even dare scrolling through the youtube comments on the games because i know it's going to be full of thrasher shirt-wearing groms talking shit on respectable skaters for bailing a flatground switch flip (albeit for the first time since 1998). i mean youtube comments have always been kooky, but as a skater i literally feel disconnected nowadays.
not too sure what i really want to address with this post, but i liked seeing pj almost miss the kickflip. heavy WHL part intro throwback vibes ; i could almost hear 'i just missed the kickflip', and i was watching the game without sound.