Why were skate styles in the 90s so bad?

[Eric Dolphy]

I always figured it was just skateboarding in its infancy but the tricks are actually still gnarly and yet the style is just so bad. I don't mean just the clothes but how people looked on boards.

Is it possible what I think of as 'good' style inherently had to evolve from this? Or do the small wheels lead to people going slower, and baggy pants cover up too much.

What do you guys think?

/thread

But also

[assvogel]

Like others have said skateboarding progressed so fast in that 4 year period. Just the fact things like having an actual nose, nollie and switch brought a lot of options to skateboarding, not to mention flips in and out of tricks. And if you wanted to be on top, you had to invent something new. Small wheels became part of that (and it being a fashion), because when you had boards that were a lot lighter than the fishtailed 10" 60mm wheel boards, it became easier to flip it without having the right technique.

Like the story of Gonz telling about how he invented noseblunts one day and people couldn't even image how that could be done. But after year or two after that, you got Templeton doing the most awesome noseblunt in 1281.

On one of the bobshirt interviews, someone said that most tricks people remember from the videos were one and done too. You'd do a kickflip slide/grind kickflip out variation out on EMB ledge that went to the video and that trick was never touched after that. So compared that to today, where people spend most of their time refining one trick on that one park ledge.

But everything goes in cycles and 90's is prob hotter than it has been. Not just the big pants but the arms down fast flips style too.

[Swithflip]

Keenan Milton.

[marty mcfly]

Keenan Milton.

and penny, Carroll, Gino,Guy... OP should focus!!!

[Hyliannightmare]

cause there wasn't Instagram

[CaptainCheeks]

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Why were skate styles in the 00s so boring?

[close]

Yeah the real question is why did skateboarding turn in the 2000's into a horrible shit show which lasted well over ten years. The good stuff was alway there but was just overshadowed by all the garbage.

I feel it's because most people at one point where just throwing them selves off the biggest shit. Like growing up as a kid in early 2000s all we would do was count flips and stairs. Thinking back it's hilarious

[cky enthusiast]

CARDIEL

[assvogel]

Expand Quote

Expand Quote

Why were skate styles in the 00s so boring?

[close]

Yeah the real question is why did skateboarding turn in the 2000's into a horrible shit show which lasted well over ten years. The good stuff was alway there but was just overshadowed by all the garbage.

[close]

I feel it's because most people at one point where just throwing them selves off the biggest shit. Like growing up as a kid in early 2000s all we would do was count flips and stairs. Thinking back it's hilarious

Yep, there was a def a race to the top with who does the biggest stairset / gap / rail etc. starting from ~99 with stuff like people like Rowley, Arto, Jamie and Reynolds etc. and that pretty much dominated the whole 00's. Even our little town we were throwing ourselves down stairs daily because that was what going down in skate vids.

[AssMountain]

Was this just bait for people to post the best styles of the 90's? Every decade has had shite and brilliant styles, and will continue to do so for eternity.



Jovontae Turner makes me want to buy some shell toe adidas and skate immediately.

[Kombuch-A-Holic]

Helluva subject title. You find what you look for. Look for good you'll find good. Look for bad you'll find bad. Seek and ye shall find.. er destroy. Something like that.

[newMe]

 

[Easy Slider]

90s is too vague. Dissect it.

In 90/91 you still had shaped boards, regular (big) wheels, regular pants and shoes and vert was not dead yet. That‘s basically the 80s phasing out.

92/93 was the crazy big pants small wheels era OP probably refers to. Boards were footballs, wheels minuscule, pants ridiculous and to top it off, we put pairs of socks under our tongues to make shoes puffy. Tricks were crazy, pressure flips, varial flips, double flips, late flips you name it. Style and speed did not matter.

94/95 the boards were popsicles and got really small. The smaller the better. The rest (clothes, wheel) slowly  started to get back to normal and an armada of super stylers started to emerge, as set out by above posters, e.g. Penny, Kareem Campbell, the Muska etc. Style became important, and gap and railskating took over.

By the second half of the 90s, boards were 8‘ on average, pants loose but not exaggeratedly baggy, shoes normal (think KCK‘s), wheels around 50 mm. Overall more or less like today I would say.

I stopped skating by the end of the 90s and only came back last year so I can‘t comment on what happened in between but from what I hear (slim fit pants) I am not sure I would have liked it.

[assvogel]

Julien part from Skypager (1993) is one of my favorite parts. There's not a single flip in the whole part, just ollies and couple of noseslides, but his style so awesome it doesn't really matter what he does. Ollies over the door, back lip 180 nosegrind revert line and the last ollie to tail is pretty much what I want from skateboarding.

[Scott Chegg]

[jorge]

One of the best 360 flips ever done is at 26.03 in the video you posted.

[Swithflip]

[hartt3]

best shit

[Ok]

I think Watson already nailed it.

As gross as this may sound, skating presented via media from that era was maybe a little more authentic, at times, in that people had their own style/tricks, and less of the refined/perfected style of today. For sure there was folks filming 1000s of tries for some odd make, but I don’t remember people practicing as much. It was kind of uncool to practice stuff. Stories, that are most likely embellished, from that era of street skating, frequently include comments like ‘yeah he was just trying to get those two tricks in the line, and then the rest he just made up as he went’ type of thing.

[BugleBites]

Thread title should be "How To Make A Troll Thread That's Sure To Get Slap Pals Fired Up".

My rule for shit threads is to scan down half a page, and if the OP hasn't posted again to address the responses I don't read the thread. Someone who isn't trolling would be engaging in the discussion. Post and ghost = troll thread.

[Phil Leotardo]

[Land of the Faust]

the transition from sidewalk surfing and jump ramps to modern technical skateboarding had a learning curve

[Matthew_James]

*cough* Mike Carroll *cough cough* Tom Penny

Don't forget about Jeremy Wray, he was one of the first to break away from the low pop board tumbling. He set standards on how tricks should be done with the speed and power of his skating. I happen to like the big pants small wheels curb dancing that was done back then, but Jeremy Wray's part always stood out in the old videos since they looked more like what the future of skateboarding was going to become.

Henry Sanchez deserves some credit too, Tim and Henry's changed the game in terms of innovating new tricks without looking like a slow moving/ tic tacking wet noodle. I would bet money that said part would still be mind blowing if it was first released in the present, someone would definitely have something special if they could replicate what he did w/ today's spots and cameras.

[Matthew_James]

2007-2014 was the worst time period in skateboarding hands down

This is the truest thing stated in this thread.

[Style Police]

I always figured it was just skateboarding in its infancy, but the tricks are actually still gnarly and yet the style is just so bad. I don't mean just the clothes but how people looked on boards.

Is it possible what I think of as 'good' style inherently had to evolve from this? Or do the small wheels lead to people going slower, and baggy pants cover up too much.

What do you guys think?

Most random example for bad styles minus Chris Lambert. Quy was sick.

Here you go bud.

[thomascandia]

Yes! Gino, Guy, Penny, Lavar, Kareem etc in the 90’s was soo unstylish. Glad the 2021 is here with Nyjah, Jagger Eaton, Jaws, Aurelien etc. Things are really sharping up 

Because in the 90 ther weren t freaks like that names wrote above, after Janosky shoes come out anything is been fucked: high water tight dickies, janosky shoes  and three shov it locked with the front foot made realized to some people that was better  quick running back to the 90 s for obviuos reason: Keenan and thevwhole Og girl-choc team, world industries, blind

[celery man]

My rule for shit threads is to scan down half a page, and if the OP hasn't posted again to address the responses I don't read the thread. Someone who isn't trolling would be engaging in the discussion. Post and ghost = troll thread.

No real need to, others articulated well the problems with the era without resorting to muh Carroll muh Penny exceptions that prove the rule

lol. don borko sends his regards

[joaopedro]

the only difference is the "rules", nowdays if you go to a stair to film a ss heel for example, and u do a rocket ugly one, or a normal one but going out doing a tictac, you will re do it till its clean, as this will be your work ethic in life, you just end up having a way better style cuz you will pay attention and make effort to make as good as possible, back in the day this didnt exist, u just do tricks and thats it, to me people were even more stylish back then, cuz u would see real skating, nowdays is just a pure job, guys like p rod will redo the trick and make a full 100% perfect part, of course looks great, but both have their own qualities.

btw the video u linked is fucking great!!

[radcunt]

Never seen that video, thanks! BTW it's a terrible example of the point you're trying to make, but I know what you mean.  There was some sloppy ass shit going down in the 90s, but at the same time there was some solid, all time shit too.  Pressure flip era had some good examples of terrible style, but it wasn't everyone.  Early days of flip tricks, they were only a few years old really.

And holy shit that Markovich part is insane now, let alone 1994, can't believe i've never seen that.

[Lowcalcium]

Ocean Howell was a super smooth stylish skater, go to hell you liar

[rusty knees]

early 90's and late 90's are two totally different things